Why Rosé Tastes Better by the Sea: The Psychology of Contextual Marketing

What working in France, Antigua and Thailand taught me about why people don't just buy products. They buy experiences, emotions and moments.

I've been lucky enough to work in some pretty amazing places around the world. France, Antigua and, of course, Thailand, where I now call Phuket home.

And one thing I've learned over the years is that something which seems absolutely fantastic in one country can seem considerably less fantastic somewhere else.

Take a glass of rosé wine.

Sitting by the Mediterranean in the south of France, the sun shining, the sea sparkling, a nice lunch on the table and absolutely nowhere you need to be for the next few hours.

That glass of rosé tastes incredible.

Now take exactly the same bottle, fly it back to Essex, open it on a cold, miserable Tuesday evening in November, and drink it while looking out at the rain.

Same wine. Same grapes. Same alcohol content.

But somehow, it's just not quite the same experience, is it?

And that's what I want to talk about in this latest Shark 13 October blog.

Contextualisation.

It's one of the most fascinating areas of behavioural science and psychology in marketing, and something I believe far too many businesses overlook.

Because sometimes, it's not the product that makes something special.

It's everything happening around it.

Red Bull: A Product That Shouldn't Work. But Absolutely Does.

Let's start with one of my favourite marketing examples.

Red Bull.

Now, I'm not going to upset all the Red Bull lovers out there, but let's be fair. It's hardly a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Some people love the taste. Others think it's absolutely revolting.

But here's the interesting thing.

Red Bull doesn't need everyone to think it tastes amazing.

It has spent decades creating an association between that little can and energy, excitement, extreme sports, adventure and doing things that most of us wouldn't dream of attempting.

Think about the marketing.

Formula One. Cliff diving. Mountain biking. Aeroplanes. People jumping out of perfectly good aircraft.

It's not really about the drink, is it?

It's about what that drink represents.

Advertising thinker Rory Sutherland has spoken about how an unusual taste can actually reinforce the perception that something has a powerful functional purpose.

Which is a fascinating thought.

Maybe something that promises to give you energy doesn't need to taste like a lovely refreshing lemonade.

Maybe the slightly medicinal, unusual flavour actually helps create the expectation that it's doing something.

Red Bull has built an extraordinary brand by understanding something that many businesses miss.

You don't always have to sell the product. Sometimes you have to sell the meaning surrounding the product.

France Taught Me That a Drink Is Never Just a Drink

When I worked in France, I started to appreciate how much the surroundings influence what we enjoy.

Take Pernod or pastis.

In France, sitting outside a café on a warm afternoon, with a little water, some ice and perhaps a few friends, it makes perfect sense.

It's part of the culture. Part of the occasion. Part of the afternoon.

Now imagine drinking exactly the same thing in a freezing pub somewhere in the UK in the middle of winter.

Suddenly, that strong aniseed flavour might not seem quite so appealing.

Nothing has changed about the drink.

What's changed is the context.

And rosé wine is another perfect example.

There's something about drinking a cold glass of rosé by the sea that just works.

The sunshine. The food. The atmosphere. The fact that you're probably on holiday, or at least pretending you are.

It all contributes to the experience.

And this isn't just me making excuses for enjoying a drink in the sunshine.

There is actual science behind it.

Research into sensory perception has demonstrated that lighting, music, surroundings and expectations can influence how people experience food and drink.

In one study, researchers found that changing the colour of ambient lighting influenced how participants evaluated the flavour and value of wine.

Think about that for a moment.

The wine didn't change.

The lighting did.

And people's perceptions changed with it.

That's pretty powerful stuff for anyone working in marketing.

Antigua, Banana Liqueur and a Very Expensive Mistake

Now let's head to the Caribbean.

I worked in Antigua, and if you've ever spent time in the Caribbean, you'll know there's a certain magic to the place.

The turquoise water. The heat. The music. The beaches. The laid-back atmosphere.

And, of course, the rum.

There is a story I've heard about someone who was holidaying in the Caribbean and discovered a banana liqueur.

They absolutely loved it.

In fact, they loved it so much that they apparently decided to buy the rights to import it into the UK.

They were convinced they'd discovered the next big thing.

So they shipped some back, invited their friends around and proudly poured everyone a glass.

Unfortunately, instead of sitting on a Caribbean beach, they were now sitting in a basement in Britain on a miserable October evening.

And apparently everyone thought it tasted dreadful.

Now, I can't verify whether that particular story actually happened, but as an illustration of contextualisation, it's brilliant.

Because I can completely understand it.

When you're in Antigua, surrounded by sunshine, palm trees and the Caribbean Sea, a sweet banana liqueur might seem like the greatest invention in the history of alcohol.

Back in Britain, with the heating on and the rain coming down outside?

Perhaps not.

The mistake wasn't necessarily believing in the product.

The mistake was believing that the experience would travel with it.

And that brings me to Phuket.

Phuket: We Have One of the Greatest Marketing Advantages in the World

Living and working in Phuket, we're surrounded by businesses selling experiences.

Hotels. Restaurants. Beach clubs. Boat tours. Spas. Activities. Cafés.

And yet, I regularly see marketing that completely ignores the experience.

A hotel posts a photograph of an empty bedroom.

A restaurant posts a photograph of a steak on a plate.

A boat company posts a photograph of a speedboat.

A beach club posts a photograph of a cocktail.

And then underneath it, we get something along the lines of:

"Book now. Special offer. Limited availability."

Wonderful.

But why should I care?

Where's the story?

Where's the emotion?

Where's the context?

We're living on a tropical island that people around the world dream of visiting.

And sometimes we're marketing it as though we're selling office furniture.

The Phuket restaurant problem

I've written before about restaurant marketing in Phuket and my frustration with the endless stream of short videos showing someone cutting into a steak, pouring a sauce or waving a cocktail at the camera.

Don't get me wrong. I love food.

I love cooking, and I'll happily spend seven hours smoking beef ribs on the barbecue.

But here's the question.

Are we selling the steak, or are we selling the evening?

Imagine two advertisements.

The first shows a beautifully cooked steak.

"300g Australian Ribeye. Premium Quality. Book Now."

The second shows a group of friends sitting around a table on a Friday evening. The grill is going. The drinks are cold. Everyone's laughing. Someone cuts into a perfectly cooked steak.

And the message?

"Friday night. Good friends. Great food. Nowhere else you need to be."

Same restaurant.

Same steak.

But a completely different approach.

One sells a product.

The other sells a moment that I can imagine myself enjoying.

And that's the difference.

Of course, the first advertisement might work perfectly well for someone actively searching for a steakhouse. Contextual marketing doesn't mean abandoning useful information.

It means understanding what motivates people beyond the specifications of the product.

A Hotel Room Is Just a Room. Until You Give It Context.

Think about the number of hotels and resorts we have in Phuket.

Beautiful properties. Incredible locations. Fantastic facilities.

But scroll through their social media pages and how many times do you see the same thing?

An empty bedroom.

A swimming pool.

A photograph of breakfast.

A list of facilities.

Now imagine the alternative.

It's 7am.

You're sitting on your balcony with a coffee.

You can hear the birds. The sun is coming up. Your phone is somewhere inside the room, and for once you don't care where.

There's no traffic. No meetings. No rushing around.

Just you, your coffee and the morning.

Suddenly, we're not selling a room.

We're selling peace.

We're selling an escape.

We're selling the feeling that somebody sitting in a rainy city, scrolling through Instagram during their lunch break, desperately wants to experience.

And that's when marketing becomes interesting.

The Same Applies to Boat Tours

Let's look at another huge part of Phuket's tourism industry.

Boat tours.

We have some of the most spectacular islands in the world on our doorstep.

Phi Phi. Phang Nga Bay. Racha. Hong Krabi.

Yet so much marketing focuses on the boat itself.

The size of the boat. The engines. The seating. The itinerary.

All important information, of course.

But is that really why someone books a private boat?

Or are they imagining arriving at Maya Bay early in the morning, before the biggest crowds?

Are they imagining their children jumping into crystal-clear water?

Are they imagining sitting on a beautiful beach with their partner, thinking, "This is exactly why we came to Thailand"?

That's the context.

That's what people are dreaming about before they ever start comparing boat specifications.

And that's what we should be showing them.

The Psychology: Why Does Context Change Our Experience?

This is where my interest in behavioural science really comes into play.

We like to believe that we're rational consumers.

We think we evaluate products based on quality, price, performance and whether we actually like them.

And sometimes we do.

But our brains are constantly interpreting the world around us.

Our expectations influence our experiences.

Our surroundings influence our emotions.

And our emotions influence how we evaluate things.

Psychologists and sensory researchers have studied how music, lighting, colour, atmosphere and expectations can influence perceptions of taste and enjoyment.

For example, research by Charles Spence and other scientists working in multisensory perception explores how what we see, hear and smell can interact with what we taste.

It's not that a terrible product suddenly becomes wonderful just because you put it next to a swimming pool.

But the environment can genuinely influence the experience.

And in marketing, that matters enormously.

Because customers don't arrive at a purchase decision with their emotions switched off.

They bring memories, expectations, aspirations, cultural experiences and personal associations with them.

The French café means something.

The Caribbean beach means something.

The sunset over Phuket means something.

And clever marketing understands those associations.

But Context Is Different for Different People

Here's another thing I've learned from working in France, Antigua and Thailand.

Not everybody responds to the same context in the same way.

For someone visiting Phuket from northern Europe, sunshine, palm trees and a cold drink by the beach might represent the ultimate escape.

For someone who lives here all year round, that same image might just represent another Tuesday.

For a family with young children, the perfect hotel experience might be about safety, space and everyone having a good time.

For a couple, it might be privacy and romance.

For someone travelling alone, it might be adventure, freedom and meeting new people.

Same destination.

Same hotel.

Completely different motivations.

And this connects with something I've discussed in another Shark 13 blog about marketing to different cultures in Phuket.

It's not enough to assume that everyone wants the same experience just because they're visiting the same place.

You need to understand who you're talking to and what matters to them.

Nationality might give you some clues.

But motivations, lifestyles and personal circumstances often tell you much more.

Stop Planning. Start Doing.

So how does all this fit into our October Shark 13 series?

Quite simply.

I think businesses spend far too much time planning what they're going to post and not nearly enough time thinking about what their customers actually want to feel.

We plan the photography.

We plan the reels.

We plan the content calendar.

We plan the promotions.

And then we publish another photograph of an empty hotel room.

Or another steak.

Or another cocktail.

Here's my challenge for Phuket businesses.

Stop planning content around your product. Start creating content around the experience.

If you're a restaurant, show me the evening, not just the food.

If you're a hotel, show me how I'll feel when I wake up there, not just what the bed looks like.

If you're a boat company, show me the moment I'll remember when I get home, not just the engines on the back of the boat.

If you're a spa, show me the feeling of walking out relaxed, rather than just a treatment room.

And if you're a beach club, don't just show me the cocktail.

Show me why that cocktail tastes so much better when I'm sitting beside the Andaman Sea.

You don't need a huge production budget.

You don't need months of planning.

You need to understand your customers, get out there with a camera, and start showing them the moments that matter.

Because here's the thing.

That glass of rosé in France?

It probably wasn't the best wine I've ever tasted.

And that rum in Antigua?

I'm sure I've had better.

But I remember those experiences.

I remember the places.

I remember the people.

I remember how I felt.

And that's what great marketing should do.

Make people want to be part of the experience before they've even bought the product.

So stop planning.

Start doing.

And for goodness' sake, stop posting photographs of empty hotel rooms.

Shark 13 Marketing is a Phuket-based creative marketing agency with a passion for storytelling, behavioural science and understanding what actually makes people buy. We believe great marketing starts with understanding people, not just products.

Want to find out whether your marketing is selling the product or the experience? Get in touch with Shark 13 for a fresh perspective on your business.

Contextual marketing