Winemetrics' Virtual Brand Manager Shatters Wine Marketing Myths

The most elusive information in the wine industry is now available for the first time on-demand. Now, with just the click of a mouse, Winemetrics Virtual Brand Manager gives wine marketers and brand managers a snapshot view of how well a brand is performing in a specific market that year, and the performance of competing on-premise brands.

"This insight into wine distribution trends, organized by region and restaurant type, has simply never been available with this level of detail before," says Charles Gill, CEO of Winemetrics. "Winemetrics' Virtual Brand Manager is the essential on-premise wine brand report card for marketers, by marketers. For the first time, distributors are not selling in the dark. Market conditions and demand vary from region to region, state to state, and market to market. It's been impossible to get an accurate picture of on-premise brand performance using traditional systems. Now, with our Virtual Brand Manager, brand managers and marketers get a complete competitive picture, in an easy-to-read format that will help them identify distribution opportunities, and reach or exceed their brand goals."

Winemetrics' Virtual Brand Manager includes data for over 13,000 brands from 10,500 restaurant wine lists nationwide. It delivers wine brand marketers in-depth insight into on-premise (outlets where wine is consumed, e.g., restaurants, hotels, clubs, etc.) brand performance in over 25 U.S. major metro markets. Users simply log on to their VBM account, select a brand (theirs or a competitor's), a market, and one (or all) of eight reports covering distribution rankings and competitive analysis; and click 'generate!' Reports include:

· Market Profile, which provides an overview of the on-premise market, and is the only non-brand-specific report. It shows the make up of Winemetrics' representative sample of the on-premise market, and is broken down by restaurant type (casual, catering, or fine dining) and cuisine (American, Italian, Seafood, and so on). This helps brand marketers understand how ripe the region is for distribution opportunities.

· Distribution by Restaurant Type, which shows how many restaurants in the market sample offer the brand, revealing its distribution scope and popularity. It also breaks down restaurants by type and cuisine, so brand marketers can see where they have the strongest distribution.

· Producer Ranking Profile, which compares a brand's national ranking with its position in the designated market brand on wine list placements. This lets brand marketers determine their brand's market performance compared to its national standing.

· Distribution by Bottle, which reveals how many restaurants offer the brand by the bottle, and is broken down by product. Brand marketers can use this information to track how their wine is being offered to consumers, while giving restaurateurs insight into how their competitors are offering the brand.

· Distribution by Glass, which works similar to the Distribution by Bottle report, showing the number of restaurants offering the brand by the glass by product. Brand marketers can use this information in the same way as the by the bottle report.

· Quality History Analysis, which focuses on the brand's four most widely distributed products (brand plus variety and designation). It lists each wine's average ratings over the past 10 years using data compiled from the country's top four industry trade publications. This lets users identify which product boasts the most favorable ratings, which they can use as a selling point to distributors and consumers.

· Competitive Set of Top Three Products, which determines the competitive set of a target brand's top 3 products based on region, variety, and wine list price. Average price and average ratings are compiled from the top four U.S. wine publications for the past three vintages. This shows users those products with the strongest on-premise presence on in the marketplace.

Armed with this data, users can monitor brand performance at the on-premise level, and adapt outreach and promotion strategies based on specific market conditions. For example, brand marketers can focus efforts in regions where their brand is most desired, or boost efforts in regions where their brand is under-performing. In addition, they can research other brands' performance to gain better understanding of their competition, and develop targeted marketing techniques to gain a competitive edge.

Winemetrics compiled the brand data from wine lists at 10,500 wine-oriented fine-dining and casual restaurants in 15 states. Independent restaurants and regional and national chains were researched for the database. Information is updated semi-annually. To learn more about Winemetrics' Virtual Brand Manager, view a demo report, or sign up for an annual subscription, please visit www.Winemetrics.com/BrandManager.htm. Also available for purchase at www.Winemetrics.com is Winemetrics' 2007 On-Premise Wine Distribution Report, the industry's first wine list report card that includes detailed data about which wines are making restaurant wine lists.

ABOUT WINEMETRICS
Winemetrics is the leading source of on-premise wine information and analysis, and provides the most complete, objective wine market intelligence available. Using information extracted from restaurant wine lists nationwide, Winemetrics provides distribution analysis and wine list management tools to wine suppliers, marketers, distributors, and restaurant wine managers. Its trio of software programs-Virtual Brand Manager, Wine List Analyzer, and Wine List Creator-delivers industry executives and restaurateurs instant reports on their wine brand performance and wine list quality, generating the most profitable distribution targets and wine lists in minutes. The company is headquartered in Fairfield, Conn. Visit the Web site at www.Winemetrics.com.