Is the Wine Industry Slacking in its Efforts to Market to Generation X?
Few Key Organizations Carrying the Burden Alone By Cassandra Larson Staff Writer Getting a GenXer to buy wine from traditional advertising is a difficult sell. Like sediment in an aging bottle, the wine industry s concern for marketing to Generation X seems to have settled. A few wine organizations and businesses have implemented new marketing strategies to reach non-wine drinkers in their 20s and 30s, but progress on this front is barely visible. Those who have targeted this market are beginning to wonder when they will see results. But the industry shouldn t throw up its hands in despair just yet. Ken Van Roekel, president and founder of Bacchus-X, a San Francisco Bay Area group that gathers to taste and learn about wine, said, The industry isn t going after the GenXers. He cites a few exceptions, such as the larger wineries that have done some advertising showing people in that age group enjoying wines. But most of the companies doing that have been making their money with the lower
