Mafe Trentini talks about the brand’s strategies, considered one of the main players in this market
One of the main wine e-commerces in Brazil, Evino decided to also invest in physical stores. The idea, which goes beyond the proposal of being just a store, is a flagship with experiences that delight both wine lovers and those who want to know more about the drink.
Wine shops have always been traditional, something refined. We thought of something that was different, disruptive, said Mafe Trentini, who also spoke about the brand’s growth in the pandemic, expansion plans and franchising.
This year’s Carnival marked, let’s say, Evino’s debut in the revelry. How did this happen?
We felt that wine consumption in Brazil grew too much, especially in the pandemic, and this, in fact, was the first Carnival since this boom. So, this was the first year that we took advantage of Carnival as an important date, and it happened that Evino did a rebranding, where we put the brand very focused on the world of discoveries. And, within these discoveries, discovering wine at other moments of consumption is also a discovery. We believe too much in the consumption of summer wines, wines for parties, which, among the labels, is our proprietary line of canned wine, Vibra. This is a line that has a lot to do with the young public, which has the face of Carnival.
What was Evino like before the rebranding? What changed after this new positioning?
Evino was born with a disruptive idea. It hit the market in 2013 with the mission of demystifying the world of wine as a whole. The brand was launched 100% online in a market that has always been very traditional, where the majority of consumers were men, aged between 50 and 60. It was within this scenario that Evino arrived, disruptive, with strong colors, modern features, which had, at the time, Gretchen as a poster girl. They had campaigns that looked like people with unicorn heads, something that, until then, was not common in this market. Evino emerged believing that any wine is wine, that all people can drink all types of wines, which, in turn, need to be democratized and can be consumed without frills. We even sold American glasses to drink with wine, just to give you an idea. And between 2013 and 2019, Evino grew a lot and moved a lot with the wine market in Brazil, with traditional brands, who asked themselves: what does this consumer want so much? And Evino, at the same time, noticed that it was bringing a lot of consumers from beer to wine, but it was not managing to keep them.
Why?
Because when this consumer reached a certain degree of knowledge of entering the world of wines, he ended up wanting to migrate to more traditional brands, to more renowned producers, etc. So, in 2020, Evino had its first rebranding based on market research, which we still do every year, where we identified that Evino consumers had, within their DNA, a desire to know more about the drink. So, in the communication, Evino started to talk much more with this consumer profile, explaining more about the wine, going deeper. For example: these are the wines, these are the grapes, anyway. We started to produce a very didactic content.
Why did Brazilians consume more wine during the pandemic?
Beer, for example, is a socializing drink. You go to a bar with friends, share beer, just like a barbecue. And wine, in a way, ends up being a moment of indulgence. I think everyone in the pandemic needed a little indulgence, to pamper themselves, to let themselves try new things.
Furthermore, wine ends up being too much of a drink to be consumed by two. In one of the surveys we conducted, we discovered that many people are introduced to the world of wine with a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a partner in a more romantic moment. And staying at home as it was in the case of the pandemic, having this exchange for two, an environment is created that is more prone to wine consumption. We notice that wine has this overtone of indulgence; and, like it or not, a bottle of wine generates conversations in a moment of exchange, which was also one of the things we needed most during the pandemic.
How much did Evino grow during the pandemic?
Evino has grown a lot in the pandemic. In fact, the year 2020 was very strong, until April 2021, when it was the lockdown period. Our growth was around 30% compared to previous years. And of course, when you compare it with 2022, we continue to grow, but there is a normalization of the market. Obviously, the forms of consumption change, since the scenario is different. And, even because of that, we really felt the need to work at Evino in a different way. In other words, not just working the brand online, but bringing it to what we call phygital, bringing the physical experience together with the online experience.
In 2021, Evino buys Grand Cru and forms the Vssimo holding company. How is it grounded?
We had talked a lot about this period until 2019, about leaving the disruptive and bringing more to the school, with more information. But, at the end of 2021, you had the merger between Evino and Grand Cru. So, Evino bought Grand Cru, two big players in the market got together, and, in communication, the two were going to very similar places. Last year, we carried out a total rebranding of the two brands, and the holding company Vssimo was created, all of this in 2022. It was a year of many changes, and the proposal to develop a holding company focused on good food was super interesting. We understand, then, that we are not just wine, we are the good table and the experience around the drink. Today we have Evino, which is a brand very focused on smart consumption, where he finds the best offer for the type of wine he wants, regardless of the path he takes that journey. Within Evino, we offer entry-level wines as well as more renowned, award-winning wines, at different prices, which means that I am able to meet the experience that the consumer wants, as long as it is something carefree, light, laid-back.
What is the difference between the Evino audience and the Grand Cru audience?
I’m joking about putting Grand Cru and Evino as two people with degrees in economics from PUC. One of them has a branch in Vila Madalena, and she drinks Evino; and the other goes to the financial market, works at Faria Lima, and drinks Grand Cru. They are different lifestyles of people from the same demographic pool. And, today, I understand that lifestyle counts more than age, social class.
Recently, Evino left the online world and landed in the physical world, with an experience flagship, in Pinheiros, in the city of So Paulo. What did the brand want (and want) with this unit?
When we realized that the consumer was drinking wine in other places, and not just online as we were used to during the pandemic , we realized the need to bring different experiences to the physical world. Wine shops, if you notice, have always been very traditional, tough, reminiscent of a very refined guestroom. And when we talk about disruptive, you don’t have a store like that here in Brazil. We went looking outside, in other markets, how we could transform a sales store into a meeting point. We were inspired by several points and created an experience flagship, where the consumer can have a journey in wine, regardless of his knowledge, in which he can take a test, a quiz, to guess the level of knowledge of the drink, among others. others. We want the store to be a meeting place, we want you to go to work there late, call your friends.
Read the full interview in this week’s issue of PROPMARK
