Why I Created “The Narcissist”
BRANDING RULE #1: NEVER EXPLAIN “WHY” YOUR PRODUCT IS ‘PURCHASE WORTHY’
Ridiculous, isn’t it!? To think that a ‘self-promoter’ of wine could create a wine with a controversial name……self-promote that wine……and think that consumers would automatically be drawn to it.
If that were the purpose, then it simply might be the beginning and end of that brand as quickly as you could shout, “PHONY”!
What if, for example, you were me? What if after 40 years of winemaking and brand development, you heeded the advice of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. That advise? Create meaning & purpose behind each brand and business endeavor as foundational cornerstones for ‘good business’. Yes, of course great business acumen, marketing, branding, launch strategies, intimate consumer relations, etc., are all keys to ‘succeeding’ financially but…..
But what?!
Generational Legacy — Isn’t this What We Live For?
“CLICHÉ”
My oldest son started a band in his early 20’s called “Cliché”. Of course, being a contemplative fellow I thought it best I internalize that term to determine whether my life was one of meaning and leadership, originality and substance….or not. (You know, how your kids can cause you to rethink whether or not you did anything worthwhile in your life!)
The accumulation of events in our lives leads us to who we become, how we handle life’s ‘adventures’, determine how we plan, ad-lib, strategize, entertain, and envision a ‘brighter future’.
For whatever reason, events in my life have engrained in me a desire to leave a legacy of meaning to my next generation. It’s what literally ‘drives’ me to get up in the morning. The fact that wine quality has to be ‘there’ is simply a requirement to be in the ‘game’ but it’s not the ‘meaning’ behind what we do or who we are (or at least, this winemaker would like it to be more). What drives my heart is that what I create here on earth endures for more than my own life……that it wasn’t just simply about my enjoyment, my trophies, but that life was a little more ‘others-centered’.
Elevating this thought is purposing to combine a sociological impact for human personality issues…..(the point of this brand) and create a path for societal healing…..(OK, call me a dreamer!). If, for example, we as marketers could raise awareness of those issues through witty prose and sensitive slogans, desensitizing an issue with a little humor (when appropriate), then we might just say we’re connecting our work to our hearts.
When asked, “Nick, what’s the meaning behind this brand (any brand)?”, I grin and simply answer the question. It becomes the point in time where the hope of connecting an idea to a product and then a product to a solution materializes.
Cliché? I hope not, but it’s for the consumer to decide and my conscience to align with.
CARING AS THE IMPETUS FOR BUSINESS
‘Shock factor’ and other Lucille Ball Hollywood stunts have the ability to draw our attention fast but if dwelling too long on the ‘attention grabber’, we can easily be offended.
For example: In the 1960’s book, “The Psychology of Color”, an example of bright fuchsia fur coats in a retail storefront draws fast the consumer eye. Looking past the window decor into the store should meet us with warm inviting earth tones, otherwise our split-second psychology tends to offend our senses (say if all the others coats were bright primary colors like ‘canary yellow’).
Fleshing out this idea with ‘branding to raise awareness’ is a sensitivity exercise for a brand marketer.
When we combine ‘reason’ behind our brands and with it serious quality, it aligns our brand stories and helps to ensure that our businesses aren’t based on ‘gimmicks’ or simply capitalistic greed. The result: Enhancement of our capability to give ‘voice’ and social power to our products.
So, unless you live in a vacuum or an unchartered island in the South Pacific, your life is impacted by serious mental issues (whether directly in your family or personal life or daily news channel changing).
“FOR EVIL TO PREVAIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.”
— EDMOND BURKE
ANTHROPOMOR…….WHAT?!
BACK LABELS, STORY & ANTHROPOMORPHISM
I love this term! Attributing human characteristics to animals, fictional creatures, God, etc., is one of the most common ways humans communicate ‘emotions’ and ideas. Anthropomorphism teaches through the use of pictures, not just the physical painting, photograph or sketch, but the picture “imagined” in the human mind.
Practically, from the beginning of time, humans have used pictures and ‘analogy’, parables, and other forms of story telling to help the intended audience understand the full meaning of the subject. Musicians and comedians alike use similar storytelling ‘techniques’ to drive home meaning and attach internal emotion-triggering ‘pictures’ that help us say, “I can totally relate to that!”
We can all relate to the topic of the brand, “The Narcissist”. The likelihood that each of your lives is impacted by an ‘over self-focused’ individual is very high. Sometimes we have a tendency to translate continuous selfish acts as ‘narcissism’ but the topic of this brand, true narcissistic personality disorder, has its roots in cultural philosophy that focuses much more on ‘self satisfaction’, ‘self-fulfillment’ and YouTube’s “Promote Yourself” mentality than in a self-sacrificing mode of life.
It wasn’t all that complicated to promote awareness of narcissism through whimsical descriptions of human character through anthropomorphic language. It was almost as though the challenges were greater in using common descriptions ‘translating’ the exact character attributes of this particular psychological disorder.
“THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING ANTHROPOMORPHIC. THAT’S HOW WE UNDERSTAND THE WORLD.”
— NATALIE JEREMIJENKO ~ ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF VISUAL ARTS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
DRIVING THE ‘POINT’ HOME
Marketers, myself included, are always attempting to ‘sell’. We have to resist the ever-pressing temptation to ‘push’ an idea…the one that gets a consumer to purchase what we’re selling.
Inevitably, if we post on ‘social’ or write a blog post, or choreograph a video, we are promoting an idea, a service, a product, or ourselves. We’re essentially selling every time we communicate. When we ask our spouses or employers or friends to listen to an idea, we’re essentially ‘selling’ as we desire to have them ‘buy’ what we’re selling.
Think about this: We are all, 100% of us, selling something for a living. We either sell a product, a service, or an idea. Teachers ‘sell’. No matter how neutral, how politically correct, no matter how unbiased we attempt to be, each of us has ‘bias’ of which impacts what we are ‘selling’. Although I would agree that teaching is the most noble profession on earth, guiding the minds of each generation, it can also be the bane of civilization if bias is not held in check with academic accountability.
Here it is. The idea we/I am attempting to sell. The idea that marketers can and do occasionally use products they sell to promote an idea that will benefit all mankind if the “Voicing” of the brand grows to a large enough scale. Even if the idea helps to encourage one person to ‘allow another car to move into your lane’ without throwing a fit (a suggestion on “The Antidote” back label description of The Narcissist), then one person will have reduced societal stress by ‘giving up their personal (and legal) right to be in that lane.
The impact of writing this back label was fascinating to me. Every time someone tried to move into my lane with a bit of ‘narcissistic aggression’, all I could see were the words on that blasted back label! Every time I thought about sending my wife a note to tell her how much I loved her, there was another distraction of something “I” wanted to do to keep me from that action.
LOVE….IS…..AN ACTION?
Boy, how many times have you heard your spouse or loved one say these words!? But is it true? Is it true that when the words that come out of someone’s mouth and the actions of their live’s don’t match, that it is a conflict you’ll want to, in fact ‘need’ to pay attention to?
Of course, we make decisions in our lives based on ‘contradictions’. If our skills at playing a baseball position ‘contradict’ the necessary skill-set of a ball player, then we make a decision to choose a different vocation. If your boyfriend says “I love you and would do anything for you.” but their actions never sacrifice time for you, then you might want to reassess that relationship.
Expressing love comes in many forms…….and this is my love language to you.
STOP SELLING….
Obviously, when developing a product, such as this wine “The Narcissist”, it’s a product to be sold for profit. Profit, not being a dirty 4-letter word, is what drives economies. Healthy economies are more commonly ‘giving’ economies, and giving economies more often come to the aid of others when the need arises.
I LOVE selling what I do. The work of tying an idea to a brand is a powerful and fulfilling part of my work. I greatly desire that my labor impacts those around me more than my own selfish desire to make money and even give it away.
The Narcissist has ‘ingredients’. A recipe, if you will. One such ‘ingredient’ of “The Antidote” back label description is “Passing a mirror without a glance”. It raises awareness of our own desire to promote ourselves above all else. Loving ‘ourselves’ is a very good thing, but we become the center of attention rather than servant leaders sacrificing for those around us (especially those placed under our care) then our caring becomes more like a thin veil.
If you have ever had a family member or spouse or friend lose their lives young or suddenly, and you never took the opportunity to share with them how much they meant to you (even though they were living their lives in opposition to your desire), then you can relate to The Narcissist. Not just a gimmick to cash in on, but a way to say, ‘yes, I could have done better, I could have given or communicated with more sensitivity, and I’m resolved not to beat myself up over my mistakes but to grow in my efforts to strengthen relationships around me.
In the end, I created The Narcissist to combat my own selfishness and to help others combat theirs that there might be a more giving attitude around me, my family members, my children, my business partners, my community and yes, even my country.
“THE ANTIDOTE”
’SHARING TENDER THOUGHTS WITH OTHERS;
’WILLINGNESS TO WITHHOLD OUR OWN PAIN TO COMFORT ANOTHER;
’WAITING A MOMENT TO ALLOW ANOTHER CAR INTO OUR LANE;
’SENDING A GIFT ANONYMOUSLY;
’PASSING A MIRROR WITHOUT A GLANCE.”
— THE NARCISSIST BY NICHOLAS KARAVIDAS
ABOUT THE WINE
The reason beyond the reason….beyond the reason.
I’m a winemaker, second to being a human being….one that would like to make a slight difference in the world…but a winemaker nonetheless.
My daily functions as a winemaker are to create character traits in the wines I produce by agonizing over details such as:
- Vineyard sourcing;
- Developing fluid relationships with the vineyard personnel;
- Balancing environment in the field to insure phenolic development and perfect timing for harvest;
- Insuring that the fruit grown in the Vineyards of Élever consider the balance of environment and health of the workers who labor daily to deliver great fruit;
- Using only the finest of natural fermentation products holding to Vegan, Non-GMO, and Gluten Free to include consumers with sensitivities and convictions;
- Managing the production of wine from pick to delivery to processing to finishing with the least intervention to ‘guide’ the fruit to a beautiful bottle of wine.
These are the goals of any conscientious winemaker. These should be the goals of any conscientious wine supplier…..period.
The Narcissist is sourced from 3 different vineyard regions in Paso Robles. Willow Creek, El Pomar, and San Miguel America Viticultural Areas are specifically the sub-AVA’s my fruit is grown in. I’ve been either overseeing, reviewing, and/or judging wines from Paso Robles for 30 years now and have discovered what I love about each of these areas. Acidic and overall phenolic concentration from Willow Creek Petit Verdot. Concentration and boldness in Cabernet Sauvignon from the El Pomar vineyard, and aromatic enrichment and ‘integrity’ in the Cabernet Franc from San Miguel.
The fruit is hand-harvested at varying ripeness between 24.8 to 25.5 brix and small open top 2–5 ton stainless and 1/2 ton macro-bins with hand-punch downs. No sulfur dioxide is used in the processing until fermentation and Malo-lactic fermentations are complete.
The wine is aged for 20–24 months in mostly French Oak barrels of mixed coopers with a few new American Oak barrels enhancing the berry and sweet aromatic fruit notes in the resultant wine.
This wine is filtered one time at the very end of processing in preparation for bottling with no fining or clarification agents used to clarify the wine for finishing. This allows for minimal filtration in the final prep for bottling and allows the wine to be very ‘giving’ as it ages, enhancing the overall aromatic and textural qualities. This wine qualifies as vegan.
About Nicholas Karavidas ~ Winemaker, Proprietor, Strategic Thinker
40 Years Wine & Wine Beverage Business Development + Blog ~ purplehappy.com + Consultancy ~ consultingwine.com + Wine Brand Portfolio https://onemakerwines.com
