Like a good bottle of wine, well-written content has body
From wine to words
Luca Formentini – President of Podere Selva Capuzza
With Xpresso being the brainchild of a passionate Italian, good food and good wine are never far from our minds. Attending a recent talk on the issue of sustainability in wine production, we were honoured to hear Luca Formentini – President of Podere Selva Capuzza and winner of the Greenest Winemaker Award in 2022 – give a talk on the link between scarcity, sustainability and great wine.
From purely logistical terms, he talked through the readily apparent foundations of economic theory; when a resource is scarce but there is no alteration in demand, the price is driven up. He talked of years when crop failure resulted in lower yield, driving the price of rarer wines even if – subjectively – they might not have been considered the greatest vintage.
It’s a phenomenon we’re all readily familiar with. Indeed, over time, the fundamental psychology of this has become so entrenched in us that we as a society now actively manipulate it; deliberately driving scarcity to increase desirability and drive price in luxury goods.
But how do we apply this issue of scarcity in services, rather than products? Particularly those relating to written content? What marks ‘prestige’ communication?
How to limit the unlimited: through excellence
It’s readily apparent that the answer can’t be scarcity – at least not in the obvious sense. Perhaps the most joyful thing about language is that it cannot be limited; by its nature it is an infinite resource that we are all granted access to. Expression is boundless. But if that’s the case then, in marketing how can we imbue written content with the prestige and value that physical products manage to gain from the idea of scarcity?
The answer is of course quality. More than quality: excellence. Whilst for physical products quality is just one component of a more complex overall economic assessment, in communication it sits at the heart of the equation. Excellence needs to permeate every part of the content creation process; excellence in the speed and accuracy with which the communicator grasps the nature of the product, the context and the strategy of the organisation, excellence in the way the communicator translates these elements to the audience with flair and creativity, excellence in the levels of professionalism demonstrated as the relationship between organisation and communicator is developed, with accuracy, reliability, timeliness and openness.
And like a good bottle of wine, these qualities of excellence end up communicating themselves to the audience (or drinker…) in a myriad of subtle ways; intangible yet incredibly strong in their impact. Like a good bottle of wine, well-written content has body – a richness and complexity that none-the-less remains smooth on the palette. It ages well, perhaps gaining value as it shows itself to remain robust over time, continuing to resonate with audiences by virtue of saying something with heart, meaning and enduring relevance. It touches both head and heart.
This excellence can always be detected, and as with wine, cheap imitations are quickly rooted out just from a single taste. With the dramatic rise in AI generated content – particularly written content – it is remarkable how quickly humans have learned to detect the tell-tale markers of computer-generated script on an almost subliminal level. Conversely, writing marked by excellence resonates with the reader on every level; it is felt – tasted – on an aesthetic and emotional level as much as it is understood on an intellectual one.
Food for thought – making your content raw
Interestingly though, there’s a peculiar paradox in this idea of it being excellence which marks human from AI-driven content. Because when something is overly polished – even when it is written by a living-and-breathing person – then it starts to lose its personality. It becomes aloof, cold, indifferent. It lacks heart. There is thus a need in communications to temper this idea of excellence with a degree of rawness. After all, it was Alexander Pope who said that ‘to err is human’; humans are fallible, imperfect and messy – and our connection with one another is often formed most strongly on the basis of what connects us as imperfect beings, rather than what makes us perfect.
Returning to the wine analogy; whilst perfectly adequate supermarket wines churn out quality-controlled blends in uniform bottles that will adequately satiate the general consumer, the finest of wines stress the delicate balance between excellence and serendipity; they use generations of knowledge to exercise skill and craft over their production, and yet they know that tiny variations in climate, terroir and process will all have an important role to play in the success of each vintage. Excellence is present, no doubt – but so is a raw vulnerability.
And just as this delivers success with wine, so too does it in business. Communicating excellence whilst remaining open, honest and ‘real’ is crucial to building the trust, mutual understanding and respect needed to form meaningful, long-lasting business relationships.
So if you’re looking for content that ages like wine rather than milk, that delivers bold character with subtle notes of interest, which transforms something raw into something smooth whilst still maintaining that connection to its source, and which – most importantly – sparks joy and enlivens conversation when it is consumed, why not reach out to us at Xpresso: perhaps we could share bottle of wine and talk business?
