Wine-On-Demand Appliance Plum To Retail

“Williams Sonoma To Bring Innovative Wine-On-Demand Appliance Plum To Retail”
Summary
On November 17, Williams Sonoma announced a partnership with Plum, the creators of a
high-tech wine dispensing device. Consumers are currently able to purchase Plum through
Williams Sonoma’s catalog and website, with in store availability coming in early 2018. This
article goes into detail about the $1,499 device and what makes it worthwhile: wine
identification displayed on the digital screen, silent chilling for the “perfect serving temperature,”
a “double-cored needle” for pouring that prevents oxidization of the wine, an electronic seal to
preserve wine for up to 90 days, as well as Wi-Fi capabilities to “see what friends, sommeliers,
and winemakers are drinking” (PR Newswire).
Stakeholders
• Brands that sell kitchen and home appliances, including companies such as Sur La Table
or KitchenAid.
• Along with specific brands would be department stores and those related, such as
Macy’s, JCPenney, or Bed Bath & Beyond.
• Investors in both Williams Sonoma and Plum.
• Anyone involved in the wine industry (winemakers, sommeliers, consumers, distributers,
sellers, etc.), as this is a unique device designed to identify, chill, and preserve wine that
had not yet been brought to this market.
Analysis
While this article describes a previously launched product, the focus is on announcing a
partnership between Williams Sonoma and Plum. The news release is designed to tell the public
about this partnership while simultaneously informing potential consumers about the design and
benefits of Plum. News coverage about Plum as a wine dispensing device is substantial, with
several articles about the product featured on websites including Forbes, Wired, CNBC, etc.
These news articles are accessible from Plum’s product website, where the company also
portrays the devices features and benefits, and provides a video showing exactly how it works.
However, when it comes to the partnership between Williams Sonoma and Plum, news coverage
is essentially nonexistent. The only article I could find about this partnership was from PR
Newswire – the article that this analysis is based on. When visiting Williams Sonoma’s website,
the only way to find Plum is by typing it into the search bar and choosing the device out of
several items that pop up. Nowhere on their website was an announcement about the partnership
or a mention of this new device.
Among the various social media outlets, not a single Williams Sonoma account
mentioned Plum or their partnership. With 640,000 followers on Instagram, about 790,000
followers on Facebook, and over 100,000 followers on Twitter, Williams Sonoma has the
potential to spread the news about Plum reasonably fast. The company posts several times a day,
focusing on holiday recipes and promotions, but failed to bring Plum into the conversation.
Aside from Plum’s website, their online presence is sparse. With no Facebook or Twitter account
and an Instagram that has under 200 followers and only 24 posts, Plum has clearly struggled with
the promotion and discussion of their product.
Recommendations
After researching Plum, it is clear that their partnership with Williams Sonoma was a
crucial step in getting their product more integrated into this market. While Plum has been
covered by several news outlets and is now available to purchase through Williams Sonoma,
there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to letting consumers know about the product
itself. A solid starting point would be news coverage about the partnership; consumers need to
know that Plum is valuable enough to be sold through a widely known brand such as Williams
Sonoma. Stakeholders, particularly investors, also need to be made aware of this information due
to the potential increase in Plum’s value as a company, which is hard to do with just one news
release. Coverage about this partnership is just as important, if not more important, than
coverage about the product itself.
While Williams Sonoma has a solid presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, they
have not mentioned the partnership with Plum, or the product itself, in any way. Williams
Sonoma has the potential to draw in a new consumer base with this product, especially during
the holidays when people are searching for the perfect gift and hosting more gatherings. This
partnership is incredibly beneficial for Plum and investors alike, and interacting with their target
consumer base of adults who enjoy drinking wine, hosting events, and have the money to spend
on this high-tech device is important. The most advantageous social media strategy would most
likely be in the form of a Facebook account that interacts with this consumer base. Information
provided on their website could easily be spread on Facebook and Instagram, including the video
showing how this product works and why it is worth $1,499. Increasing social media efforts not
only has the potential to spread news about Plum, but also allows for interaction with consumers
and the potential to build brand loyalty.
Citations
Plum. “Plum Automatic Wine Preservation Appliance.” Plum, https://www.plum.wine/press.
Plum. “Williams Sonoma To Bring Innovative Wine-On-Demand Appliance Plum To Retail.”
PR Newswire, PR Newswire Association LLC, 17 Nov. 2017,
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/williams-sonoma-to-bring-innovative-wineon-demand-appliance-plum-to-retail-300557202.html.