Cork’d Case Analysis: The Social Site for the Wine Lovers Obsession
Daniel Samarah
July 20, 2018
University of Alabama at Birmingham Creating social sites for the lovers of any niche is important to building a long term friendship with customers and future clients. With all they hype behind social media, businesses
venture into not only creating a website for their product or service, but have now integrated the use of communicating channels through the website itself for the community to share ideas about what it is they love. Cork’d, the online social site, is making the wine lovers obsession come true by opening channels of communication in which wine lovers can chat and review anything and everything pertaining to wine. After reading the case study and examining the challenges, I have come up with solutions that I believe will benefit the company as a whole. Through out the paper, we will look into some of the experimental changes that Cork’d should implement to rise to the top in relation to the competition they face within the wine industry.
With many platforms offering wine fanatics a place to shop and mingle with one another, it is important to target other markets other than wine lovers or anyone who has anything to do with wine. Placing a target on key subjects when rebranding as a company creates boundaries no one wants to face in the long run. With that being said, setting goals that fall short every quarter is not something any CEO wants to think about. Instead of targeting wine connoisseurs and wineries alone, Cork’d should look into speciality cheeses and unique wine glass companies to collaborate with. This will bring newer clients that not only love wine, but love unique cheese and speciality glasses as well. These new customers would spread the word to friends and family which would increase profits to the company as a whole. This technique allow’s new and returning customers a reason to choose Cork’d over the competition.
Assessing the competition throughout the industry is a key factor for determining the prices companies may charge their customer base. Offering different membership plans offers new and interested customers a chance to try the service risk free. This is a big deal for people looking to save money and could potentially bring long term customers. Offering free memberships is a good choice for starting but can hurt in the long run. Cork’d primarily focuses on the customer which is their strong point, the weakness is not creating enough revenue from the free membership sign up. If they were to include a small fee they could benefit more than receiving less than nothing. Gary and his fame come must come into action in order to see better returns for the company.
The main source of income from the wineries bring in the most revenues for Cork’d. With the help of Gary and his fame to establish a higher customer base, they are more than guaranteed to succeed. The wineries bring in a bigger customer base and spread word that will help the most. Using social media sites to hold contests is something that could potentially bring in the most new customers for Cork’d. These wineries are of great importance in telling the company’s story, that is if the wineries agree to sign with Cork’d. By providing customers reasons to use Cork’d, the wineries and the customers go hand in hand to balance the entire structure of the social site. Word of mouth can play a big role in getting the site back on its feet and caught up to the competition.
A huge factor in revenue that could have been avoided entirely, was an ad-free website. The competitors Smooth, Cellartracker, and Vinquire are all ad-based websites that challenge Cork’d within the industry. Advertisements play a huge impact in higher returns for online websites. The ads can even pay for the months bill of running the website and pay the teams running it. When establishing ads for a website, you are able to work the with ad company of your choice in determining what it is you want to be displayed for the viewers to see. Here is where the entrepreneur can work the magic by placing ads for other products and services they are choosing to venture on, or place more ads pertaining to wine. Not only will the ads bring greater revenue, now you also have new products and services that you are working on being displayed for more even more returns and exposure. It is a win-win situation no matter how you look at it. The advertising plays a role in the support system established with the wineries, so no advertising may drive wineries away.
Running the site with no ads can throw a red flag for the larger wineries that have more power than Cork’d. They could be working with the competition offering ads which bring everyone in the loop a larger check. Another factor is not offering enough perks as the competition. If the other sites offer a better price for memberships and services, people are not even going to think about joining with Cork’d. In order to avoid these circumstances, implementing new teams to work on the overall structure of perks and rewards would prove to customers they are focusing on them the most. Using social media platforms could also bring engagement to a higher level. Holding polls to ask their customers what it is they want to keep them coming back will bring in the returning and new customers.
Cork’d has the potential to overcome the challenges and climb to the top of the social sites for wine enthusiasts. Implementing new ideas and marketing tactics to expand their customer base is a great factor for starters. Looking over what did not help them in the past should be converted into something that will push them forward from here on out. They are on the right track but some discrepancies are still in void and affecting the company tremendously. Acquiring new selling techniques by completely analyzing the competition is something they need to do a better job of. In time they should find these faults and replace them with newer trends that enable growth. By starting with approving ads on the site, holding contests and events that deal with the wineries, and engaging the most with their customers should bring Cork’d to the top of the spot light.
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