Napa Valley Register: Gatto Rivera Branding
Wow, what a week! Thank you so much to writer Kathleen Reynolds and Napa Register for the awesome write up in this week’s Business Section. We love our Downtown Napa neighbors and being part of this awesome community! Article quoted below.
[KATHLEEN REYNOLDS]
“Our approach to brand strategy is making sure clients understand what emotions they want customers to feel when they look at their wine,” said Raquel Gatto, project manager for Napa-based Gatto Rivera Branding. “Producers need to be really clear about the personality of their wine.”
Gatto Rivera Branding’s co-creative directors are Raquel’s husband Tim Gatto and Antonio Rivera. Both graduated from Chico State University with degrees in communication design and headed out after college on separate but similar career paths working for design agencies.
Gatto specialized in brand development and package design and Rivera in beverage package design. In 2016, Gatto started his own design firm working with wineries and invited Rivera to join him last year. They design labels and packaging for wine, beer and the spirits industry. Raquel Gatto said that Tim talks about the importance of the clients telling their “authentic story.” He said it’s the best way to distinguish your brand.
“That’s true whether the producer is brand new to the market or is a heritage brand seeking a refresh,” said Raquel, who along with her husband, grew up in the Napa/Sonoma area. “A heritage brand needs to reevaluate what’s changed in the marketplace or the ownership. Perhaps one family owned it in the past and they must assess if that information is still relevant. What do they want to create for their audience?”
“Our clients are a mix of progressive and heritage and we have many independent brands. Maybe they’re not even trying to scale up but have a small following. We ask them if they use special techniques and what’s unique. It can be experimental and fun.”
How do you get a client to express what’s unique or expressive about their wine?
“We have a general survey,” said Gatto. “The owners, winemakers and other stakeholders answer questions. We ask things like “What emotions do you want people to feel looking at the wine?” What inspires them? Questions like that.”
“Not all our clients have specific wineries, but our site visits are invaluable. There’s no replacement for that. We submit a creative brief of one and a half pages explaining this is what we hear and see you say.”
“We pull references from that to create three to five concepts and options.”
Another aspect of branding is name generation.
“We go through a discovery phase for that too,” Gatto explained. “It has different considerations and is harder to capture. Also, so many names are already taken. When names are examined, we specifically see how the letterforms will look on the label.”
While Gatto Rivera Branding specializes in labels, packaging and print material, they are keenly aware of the importance of the appearance of a brand on social media, including their own.
“The portfolio is only as good as the photography. We pay particular attention to how it is photographed. We’ve developed a style to show our range. What the products look like in person must be cohesive with the photo style. Our strategy is to keep the account as active as possible to make it easy to reach out to us.”
The team stays on top of trends but doesn’t necessarily follow them. One factor of which they are conscious, though, is the emphasis the younger consumer places on wellness.
“We know younger people are health conscious. We’ve suggested sometimes adding ingredients to a wine label. Young customers are wary of additives and so listing ingredients increases transparency.”
Raquel graduated with a degree in Environmental Policy Analysis & Planning from UC Davis. She and the other team members are aware of the single-use nature of what they produce. They donated 1% of their 2021 profits to Beyond Plastics, a nonprofit led by environmental experts whose mission is to "build a well-informed, effective movement that will achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet, and ourselves, from the plastic pollution crisis."
“As far as our clients are concerned, we’re happy to give them eco-education if they are open to it,” said Gatto. “We can mention that capsules, particularly plastic ones, aren’t always necessary. If the wine is considered sophisticated, luxury or premium, they can use wax sealer. If not, the producer can eliminate the capsule altogether.”
“We can offer advice about lighter weight glass bottles, which reduces the carbon footprint since lighter doesn’t use as much fuel to transport. We also can use tree-free, cotton labels.”
The team contributes to the local community by helping its youth.
“We're doing a 6-week packaging design unit with two Digital Arts classes at New Tech High School,” said Gatto.
“While we do have a lot of clients outside of Napa, we consider ourselves part of this community and do our best to give back. Tim and Antonio are very passionate about the value of design in communication and its potential societal benefits and are eager to share these skills with the younger generation.”
Together, the three-person, self-proclaimed “small but mighty” branding firm offers creativity and expertise while keeping in mind the local and larger community.
Gatto said that the bottom line is always, “We think of our job as helping to sell your product when you’re not there. We help make consumers understand you.”
