Discover how Allison Luvera transformed the boxed wine industry with Juliet Wine, creating an eco-conscious, luxury brand that’s changing perceptions and empowering women entrepreneurs in the wine space.

Bio

Allison Luvera (she/her) is an award-winning brand builder, the Co-Founder & CEO of Juliet Wine, and a leader in reimagined boxed wine with high-quality varietals and eco-conscious design. She has vast experience across the media and consumer goods sectors, including previous roles at Pernod Ricard, Hearst, and Conde Nast. Allison holds a dual BS in Finance and Marketing from Boston College, an MBA from The Wharton School, and WSET Level 2 Certification in wine. Beyond Allison’s professional achievements, Allison is a committed advocate for women’s rights, having previously served as VP, Board of Directors for UN WomenUSA-NY.

TRANSCRIPT

Bethany: Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. Today my guest is Allison Luvera, pronouns she/her. I’m so excited to have Allison on the show. I have been following her on TikTok for a while as a female founder. She is an award winning brand builder, the Co-founder and CEO of Juliet Wine and a leader in reimagined box wine with high quality varietals and eco-conscious design.

She has vast experience across media and consumer goods sectors, including previous roles at Pernod Ricard, Hearst, and Conde Nast. Allison holds a dual BS in finance and marketing from Boston College, an MBA from the Wharton School, and WSET Level 2 certification in wine. Beyond Allison’s professional achievements, Allison is a committed advocate for women’s rights, having previously served as VP Board of Directors for UN Women USA New York. Welcome to the show, Allison.

Allison: Thank you, thanks for having me and thanks for that great intro.

Bethany: Yes, yeah, absolutely. You’ve done so much in the professional landscape. And I’m just excited to dive in. I wanted to start by chatting a little bit about origin story of Juliet Wine. Because it’s reimagined box wine, for those of you listening who are not like familiar- which I think is a genius idea. I loved the idea of innovating something- similar to something like Skims innovated shapewear from what our conception of it was. So I’d love to hear from you. What was the journey to reshaping the perception of boxed wine? I mean, Vogue had an article on you saying, ‘Is boxed wine becoming cool?’ To where you are now.

Allison: Well, box wine is definitely becoming cool. I’ll answer that question. And that was really our intent from the start. We, my business partner and I, her name’s Lauren, we’re old, old friends. We really set out to reimagine box wine and to create a product that transcended the box wines that existed on the market, just in terms of not only quality of the wine, but design and luxury. And kind of the story behind it is that we both are wine lovers and I actually happen to love box wine because it has a lot of great functionality to it. It is the most eco-friendly wine packaging format, which is something that I, you when I learned about that, I was really blown away by sort of some of the facts behind that. And it also has some great convenience factors that I think, you know, particularly lend themselves into women’s lifestyles. So, it stays fresh for four weeks after opening when you have it on hand at home. So you can have one glass a night or a couple of glasses a week, pour it on tap from your fridge and not feel this pressure to throw out a half-drank bottle of wine if you don’t finish it. And so it’s also glass-free so you can take it on the go. It’s large format so you can share it with your friends. We loved so many things about boxed wine from a functionality perspective, from a sustainability perspective, but we just didn’t feel there was anything on the market that was delivering what we wanted as modern female consumers. We love products that are affordable luxuries, whether that’s the beauty products that we buy or the fashion products that we buy. And so we really wanted to create something that fit into that space and met those criteria. So Lauren and I, we really set out to create Juliet and the packaging was really the first element of it that we tackled because to your point, if we were going to innovate in the space, the way that brands like Skims that we admire so much do, we really knew that we needed to stand out on shelf and be completely different from anything else that was out there and have a real point of differentiation and point of view in the marketplace. We completely redesigned the packaging. It’s not technically a box. It’s a beautiful chic cylinder. We have this beautiful design that’s got a Mediterranean palette and these gorgeous illustrations done by female designers. And we put really, really good wine inside. So kind of the rest is history. We’ve been in the market for three years, launched direct to consumer, then made the transition into wholesale. And we’re now proud to be sold in some of the biggest retailers in America, like Whole Foods and Costco.

Bethany: Amazing – so exciting.

Allison: Yeah, it’s been quite the journey.

Bethany: And for anyone listening, have to look up Juliet Wine, but definitely look it up to see the packaging too so that you kind of know what we’re talking about.

And on that note, I loved that you put the brand presence and brand visuals so front and center in reimagining something. What was your market research process like or getting this from idea to direct to consumer? Did you kind of already know these things were gonna need to happen or what was that evolution like for you?

Allison: You know, when we started out, we had a core, I don’t know if you want to call it a focus group- we had a core group of women that were within our target demographic. So really a lot of millennial women who, again, love these affordable luxuries and tend to gravitate towards that sort of product and drink wine. And so when we were ideating and coming up with the packaging design, but also what you know, we wanted the brand world to look like and really our entire business plan. We had that woman in mind and we had this group of, I think it was about 100 women or a little bit less than that, that we were surveying on different things. We were bouncing ideas off of them. We were doing market research. They played a big role in terms of us selecting the names that we ended up selecting. And so that was kind of our initial touchpoint where we had this theory and this idea of something that we could create in terms of a higher end box wine, but we wanted to validate it as we were building the sort of MVP. And so that was kind of our first, I guess, pass at market research. And then since then we found different proof points, you know, throughout our journey, a lot of it through our direct to consumer channel and our social channels where we can have these one-on-one conversations with our audiences. So for example, we do an annual survey every year where we’re really digging in deep and asking a lot of questions about the product and what’s working and what’s not working and what else our audience would like to see from us. And we go so far as to actually, Lauren and I will personally call our like top 20 customers and have, you know, half hour to 45 minute conversations with them. So we definitely pride ourselves on putting our consumer, which to us is sort of a young woman who loves affordable luxury, front and center and really considering what she wants in every decision that we make for the brand.

Bethany: Okay, you said some really important things there that I love. First, you know very clearly who this is for. And then secondly, that you’re like the evolution of market research, because most of the folks listening here are entrepreneurs and business owners. And I think that’s a forgotten component a lot of times, especially with product=based businesses, but also in service-based businesses of like going back again and again, as a brand evolves to make sure that it’s still serving its people. So I love that you guys have that and the personal connection that folks can still have with you directly as co-founders is amazing.

Allison: It’s so important for brands today that are speaking to a younger demographic. I think that the younger generations have just come to expect that from brands that they love. They want to have a face behind it. They want to feel like they have a connection to the people behind the brand.

It’s challenging, right? Because you’re a small team and you want to talk to everybody and be available to everybody. I think it’s also a real advantage that young brands have because we can have those one-on-one conversations as founders, whereas I’ve historically worked in large corporations where there’s hundreds of people working on a brand and you don’t really have that one-on-one access. So it’s definitely an interesting, I guess, advantage that young brands have because consumers definitely want that one-on-one contact if they can get it.

Bethany: Yeah, and there’s such a piece of authenticity there. And you gave a recent interview that I listened to about how important it was for authenticity to be tied to your brand. And that included having an ambassador program that was tied to customers, not necessarily tied to influencers, which I thought was such a testament to integrity. So can you speak just a little bit to that? Because I thought that was such an important shift in just the way brands exist today for younger generations, like you were saying.

Allison: Definitely. I mean, I think we’re getting to this era where the customer is the influencer. Whether they have a thousand followers or a hundred thousand followers, they’re influencing the people in their community, in their world. And word of mouth, I mean, we’re not alone in this, word of mouth is such a strong influence on purchase behavior. And so, you know, if you think about that fundamentally, like how do you influence word of mouth? Like it holds true whether it’s to, you know, somebody who has a small amount of followers, but everyone’s going to listen to her, versus an influencer. And so we do try to look at our community efforts and our affiliate marketing efforts through the lens of who are our fans? Like who are the genuine, you know, Juliet evangelists that you know, regardless as to how many people they reach, they’re gonna have that conviction behind the recommendation. And so we do try to include our community and our fans just as much as we include micro influencers into our marketing plans.

Bethany: Yeah, ou, love that. 

Okay, I wanna switch gears a little bit and talk about you as a female founder in a historically statistically male-dominated space. Especially what I find very interesting just in general in industry spaces is when they’re male-dominated but the consumers tend are statistically more women and that is repeated in a lot of spaces, but in the wine industry in particular. So I’d love to hear your experience entering that space- entering that space re-imagining a product that, you know, maybe was more designed for women, or at least in the context of the jokes around boxed wine. So tell me about that experience and shift for you and your co-founder.

Allison: I think there’s never been a better time to be a woman in wine and spirits because this shift really is happening. The industry has been historically male dominated and that is year by year changing and it’s changing quickly. And so it creates a really interesting opportunity for female founders because while some of the obstacles that come along with a male dominated industry are sort of falling away, there’s also this opportunity to sort of rush in and create brands from a woman’s point of view that maybe speak more authentically to women. And there has historically been a bit of a lack of that. And so we see it as a great opportunity to come in and create a brand that has more of a female-focused point of view, where there maybe aren’t so many out there today, but that is changing really quickly. 

And it’s also been a really fun dynamic to see because the women in the industry do tend to sort of stick together. So we’ve really, we’ve met a lot of incredible women. A lot of them are in positions of power, sort of growing towards positions of power. And they are- we do sort of band together and help each other out. Like there’s a couple of great communities of women in wine and spirits and everyone’s always willing to jump on a phone call or shoot you a text or make a referral for you. 

And in fact, a story that I like to tell is that when we were making the shift from direct-to-consumer to wholesale, one of the biggest obstacles we had to overcome was getting enough distributors and the right distributors to work with us. The landscape of distribution today- it’s not that easy to get distributed. There’s a real process to it. The distributors are very discerning about the brands that they take. And when we first started trying to get our distribution partners on board, we were met with a lot of nos for quite a while. We got a lot of pushback. And then slowly but surely we started talking to the right people and talking to the right partners and getting our footprint in place. And when I look back on that now, a real pattern that I’ve noticed is that every single distributor that we have except for one, that ultimately the decision maker that brought us in was a woman. And so I think that’s, it could be a coincidence. It’s a low sample size. It’s only like five or six, but you know, I don’t think it was a coincidence because I think it took a woman in a position of power to look at our product and look at our brand and say, “Oh yeah, I understand that. I know 10 women that are going to love this.” And I think sometimes you do need that diversity of perspective. And it not only helps the whole industry, but I think it creates a lot of opportunities.

Bethany: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that story. Because my follow up was like, what were the barriers, or was it an advantage? And I can see from what you were saying, it can be an advantage in some ways of moving this forward, because you are innovating, but then also having that community within wine and spirits too. 

Allision: Definitely.

Bethany: And then what was that like? You’ve built a brand with a co-founder who’s also a woman and I love to see like dual partnerships of women running a brand. How has that shaped decision making in a way that kind of contrasts your experience in corporate or other settings where you maybe didn’t have that kind of a partnership?

Allison: It’s such an interesting question. And I’ve actually never been asked that before. The interesting thing about the partnership I have with my co-founder is I think we have very complementary skill sets and we have very, I guess, different ways of working in terms of the way that we approach things. And I don’t want to stereotype, but I would actually say that from a business perspective, I approach a lot of things through a more masculine lens, like I’m much more analytical. I’m very data oriented, very numbers oriented. And Lauren is, she’s this fantastic creative brain and she’s always thinking about the emotional side of things and sort of, you know, culture and how we’re impacting people’s lives. And so I actually think it’s funny because we are two women, but I do think that some of the more traditional sort of female strengths in business, think Lauren embodies. And I think that I have some of those more, I guess, stereotypical male, you know, I think a lot about the warmth competence scale, if you’ve ever read about that sort of framework. 

Bethany: Yes, yeah

Allison: Yeah, I definitely fall on the more stereotypical male side of that scale.

Bethany: What a cool pairing though- not to make a wine pun, but.

Allison: Yeah, I say it all the time. When you have a co-founder or when you’re thinking about who you wanna go into business with, you have to think about who’s different from you. You don’t want have a co-founder who has the exact same skills as you and is thinking about things in the exact same way because that diversity of thought and the diversity of strengths is really, really critical in order to make it a success.

Bethany: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, and then now I’m gonna switch gears again and let’s bring it back to the wine for a little bit. I love to dig a little deeper into the brand, because we talked a little bit about your initial build and then getting into wholesale. But I think when I talk about brands, I’m really concerned about the impact and how it makes people feel. And you obviously have a really big focus on sustainability built into packaging and design. But I’m curious about your impact on consumers. How are people feeling when they’re, like that you have found, feeling when they’re consuming and buying your product? What’s this sparking for people that you’ve been able to repeat over and over again?

Allison: I think what Juliet brings to the table and what we really try to evoke with our consumers is that we want the experience to be one that is a little indulgence. It’s a little treat. It’s sort of this everyday, luxurious moment. Like, I always make the analogy to other categories outside of wine and spirits. Like, I think about lighting some candles and doing a face mask at the end of a really long week, you know, something like that. We want the Juliet experience to be a version of that in wine, right? You know, when you have had a really long day at work and you just want one crisp glass of white wine, you know, the experience of the packaging and pouring it for yourself out of this really cool form factor. And then, you know, the wine is delicious and it’s clean. You know, we think of that as sort of an everyday indulgence. And that’s something that we think about a lot and we try to sort of weave through our marketing content and messaging and everything like that. We want it to be almost like a little bit of an escape.

Bethany: Hmm, that’s beautiful. And as you’ve developed this, has there been surprising feedback that you’ve gotten from your customers that’s like mirrored that or changed that in any way, like the feeling that your product’s bringing?

Allison: I think that a lot of our sort of hypotheses on what the experience would be and what it would mean for people, I think that’s all been pretty validated by customers to date. I would say like a couple of surprises we’ve had are around, you know, where the customer is shopping and where the customer is based, really. I think when we set out to create Juliet, you know, I was living in LA, Lauren was living in New York. You know, we live in these two sort of big city bubbles and we weren’t sure if maybe, you know, this would be a brand and a product that would just resonate within these sort of urban centers on the coast. And what we found and we can track through our analytics on direct to consumer channels, but also on our social media is that our customer is really broad based. We’ve got a national customer. We’ve got women all across the country who love our products and have incorporated it into their lives in very different ways. 

And that’s been really, really interesting to see. And I love seeing when they’re, you know, posting about us on social media, the different ways in which they’re incorporating it into their lives has been really fun and honestly really inspiring. I mean, last year, for example, we had some Southern college women who were posting about tailgating, but these beautiful, very bougie tailgates, right? These were not like crack open a beer and have a chicken wing. It was like these gorgeous spreads and everyone’s dressed really cute and they’re displaying the wine and I think they chose Juliet because it was beautiful but also functional for the occasion. And so we started getting tagged and a lot of these sort of, we’re calling them bougie tailgate videos and photos. And so we’ve ended up really running with that and we’re working on a whole marketing campaign this fall where we’re going to really lean into that and create a Juliet brand version of that. So it’s been really exciting to see how women all across the country are embracing it, but how they’re also incorporating it into their lives in very different ways. 

And the other surprise we’ve seen is that, you know, we have a very robust direct to consumer channel. We have a great e-commerce store. And it’s been an amazing tool for discovery just in terms of new people finding Juliet. But we hear over and over and over again from our customers, they just want to buy it at retail. So I think while it’s fantastic to have the capability to ship direct to consumer, we’ve really tried to pivot as fast as possible to retail and wholesale because we know that’s what our consumer wants. I think the last survey we did, over 80% of the women surveyed said if they could buy Juliet at a store near them, that would be their preference. And so that was something that was a little bit surprising, just how definitive that feedback was. 

Bethany: Oh wow. Okay, cool. I love that. On that same note, I was going to ask, what’s the next phase for Juliet Wine now that it’s hit more in stores? Where do you guys plan to take it?

Allison: So our goal has always been to be the first high-end box wine with national distribution and national awareness. And so, you know, we’re well on the way, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. Our big priority this year is our retail expansion. So just in the past few months, we’ve tripled our door count. We’ve launched in major retailers across the country. And so really doubling down on those partnerships and making sure that we’re driving our audience there to support the placements is a big priority. 

We’ve also launched a few new states. So one of our incredible retail partners is Harris Teeter, which is a fantastic sort of higher end grocery store in the Southeast. And so we’ve launched a few new states in the Southeast to support that. So lots of expansion into new stores, into new states. But we’ve, yeah, we’re just, we’re really excited. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but it’s an incredible time and the momentum is really starting to build.

Bethany: So exciting! I did see that on your website because you have a feature on there where you can put in your zip code and see the closest store near you. And I was like, “Oh my gosh!” And I feel like even from when I first looked it up and saw you guys to now, there was even more stuff popping up on there. And I was like, “Oh, there’s a Safeway right in California”’ know what I mean? I was like, “That’s so cool.” So I love to see that, that it’s growing like that for you guys.

Allison: Yeah, absolutely. We’re adding to your stores every day, which is incredible.

Bethany: Yes, exciting. Okay, let’s talk about wine itself because I love wine. And I saw a Forbes article where you were sharing your favorite pairing, which was your rose with spicy takeout. So I’d love it if you could share a few other unexpected pairings or like fun pairings that you swear by for your wine.

Allison: Okay, so I would be remiss not to mention the spicy Sauvignon Blanc trend that’s going on right now, because I have to say that it has taken over my social media. I don’t know if it has for you. 

Bethany: Yeah, I have seen it. 

Allison: Yeah, so we’ve been really digging into that as a team. We tried it and me being pretty analytical about things, I was thinking about why is this trend working so well? And what’s really interesting is that peppers have a compound called pyrazine in them that certain wines have the same compound. And our Cabernet Sauvignon, which is a red wine, actually has quite a bit of that compound because it’s made in a sort of cooler climate in California. And so we ended up trying- doing the version of Sauvignon Blanc with a frozen jalapeno, but we did it with our red wine, our Cabernet. And that turned out to be really, really delicious. Like we thought, these are complimentary flavor profiles. Like that could be interesting, but that was really, really incredible. So that was something fun we were experimenting with. 

I’m a big spritz girl, so I love to make, you know, either a white wine spritz or a rose spritz, throw in some sparkling, whatever I have, whether it’s prosecco or a sparkling water, and whatever sort of juices I have as well in the fridge. So I’m big on spritzes. And then one thing that I’ve been eating a lot of, this is a little bit like indicative of how little time I have these days, but I’m a huge fan of Goodles. Have you ever had this? The macaroni and cheese.

Bethany: No, I have not but I have seen their packaging. 

Allison: I’m obsessed with it is so delicious. And I do Goodles gluten free Cheddy Mac. I throw frozen peas in it. This is like such a turnkey dish. And it actually goes really, really well with our Sauvignon Blanc. So I don’t know, I’m having like lots of strange pairings recently, but a little bit of this little bit of that. I think the great thing about our style of wine and something that was really top of mind for us when we created it was we really wanted it to be food friendly and very versatile. So all of our wines are very true to varietal, right? They’re very pure expressions of what the grapes should be, but they’re very food friendly. You can pair them with almost anything. They’re very balanced, they’re very elegant. And so, yeah, I think like really for pretty much anything you’re going to eat, one or more of the Juliet varietals is going to pair just perfectly with it. 

Bethany: Mm, beautiful. 

Allison: Whether it’s mac and cheese or like spicy jalapenos.

Bethany: Yeah, no matter what. I love the spritz idea too, because I, like in the summer, I’ll make a spritz out of anything. A little St. Germain and a little like, spritz is just the way to go. Anything kind of floral.

Allison: Yeah. I’m experimenting with hibiscus iced tea spritzes recently. 

Bethany: Oh yum. That sounds so good. 

Allison: It’s really, really nice. Just gives it that nice splash of like hot pink, too.

Bethany: Mm, that is fun. And speaking of hot pink, when I lived in Arizona, I could access prickly pear so much easier. 

Allison: Ooouu. 

Bethany: And prickly pear like spritz or even- anything with it was so good. So I bet that could be a cool pairing with one of them. 

Allison: That’d be delicious maybe with the orange wine. 

Bethany: Yeah- oh yeah. I love an orange wine. 

Allison: That could be really interesting. Yeah, we do an orange wine. It’s really, we have limited quantities of it. So most of our inventory goes to Whole Foods and some Total Wine & More, but it’s definitely a best seller. So we’re working on expanding that for the next harvest. 

Bethany: Fun. So exciting. I love that kind of thing. I follow a lot of like Trader Joe’s wine pairing was a thing. I followed a gal and that’s all she did. She would like get a snack and a wine every day. I was like, “I love that for you.” But that’s my favorite. So we’ll keep an eye out for more of the pairings that you guys have for your wine. 

And then I wanted to ask kind of a funky question, but I feel like this flows with wine chats in general, but if Juliet Wine had like a playlist, what’s a song that would be on it or what would the playlist be titled?

Allison: It’s such a great question. So we actually have a lot of music on our social media, whether it’s with reels or the stories that we do. And our brand world is very much rooted in one of two things. So our design is very Mediterranean inspired- like the palette, the sort of feeling of an escape, like we’re very inspired by that. So a lot of the songs and the music that we choose are very, I guess, like Dolce Vita inspired or something that you could envision yourself listening to if you’re lounging poolside in coastal Italy, whatever it might be. 

And then because our audience is such a large percentage of them are millennial women, we tend to do a lot of like 80s and 90s throwbacks. 

Bethany: Love it. 

Allison: So this sort of like 90s nostalgia, whether it’s George Michael or that’s definitely very, you know, front and center in our brand world. So yeah, I think it would be like a mix of those sorts of things. 

Bethany: Ooh, fun, love it, thank you.

Allison: Yeah, I’m not a huge music person though. So I’m sorry to Lauren, my co-founder, if I messed any of that up because I know she’s very particular about this and she takes great care in the selection of these sorts of things, but I’m pretty sure I got that all right.

Bethany: Yeah, I mean as the millennial, an elder millennial woman, I can say that that felt right.

Allison: Yeah, we have a ton of like nostalgic 90s. We just did a TikTok with a clip from Devil Wears Prada in it. Like it’s very much, you know, that vibe. 

Bethany: Yes, that’s fantastic. So a couple of questions to wrap things up for anyone listening. If they wanted to connect with you as a female founder, a business owner, where could they do that? And then, of course, like, what would be their steps to order their first Juliet wine and find that?

Allison: Amazing. So I’m pretty accessible all over social media. I have a Substack it’s called On The Rise. So I’m reachable there. Also periodically sort of post my thoughts on business, on wine, you know, little tidbits from our journey. So that’s a great resource. 

I’m also fairly active on TikTok and Instagram and I’m public there. And I again, post a lot about our business and sort of my point of view on entrepreneurship. So all great places to find me. 

And then in terms of people wanting to discover Juliet for the first time, our website’s an awesome resource. It’s drinkjuliet.com. If you want to purchase there, we deliver to most US states, or you can check out our store locator, put your zip code in like we talked about, and we’ll, you know, pop up the closest store near you. I think we’re in nine states now. So we’re not in every state, but little by little we’re growing. So that’s a great resource as well. 

And then of course, follow us on social media. Lots of updates there all the time. That’s the first place we post any update about new stores, new states, new products, promo offers, whatever it might be. 

Bethany: Amazing, fantastic. And I’ll have linked Allison’s pages and Juliet’s in the show notes as well if you want to snag those while you’re listening to this. I know I, like I said at the beginning, found Allison on TikTok and have really enjoyed just your perspective as another woman building a company. So thank you so much for your time today and for sharing all of your insights with us.

Allison: Thanks for having me, this has been so fun.