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Radio jock Bob McCown has a message for you, Niagara wineries: You suck at your job

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Welcome to Niagara, Bobcat. That was quite an entrance.

Straight out of the Dale Carnegie self-help sequel, How NOT to Win Friends OR Influence People, Canada’s most popular radio host, Prime Time Sports’ Bob McCown, has laid down in pretty simple language just what he thinks of the hicks in Niagara who grow their grapes and make their wine but do a pretty crappy job of marketing it.

Truth be told? He doesn’t think much of you.

McCown_400x400Which is fine, because McCown (we should mention here that he is from Toronto) is going to the lead the way to prosperity with his marketing acumen and acute sense of business prowess. He is going to bring his 26 years experience of hosting Prime Time Sports and, well, living in the centre of the universe, and straighten you yokels out but good.

Follow him and ye shall see the light. The long wait for a saviour is over. He is now among you.

If you caught the interview in the Globe and Mail this week, primarily a farewell story on McCown who plans to retire in 2018 when his current contract is up and devote his full attention to the Niagara winery he now owns, Stoney Ridge, and another winery, Mike Weir Wine, in which he is a partner.

The Niagara wine business, McCown told the Globe, is “run by a bunch of farmers and wine growers who don’t know jack shit about marketing or promotion or anything. They’ve been to Toronto, but they never lived here. They have no concept of how a business really runs.”

He didn’t stop there, he should have, but he didn’t: “I thought if you bring a little level of sophistication to this thing, if I can use my contacts maybe we can change it. In 18 months, boy, we’ve changed it and we’ve barely started. It’s about understanding how to market, it’s not about the product. It’s not what’s inside the bottle. Now what we produce is as good as anybody’s. I’ll put our wines up against anybody’s in the country.”

STONEY RIDGE ESTATE WINERY - The Tragically Hip Release Limited

McCown, who, apparently, rarely drinks and even has an allergy to red wine, says it’s all about the brand, not a passion for the product.

“In March of last year we went into the LCBO with Stoney Ridge and now we have two of the top 10 (sellers). That’s never been done. To a certain extent my involvement with the winery created that marketplace. But they don’t buy a second bottle because of me, they buy it because they like it.”

Are you listening, good farmers of Niagara?

Now, Bob, (can we call you Bob now that you’re a neighbour and all?) all of that is really interesting and stuff, but holy shit, where do we start with your comments?

stone-frontThe Niagara wine industry (you will get to know them in time … I hope) is populated by a lot of different people. Farmers, yes, for sure, grape growers, of course, but also multi-millionaires from Toronto just like you (we take all comers!), Montreal, Oakville and a whole wide range of places in Canada and beyond. There are also investors, hard-working people who scraped together their life savings, partners, families, friends and on and on. The simple truth is, Niagara is made up of a mosaic of people with myriad backgrounds all with a shared passion: To make great wine in a region they believe in.

I’m not sure you can waltz in here, even with your long and successful career as a radio jock (does that qualify you as a marketing whiz? Just asking) and start telling these people how to conduct their business.

We get it, as you said, you went to your fellow Torontonians at LCBO headquarters with your new Stoney Ridge wines (which, I like, by the way … Jeff Hundertmark is doing a great job for you) and *boom* you were on the shelves and being all successful, like instantly. That’s just amazing and so simple. I do not know why the hayseeds in Niagara didn’t think of that. But that’s why they’re hayseeds, they can’t see beyond the grapevines in their vineyards.

And to think it didn’t matter one lick what was in the bottle, it only matters how you market it. At least, according to McCown. He knows how to market. Because he’s done sports talk radio for a very long time.

He’s right, of course. Marketing matters. So do a lot of things, like the wine itself, the people who make it, the people who grow the grapes, the people who pay the bills, the retail staff, sales agents, scientists who study Ontario’s climate and grape-growing techniques, vineyard workers and a whole network of peripheral people who work with the people who make the wine happen.

I think you will find the wine business a little different than jock radio, Bob, but I could be wrong.

Come on down to Niagara, get to know your neighbours … maybe you’ll grow on them.

But one thing is certain, you’ll need to bring some flowers.

Postscript: I have emailed Bob McCown many times to discuss his involvement with Stoney Ridge but have not once got a reply (part of the gold-plate marketing strategy, I’m guessing). So I didn’t even bother for this post.