Calling all writers!

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Editors comment

Mike Paul: was The Beautiful South the way forward for generic wine tastings?

I have always been a firm supporter of generic marketing. I've chaired importer committees and worked on developing regional strategies. I know how difficult it is to secure an appropriate level of agreement, across the producer and distributor base, to plans with real cut through, and I know how powerful a well coordinated generic effort can be. I also appreciate that coming up with innovative plans is particularly difficult currently when budgets are severely constrained. Given all this and given that generic marketers have no direct control over the producers and wines they represent, I tend to believe that they have one of the most difficult roles in our industry. All this  makes me loth to criticise any generic activity.

Mark Fiddes: what happens when you try and re-enact that Southern Comfort commercial

Does advertising really work? I decided to find out last week by re-enacting the Southern Comfort commercial. My audience was several hundred innocent Catalans on the Costa Dorada. Temperature: 32 degrees celsius.

Richard Siddle: let's give our support to trade colleagues in troubled Lebanon

News of wine crops across France being devastated by hail storms remind us all what a precarious life being a wine producer is. No matter how well your business might be doing, or how many trade listings you have, all that can stand for nothing if your vineyard happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Mother Nature comes calling.

Mark Fiddes: why wine is now Top of the Pops

It will surprise many Headbangers that The "AC" in AC/DC could easily stand for Appellation Controllee.

Richard Siddle: why we should all take notice of what Tesco is up to in Watford

If you wanted to go somewhere to see the future of shopping in the UK then a trip to Watford would not be very high on your list. But ier this week a mini army of analysts, retail consultants and journalists all headed to see what Tesco's so called destination store of the future was all about.

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Jerry Lockspeiser: why we have all got to work harder with our wine labels

A typical back label is 8 x 5 cm. Forty square centimetres to persuade the hesitant customer to buy.

Mark Fiddes: lies, damned lies and statistics

Do you know how long it takes to drink an Olympic size swimming pool?* Me neither. Then I read the news from marketing wonks Nielsen that the UK consumed an additional seven Olympic swimming pools worth of bottled water in the first two weeks of July alone. That's not including at least 300 hundred packets of Elastoplast.

Mike Paul: Why the wine industry should seek absolution

In a recent Harpers (July18) there is an interview with Adam Boita of Pernod Ricard on the recent launch of the limited edition Absolut Unique. He notes that this is probably " the first time a...

Jerry Lockspeiser: Minimum Pricing Maximum Cost

Jerry Lockspeiser: Minimum pricing, maximum cost

In March 2012 our Prime Minister described the need to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol in terms that suggested the very fabric of society was at stake:

Mark Fiddes: Why UK drink advertisers need the Lionel Richie approach

I've always found Lionel Ritchie hard to like. First he turned The Commodores from the hard funk of 'Brick House' to the ultimate soppiness of 'Three Times a Lady'. Then came 'Easy like Sunday Morning', a ballad so middle of the road, it was dead hedgehog.

Jerry Lockspeiser: Wine Music Food Life

Do the first three constitute the third? They certainly enhance it. Wine Music Food Life is the tagline to the...

Mark Fiddes: The Prosecco Ultimatum

"The name's Battistella...Andrea Battistella. Licensed to Chill. Special mission to track down fake Prosecco...

Michael Karam: The alcohol revival in Lebanon

Greetings from Lebanon, where I can report that Levantine innovation has rekindled its affair with all forms of... 

Gavin Quinney: Ups and downs of going for Gold

If you're connected to wine in the UK, you could hardly have missed 'Wine tasting: it's junk science' in...

Bernadette Costello: Social media is vital for big brands

Three top consumer brands agreed to go under the knife for the Internet Advertising Bureau this summer...

Jerry Lockspeiser: We need to ban wine tasting at LIWF

Thank goodness. There will be no repeat of the Marie Celeste atmosphere in the hanger that is the ExCeL...