A Winning Wine List
New York restaurateurs compile file of Beaujolais lovers Restaurants gather list names by giving diners a contest entry blank along with their check. Data from the lists is then combined to create a master file
THANKS TO THE FIRST annual Summer of Bistros and Beaujolais sweepstakes, a network of 16 Manhattan restaurants is compiling a list of wine lovers who have visited their establishments, rated as some of the best places to enjoy wine in the city.
The restaurants are gathering this information by offering diners a contest entry blank along with their check. The card is simple enough: Entrants are asked for their name and address, age (to safeguard against prize winners who might be under 21) and which of the Beaujolais wines they prefer.
The fall 2000 sweepstakes, which offered a trip for two to Lyon, France as its prize, is a first for the Beaujolais Wine Council. Jacques Capsouto coordinates the program for the Villefranche, France-based organization’s New York branch.
But while the sweepstakes is new, Capsouto is no stranger to assembling a database. Even before he added the 400 names his own restaurant, Capsouto Freres, netted from the sweepstakes promotion, his restaurant boasted a file of 8,000 names of diners collected during the past 10 years. The list was part of a periodic drawing for a free souffle for two that the restaurant sponsors. He has done traffic-building mailings to this list with great success.
“It’s not just [like] buying a list from American Express. That list [doesn’t name] your customers; it’s random. My list [consists] of people who were in my place and signed up [for the drawing]. There’s a much better return.”
If anything, Capsouto prefers mailing to a customer list rather than advertising, say, through radio or print.
“Today you cannot just open the doors. I am a `destination restaurant’ in Tribeca, a place where people make the trip to come here. You have to do marketing. You cannot just sell food and wine and hope that people come. Word of mouth is not strong enough.”
Does Capsouto have any concerns about sharing the list of names with other restaurants? No, he says, because the file will not be commercially available, and should not be used for anything other than solicitations from restaurants featuring Beaujolais wines. “People want to enjoy their wine, but they want to keep their lives private.”
Wine drinkers and aficionados of French food, Capsouto feels, will welcome the invitations to partake of other participants in the network. “We think if you have enjoyed your meal and your wine at one of [these] restaurants, you would enjoy the food and the wine and the ambience at the other restaurants,” he offers.
