BoozeMonkey?! You're Kidding, Right...?

The story behind the name of Australia's most popular wine community.
Link to the original BoozeMonkey post here!


One of the questions I am most frequently asked is "WHY BOOZEMONKEY?"

What, you too?

I know exactly what you are saying, and I agree that BoozeMonkey is certainly an odd choice of name for a wine company. But it was deliberate (difficult to imagine how it might have been an accident...).

There were a number of elements we wanted to bring together, and BoozeMonkey has all of them:

IT'S FUN :: there's already too many dull, lifeless websites spouting bland marketing drivel about wine, regurgitating the winemakers' bottle notes for a couldn't care less public. The last thing we need is another one of those. So we wanted to inject some fun into it, because wine is, after all, fun. Or at least it should be. There are some who see it as a religion or who think that drinking wine makes them better than beer drinkers, but on the whole winemakers tend to agree that wine should be fun.

IT'S VERSATILE :: we didn't want to limit ourselves to wine because there are a lot of great beers, fortifieds, ports and spirits out there. I'm partial to a bit of sake myself, so we wanted to encompass everything. And while there are some winemakers who would NEVER call wine "booze", in truth the vast majority (95%+) of winemakers we know call it booze all the time. It's not a put-down: it's just colloquial.

IT'S MEMORABLE :: the name and the logo had to be memorable, and I haven't met anyone yet who has heard the name and then forgotten it. It sticks in your mind. As does our cheeky grinning monkey. He's all about the fun side of wine too: good wine, good food, good company.

IT'S CONTROVERSIAL :: there's nothing wrong with a bit of controversy. It's difficult to be ambivalent about a name like BoozeMonkey, and while the majority of people we have come across LOVE the name, there have been a small (but very vocal) handful who hate it. But there aren't any fence-sitters. And the vocal handful provide us with some useful publicity from time to time: apparently a grinning monkey embodies over-indulgence to some people. But I'm happy to argue the toss, and having lovers and haters arguing is great publicity: just ask Marmite and Vegemite.

So I hope that answers your question about the name.

The second question (usually related to the first, especially from the militant "you're trying to corrupt my children" brigade) is "WHO ARE YOUR TARGET CUSTOMERS?" You see, they think that we're trying to encourage pre-schoolers to hit the hard stuff because our company name is fun...

I know, but it makes sense to them...

So, just for the record, BoozeMonkey is targetted at anyone who loves wine, anyone who is interested in learning more about Australian and New Zealand wines, anyone who wants to chat to the winemakers about their latest vintage, anyone who tries a bottle of wine at the weekend and wants to tell his friends how good (or lousy) it was... it's a broad mix and a broad age-range, from young wine-lovers in their twenties to the more mature wine-lovers in their sixties, seventies and eighties.

Oh, and winemakers of course: the overwhelming majority of winemakers in this country are struggling to make ends meet and they also struggle to get shelf-space in the supermarkets. BoozeMonkey offers them a place to market their wines direct to wine-hungry customers, and helps them to promote their brands in a way they haven't been able to so far. The government won't help, so they have to help themselves. And BoozeMonkey provides them with the tools and the marketing advice to do just that.

If you're not already a member, come and join us on BoozeMonkey! It's fun, it's free, and we'd love to have you on-board.

Cheers!

Marc