cruel to be kind

At Hugh there is a discussion about the . Visit the logo and give a quick thought about when you think this logo signals “good to drink” and then come back. :)

I think a freshness factor is a very good idea, especially with cheaper wines. And while many may seen themselves as wine experts or judge that “this is something everybody knows”, I can assure, that many people have no clue. Because I always ask the people around me for help because I have no clue at all about wine and never get satisfying answers.

If I would buy wine I would like it to be drinkable soon, preferable now. The little knowledge I have about wine is “older = better”. So there is no good “now” wine. As this is not true with the Stormhoek one, the indicator is great – except it has the wrong colors. Yellow / amber is – especially when combined with green – the color lower to green. As in a traffic light.

Green = good to go, yellow = prepare to drive / stop. I am not sure how any car driving person could immediately associate something different with that. If I had learned about it, yes, then I would know. But till then it would always be tricky.

Besides the point of the color, the indicator is great. And I don’t care what other people say about such logos and indicators: If I want to buy wine, I want to know what I get. I know that I don’t like dry as this is just sour to me and “lieblich” means “just sugar” in German. I don’t like how people say “oooh, can’t you smell the berry taste first and afterwards the single taste of roses” when to me it just tastes sour. I hate when they say “ooh, this is a great wine in the range of 30-40 Euros but this one for 15 Euros does not taste as good because it is cheaper” because I don’t believe that price is everything.

Ever noticed how snobbish some people are, when you say “sorry, I don’t drink wine”? Especially when combined with “Oh I don’t need to take a look at the card … do you have a Pinot Grigio?”. Pinot Grigio is just a kind of wine and nothing special in itself. Ordering that is to me as if you would say “oh, do you have coffee? Good, I take one then”.

Having logos like “goes best with fish”, “has strong taste”, etc might look like a sin to wine drinking people, but I am a customer too. If not for myself, then for a present for others. And even better: I am undecided of what to buy in general. Give me some signals why I should buy you, and I am happy with that. Or have two versions. Like making two versions of Harry Potter: One normal one and one for the grown-ups with a different color. ;))

We are going digital. Our shopping should go too.
Having many signals is expensive and not brand friendly. There is also only limited space on a lable. But, wait. There is the big wide information net. Why not give me a short URL I could look up standing in front of the wines from my mobile phone, which is prepared to give me just the kind of information I want to know?

Additional: “Send an SMS to this number and you get all information back, only [what it cost us to send out the text message without additional fees]”? Or “Send an SMS to this number with your email address and we will mail you the information”?

Or stay in shop, give me a barcode scanner with a little display which I can hold to the barcode and it gives me information directly related to this product in store, combined with additional information by the producer (delivered to those store systems by RSS per barcode number etc).

Let me shop at your place, use the scanner, get an update on how much this already costs and weights, and let me have a coffee in you indoor cafe. After finishing that, I do get my bag fully intelligently packed without me having to wait a long time.

Give me wish list which you as store then send me home with images – and I can choose from my favorites and order directly with all the relevant information. Including links to store and producer sites.

There are so many possibilities how technology can help us – and instead of inventing new stuff all the time, how about cleverly combining some of the old ones?

So what is your idea of how shopping could be made easier / better / more fun if just some existing technologies where combined? :)

Tag(s): wine, barcode, modern shopping, stormhoek

Tags: the small things