Manage Your Video Content Actively – Plan & Promote – One of 4 Part Series

This article is specifically for those people who create video–maybe you own a winery, a coffee roaster, a technology business, a small or even larger business

If you think all you need to do only the following two things:

A) Create a video

B) Publish

And your job is done—please continue reading, please…

I have seen many video producers give up on their craft early on.  I have also heard from many small businesses even large businesses who feel compelled to have video content either from customers or business partners and a sense of frustration of ‘having’ to do so.   The frustration are many–it is difficult for some to complete video content and the other part is with video performance.  First, today’s viewers are not expecting perfection…well maybe some… but most are expecting compelling content.  There is a lot of video content out there and YouTube is happy to help viewers click continuously even if that means “Xing” out of your video.  This reality has been around a long time and no matter what you do–most viewers self “X” out of videos for two primary reasons: Time and Message Received.  And that is okay–I know it is not realistic and it is part of any viewing environment and if my viewer gets to the point of message I am totally okay with that.

When you click “Publish” in YouTube your job has just begun.  I think first and foremost is to write out a general video and promotion plan on why you are doing what you are doing.  Doing a video plan is to create a general road map and how to hone in on what is working well and what needs more attention.

Video & Promotion Plan

When I mention the word plan I can hear people I suggest this to sound a bit frustrated.  I assure them quickly it is a short document and it can be 2-3 pages (however many pages you and your team might need) and doesn’t need to be 50 pages.  The reason to create a plan is to manage your expectation as well as your stakeholders.  And it is a good document to remind your stakeholders on the contents of the plan.  Everyone needs a reminder or a refresh but managing expectations is key.  Managing expectations can be your cornerstone and a way to think consistently about your video content and stop feeling your video content is summarily not working.

I have advised a larger company with their video strategy but I couldn’t ween them off of not being afraid of thinking of their content as non-evergreen and to promote it over time; but they were thinking in terms of “build it and they will come.”  They used an outside producer and each video was superbly expensive to produce and the video clicks were rare.  As I suggested a Video & Promotion Plan and there was pushback: “we’re too busy” “we have too much to do” “when we are successful we’ll know it” the last quote is what I call “success-by-hunch” which never works for a larger organization–everyone has their own idea of success and so many other things.

This continuous non-planning kept them in a chaos of video production without looking at analytics to hone in on more satisfying results also wasting opportunities on their evergreen content in their published online library.  Also, there was publish once and ‘do nothing else’ is ‘marketing by wishfulness.’  Wishing and making your content a success is done the old fashion way by a constant touch with your content and not letting YouTube just be a warehouse for your video content but making more engagements with your content.

One time upload and non-management is neglect of this valuable message and asset and overall resources.  Not all videos will perform the way you want them to perform–I have heard this by people at Vidcon who are still surprised why some videos are a hit and others are not.  And these video producers I heard at Vidcon are in the 500k click rate and above per video.   I think active management and backing each video produce according to your plan will insure you are doing all that you can do and higher sense of satisfaction.

Elements of a video & promotion plan are:

• Who is your audience?  Who would you like to acquire to be in your audience?
• What should your per video click rate be? On a yearly basis include in your plan video performance like clicks, also include your subscriber numbers, likes, comments and overall channel performance in your plan (be realistic but optimistic as well) – when you have specific goals for performance and you are lagging you can work to promote the lower performing videos as well
• When will you promote video?
• Where will you promote your video?  (social, newsletters, email, paid?)
• Constant look out to not just promote once but several if not many times (just because your published once doesn’t mean that is all the eyes that ever wanted to see your video has seen it).  For a larger organization look for multiple opportunities to promote your video.  As an example: for a wine producer there is a wine variety day for many major varieties – a good way to remind a larger audience you have a Merlot too or other variety
• Have a marketing calendar with planned events, dates, campaigns, holiday and specific dates for publishing your marketing piece and this can be a guide for opportunities to publish and promote
• Once you publish your videos look at YouTube analytics– it is helpful at telling you more about your audience, age range, geography, time of day watched, sources of how people found your video and so fourth

My plan for me, at least, is very helpful to keep me focused–I know exactly what I need or should be doing–there is no guess work.   I have over 3,000 videos on all my YouTube channels and I don’t feel overwhelmed–my plan keeps me organized and I know what I should be doing next to meet my objectives.  I feel organized and focused and I owe it to the plan I created.  I am more focused at making my videos more successful and I firmly do not subscribe to the belief that once a video is published my job is done.  I don’t want to squander any opportunities nor should you.

For a larger team (more than one) keep this plan in a collaborative space like Google Docs and make sure each team member has access.  Update the Video & Promotion Plan  once a year collaboratively and look at ‘lessons learned’ to make incremental improvements in your plan–adjust, add, delete those things that work or don’t work.  Keeping a document even if people don’t look at it frequently are a great way to let people know that it exists and what is in the document.  You can use phrases like “our plan was to reach 5,000 clicks per video” “X number of hours have been viewed in the past, month, quarter etc.” as a reference back to your written plan.  The plan is an agreement and can help guide conversations in an organization on plans that might be too aggressive or not aggressive enough.

In the next few weeks I’ll talk about three items (once per week):

• Essential Elements in Each Video
• Ecology of a Video Collection
• Minimum Requirements of Uploading a Video

This can be applied not to just wine business but any business that creates videos.

I look forward to talking about each new subject and also if you have comments you can leave them below or via email: james@jamesthewineguy.com

I’ll see you next week!

Cheers,

James

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award, and design and all designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

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US Wine, Beer & Spirits Market & Communitization

On my third podcast, Snapshot of the Wine, Beer, & Spirits Marketplace in the United States  my focus was, at first, to make sense of what is happening in this Coronavirus crisis in the wine, beer and spirits markets.  This, however, became clear is that there are some initial points that have been published of record sales in March but the total picture of what is really happening is far from clear even now in May.

What has happened thus far is that producers have been executing virtual wine, beer and spirits tastings and seminars.  And many DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) operations have been offering low cost shipping to their customers and some producers seeing a lift in sales from DTC.

But surprisingly there are some wine producer regions not offering low cost shipping.  And prices at wine retailers that are open and grocery stores wine prices are pre-Coronavirus pricing.  I don’t have April total numbers to see what the WBS (wine, beer, and spirits) market looks like in the US yet.

March is when most of the US was under Shelter-In-Place (SIP) and think of the driver of consumers–food, toilet paper, and wine, beer and spirits–for many consumers it was key to get everything that you could–it was almost a panic state.

But the story continues and with high unemployment it is easily questionable that the aggregate market for wine, beer and spirits cannot and will not remain to last years numbers and a decline can only be expected.  The aggregate wine, beer and spirits market which is large and is valued at a total of $250.8 Billion.*  I am doubtful that last years numbers will be retained–perhaps and maybe at a most conservative number decline by 10% or more –and this is just a guess–no one knows for certain.

The potential decline is only one concern amongst many.

Concern 1

Some wine businesses had a higher exposure to on-premise accounts–some wine businesses had a majority of their sales devoted to on-premise at a high percentage rate if not majority percentage of total sales.  Nielsen reported that in 2018 77 million cases was consumed by the on-premise channel–while this is not the same as the off-premise number of 325 million cases it is still a large number.  Any enterprise cannot turn on a dime and suddenly shift even 50% to DTC or off-premise.  There is an inevitable loss in a yearly sales plan.  It is not a question of only recovery but survival.  Will the total market sell 408 million cases this year?  Even with decreasing prices and consumers buying more bottles I do not think we will reach the 408 million number.

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Many restaurants in the US and around the world sold prized wine collection to stay afloat.  This is very sad as the prized wines cannot be replaced when this crisis is over. For a fine restaurant there was an equal pride in executing excellence in food as in their wine offering.  When restaurants re-open with limited capacity; their wine receipts will be limited as well.

Concern 2

DTC is a very small channel; in 2018 (Nielsen) 6 million cases in this channel as compared with on-premise and off-premise channels.

Chipping away at the 77 million case on-premise number will be very difficult and some of this has already been consumed in two months (thought the slowest of the year – January and February).  I do not think either DTC or off-premise will make up for this loss. And again restaurant wine receipts will be limited based on re-opening capacity restrictions.

The problem has been and still is the vast collection of ABC laws.  It is estimated that there are 42,000 ABC (Alcohol Beverage Controls) laws on the books in the US.  Alcoholic beverages are the most regulated product in the United States.  While some state ABC’s have understood this crisis only a few exceptions here and there have been granted–such as take away cocktails.  If you are an online WBS retailer it is a large set of licenses and requirements (e.g. distribution – you might have to possess several warehouses versus one to service a set number of state markets).  While this virus may increase DTC there is still many obstacles to be overcome but there is room to grow even in this highly regulated channel.

Concern 3

Pricing.

One of the most popular wine price point range is $20-25 (Nielsen – March 2020).  While this is not a large per bottle price point will this be the average price point going into the next quarter to year end?  Will this range remain or decrease in the near or mid-term?

No one can predict what will happen as we are in a dynamical state.  If there is an economic leveling (i.e. economic free fall we are in now stabilizes) then this price range will hold but if there are decreasing economic conditions than this price range may not hold.

Are all producers selling at pre-Coronavirus rate?

Are import wines selling more, the same or less prior to virus crisis?

If the WBS market is declining (both in terms of dollars and volume) in 2020 who is being affected–is it a category of producers, small producers, larger producer–who exactly is going to be affected or is already affected.  What producers will be okay and who are suffering?

Concern 4

What WBS producers have already failed and who is struggling to survive?

The charts below illustrate tremendous…no dramatic growth in the US in a generation for wine, beer and spirits producers.  The most dramatic was in spirits producers from 100 in 2005 to 1,835 in 2018–and that was clearly evident when one would browse spirit assortments in the off-premise setting in yesteryear – 4-5 gins and same with vodka, Tequila, rum and other spirits… today the plethora is exciting and more than 4-5 SKU per spirits category.

While 85-90% of US wine production is completed in California — it does not make the importance any less of producers outside of California.  All 50 states have a winery, brewery and distillery–and there is an importance the community that wineries serve– especially small and independent wineries as they may not the biggest enterprises in their specific geographies but they nonetheless are contributors to their local economy.

And the same with brewers and spirits producers as they often entered into urban landscapes and small communities alike and everything in between.  Brewpubs/craft breweries were a third places for many people; and they did not always have off or on-premise accounts or if they did it was not the number one cash generator.

All of the independent and smaller wineries, distilleries and breweries communitized (see below more information on the word “communitized”) where they based their operations.

Think of large beer producers who have been losing market share for a decade if not longer were departing from their market share and that was transferred to local producers (brewpub/microbreweries).  The community where a WBS is located gained from building a closer relationship with their customer base, left an economic impression as they hired people, purchased supplies and services, leased space, purchased equipment, used utility services and gave to their community, etc.  If we were under the larger brewery model the closest relationship someone might have with a large producer is a broadcast commercial or perhaps a sponsored event.  The direct consumer touch is relationship and expanding the customer palate and introducing them to styles they might not have tasted before.  Also and importantly the large brewing model was that there was little if any economic impact in each community they sold their product.  The many producers today have become an integral of where they are located and they are geographical distributed throughout the US.  “Communitized” means many things as it highlights a relationship that is highly valued and important and is local.  Other businesses beyond WBS enterprise can also have communitizing affects such as coffee roasters, independent restaurants, and other small and independent businesses.

If a smaller WBS brand in a community had a dependency on on-premise during this crisis–what happened to their sales?

Many of these business can still be classified as a startup and no doubt have little to no owners equity and certain significant debt loads.  Operating expenses, rents, debt servicing did not stop during this crisis for many if not all small businesses.  And the level of support available is most likely spotty and only covering a small percentage of small businesses.  Reporting on Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris’s Steak House getting recovery support was well publicized and it was surprising to many (I know Shake Shack returning those dollars) that a well-known larger enterprise got funding but smaller one’s did not.

I fear that many WBS and other businesses will not survive this crisis–the communitzing affect of these business added to their local economy and the reverse will be punishing as well.

Opportunity?

There is no clear answers beyond overwhelming Coronavirus testing and a vaccine.

There was not a national focus on how to respond to this pandemic and the patch work of what happens next as states open and others do not.

I hope that where there is a small business that partners and stakeholders will help to insure survival–landlords, service and product suppliers, and especially financial institution needs to play a part as well.  It is in everyone’s interest that there is a “communitized” approach to insuring WBS and other small businesses survive.

Until the US has a more concerted Coronavirus approach there is a horizon of continuing problems of spikes and outbreaks? If you are a small business owner you should consider pandemic planning and if you live in an area with natural disasters (earthquake, hurricane, etc)–you should consider contingency business operation plans.

As mentioned previously here are graphs on number of wineries, breweries and distilleries at specific years:

As I said in my podcast and repeat here I do hope all business survive.

You can help by being a customer of a small business and also giving them a shout out on social media!  I will be keeping a close eye on the industry and reporting back if there are some interesting analytics and trends.

---

Santé,

James

James the Wine Guy

Demystifying Wine…One Bottle at a Time from all wine regions around the world.

*References for market numbers:

https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/national-beer-stats/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/259353/number-of-wineries-in-the-us/

https://www.bw166.com/2019/01/13/u-s-beverage-alcohol-spending-hits-253-8-billion-in-2018-5-1-versus-2017/

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original Content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award, “Communitizing” content and design and all designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

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Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Pricing – Is A Price Revision Coming?

A friend of mine outside of California reached out to me early in this crisis and asked about California pricing and promotion in wake of the Coronavirus.  From her market places perspective there was a lot of pivoting to meet the markets unknowns and demands.  There was a lot of shipping promotion and discounts; some smaller communities offered free delivery from winemaker or other principal in a small geographic area.  I looked at all California regions and didn’t see many changes except in the very small producers.  I did see many more virtual events from all regions in California and throughout the US and around the world.

I have noted that people are reaching out to me for wine recommendations and the bottle price points they were targeting are in the $25/bottle and below range.  I then read this week from Nielsen that the strongest demand for DTC orders and off premise wine sales is in $20-25 range.  This made me think about Napa Valley pricing and how was the valley responding to this Coronavirus era.  I had originally started looking at 25 wineries but to get to a better understanding of pricing I expanded to 75 producers.  I decided to look at the king of Napa Valley wines–Cabernet Sauvignon to get an understanding and data points on pricing as this variety is often produced by most Napa Valley labels.

Here is the criteria I utilised for collecting data:

I did see a good number producers offering reduced shipping costs, only one in 75 had offered a virtual wine tasting experience/event, and there are 3 total wines (out of 201) that had a sale price point of at least 20%.  I had figured the average bottle price point of these 75 producer was going to be in $75-80 range.  I was off by 48% hence it is very important acquire data for current metrics to be validated/invalidated and to get price point confirmations.

And before publishing this article I did search to see if there are no recent articles on Napa Valley Cabernet or other wine variety pricing.

I had heard in conversation points way before this crisis of three things about Napa Valley pricing: 1) Cabernet Sauvignon 2) Sauvignon Blanc and 3) Tasting Fees as all being very expensive.

In these Coronavirus times can the $111.10 price per bottle be sustained given the most demanded price point is 4 times lower?  Here is a previous article (Prior to crisis) and below is a survey I instituted at the start of the year (January 2020).  Now this was just asking Napa Valley wine pricing in general.  I wanted to ask about Cabernet Sauvignon but there are character limits in Twitter Surveys.

Now my study did not include virtual wineries with a Napa Valley label which can be a lower price but in some examples can be the same as the average.  I think there will be a good number of people who have a wine club membership or even a fondness that will still engage at current prices.

I haven’t thought of a good data methodology for completing  an analysis on virtual wineries–I am sure someone is tracking these price points and has an average–or it is  even possible no one is tracking all virtual Napa Valley labels and perhaps no one knows the average bottle price point.  I do suspect the aggregate will be a lower than $111.10 per bottle price point if I ever approach such a study in the future.

The reality of our world is that ‘we don’t know, what we don’t know” the question is how long will this recession be–will an economic recovery be in lock-step with lock downs i.e. will there be a normalising of the economy shortly? And how about in the mid-term or long-term? I do suspect that there will be a lessening demand for super premium and luxury bottle price points but I don’t think that market will disappear.  What I am concerned and I have written about is that many small business owners of all types may not have the ability to survive in this short term world of not bottle shock but business shock.  But I also suspect that many operating wine businesses have a number of liabilities that need to be serviced on a periodic basis.

There is no evidence yet but I do think that wine drinkers will remain wine drinkers i.e. wine drinkers are not going to abandon the wine category or only if in dire circumstances.  When our Sheltering in Place is over I am guessing there will be pent up demand for both visiting Napa Valley and other wine countries and even buying wine.

I will keep reviewing price points especially during our SIP period of time and if time permits may look at other regions as well.  If I were to guess I do expect many more sale price points of super premium and luxury wines at least in the near and mid-terms.

Let’s hope that this crisis ends soon.

Santé,

James

James the Wine Guy

Demystifying Wine…One Bottle at a Time from all wine regions around the world.

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original Content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award and designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

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Podcast – JamesTheWineGuy Episode #2 Interview with Frank Morgan, DrinkWhatYOULike

I have my second podcast episode published and it is an interview with Frank Morgan, DrinkWhatYOUlike.  I have enjoyed working with Frank on other interviews and collaborations in the past.  Frank is truly an SME (subject matter expert) as it regards Virginia Wine and other wines of the world.  He is creator of Virginia Wine Chat which is a live video format on-site at Virginia Producers.   Frank is a wonderful person to know and his knowledge and enthusiasm is evident any time he speaks about Virginia Wine.  A great resource and I am grateful for him being on my show.

DrinkwhatYOULike site

I am on four different networks so please join on your preferred site and please subscribe to hear the latest podcasts (all the same podcast just different networks (click on each icon to get to channel):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you,

James

James the Wine Guy

Demystifying Wine…One Bottle at a Time from all wine regions around the world.

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original Content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award and designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

Follow, subscribe, like, browse:

Apple Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jamesthewineguy/id1504789848

I Heart Radio

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-jamesthewineguy-60738414/

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/1al3kchhbj5zx28A3Nc5Xa

Stitcher

https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=517350&refid=stpr

 

In Support and Defense of Virtual Wine Tastings

I support all virtual wine tastings!

 

There is no reason to not support these tastings.

A Recent Virtual Tasting on my tasting table

When it comes to the subject of wine there are naysayers for any subject in the wine universe.  But I usually pass on reading any articles that are talking poorly about virtual wine tasting as they are just rants.

Recently, I saw in the daily emails from Wine Business and they highlighted an article from Spitbucket ‘How Can We Make Virtual Wine Tastings Less Sucky?’ Just the title spoke volumes so perhaps from the writer’s point-of-view tastings will always be “sucky” but less so?  I would never use this language and I find it to be offensive.  The article went on to say that “Most of these events are boring as hell.”  I did stop reading half way through as I do have many more books and articles that are in my reading pile and there was no value in reading a rant–I just have too much to do.

My take away (I don’t always have a bottle per topic or from the producer presenting–I do join in if it is video format more often than not and I do join the Twitter tastings) is that it may not always be for me and am I bummed out if it not tailored for me?

No absolutely not. 

The taller and compelling reason is publicize, market and communicate about a producer’s wine.  If I find the content compelling I’ll take note of wine and seek it later.  I may also discover a story or enjoy a personality or take away a new fact.  The Twitter format I do enjoy–I get a lot of information from being on that virtual tasting and, of course, love video format.

Wine business of all sizes need to voice who they are in whatever format they find compelling.  In this Coronavirus era, many people are in lockdown and if a brand wants to set up an activity than by all means they should do so; we all need something other than watching/reading doom broadcasting/media.

Also, in our age of data mining and analytics is that there is a notion that all marketers have figured it out.  The current mindset is that all brands have a vast data warehouse and those that “know” their customer make significant gains.  We are exactly where we were without big data – back in the day it was known as business intelligence and no matter what “it” is called no one can be certain their marketing programme is the one and only and right way of doing it.  As long as we are marketing to people in a competitive world we will have to contend with the dynamical world of being and that marketing is ongoing and not just an end task of an algorithm.

Back to wine.  When a brand is promoting themselves it is not just for one person but often brands have people who help create the product.  Also, all enterprises have suppliers and they are people behind that as well.  Bottomline is to be aware that promotion is for a community of people (be it a small or large business)–I prefer to support a business versus detract away from it.

There are mixed signals when it comes to wine sales in this crisis–“record sales” “wine sales rise” and yet there is distress from small producers who are urgently selling what they have and to deliver themselves to their customers.  We will not know the reality of what is really occurring right now with wine, beer and spirits until some time later.  But it is truly within the scope of a producer to take action versus no action in whatever marketing/distribution manner they are selecting.

Wine Producer Virtual Tasting Program Checklist

Before starting out here are some consideration for creating your virtual wine tasting program.

✔ Create a written plan (doesn’t have to be a large plan)

• • What are your objectives?
  • What does success look like?
  • Who is your audience?
  • What format – Twitter, Facebook, Zoom, etc.?

✔ Create a Hashtag and share it when you announce your tasting – rinse and repeat (i.e. repeat your hashtag often before, during and after event)

✔ If you are completing in video format – have a co-host format (winemaker and owner, etc) – and have someone who is getting questions to read to to the hosts

✔ Answer all questions–in a Twitter format is easier to see if there are outstanding question that need answer after virtual tasting is over

✔ Plan your show – latest vintages, new wines, growing season, wine maker perspectives, food & wine pairings, etc.f

✔ Plan for potential questions and have answer readily available

✔ If you are sending sample bottles out include tech sheets in shipment and via email

✔ Plan for fun and have fun – often audience will engage and also have questions or stories to read in case of a lull.  I brought popcorn to mine–it was a late afternoon session and I needed a snack–it was a conversation point which I did not expect (and I was not the host)

✔ Collect analytics and in Twitter it easy to see each Tweet and the analytic it generated per your initiated Tweets

And if you are not a producer there are many more virtual wine events than ever before check them out.  Here is an ongoing virtual tasting from Wine Studio–each Tuesday evening 9:00 pm ET/6:00 pm PT just use #WineStudio to join in on Tuesday or see past events.

Wishing that all producers weather this terrible storm–I know so many wonderful producers personally and I hope each and everyone of them shines ongoing!

Thank you,

James

James the Wine Guy

Demystifying Wine…One Bottle at a Time from all wine regions around the world.

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original Content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award and designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

Follow, subscribe, like, browse:

Apple Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jamesthewineguy/id1504789848

I Heart Radio

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Give a Social Media Shout Out to Small Business during Coronavirus Crisis

I have seen many dire warnings and concerns for the restaurant industry during this crisis.  I have the same concerns for this industry as well.  I also have concerns for small businesses and I extended this to retail stores, art galleries, importers, food producers, hair salons, dry cleaners, small clothing businesses, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, coffee roasters and houses and many other business types.

I know quite a number of small business owners are trying to be optimistic and yet experiencing an extreme gravity of financing their ventures.  Many restaurants are trying to mitigate their circumstances with take away food and some restaurants selling their wine collections.

I know San Francisco at its economic best, small businesses had to contend with a runaway landscape of commercial landlords that have increased rents for business in the past decade at rates that are not sustainable.

Restaurant closure rates in San Francisco before crisis was at a very high rate.  Noteworthy it wasn’t lesser known restaurants but well known establishments.  Between high closure rates due to high lease rate terms and yearly increases was enough then there is San Francisco’s Soft Story Retrofit which is responsible for another wave of closures–I saw a soft story retrofit on 19th and Valencia Streets in San Francisco and it took out two restaurants Burger Joint and Valencia Pizza & Pasta which had been in business forty five years (combined years).  I saw a sign on both businesses that they would reopen and then the next sign a few week later was “we are closing permanently.”

San Francisco voters passed Proposition D this year to fine landlords for excessive non-leased ground level commercial property.  Even with Prop D passing the City and County of San Francisco, the State of California and ABC will have to work towards helping the small business to survive as it is not just in governments interest but in everyone’s interest.  This can, of course, be extended to all governments in the US.

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As of 2017, there are 6,266 craft breweries in the US and the overall beer marketing in the US is $119.3 billion dollars.  There were not 6,266 craft breweries a generation ago and what this offered is individuals and partnership of people to create an enterprise.  Enterprise creation was a way for people to create a job for themselves as well as for others and economic value to the community.  It was not just something that happened in a few places around the US but distributed in every state.  It was an opportunity to create a job perhaps in areas of the country where jobs were not plentiful or you wanted to stay in your community and this is one way of doing so along with having a passion for business and craft beer.

But in the wake of this Coronvavirus crisis these small business are endangered.  Sometimes the collective imagination only sees success but for many business it is the immediacy of transactions that keeps their businesses going.  While some may still be producing beer a lot would be sold out of their own establishments and not all had a distribution to retailers.  Many craft breweries do have small business loans and those don’t just stop because of this crisis.  While banks can recall loans, confiscate assets and landlords seize property that does not help the local economy it actually does the opposite.

And, of course, I am very concerned for all small businesses of all types.  Just a month ago businesses were open and so many have had to close and no one has certainty when they will open again.

There was consumer confidence prior to this crisis and no numbers are needed to show that is completely vanished.  I won’t get into it now but perhaps later the US’s ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ principal on lack of funding for CDC pandemic operations and it is noted that in 2009 during the Great Recession that Susan Collins et al. voted to remove $870 mm in pandemic funding.  We cannot just magically produce medical and healthcare scientist and professionals out of the air and solve a crisis in a second.  The investment in CDC is essential.  Having proper protocol and making the right steps at the right time was missed before, during and still while we are in this crisis.  When we contain and have a vaccine and I only hope that is soon; we will still have other viruses to fight and I hope the US will change it’s policies on pandemics and be prepared for the next.

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If you have favourite small business give them a shout on social media.  Your call out is something that may remind someone that a small business is still open, has online ordering options and it alerts people to small business that need help.  While many have cannot spend anything now there are households that can — give a shout to your favourite small business and here are a few hashtags that might be helpful to calling attention to the small business in your social media call out: #helpsmallbusinesses #supportsmallbusinesses or create your own.  The importance is to call attention.  I hope we can help so that after this crisis we are not missing small businesses in our community but have them with us.

Imagine if your tweet or other social media shout out helps bring one additional customer and if multiplied to hundreds if not thousands of similar actions this can help a small business in need.

Thank you,

James

James the Wine Guy

Demystifying Wine…One Bottle at a Time from all wine regions around the world.

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original Content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award and designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

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I am Now Podcasting – James Melendez/JamesTheWineGuy – Take a Listen

I have started to produce my podcast and you can find it now on Spotify and Stitcher and soon on Apple, TuneIn and IHeartRadio.

I started this podcast to talk more in depth about wine, food, travel, other beverages and lifestyle.  I had looked at the analytics of all my social medias and YouTube and I know that I have different followers/audience members per each media.  I also know like most people on YouTube know there is a limited view time–rarely do people watch through an entire video not just mine but any.  Most are in the 1-2 minute range on most videos.

I love video and will continue to produce videos and I know there is a limit of viewing time based on several reasons:

1) YouTube is constantly displaying suggestions

2) There is a lot of content to view and

3) Finding the video you are seeking is not always easy to locate hence quickly clicking to the next video in hopes of finding the right content

Also, the video medium is certainly a captivating media where people feel they need to watch and not just listen to content.

Hence podcasting has no viewing dependency or perceived dependencies.  Podcasting offers something written pieces don’t–the ability to hear the tone of the host.  Also, listening while you are doing house work is another way to consume or downloading a podcast when you are traveling.  The office is prime for podcast listening.  Many work environments are open environments hence the noise can be annoying–hearing your neighbours chomping and chewing and loud co-workers and constant calls add to a desire to escape.  Listening to music or even the news can get repetitive.  Podcasts now cover every subject matter possible and a great way to add to your working environment; which might make that dull, repetitive tasks a bit easier to complete.

I have begun listening to podcasts in November 2019–not that long ago.  According to some statistics there are between 750,000 to 900,000 podcasts that exist.  Even with a large number it is difficult to find a good podcast to listen to.  I can count on one hand good podcast producers: NY Times Book Review, BBC Intrigue Tunnel 29 (a short limited series podcast) and few others from BBC.

I did review wine podcasts to get a flavour of who is producing, content and to listen to their delivery.  I did find wine podcasts to be less-than-intriguing and either people gave up producing podcasts or the topical matter was way too specific or even came across as a commercial.  So I decided given what I have listened to that I would offer a point-of-difference view point and delivery.  I also want to be giving a good level of coverage of wine and everything associated with it.

I will, of course, be on every episode and I do plan on having guests.  So subscribe and take a listen.  And I’d love to hear your thoughts on podcast, subjects and any comments or questions you might have: james@jamesthewineguy.com

Thank you, Merci beaucoup, molte grazie,

James

James the Wine Guy

Demystifying Wine…One Bottle at a Time from all wine regions around the world.

© 2020 James Melendez / James the Wine Guy— All Rights Reserved – for my original Content, drawings, art work, graphs, photographs, logo, brand name, rating, rating, taxonomy, graphic and award and designs of James the Wine Guy.  James the Wine Guy is also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

Follow, subscribe, like, browse: