Wine and scanty underwear . . .

During the first year of operating Wine Insiders I didn’t always have a game plane. 

 However, I was certain that I could locate and offer great wines at value prices.

 Now, all I need was more members to discover those wines and spread the word.  After the success of passing out brochures  in Chicago offices,  a friend  convinced me that direct mail was a better way to grow the business.

 Using direct mail, I discovered, you can reach thousands of potential customers very quickly.  More importantly, direct mail allows you to target consumers who might have an interest in your product. 

 Initially, we mailed our brochures to food and wine magazine subscribers, an obvious market.  The results were quite  good but there are only a limited number of these “food and wine” names available.  We needed to find other effective mailing lists that were not so obviously tied to food and wine.

 We did that by testing many mailing lists and recording the results.  And that’s how I eventually discovered Victoria’s Secrets, the catalogue company that specializes in scanty women’s undergarments.  For whatever reason, Victoria’s Secrets’ customers liked my wines very much and have continued to do so for nearly 30 years.  It’s one of our most effective lists.

 While I never could figure out the correlation, I do know that across America there exists an army of stylishly- dressed ladies quite loyal to Wine Insiders.   Go figure!

 Kind regards,

 John Davis, founder, Wine Insiders