Most of us have different types of wine glasses at home, why is that?
If asked, we might say we need different glasses for different types of wine.
We might say red wine needs a wider glass for the fuller aroma, while white wine needs a narrower glass to capture the delicate bouquet.
We believe the shapes evolved over time because people always drank different wines from the best glasses for that particular type of wine.
Actually, that’s not true, it was just clever marketing.
Austrian glassmaker Claus Riedel understood the difference between talking to “triallists” and talking to “current users”.
Most advertisers kneejerk into talking to triallists without giving it a second’s thought.
We list what’s good about our brand or product and try to sell it to new consumers – people who haven’t tried it yet.
But what if the market has reached saturation, especially with a consumer durable, something people don’t buy often?
How do you grow a market where everyone already has what you make and doesn’t need any more of it?
Riedel was the first to see an opportunity in growing the market by selling more to current-users instead of just triallists.
Until the 1950s, most people had just one set of glasses and they used them for whatever drinks guests wanted: white wine, red wine, dessert wine, etc.
Riedel was the first to introduce the idea that a single set won’t do, you shouldn’t serve different wines from the same glasses.
In 1958, he launched the Burgundy Grand Cru glass at the Brussels World’s Fair.
He said it was designed to “enhance the flavours and aromas of the Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo grape variety, specifically for Burgundy, Barolo and Barbaresco wines”.
A glass made specially for a particular wine was a new concept, no one had heard anything like that before. It immediately won the Gold Medal and was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Then, in 1961, Riedel introduced the first comprehensive line of different wine glasses created for different wines.
And in 1973, Riedel introduced the Sommeliers Series, the world’s first set of gourmet glasses.
Today, on his company’s website, it says: “Claus Riedel is best known for creating grape variety-specific glassware designed to enhance types of wine based on specific properties of individual grape varieties.
He was among the first glassware experts in history to recognise that the taste of wine is affected by the shape of the glass, and is credited with first discovering and developing variety-specific glassware shapes and bringing these glasses to the consumer market.”
Riedel saw it as an opportunity to stop competing with every other glassware company.
If he could build a market for different wine glasses he’d have that market to himself.
But first he’d have to educate people about the need for different wine glasses.
He’d have to explain why one set of glasses wasn’t enough.
People love to believe wine is esoteric, so the more complex he could make it, the better.
Riedel grew the market by adding a whole new level of complexity.
By allowing people to demonstrate being part of the cognoscenti.
He created a complexity about wine that hadn’t previously existed.
People were frightened to be left out, to be seen as gauche by having only one set of wine glasses.
He built a new market for his glassware by reinventing wine drinking.
That opportunity exists for all of us.
Don’t fight for a small share of space in the market, the same market as everyone else.
Don’t just be defined by the existing market, create a new market.
I think it’s also geography and timing. Back in the 70s when people here just didn’t have money – imagine a brother in the morning session rushing out from school to hand his sister in the afternoon school the only pencil they had – that wouldn’t have worked. As my ex-colleague said “that time our sliced bread was also a burger bun (without the meat) and also the ploughman’s loaf and also the 🥖”