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$10,000 MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR $0 Most business owners are forever crunching return on investment figures and sizing up the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Thinking outside the box, Lisa McGuigan, with the support of Bartercard, increased her cash sales by 30% as a result of a marketing campaign that cost her business $0 cash.
After identifying a gap in the marketplace for unusually packaged wines with an edge, this innovative wine maker launched Lisa McGuigan Wines in 2010. Basing her split-based venture out of the Hunter Valley and Sydney, and sourcing grapes from Mudgee (NSW), Victoria, South Australia, New Zealand and Hungary, she focused on landing her label with stockists, today selling at retailers around Australia and the UK. Lisa said before launching the business, she was a seller for a vintage wine brand and already had the contacts, experience and insight into what worked and what didn’t. “My parents have a vineyard in the Hunter Valley and I love the whole process from growing to bottling, which gave me the confidence and knowledge to launch my own label,” she said.
“I’ve built my brand up to three collections – including an entry level range of wines that are clean and fresh and two more collections that show greater complexity. I source a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and a Gruner Blanc from Hungary, which I then customise and stabilise with a Semillon in Australia. This lets me put my own slant on a traditional variety. My collection includes international wines because for me, the world is a grape canvas.” She said Bartercard started out as a test to sell older vintages. “When Bartercard approached me I decided to try it out with a couple of wines that weren’t selling as fast as I wanted – because you can’t sell everything to everyone. I sold the excess stock quickly and soon built up a considerable sum of trade dollars.”
Bartercard gave Lisa a marketing spend off the back of excess stock.
