The French Wine Centre, Case Study
The French Wine Centre imports wines from France to Australia. Playing a part in that process was an interesting prospect for us.
The French Wine Centre (FWC) is operated by the irrepressible Jono Hersey and a number of investors. The business is a specialist importer. Jono’s understanding of wine and frequent trips to France give him direct access to some of what he calls the most “utterly delicious” wines from more than twenty producers across eight French regions.
They are exciting, unique wines that could be difficult to find, even for those who knew where to look. These are the most significant changes we made with the FWC to help Australian customers connect with the business and its products.
Sales channels
At the beginning of our working relationship, the French Wine Centre sold its imports direct to consumer and wholesale. While the major part of the business was always its direct to consumer sales, electronic direct mail (edm) was the only regular channel for these purchases.
We worked with Jono and the team to build a business case for transforming the FWC into a high performance online wine store. There is substantial investment involved in the set-up and ongoing operation of any online sales business, but using insights from our experience with similar sales channels, we were able to generate business wide buy-in to the idea.
Execution
To support the French Wine Centre’s evolution into an online wine store, broad-ranging changes needed to be made across the company. We were a key force in maintaining focus during this process – ensuring energy was expended on the changes that mattered most.
One of the most important transformations was the website, which needed to be overhauled. Counter Space spearheaded the website development as project manager. Working in collaboration with Frame, we oversaw the design and development of a site with much greater functionality that included attractive sales pathways. We also realised a new public persona for the business with a more contemporary aesthetic, which included a suite of photographs shot on location in France and a new style of copywriting.
These changes enabled us to develop a consistent voice for FWC, helping existing customers to embrace the business’ evolution while also building confidence and interest among new customers.
Systems
While supporting these significant changes at the French Wine Centre, we were exposed to the business’ systems for collaboration and communication. By suggesting a few simple upgrades, some as straightforward as the use of shared online documents or streamlined organisational charts, we helped build a better work flow.
In our ongoing work with the business, which covers tasks like editing all consumer-facing copy, developing pre-purchase offers and collaborating to produce videos, we can see how these system changes are having a positive every day effect.