Private Label Marketing: When Consumers Don't Know Your Brand

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Sarah Qualters, VP of Marketing at Rack & Riddle Custom Wine Services. As the #1 custom sparkling wine producer in the U.S. with 3.5 million cases of capacity, Rack & Riddle operates behind the scenes, producing sparkling wine for over 400 clients who sell it under their own labels. Sarah shares how she's building a marketing function from scratch in a B2B2C business model where most consumers have never heard of the brand—yet have likely enjoyed their wines at retailers like Trader Joe's, Kroger, and Albertsons. With just a two-person marketing team, she's establishing innovation processes, navigating complex multi-stakeholder decision chains, and identifying white space opportunities in a market dominated by European imports. Topics Discussed: Building marketing infrastructure in a company that operated without a marketing team for 18+ years Navigating B2B2C marketing across winemakers, distributors, retailers, and consumers Establishing innovation processes to capture emerging trends (premixed cocktails, alcohol-removed wines) Managing stakeholder marketing across the three-tier alcohol distribution system Leveraging AI for efficiency with a lean marketing team Identifying market gaps in domestic vs. imported sparkling wine