This article is a gently edited transcript from the June 29 episode of The Wine Marketer’s Radar, a weekly series from 5forests connecting big-picture marketing trends to wine brand strategy.
Brand-owned coffee shops are the new flagship store
First up, coffee — and the proliferation of brand-owned coffee shops. What does that have to do with wine? Quite a lot, actually.
From Dior to Capital One, Uniqlo to Ralph Lauren, more and more brands are opening their own coffee shops. (Or, if you’re Loewe, you’re selling £9 juice out of Selfridges… ask me how I know.)
Is it a gimmick? Absolutely. But it’s underpinned by something super important to culture, and that is the third place: those spots outside home and work where we chill. And coffee is the perfect low-stakes, high-frequency way to do that.
Here’s what brands are hoping to achieve:
- Dwell time → longer visits = more purchases
- Brand accessibility: not everyone can buy the jacket or the handbag, but anyone can buy a $6 latte
- User-generated content: think TikTok, Instagram, and influencer buzz
- And real-world community presence, especially for banks like Capital One or lifestyle hybrids like Muji
It’s retail strategy reimagined as hospitality.
What does this mean for wine?
The wine industry already has something most brands would kill for: the tasting room. But we’re not always making the most of it.
Too often, tasting rooms are seen purely as DTC sales spaces, not as community hubs. But what if we rethought that? We already talk about the power of third spaces, about creating returning cohorts of loyal guests. Let’s start by asking:
- Is your tasting room warm, welcoming, and personal… or is it cold, snobby, and transactional?
- Do you offer by-the-glass options that make lingering easy — or is it flight-only, drink fast, and leave?
- Do your guests feel like regulars… or just another booking?
A few strategic tweaks can make a huge difference:
- A wine window or casual walk-up bar could become a neighborhood favorite
- A bookable community table might build weeknight regulars, not just weekend tasters
- Even a wine-and-coffee hybrid could extend your hours and reach entirely new audiences
And don’t underestimate your CRM! Do your hosts greet returning customers by name? Do they know who’s a first-timer versus a long-time club member? Because that is what makes people come back. That “Cheers” effect. And it doesn’t take marble countertops or chef’s menus. It takes care, thoughtfulness, and brand personality.
The wine marketer’s takeaway
Not everything needs to be high-touch or high-ticket. Sometimes a $6 experience is what creates a lifelong customer. Wine already has the raw material — place, product, story. The opportunity now is to think like a hospitality brand, not just a beverage one. Create the kind of space people want to return to. Again and again. And bring friends.
Because the wine isn’t just what’s in the glass. It’s the feeling of being known, welcomed, and wanted.
Cereal Killers, 90210, and how wine can lean into nostalgia
Next up, cannibalistic cereal, 90210, and how wine can lean into nostalgia.
Two brands made waves this month with bold, weird, and very smart takes on nostalgia — and they demonstrate how to market to different generations without being predictable.
Let’s start with Cinnamon Toast Crunch (the go-to hangover cure for we GenXers when we were young). Their latest campaign takes their classic cannibal cereal squares and reimagines them as serial killers in a true-crime spoof. Stop-motion animation. Fridges full of “cereal body parts.” One spot even features plastic wrap à la American Psycho. It’s funny!
The campaign leans into:
- Gen Z’s love of dark humor
- True crime aesthetics
- And the meme-ability of stop-motion cereal squares murdering each other
Then there’s Neutrogena. Their new campaign, Neutrogena Remembers, taps into ’90s nostalgia — landlines, inflatable chairs, Beverly Hills, 90210 — to remind us that if you remember those things… it might be time to start using wrinkle cream.
Oof. But also… yes!
It’s a gentle rug pull. They lure you in with comfort, then hit you with relevance. The message: aging isn’t bad…but you should maybe do something about it.
These campaigns show what it looks like to modernize memory without losing meaning. You don’t have to be ironic or edgy, but you do have to understand how memory, humor, and culture work for your target audience.
What does this mean for wine?
Well, let’s be honest, wine has nostalgia baked in. We’ve got heritage labels, family legacies, old-world aesthetics. But here’s the thing: Wine tends to treat nostalgia like a museum piece. Precious. Static. We rarely poke fun at ourselves. We don’t use humor. We don’t play.
I think that’s a missed opportunity.
Surely we can find a way to tell stories about harvest, history, and tradition that are actually engaging. So the next time you reach for a heritage reference, stop and ask: What’s the emotional hook? What’s the twist? And are we giving people something they’ll actually remember?
Marketing KPIs: Why strategy still beats tactics
This one’s for the marketing directors, DTC leads, and founders who’ve ever been handed KPIs that make no real sense.
A recent piece from MarTech lays it out clearly: marketing often gets a seat at the table, but only after the decisions have already been made. The article highlights how marketing is routinely given tactical goals — like “increase ROAS” or “lower CAC by 30%” — without any say in the upstream strategy. This then leads to misaligned KPIs, short-term thinking, and campaigns that check boxes, but don’t move the business forward.
Sound familiar? We work with wineries around the world and not a week goes by that we don’t see this.
If your marketing team is told to “grow the club” or “improve DTC” — but no one’s talked about product-market fit, pricing strategy, or customer lifecycle — then marketing is being asked to optimize a broken system.
Here’s how we handle this at 5forests
- Have a discussion with your leadership about expectations.
This isn’t just about defending marketing; it’s about aligning the business. Before you’re tasked with hitting a number, ask: What’s driving this goal? What’s changed in the business? What are we prioritizing — acquisition, retention, LTV? - Document your own KPIs. Set stretch goals.
Don’t just accept the numbers handed to you. Define what success should look like based on what’s possible, not just what’s desired. - Ensure you have the tools, data, and insights to articulate your KPIs.
Nothing undermines marketing faster than ambiguity. Know your numbers inside and out — not just for reporting, but for advocating. When you speak in revenue, CAC, LTV, or blended ROAS, you earn a different kind of respect. - Expand your visibility and influence across the whole customer journey.
Wine marketers can’t afford to operate in a silo. Push for access, build cross-functional relationships, and be the voice that connects the dots. - Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Set a regular cadence for check-ins, reporting, and insights-sharing. Don’t just show dashboards, tell stories. Make your thinking visible so leadership isn’t guessing what marketing is doing — they’re seeing how it’s connected to the business at large.
The wine marketer’s takeaway
If you’re a marketer trying to grow a wine brand in today’s climate, don’t wait for permission to lead strategically.
Build the case. Bring the data. And keep showing how marketing isn’t just about what we make — it’s about how we help the business move.
That’s it for this week’s edition of The Wine Marketer’s Radar. If you find this series useful—and want to keep seeing smart, non-wine stories decoded for wine marketers—be sure to follow along on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts.
The Radar is part of our ongoing effort to help DTC, brand, and marketing teams stay sharp in a fast-moving world. If you spot a trend worth talking about, drop us a line. If you need a hand with your wine marketing, get in touch.
