Changing the Narrative

Strange Fruit Wines is changing this disparaging narrative!

“I’ve never seen any (wine) advertising or marketing directed at African Americans,” Tony Harris, vice president of an African American wine tasting group in the East Bay. “This is clearly a missed opportunity.”

Despite the fact that the African American population is growing, not only in numbers but in education and affluence (black buy­ing power was projected to reach $1.2 trillion in 2015), they are consistently forgotten by marketers—especially so by marketers of wine. “We’re the size of Canada, and everybody thinks we don’t have any money,” Michael LeBlanc, an African American brewery executive complained in 2013.

With the growth of the African American demographic expecting to reach sixty-two million by the year 2060 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012) combined with the purchasing power and growing wine interest of this population, it stands to reason that the marketing needs of this segment warrants attention.

Only 25% of African Americans drink wine, as opposed to 34% of their white counterparts, and they are more likely to purchase sparkling or sweet wines, rather than the deep red vintages. This may be due to the way wine is marketed—or rather, not marketed—to them. Though African Americans are 12% more likely to shop for wine online than their white counterparts, wine sellers and their marketers continue to refuse to reach out to the African American consumer. Wine is perceived as a drink for Caucasians. Wine marketing efforts have primarily been aimed at white consumers.

We vow to implement marketing strategies that attract African American wine consumers. We plan to #respectfully tap into our 1.4 trillion dollar spending power and circulate some of those dollars among other black owned businesses.