Corporate & Securities Law

Of Lawyer Ratings and Value (Wine) Pricing

By John Wallbillich

Sometimes you get tired of hearing about legal change, alternative billing, and those emerging lawyer ratings. So let?s talk something fun and tasty. Like wine.

One of the emerging social media superstars who is making wine more popular is Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary TV. A recent video episode covered Robert Parker’s Master Wine Tasting at Wine Future in Rioja, Spain. It sounds slightly more fun than LegalTech.

Here’s the link to the episode. And darned if Mr. Parker (an attorney and former in-house counsel), talking to international wine buyers and distributors, doesn’t inform us about legal change in the process.

Here’s a few tasty samples to swish around a bit:

@ the 6:00 min mark:

– the wines that will do well will be the wines that offer the best value.

– one of the good things in this world recession is that consumers are searching out value.

– and they are discovering how many wonderful wines there are at lower price points.

– the age of speculation is not completely dead, but you must over-deliver in terms of value for what the price is.

– what will do well is good wines at reasonable prices.

@ 7:20 min mark:

- we look at wine from a global perspective.

- I am optimistic about the future of wine, making it accessible and friendly.

- value wines, education and interacting with your client base is everything.

Oh, and what does Mr. Parker offer his readers? Ratings.

Mr. Vaynerchuk also took this a bit further recently in a private briefing (for customers of this membership plugin for WordPress users). He is going multimedia and is the author of the current New York Times business books bestseller Crush It. He concluded with his thoughts on customers and reputation:

Word of mouth is what builds businesses. Word of mouth is now on steroids. And if you don?t give customers service, they will tell their friends. Period.

Oh, and what does Mr. Vaynerchuk offer his viewers? Ratings.

So feel free to sit back this weekend, turn off your computer, set your BlackBerry to quiet mode and pour yourself a glass (or two):

Both Messrs. Parker and Vaynerchuk rate it highly.

Full post as published by The Wired GC on December 11, 2009 (boomark / email).