Santiago Tiene Un Sello

Challenge

Cousiño-Macul is a big name in Chilean wine, the country’s oldest vineyard still in the same family, that had gone more than 25 years without refreshing their brand or communicating anything new to consumers. With a wealth of winemaking history and decades of tradition to their name, this family winery needed to couple their legacy with a contemporary approach.

The client sought DAf’s support in the area of brand development; through Branding and Brand Communications.

Client	Viña Cousiño Macul

Capabilities	Branding Strategy Label Design Key Visual Video

The branding phase included strategy, market research, brand repositioning and the redesign of Cousiño-Macul’s corporate image and materials. Later, in the brand communications phase, DAf employed local insights to develop a communication campaign concept, which was then captured in a key visual and videos for digital and OOH channels.

The challenge was to create and execute a full campaign that refreshed Cousiño-Macul’s image, therefore reconnecting with, rather than alienating, their loyal consumer base.

MARKET RESEARCH

We began the process by leading market research designed to deliver both quantitative and qualitative insights into consumer perception of Cousiño-Macul.

The results were solid, revealing three main takeaways. Firstly, despite not changing a stroke on labels or communications in a quarter century, the brand was perceived positively by the Chilean people, particularly residents of Santiago. Secondly, the wine itself was viewed as having an excellent taste, aroma and good portfolio of grape varieties. Thirdly, while its competitors ranked higher in terms of consumer top-of-mind, the Cousiño-Macul brand was still firmly ingrained in their collective psyche.

The Family

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Cousiños helped build and shape Santiago as it is today. They brought over some of the first vines from France, were instrumental in 19th Century politics, built some of the city’s most iconic buildings, parks and avenues, and were largely responsible for kick-starting the industrial revolution in Chile. For this reason, the family name has become almost synonymous with Santiago—a part of the collective memory of the people.

It became clear that Cousiños’ family legacy was represented by four visual and “cultural assets:”
– Their family seal
– The labels
– The striking iron gates at their botanical gardens, and
– The family figureheads, such as Isidora Goyenechea, the matriarch who steered the company towards the future.

The Vision

Through this campaign we sought to strengthen these assets and take Cousiño-Macul out of the purely traditional, repositioning it a timeless, classic brand. For inspiration, we looked to the world of high fashion and the strategies some such brands have used to reinvent consumer perception and open the doors to younger consumers without sacrificing elegance and timelessness.

Solution

Working with the client, we proposed the idea of empowering the capital of Santiago itself as Cousiño-Macul’s icon. In this way, we aimed to modernize the figure of Isidora Goyenechea, accompanied by the brand’s reinvigorated family seal and campaign claim “Santiago tiene un sello” (Santiago has a seal): the monogram being the family seal, and the family being the city’s. In this way, the city and the Cousiños are inseparable.