The Psychology Behind First Impressions and What It Means for Your Wine Sales

You’ve worked incredibly hard to create wine that you can share with pride. Unfortunately, all of the labor you put into cultivating and selecting grapes, maintaining the perfect aging conditions and adhering to strict bottling procedures could go to waste if you don’t devote similar effort to improving your brand awareness strategies.

No matter how mind-blowing your vintages taste, your wine sales are heavily reliant on first impressions. The wine label and retail packaging design that you go with do far more than just tell potential consumers what’s inside the bottle. Good wine packaging also leverages shopper psychology to convince buyers that they should pick your brand instead of your competitors’ offerings.

Judging a Book by Its Cover: How Retail Packaging Impacts Brand Awareness and Wine Sales

True wine enthusiasts know that they can’t judge a vintage without experiencing it firsthand. Unfortunately, most consumers must rely on sight to select the perfect bottle for a relaxed evening or casual soirée. It’s up to you to make your wine packaging worthy of further reflection.

Contrary to what we've been taught about not judging a book by its cover, from judging products to people, psychologists say that first impressions really do matter. In addition to potentially persuading someone to make a purchase, your wine labels might impact your brand’s ongoing success and future wine sales. Consumers’ initial reactions to the appearance of your wine packaging can actually color their subsequent consumption experience and long-term satisfaction.

Building Brand Awareness Strategically: Critical Elements of Wine Labels

Most people form first impressions within milliseconds before they’re even able to think about what they're doing consciously. It pays to adopt a brand awareness strategy that makes efficient use of your retail packaging and its visual real estate. Consider the following commonplace wine packaging elements:

Logos

Your logotype can drive wine sales by conferring an air of authority onto your products. Thoughtful design, elegant typefaces, balanced color choices and artful placement all help tell the consumer the authentic story behind your winemaking expertise.

Labels

Effective wine labels can differentiate your offerings from a sea of rival retail packaging. Your inclusion of interesting visual details should instantly tell the story that supports the culture behind your company or the ethos of a particular product. Employing consistent thematic elements across vintage-specific wine labels also increases brand awareness by making it easier for people to pick you out from the crowd.

Bottles and Retail Packaging

In a world of short attention spans, repetition is key to impactful branding. Ensuring that your wine packaging reinforces your logo and other common visual elements gives you more staying power in busy retail environments. If you distribute your wine in bulk shipments, your packaging could even serve as a mobile billboard that dramatically increases brand awareness.

Want to drive wine sales and simultaneously capture the hearts and minds of those who encounter your branding? Ask our creative experts about breathing new life into your wine labels and packaging.