Recession Red

Paul Kreider, owner of California's Ross Valley Winery, is adapting to the recession by using a creative pricing strategy.By May of last year, Kreider had begun to see his sales and revenue seriously affected by the slump in the economy. So he decided to respond in kind. He created a blend that he called "Recession Red" and priced it to match the market. Every day he sold his bottles of "Recession Red" for exactly 0.1% of that day's Dow Jones index. When he began to sell "Recession Red" in March of '08, it cost $12.50 a bottle. By last October he was selling it for $9.44. How's that for a silver lining?
Before long Kreider's marketing gimmick was paying off - "Recession Red" was bringing in as much as 20 % of his sales; even when the wine sold below value, Kreider mantained, "what I lose in sales, I gain in publicity."
He must have been on to something, because several other wineries are now jumping onto the trend. Concannon Vineyard (of Livermore, CA) was second to ask for trademark approval of the term, on June 3, 2008, and Woods Lake Winery (of Woodinville, WA) was third, on October 2, 2008.