Get ready for PostFunnel’s seven commandments of CRM analysis – episode 20!
This week – we’re rating America’s wine superstore – Total Wine & More. Take a quick look at the results of some of the other brand’s we analyzed for a recap.
When you’re ready – sit back, pour yourself a nice glass of your favorite wine, and enjoy the CRM analysis below. Cheers!
1. Be Transparent 4/10
We couldn’t find any clear announcement or recent press release the brand has been making to state something to the public.
When analyzing the brand, we did however find that it is launching/planning to launch numerous store locations across the U.S.
In one recent article, Alcohol retailers in Michigan were opposing to Total Wine’s GR-area plans.
“They are strategically picking high-volume demographics so they can literally steal existing business from an otherwise healthy dichotomy of independent and big box,” Rishi Makkar, owner of Rishi’s International Beverage in Kentwood, told commissioners during the virtual hearing.
The main reason for its concern is due to Total Wines’ “unfair purchasing power and the company’s history of pushing back against state-specific regulations.”
We couldn’t find any evident response or comments from Total Wines regarding the matter – or others.
On their website, the brand does offer customers a FAQ page where they provide detailed information on orders, returns, shipping, delivery, contact info, privacy & security, product details, instore and curbside pickups, and so much more—the basic stiff.
Overall, we could not find anything released by the company that made us feel like we can “see” the people behind it.
2. Incentives and Perks 10/10
We definitely noticed many incentives and perks handed out by the brand:
Limited-time specials and explorer packs are on offer, too – allowing customers to save a few bucks when purchasing in packages. This is especially good for wine/ spirits lovers who drink frequently and wish to buy in bulk.
Customers can earn loyalty points for shopping online:
Finally, the brand also has a Deals and Promotions page that offers customers various deals including limited-time specials, savings on curated collections, “3 FOR $33” offers, 10% discounts, weekly ads, offers via email, and if that’s not enough – customers can download their app for even more deals.
3. Be Relevant 9/10
The first banner that we noticed on the brand’s HP reads “Time for Fall Cocktails.” The pumpkin apple-flavored cocktail just in time for Halloween adds to the brand’s seasonal festivities.
The brand offers curbside and in-store pickups with the option for customers to set up their orders and time of pickup online – relevant for living with COVID restrictions.
Finally, when entering the brand’s “Beer and Hard Seltzer” category, we were prompted with an “Oktoberfest” banner, which leads to a page created just for this time of year. All with German beers on offer, of course!
While Total Wines’ branding, messaging, and marketing communications could use a more “relevant” tone, they still do a good job on this overall.
4. Be Helpful 9/10
Last month, Total Wines partnered with HELP of Southern Nevada, a nonprofit organization, as the local beneficiary for Total Wine & More. Together they launched the “Points with a Purpose” customer appreciation campaign.
HELP of Southern Nevada aims to help families overcome barriers and attain self-sufficiency. The charity is celebrating its 50th year of supporting the Las Vegas local community.
At the end of the campaign, the brand will donate funds and the added value of points that customers accumulate at Total Wine & More’s Southern Nevada stores.
Overall, it’s a great way to show gratitude to customers and support local communities. They lose a point because we could not find any larger-scale initiatives of that kind.
5. Realtime Personalization 2/10
After adding white wines to our cart (Buttercream Chardonnay and Kia Ora Marlborough Sauv Blanc, if you MUST know), no personalization techniques were implemented by the brand. No upselling or cross-selling mechanisms. Although they easily could have been used here.
We weren’t retargeted by the brand in realtime on our social media feeds either.
We did, however, receive these similar item suggestions:
So 2 points feel appropriate.
6. Master UX 9/10
Our overall experience with the brand was good. Things were kept simple and easy to use, like the navigation menu bar at the top left-hand side of the brand’s homepage. Just as the options to narrow down products.
The option to pick and choose wines according to their type might be obvious – but searching according to the wine region gives customers that extra refined touch.
The brand also offers reviews and star ratings on each of the wine bottles you wish to view. And a bit of history/geography on the bottle is also great for the interested customer:
Their website offers a wine guide page that reads:
At Total Wine & More, we’re passionate about wine and know many of our customers feel the same way. So we wrote the Guide to Wine to share our knowledge about the more than 8,000 wines we sell.
Finally, editing our cart and proceeding to payment was simple.
It’s not a perfect 10 due to a lack of a memorable wow-effect.
7. Leverage Social Media 6/10
As usual, we analyzed the following 3 social media channels:
Facebook – definitely a very engaged community as the brand offers cocktail virtual happy hours, weekly videos with professional wine-tasters and other experts, event-based posts, mocktail recipes, and so much more to keep their customers busy during the pandemic.
check out the virtual tasting video here.
Instagram – the same type of content as Facebook, minus the engaging expertvideos. Though the brand does use the Instastory feature and posts in high-frequency – perhaps they could find a way to differently engage with its Instagram audience, who might be a bit different than its FB crowd.
Twitter – the same can be said here. Seems as if the brand is simply copying and pasting the same content from one social media platform to the other – instead of really getting to the core of what each platform has to offer, and what users want to see on each.
**
Overall, Total Wines is getting a 49/70 here (70%), glued to the middle-of-the-pack bunch.
And the thing that stands between them and a string top10 position is the same thing that seems to be tripping-up most of the brands we anylzed – realtime personalization.
If they nail this, and spice up their social media game a bit, even the top5 will be in reach.
Here are the full rankings of all the brands we analyzed to date:
- Pets at Home 91%
- Lowe’s 90%
- Petco90%
- Target87%
- Uniqlo 86%
- West Elm 81%
- Best Buy 78%
- Etsy 76%
- The Body Shop 74%
- Gymshark 73%
- Iceland Foods 71%
- Total Wine & More 70%
- Tommy Hilfiger70%
- Walgreens70%
- Kohl’s70%
- Fiverr67%
- Next 63%
- Patagonia 61%
- Burberry 60%
- COS 57%
We publish a new analysis every week, so watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way!
