Auric - Slavonian Forest in the Barrel
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS, BRAND STRETEGY, COPYWRITING, CREATIVE DIRECTION
Collaborating with Bruketa&Žinić&Grey agency, I have developed the brand strategy and selling touchpoints for Auric, the Croatian manufacturer of the premium Slavonian oak wine barrels. On the world market, they face a problem related to the perception of the quality of their wood and final products.
Although Slavonian oak is a wood of superior quality, extensively used both by Italian and French cooperages, the lack of widely known heritage in barrel making has been preventing Auric from reaching the right customers. The agency was hired to respond to this challenge and help Auric convince the winemakers of the superior quality of Auric barrels.
ANALYSIS
When it comes to the production of wine barrels, French oak enjoys the best reputation. What's less known is that Slavonian oak, specifically the Quercus petraea variety, is its quality counterpart. Austria, France, and Italy are well aware of the value of this raw material. However, due to a weak cooperage tradition in Croatia, winemakers are reluctant to purchase finished products.
On the other hand, Slavonian oak as a raw material is often found in Italian or French barrels, precisely because of the shortage of their own. From research and in-depth interviews with winemakers and international sales representatives of Auric barrels, the following insights emerged:
Lack of awareness of geographic regions. Foreign winemakers often confuse Slavonia with Slovakia or Slovenia.
Lack of trust in the expertise of Croatian coopers.
Winemakers emphasize the importance of being able to repurchase barrels matching the quality of previous purchases in terms of raw material and flavor, ensuring consistency in wines.
Foreign cooperages source their raw materials from forests in different locations – forests in France, Slavonia and other Eastern European regions.
SYNTHESIS & IMPLEMENTATION
Auric’s uniqueness, aside from its technologically superior factory, lies in its ownership of 15,000 hectares of its own Slavonian oak forest, dominated by high-quality Quercus petraea oak. This forest is located in the heart of the hilly region of Slavonia, with the factory situated on the very edge of the forest zone. This sets them apart from any other cooperage in the world – others buy wood, while Auric nurtures the forest.
From this insight, the positioning emerged: Slavonian forest in the barrel. This emphasises that Auric barrels are not just a finished product; they embody a variety of characteristics that define the Slavonian terroir.
Having their own forest and advanced technology enables precise traceability and complete control over the raw material and the final product. A barrel is a made-to-order product for customers, and it's challenging to showcase it to potential international clients before purchase. This is why a sales brochure or sales kit was designed, inspired by building material samples. The purpose of the sales kit is to demonstrate the wood's quality, grain density, the finesse of the grain, the correct wood splitting technique, and the range of aromas based on different barrel toasting levels to undecided customers.
FOREST MAPPING
Forest mapping is a system developed to make a map of each felled tree with a specific number, which is then further processed into staves for barrel production. By numbering each of these staves and encoding data about their length and maturation conditions, winemakers will be able to gain insight into the exact micro-location where their barrel once grew. This way, a customer will be able to order a new barrel made from a trees in the exact same locations as the previous one, while keeping the same aromatics of the terroir.
Forest mapping serves as a tool with three objectives. Firstly, it demonstrates that Auric is the private owner of a Slavonian oak forest of exceptional quality. Secondly, it locates the forest and the cooperage in the heart of the hilly region of Slavonia, a region widely recognised in the cooperage world but often inaccurately located. Lastly, its task is to showcase a one hundred percent level of control over the selection of raw materials and the replication of barrels with the same aroma profile.