You can’t manufacture demand: what wine marketing can (and can’t) do right now

The wine industry isn’t collapsing, but it is going through a real reset. Consumption is down, discretionary spending is tighter, and competition among wineries is heavier than it has been in years. Many wineries are struggling not because their wine suddenly declined in quality or their teams stopped working hard, but because the market conditions that once made growth easier no longer exist.

Marketing still matters in this environment, but it has to do a different job than it did even a few years ago. Marketing cannot control the market. It cannot make younger generations start drinking wine. And it cannot override broader economic or cultural shifts. When marketing is expected to do those things, it often leads to wasted spend, burnout, and frustration.

What marketing can do is help wineries make clearer decisions at a time when clarity is harder—and more valuable—than ever.

The wine market is less forgiving, and marketing feels the impact first

For a long time, many wineries benefited from favorable conditions. Wine tourism was strong, wine was a default choice for many consumers, and casual tasting room traffic helped smooth over inefficiencies. Under those conditions, vague messaging, scattered marketing efforts, and reactive decisions could still produce acceptable results.

That environment has changed. Consumers are drinking less, choosing more deliberately, and disengaging faster when something doesn’t resonate. When demand softens, inefficiency becomes visible very quickly. Marketing that lacks focus doesn’t just underperform—it drains time, money, and energy that wineries can’t afford to lose.

When demand tightens, unfocused marketing becomes expensive marketing.

This is why the instinct to “do more marketing” often backfires. More activity does not automatically create more relevance when the market itself has shifted.

Marketing can’t control the wine market—and pretending it can causes real harm

It’s important to be direct about the limits of winery marketing. Marketing does not control category-level demand. It cannot reverse generational drinking trends, make wine a cultural default again, or create urgency when consumers are pulling back.

Acknowledging this does not make marketing useless. It makes honesty essential. When expectations are misaligned, wineries chase tactics that look productive but do not address the underlying problem. Over time, this reinforces the idea that “marketing doesn’t work,” when in reality it was being asked to solve something outside its control.

Reality check:
Marketing influences choices. It does not create demand where none exists.

A more realistic role for wine marketing in a soft market

In a less forgiving market, the role of wine marketing shifts. Instead of trying to drive growth at all costs, marketing should help wineries reduce waste, protect what still matters, and make better decisions under pressure.

One framework we’ve found especially useful breaks marketing decisions into three categories:

• What to protect
• What to test
• What to let go

This isn’t a traditional growth strategy. It’s a way to stay intentional while market conditions remain uncertain.

Protect the assets that make future recovery possible

When revenue tightens, the instinct is often to pull back across the board. While understandable, that approach can quietly weaken the parts of the business that are hardest to rebuild later.

For most wineries, those assets include existing club members, regular local customers, and owned communication channels such as an email list. These audiences already know and trust your brand and are more likely to stay engaged—even if they are buying less frequently.

The goal here isn’t expansion. It’s preventing slow erosion of the relationships that still give your winery leverage.

Ask yourself this:
If you had to rebuild your audience from scratch in two years, which relationships would you most regret neglecting today?

Test carefully without committing resources you can’t afford to lose

This is where most wineries ask for new marketing ideas—and where risk needs to be managed deliberately. In a soft wine market, tests should be small, clearly defined, and easy to stop if they don’t show early signs of traction.

The objective isn’t a breakthrough campaign. It’s learning what still resonates.

That might mean testing a more specific message before expanding it, trying a narrowly focused local initiative instead of a broad campaign, or validating an offer with your existing audience before putting meaningful spend behind it.

If something isn’t working, stopping is not failure. It’s discipline.

Let go of tactics that no longer justify their cost

This is often the hardest step, especially when certain marketing channels or tactics worked well in the past. But when the market tightens, continuing to fund efforts out of habit becomes a liability.

• Broad, non-specific messaging.
• Promotions that train customers to wait for discounts.
• Channels that absorb time and money without clear return.

These are easy to justify when demand is strong and much harder to defend when it isn’t.

Letting go isn’t about retreating. It’s about creating space for decisions that actually align with current reality.

Understanding what marketing cannot fix is part of doing it well

Marketing cannot solve pricing problems, margin pressure, or operational strain. It cannot replace demand that isn’t there, and it cannot carry a business model that no longer works.

Recognizing these limits isn’t pessimistic—it’s responsible. Wine marketing is most effective when it supports a healthy core business and clear priorities, not when it is expected to function as a lifeline.

In today’s wine industry, focus is the real competitive advantage

This moment in the wine industry does not reward noise or constant motion. It rewards clarity, restraint, and the ability to make uncomfortable decisions without panic.

The wineries that navigate this reset successfully will not necessarily be the most visible or the most active. They will be the ones that protect what matters, test thoughtfully, and let go of what no longer serves them.

You can’t manufacture demand. But you can decide how focused and prepared you are for what comes next.

Want to create a sustainable marketing plan for your winery? Get in touch.