Market Analysis & Competition

 

The Dionysus Technology Concepts Inc. proprietary technology takes existing wine drinking and elevates it to a microprocessor controlled wine appreciation event. For the first time, consumers can have the best tasting wines possible at the home or office with the push of a button. Great flavor and aroma has been the key marketing differentiator in the wine market. Sonic Decanter™ marketing will highlight that all wines processed with our appliance make the best tasting wine. We will leverage this fact, creating a sustainable market penetration.

 

Additionally, since the appliance has strong technology roots, we expect customers accustomed to early technology adoption will also embrace our product. We will engage the trend setters, innovators, and early adopters where they reside; on the Internet. Future Smartphone apps will link the Sonic Decanter™ to new and current users. There will be Blogs and Forums to encourage customer participation. Due to our web based marketing and PR, we believe that our product will naturally follow high technology product adoption patterns such as such laptops, Smartphone’s, iPads, and Portable Tablets; and will be adopted fastest and earliest by those same product customers.

 

2010 Survey Highlights and Demographics

 

As Wine Spectator reports in its latest issue, the wine industry pushed forward by many measures in 2012. In the United States alone, consumers bought an estimated 325 million cases of wine last year, according to Impact Databank. That’s 2% growth over 2011, positioning the U.S. to surpass France as the world’s biggest wine market. American consumers also traded up, with sales of wines priced at $9 and higher growing by more than 11%, while sales of wines for less than $9 declined slightly, according to Nielsen data for retail sales. Many believe the long-term forecast looks bright. “The future offers immense opportunities for growth as we continue to witness a major shift in attitude toward wine, particularly among younger drinkers,” says Joe Gallo, president of E&J Gallo Winery. “More than 15,000 U.S. citizens per day are reaching the legal drinking age.” And yet, many in the industry, from retailers to restaurateurs to winemakers, could be forgiven for feeling like they were on the local train, constantly starting and stopping. That 2% growth is less than 2011, when sales grew by 3.5%. Champagne sales, often an indicator of the economic mood, were flat in America and slumped in the European Union. Although they know customers have little extra cash, wineries are facing pressure to raise prices. Shrinking vineyard acreage and three years of small global harvests have now created a problem—wine volumes around the world are at their lowest point in 37 years, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV). The demand for more wine is making grapes more expensive.

 

Market Competition

 

There is no direct competitive offering to the Sonic Decanter™. The Sonic Decanter™ is a new appliance and a new product category. The primary alternatives in the marketplace are “Aerators” that promote the inclusion or dissemination of oxygen into the wine from ambient air. The leader in this product category is a product called the Vinturi, which is sold in two versions. There is one version for red wines and one version for white wines. The user pours wine from an opened bottle through the device and into a glass or decanter just prior to immediate consumption. The device states that it introduces oxygen into the wine allowing it to “breath”. This is a long standing well understood process, especially for well aged red wines that may have been stored or bottle aged for years.

 

The process of exposing wine to air via decanting into a decanter has been done for centuries. The Vinturi accomplishes this aeration effect in a single glass at a time. It is priced at approximately $40 and is sold in wineries, online and in some specialty retail stores. The device is made from acrylic with no moving parts and is promoted as simple and easy to use. In side-by-side comparisons, the Sonic Decanter™ achieves a much more pronounced effect and most importantly is long lasting compared to the Vinturi as a result of the actual chemical molecular change that the process delivers. Further the Vinturi and any copycat devices are only able to affect opened wine bottles at the moment of consumption.