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Uncork: A New Concept in Wine Retail
Profile
When successful marketing executive and wine connoisseur Shawn Bavaresco wanted to launch a new and different concept for wine retail, he turned to The Culinary Edge for help in defining and developing a successful wine immersive environment to reach both current shoppers, looking for a distinctive setting to indulge their passion for wine, and untapped consumers, intimidated with the current atmosphere in wine retail.
Challenge
Daunting. High-priced. Pretentious. These are the words that come to mind when many people think about wine shopping. Demystifying the wine buying process was identified as the primary goal of this new venture. The team would attempt to create a warm and inviting modern space that allowed people to discover new wines, partake in conversation and ask questions, and indulge in the wine experience. Most of all, it would make wine buying fun.
Process
The Culinary Edge started from the ground up, rethinking the wine buying experience from the first moment a customer enters the retail environment to the actual purchase at the cash register. By bringing together a talented and diverse group of professionals including wine industry veterans, European design and brand specialists, and thought-leading architects along with their own team, The Culinary Edge was able to truly break new ground in the conceptual, aesthetic, and functional elements of this new store. Through extensive customer surveys directed at the target audience, The Culinary Edge identified the key elements necessary to achieve wildly successful wine sales. Responding to consumer feedback, The Culinary Edge developed a menu for a casual wine cafe along with a limited food retail area to allow for a higher level of traffic and interest in the new shop. To complete the conceptual phase, The Culinary Edge along with the principal, developed this dramatic and comprehensive business plan.
Solution
The result is UNCORK, a differentiated and branded customer experience that redefines today's wine retail marketplace. Visitors are greeted with a warm smile and a glass of wine and immediately feel welcome to walk around, explore and ask questions about the wines. UNCORK incorporates a discovery oriented retail layout, replete with informational graphics and friendly wine associates, a wine friendly food retail area, and a "wine kitchen" where people feel comfortable hanging out and exploring various wines and complementary food around a large rustic table. UNCORK aims to merge the profuse knowledge of a sommelier with the welcoming embrace of a home kitchen, distilling both into a concise experience that leads to healthy revenue streams from tastings, wine sales and food sales, and ultimately to happy, returning customers.
UNCORK has received a first round of investor funding and expects to open its first location soon.