The wine industry represents one of the fundamental U.S. marketing domains since the high number of constant wine drinkers in America. This paper reviews the business achievements of Michael Shaps, who became an idol of winery art in Virginia through his outstanding collection of drinks. At a particular stage of his professional growth, the businessman faces a challenge: he is forced to decide whether it is appropriate to widen the scopes of his label production or start working for the individuals or companies, which would use their brands to promote Shaps’ wine. The latter was called a custom crush business strategy (Nichols 1).
Since Michael Shaps’ winery gained a full recognition and fame in the state, his decision to work for the separate brands and clients is wrongful. The separation between the brand and the product influences Virginian industry, for it is acknowledged that approximately 55% of the citizens of Virginia have a specific winery, and there are some consistent grounds for them using the production of one brand (Geide, Harmon, and Baker 352).
Moreover, the wine industry business in Virginia was vulnerable to sustainability changes. Thus, the model of Kluge Estate production showed that the sustainable practices of the product life cycling benefit individual businesses (Mann, Abramczyk, and Andrews 204).
To sum it up, one may draw a conclusion that custom-crush business formatting can be applied with reference to the developing companies or any known partners. However, the usage of this strategy in the case of Michael Shaps is quite damaging both for his brand’s reputation and for the quality of production.
Alternative Wine Packaging Technique
In his innovative business conception, Michael Shaps elaborated a system of alternative wine packaging. Specifically, the businessman, who was determined to embrace a custom-crush strategy decided to sell his wine in ecology-friendly boxes. Such packing system could provide a customer with gross sells since every box enclosed minimum three liters of liquid. Moreover, it was acknowledged that the wine, which is preserved in plastic bags, rather than in open glass bottles, evades a complete oxidization and keeps its original qualities.
According to the recent scientific studies, there is a strong tendency of the U.S. citizens preferring ecologically-clear production. Therefore, the usage of “green” packaging can draw a number of new clients, whose values comply with the principles of production (Barber 424). Besides, the marketing experts state that a choice of the product is highly dependent on the interface of a bottle or pack. The statistics are primarily directed at females, who can abandon the study of qualities of a product for the sake of its excellent appearance (Barber and Almanza 84).
Therefore, Shaps’ idea of launching a serial of alternative packaging usage reveals an efficient business model and can bring many new customers to the brand. Nevertheless, it is purposeless to establish the strategy in the crush-customer business, for the innovation will not raise an awareness of Michael Shaps’ conception, but will simply introduce a universal tendency or likeability of ecology-friendly packing with no reference to the founder of this business (“UPS Professional Services” par. 1).
To sum it up, it is strongly recommended for the individual production labels to adopt the strategy of green packaging usage since it matches the needs of American citizens today. However, the idea has to be overtaken exclusively by the individual brands since the custom crush opportunity does not provide any opportunities for strategic recognition.
Works Cited
Barber, Nelson. “Green Wine Packaging: Targeting Environmental Consumers.” International Journal of Wine Business Research 22.4 (2010): 423-444. Print.
Barber, Nelson, and Barbara Almanza. “Influence of Wine Packaging on Consumers’ Decision to Purchase.” Journal of Foodservice Business Research 9.4 (2006): 83-98. Print.
Geide, Cammeral, Laurie Harmon, and Robert Baker. “Northern Virginia Wineries: Understanding Visitor Motivations for Market Segmentation.” Northeastern Recreation Research 2.4 (2008): 350-356. Print.
Mann, John, Michael Abramczyk, Matthew Andrews, Richard Small, and Robert Bailey. “Sustainability at Kluge Estate Vineyard and Winery.” Systems and Information Engineering Journal 12.1 (2010): 203-208. Print.
Nichols, Rachel 2011, Michael Shaps Winery: Evaluating the “Custom Crush” Opportunity. Web.
UPS Professional Services 2004. Web.