How Juliet Wine is making boxed wine sophisticated

Direct-to-consumer brand leaders are experts at transforming everyday, mundane objects into luxurious status symbols, from Jolie’s shower heads to Quip’s toothbrushes. So it was only a matter of time until boxed wine got the DTC treatment. Enter Allison Luvera and Lauren De Niro Pipher, the co-founders of Juliet Wine who are on a mission to make boxed wine a little more upscale. The brand, which debuted in 2022, was conceived as a result of conversations between the two founders about “how many great qualities boxed wine actually has,” Luvera said on the latest edition of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast. “It’s eco-friendly, it has actually less than half the carbon footprint of wine in glass bottles, it’s super convenient, it’s glass-free, it’s portable, [and] it stays fresh for four weeks after opening.” Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! There was just one problem: “There was nothing on the market that either of us wanted to drink, let alone take to a dinner party or gift to our friends,” Luvera continued, adding that “boxed wine in general in the U.S. has this really bad reputation—it’s known for being cheap, low quality and ugly.” So the pair set out to change that. “We decided to reimagine box wine for women like us who love everyday affordable luxuries, but also value convenience and sustainability,” she said. Other brands are also attempting to bring a more premium appeal to boxed wine. For instance, Boxt uses the word “luxury” in product descriptions online. A 3-liter container of Boxt wine sells online for $69, while a 1.5-liter container of Juliet Wine sells for $35. For comparison, a 5-liter box of the more budget-friendly Franzia boxed wine is selling for about $22 on Drizly. The Juliet founders relied on many wine tastings to ensure it tasted refined and upscale and partnered with a sustainable winery in California. But then they had to figure out how to best communicate that quality increase to customers. Ultimately, the effort came down to branding. Ad Age Marketer’s Brief podcast Listen here or subscribe via Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or Audible Click here They started out designing the packaging, and ultimately decided to turn the idea of a box itself on its head. Juliet Wine comes in what Luvera calls an “eco-magnum,” which is shaped like a cylinder rather than the typical cube that boxed wine usually comes in, making it more reminiscent of buying a bottle of wine than a box. Then came the images on the package, from the fonts to the color palette. “When we developed the building blocks of the aesthetic vision here, the words ‘timeless,’ ‘Mediterranean,’ and ‘luxury’ continued to be used the most often,” De Niro Pipher said. “As Allison said, we were reinventing a category—one that had a negative stigma. So the branding really needed to transport you to an inspirational and an aspirational place,” such as coastal Italy or France, she continued. “We poured over mood boards filled with photographs from our own travels, from famous photographers from hotels that we would love to visit someday, and we found a niche and nailed down a color palette that for both of us evoked those emotions and did successfully transport us to this place,” De Niro Pipher added. Soon, the wine was ready to ship to the majority of the U.S. via online purchase. Today, Juliet is in more than 100 restaurants, bars and wine shops in two states. On the podcast, the co-founders also spoke about how retail expansion—from restaurants to hotels to wine stores—has served to further differentiate the brand, and more about Juliet’s marketing and distribution efforts. Subscribe to Ad Age Sign up now for the latest industry news and analysis Click here

How Juliet Wine is making boxed wine sophisticated

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