Women buy more than half of the wine sold in the U.S. I used to think (if I thought much about it at all) that buying a nice bottle of wine entailed reading a review in a magazine and tracking the recommended wine down, or getting a wine-drinking friend's advice. Wine buying was a fairly gender-neutral experience. Now, though, women have the option of buying wine marketed to women. They can just pick up a bottle of White Lies chardonnay from Beringer Blass and remind themselves that "a little white lie never hurt anyone." Don't toss the cork without reading the lines printed on it like "but it was on sale", " my hair is naturally this color", and "I hate my job". This wine is marketed as being lower in calories and lower in alcohol content. A bottle sells for around ten dollars.
There are also Working Girl wines from Olympic Press, and Grand Embrace and Mad Housewife brands from Rainier Wine. These are also moderately priced wines that are sold in some supermarkets as well as wine stores. The merchandising of the wines relies on quirky visuals.
The Mad Housewife brand has labels and marketing material that feature a fifties type model. The website for the brand features cooking articles and gear to purchase. There is a blog where devotees of the brand document the times that they enjoy the wine, and some of the bloggers dress up in Mad Housewife costumes. Mad Housewife is even on Facebook.
There seems to be an underlying message in the marketing of wines for women that parallels the ads for cosmetics and clothing. If women embrace these brands, they will feel and be more attractive. There also seems to be the assumption that style is more important than substance, and that women are more superficial in their approach to consuming. A pretty label and witty advertising will be their criteria to buy a wine rather than reading reviews. There is a sense that women will accept a product that may not be superior but has amusing or seductive packaging. While not every wine purchase needs to be thought out carefully beforehand, this type of marketing seems to perceive women consumers as shallow or naive, and easy targets for girly packaging.