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The Buta Stupa™ solution |
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April 2004
This month we depart from our exploration of the Italian wine roads to extend our support to an initiative that we judge worthy: the Buta Stupa™ project.
Buta Stupa™ sprang from a very simple idea: leave the restaurant with the paid for, unfinished bottle of wine rather than leave without. Journalist Sergio Miravalle had this idea in 1999 and started spreading it around through his column "Giro di Vite" (a play on word that means "A Turn of the Screw" but, since "vite' in Italian means both "screw" and "Vine" and "giro" means "walk" as well as "turn", the sentence can be understood as "A Walk among the Vines" as well.
The advertising agency "Evento" created all marketing and branding material to make it simple for restaurateurs to reseal and pack the bottle as well for the customer to take it home.
It is a win-win operation, as it satisfy the customer that gets to take home the left over wine, sealed and pleasantly packed for carrying. In fact, along with the bill the waiter would bring to the table the partially-drank bottle, resealed and ready to go in an elegant looking paper bag. The wine can be enjoyed at one's leisure, renewing pleasant memories from the restaurant. This is a refined and cheerful way to start a new trend as well as a way to make the delivery of the bill more pleasant.
On top of Buta Stupa™ branded paper bags and stoppers to reseal and package the bottles, participating restaurants receive gadgets and promotional material to let patrons know in advance that the facility subscribes to the initiative. A visible reminder that one may order that extra bottle though the dinner is almost over.
In addition, the yearly subscription gives access to promotions, advertising, and always up-to-date monthly newsletters filled with interesting and usable news.
But there's even more to it for the participating establishment. On the Buta Stupa™ web site , a page will be dedicated to each restaurant, featuring an introduction, the company's logo and photograph of the place.
During February 2004, the Buta Stupa™ web site was visited by 952 users who surfed 6,400 pages.
Signing up for the initiative and exhibiting the Buta Stupa™ promotional material, shows clients that the restaurant is part of a unique project and that he or she may order different wines with the different courses, trying new wines and asking the server or sommelier for advice, knowing that he or she will enjoy all the wine ordered and paid for, as the leftover is taken home. The widespread interest in the Buta Stupa™ project is documented by the many mentions and pieces on the radio and in the press, including newspapers, magazines, web sites, the Italian national TV, and regional TV stations.
By now, many patrons check the Internet to find out the restaurants that are part of the Buta Stupa™ initiative, as shown by the growing number of hits received by www.butastupa.com.
We are truly confident as to the value of our national proposal. In addition to the praises from the mass media, we are pleased by the reception given to it by the final users, the restaurant going crowd that start enjoying the idea of taking home the leftover quality wines , after having carefully chosen the participating restaurant on the net.
It is already a trend. The savvy restaurateur does not wish to displease its customers, whose expectations go beyond eating well in a pleasant restaurant, and enjoy being coddled and possibly spoiled by new services. This is what customers get by choosing a Buta Stupa™-participating restaurant.
In order to promote the participating restaurants, Buta Stupa™ has taken part in important wine events and enogastronomic trade shows in Piedmont, including November 2003 Salone del Vino in Turin.
Buta Stupa™ on the press |
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You may visit the Buta Stupa™ web site to read and/or download the full articles in Italian.
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