LITTLE ROCK — Persuading consumers to drink anything other than bottled wine is an uphill climb. Glass bottles are the gold standard, so newer brands are turning to sleek, eco-friendly containers and promoting them through social media to reach younger wine drinkers.
Those in the millennial age group, between 21 and 34 are the target because they have grown up drinking from plastic and are less wedded to traditional wine rituals. And some 51 percent of them drink wine at least once a week, according to data from the Wine Market Council.
Already on some shelves is wine in boxes, in aluminum cans and in plastic. Last month, Southwest Wines in Deming, N.M., began selling wine blends in aluminum containers. Constellation Wines is offering its Black Box brand in mass market outlets like Costco.
As the industry broadens its offerings, some of the innovators are not vintners, but packaging experts who are bringing their expertise to the way wine reaches consumers.
In the spring, Stacked Wines, based in California, introduced individually packaged, stemless plastic cups, which stack vertically and contain chardonnay, merlot and other wines. Matt Zimmer, a mechanical engineer who worked in the bottled water industry for more than six years, came up with Stacked Wines’ packaging.
“We see an industry trend to more convenient packaging,” said Zimmer, Stacked Wines’ chief executive. He began the company, in Anaheim, with MBA classmates from the University of California, Irvine.
Another entrant in the wine business, Eric Steigelman, a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, drew on his background in flexible product packaging to design a pouch for his Bonfire Wines.
“Millennials are interested in convenience and availability, and some areas like soup and baby foods have been moving to pouches,” Steigelman said in Chicago. “Wine seemed to be an area that was looking for innovation, but little had been done.”
The biggest challenge to gaining consumer confidence has been overcoming the perception that wine should come only from a bottle. Wine in other packaging has long been lumped into the undrinkable or barely acceptable category, although some boxed wines are becoming more popular.
New brands emphasize packaging for people who want lightweight, portable and easily consumed wine.
For Bonfire Wines, Steigelman chose a pouch - which prevents air from oxidizing and spoiling wine - made from federally approved food-grade materials. The pouches are black with a broad stripe of vibrant color running horizontally, and were designed by Planet Studio, a design and marketing company in Atlanta.
The label’s look “can have significant influence on a purchase,” said David Turner, president of Turner Duckworth, a brand identity and packaging design agency in San Francisco and London. “Beverage packaging is not purely functional, but a way of reaching your buyer.”
Brands like Stacked and Bonfire (which is not yet on the shelves) have tiny marketing budgets. To generate, and keep, an audience of dedicated buyers, they are focusing on tastings at local arts and music festivals, and on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.
Business, Pages 67 on 01/06/2013