Filippo and Maria Casella emigrated from Sicily (southern Italy) to New South Wales (southern Australia) in 1957. After a few years there, near the township of Yenda, they acquired a rural property to produce grapes for the local wineries.
In 1969, the family began producing their own wine; in 1971, they already crushed 50 tons of grapes; and in 1995, John Casella, the middle son, took over management of the company.
Soon, John realized the hardship of competing with traditional Australian wineries and Italian and French wines.
So he decided to launch an alternative product: a fresh and light wine added with the flavor of other fruits and an appeal to de-stress. That is how the brand [yellow tail] was born
In just a few years, sales soared. In addition to conquering the North American market (in 2018, 2019, and 2020, it was the most imported wine brand in the USA—around 7 million 9-liter boxes each year), the product was sold to more than 50 countries.
This success is due to a set of attributes that, according to Kim and Mauborgne, characterize its Blue Ocean Strategy, notably:
– originality: a sweet wine added with the flavor of other fruits;
– operational simplification: producing only two line items – the white Chardonnay and the red Shiraz – in the same kind of bottle;
– easy to choose: presentation without technical jargon and characteristic elitist appeals;
– striking brand: [yellow tail], unconventional and irreverent;
– labels and boxes: with a curious and fun image of an x-rayed kangaroo and vibrant colors;
– affordable price: equal to twice that of a big bottle of wine popular, but much lower than classic ones;
– disclosure effort: associated with symbols of Australian culture and with low-cost campaigns;
– sales effort: involvement of retailers with information about the product and the family winery besides the supply of typical costumes from the Australian interior.
The result was the emergence of a new, immense, and profitable market where the company navigates without direct competitors: its own Blue Ocean.
C. L. Eckhard, author of Pricing in Agribusiness: setting and managing prices for better sales margins.