“We want to evolve the brand, not revolutionise the brand,” is how Sarah Szegota, Indevin’s global marketing director describes the steps taken to hopefully improve and build on Villa Maria’s position as the number one New Zealand wine brand in the UK market, since its acquisition of the business in 2021.
Villa Maria says it has never been in as strong a position following its take over by the Indevin Group
“Our focus has been to build on Villa Maria’s brand equity whilst strengthening our route to market ensuring we can deliver products to customers we know consumers want,” she adds.
Key to Villa Maria’s continued success in the UK has been its long-standing, but still growing affiliation with Hatch Mansfield, which dates back to 1994 when it was one of its original producer partners, alongside shareholders Louis Jadot and Errazuriz.
It’s one thing having a three decade-long partnership, it’s quite another to have a strong on-going working relationship that Szegota says “only gets better every year”.
Villa Maria still relies hugely, she stresses, on Hatch Mansfield being its eyes and ears in the market and to be able to identify where new growth opportunities might be.
That working partnership was there to be seen at last month’s London Wine Fair where Villa Maria was front and centre in the heart of Hatch Mansfield’s buzzing stand at the show.
New launches
The ideal platform for Villa Maria and Hatch to formally introduce two significant and strategically important products: Villa Maria’s new Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc; and its first Villa Maria wine in a can. Both launched with a modern, striking label design suited to the new formats
The brand believes there is a huge opportunity for Villa Maria to put its stamp on the sparkling wine category and to take advantage of the “rise in non-Champagne sparkling wine sales”. It is also launching its sparkling wine at 10% ABV to offer a lighter, fresher sparkling wine style that plays nicely into the “refreshment trend” that has the added advantage of being at a lower duty rate.
Szegota says rigorous consumer research gives a “reason to believe” in the new product, which indicated strong appeal and purchase intent within existing Villa Maria consumers whilst also attracting younger drinkers outside of the brand too - primarily aimed at 30- to 45-year-olds.
The Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanccan is also now being introduced across the market and has already been picked up by a number of major retailers including Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda.
Szegota says it has deliberately taken its time to bring a can into the market as it wanted to be sure the quality was just as good as the wine in bottle and market conditions were right. But in talks with major customers, it was clear they were looking for a major branded wine player to make a significant statement in the fast-growing canned market.
“We have been very patient. It has taken a year to get to market,” she says. “But the timing is now right.”
Villa Maria has taken its time to launch its own canned wine as it wanted to make sure the quality was as good as it could possibly be
The canned launch has also been helped by its decision to move the packaging of its wine to the UK.
Alongside new product launches, Villa Maria will soon be launching refreshed packagingfor its top-selling Private Bin and Cellar Selection ranges with a “modern, sophisticated and cleaner design”.
Szegota says, the thinking behind the packaging “refresh”, which has a bigger focus on the brand’s ‘V’ distinctive asset, is all about getting the brand to “remain relevant to consumers across the world” and “work even harder” on shelf, and says it is more “of an evolution than a radical shift” in image. It will be rolled out fromvintage 2025 onwards.
Building from strength
Deborah Zbinden, Hatch Mansfield’s senior consumer marketing manager, says it is great for the business to have two exciting new brand extensions to work with alongside the existing range.
“It’s like having two double-decker buses turn up at the same time,” she says.
The pressure is always there, she says, for the business to help Villa Maria maintain its position as the number one New Zealand brand in the UK market and to “ensure you have consistent messaging” going out that has the right “look and feel to build brand recognition”. These two new launches will very much help with that.
Zbinden says it is Hatch’s responsibility to find new ways in which it can bring “continuous improvement” to the brand and is constantly listening to the market and talking to its customers.
It’s also why Villa Maria invests so much in consumer research and market data to ensure it is one step ahead of the market. “We need to track our brand health in the UK market,” says Szegota.
That way it can plan the right level of above and below the line activity to keep the brand relevant and alive both with its target and prospective consumers, but also with its key trade customers.
“We run detailed and close reports on everything we do,” she says. “We believe in building a brand for the long term and assessing what works and what doesn’t, helps us to do that. The combination of customer led activations and brand led marketing campaigns have a big role to play in driving demand for Villa Maria and for the overall category growth of New Zealand.”
Sarah Szegota says Villa Maria takes very much a FMCG approach to supporting its brands and its activity with detailed consumer research and data analysis
Szegota says that whilst there have been “changes internally” following the acquisition by Indevin the overall direction and vision for the Villa Maria brand remains very much the same.
A 100% focus on executing a “demand-driven long term” brand strategy. Similar to how any major FMCG brand would operate.
“We can’t sit back as a category leading brand. We need to attract new consumers all the time,” she explains, which is why it is so important for it to use these new products and formats “to broaden the shoulders of the brand” and “offer new wines for new occasions”.
It’s also why Villa Maria now has such an extensive range in order to have a relevant wine for each key price point up the pricing ladder.
It is, for example, working with Majestic on its exclusive Single Vineyard Seaspray Sauvignon Blanc, that carries more saline and coastal characteristics thanks to sourcing fruit from its Atawere vineyards in Marlborough. Or its Icon Attorney Pinot Noir wine thatis targeting premium retailers, independent wine merchants and the on-trade.
Focused support strategy
One of the key changes from a marketing perspective has been the decision, both at Villa Maria and Hatch Mansfield, to bring as much of its brand-building activity in-house and to only use outside agencies for specialist support, for example around social media and advertising. A move that has seen Indevin, for example, see its marketing, design and communications team nearly double to 15 people.
Villa Maria's home in Marlborough, New Zealand
For Hatch Mansfield it has meant putting even greater focus on its dedicated Villa Maria brand team that covers all the key skills needed from sales, supply chain through to marketing, events and communications, says Zbinden.
“We have a really experienced team with the right disciplines in place,” she adds. It means the business is as close as it can be to the front line in terms of managing in-store activity and implementing a year-round calendar of branding and campaigns, with bespoke merchandising and plans for different retailers and operators.
By using increasingly sophisticated market tracking data it can also pinpoint activity to the right locations in the best markets.
“We are forensically analysing how wine-lovers consume their media,” says Szegota, which then determines which media channels it will invest in based on which are the most effective and relevant for the brand.
It’s why Hatch Mansfield is increasingly working with a number of clearly targeted lifestyle influencers, particularly across food, lifestyle, interiors and travel.
The significance of digital media channels such as social media platforms also differs around the world, adds Szegota, and whilst Facebook and Instagram, for example, might be highly effective to reach target consumers in the UK, for other markets you may be better placed investing in Pinterest or TV on demand.
It’s why Indevin has worked hard to bring in people with true global experience, often from rival major drinks companies, that understand the cultural and media landscape nuancesacross different markets.
“Every year the category is changing and we have got to remain relevant and keep on re-inventing our brands,” she adds. “We can’t be complacent. We have to be close to the markets and our customers to ensure we are delivering premium products consumers want,” she adds.
* You can find out more about Villa Maria at its website here.
* Hatch Mansfield is a commercial partner to The Buyer and you can find out more about what they can offer the premium on and off-trade here.
