As the SVP of Marketing and Communications at Jackson Family Wines, Kristen Reitzell has the considerable challenge of bringing the luxury vineyard experience to a digital customer.
While many people – this writer included – may jealously envision working for a winery involving travelling from vineyard to vineyard to try the latest drop, perhaps while nibbling on a slice of cheese or two, there’s a lot more to it than that.
Indeed, with 40 wineries across 11 locations and five continents, implementing a CX strategy is no mean feat, as Reitzell explains:
When you look at the number of brands we have, each one tells a different story, often with a different winemaker and sourcing.
“So, when you’re thinking about how to enhance digital capabilities while creating a bridge between our brick-and-mortar tasting rooms, national retail presence, and online experience, it’s a big undertaking.”
It certainly is, but it’s one that Jackson has sought to embrace rather than simplify.
With 40 unique brands, each with a distinct identity, the company prioritized maintaining these differences in its digital strategy.
Instead of a one-bottle-fits-all approach, the company focuses on ensuring each brand’s personality shines through, enhancing the customer connection with the specific brand’s story and aesthetic.
While Sonoma-based Kendall-Jackson represents a classic Americana style, Oregon’s Gran Moraine carries a more edgy and expressive vibe, as an ode to the winemaker’s belief that the wines remind him of certain music or cultural moments.
In order to deliver such a broad and personalized CX strategy, Jackson needed some help, as Reitzell explains: “We’re not a technology company, we’re a wine and agricultural company.”
That’s where Deloitte Digital and Salesforce stepped in.
A Wine for Every Occasion
When Reitzell talks about protecting the distinctiveness of each of Jackson’s brands, she really means it.
The SVP explains how “unless there’s a specific reason,” the company doesn’t emphasize that Jackson owns all of its wineries during the marketing process.
However, while highlighting these distinctions was crucial from a customer perspective, on the backend, she needed a platform that could unify things – allowing her team to spot cross-brand overlaps and opportunities, while eliminating data silos.
“Before, it was impossible to look at all the brands together to uncover insights or overlaps. You had to manually compile everything. That was a huge hurdle,” she explained.
So, we needed something nimble that allowed the brands to appear different while remaining unified from a backend perspective. It took a bit longer than expected, but it was for the right reasons.
Reitzell also praised Deloitte Digital and Salesforce’s solutions for their ability to “evolve and scale” with Jackson, outlining the combination of Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and Service Cloud for enhancing the company’s overall CRM and CX offerings.
More specifically, the vendor’s data integration capabilities have been vital in allowing Jackson to engage consumers across multiple channels in real-time and offer more tailored experiences.
The solutions enable Jackson to integrate its diverse customer data sources – including websites, reservation platforms, and third-party retail – into a streamlined, real-time system.
Additionally, the company wanted to leverage a solution that was experienced with AI, as this would allow it to target its growing, global customer base without needing to expand the marketing department.
While these changes helped with Jackson’s overall CX transformation, Reitzell also discussed how she and her team had been able to cater to the individual.
The Sommelier Experience
Described by Reitzell as the “OG of subscriptions,” Wine Clubs – where a customer signs up for a set number of shipments on a fixed, rigid schedule – are an integral part of Jackson’s digital experience that the SVP admits needed to be “modernized.”
Once again, Deloitte Digital and Salesforce’s data capabilities were key in delivering this revamp. The company now uses customer data to provide what Reitzell terms an “integrated brand experience,” which helps “bring the wine country lifestyle to life.”
This is particularly effective for targeting Gen-Z and Millennials, who are less likely to sample Jackson’s products in traditional settings like wine tastings or buying a bottle at a restaurant.
“We have an opportunity to bridge that gap digitally,” she explains.
“We’re focusing on connecting the in-store experience with online purchases, enhanced subscriptions, and creating a seamless customer journey that starts with discovery and leads to purchase.”
Jackson’s wine club subscriptions now have a more user-friendly sign-up process and allow customers to customize shipments and add bottles.
In addition, customers are offered information on the vintage and acclaim of individual wines, alongside food pairing recommendations.
For Reitzell, these personalized touches are all about making customers “feel more comfortable in the wine space.
“Even I ask for food recommendations, and I’ve been in the industry for 12 years.
The more accessible we are as wine experts, the more wine we sell.
That last comment from Reitzell isn’t just a case of wishful thinking, it’s backed up by a 25 percent increase in average order value and a 23 percent boost in online club sign-ups, which has seen its average page views per user increase by five percent and first-time orders for non-club members surge by 87 percent.
Additionally, site engagement has increased, with engagement time on site up by 269 percent for some organic brands and a three percent overall rise in sessions per user.
Letting it Breathe
Having helped oversee such an expansive digital CX transformation, it was something of a surprise to hear Reitzell outlining “patience” as one of the biggest lessons she has learned throughout the process.
But perhaps it shouldn’t really come as that much of a shock; she is in the wine business, after all. You aren’t supposed to rush a glass of wine. You smell it. You swill it around the glass. You let it breathe. These are the principles that she champions.
She explains how patience is essential in helping to align a company’s project scope and timing with leadership expectations to ensure things are done right from the start.
Patience leads to proper planning and clear communication, which prevents issues from occurring later down the line.
Reitzell also provided some insights into her wider CX mindset, explaining that “it’s not about you – it’s about your customer.”
By focusing on the data and the consumer rather than the brand, CX teams will meet customers where they are, which is essential in a changing industry like wine, where consumer preferences shift quickly.
“Kendall-Jackson has been number one for 30 years because we’ve continuously met consumers where they are,” she said.
You can’t just hope to stay on top without adapting. It’s important to remember that, even if you’re number one, the work never stops.
This “customer-first” mindset was also discussed by Kelly Schloesser, Retail Commerce and Experience Leader at Deloitte Digital, who commented:
“Working with Jackson Family Wines, we prioritized future-forward, customer-first solutions, which can help personalize interactions in a highly regulated industry like the wine industry.
“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved together and look forward to continuing to help Jackson Family Wines bring the sommelier experience right to the consumer’s fingertips.”
Thanks to Kristen Reitzell, SVP of Marketing and Communications at Jackson Family Wines, for sitting down with us and Deloitte Digital for helping to set up the interview.
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