Posts Tagged ‘Parklane Online’
Wedding champagne
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010Personalised champagne gifts
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Sunday was one of those magical and truly English summer days. 
A good crowd convened on the local Church for christening of nephew Hector and then back to Nick and Helly’s for excellent lunch and celebration.
AND personalised champagne!
Nick was inspired to produce this label by bottles customers have ordered for christenings via Park Lane online - either for drinking at the event of as champagne gifts.
Unfortunately, there is no accounting for taste when it comes to the label design…
And neither when it comes to the Vicar! Padre Leviseur can properly be described as a “marmite” man of the cloth. Several attendees needed champagne sustenance simply to alleviate the fear of God which Padre’s sermon had struck into the entire congregation when he retold Jezebel’s grizzly death.
I wonder what reaction a congregation would have if champagne was substituted for communion wine? Now there’s a thought!
Amen.
Looking backwards to go forwards
Friday, May 21st, 2010Seems like a contradiction in terms but so often it is the rear view we rely on to move forward. I am quite sure that history has been clearly in David Cameron’s mind at the birth of the UK’s Liberal-Conservative coalition government this month.
About the only significant thing I remember from A-level economics - aside from Adam Smith’s invisible hand - was the likening of the UK economy to an economic car which was so very difficult for the Chancellor to steer given that there was only the rear view mirror to look out of for guidance; seems that difficulty still stands twenty years on!
It is certainly this way with the champagne producers. They remember from bygone years how different qualitites of juice need blending differently in order to maintain the consistent style of champagne that is the trademark style of their house.
This, in fact, is the genius and very essence of Non-Vintage champagne in that the blend of cepages (grape varieties) from different crus (villages) and different years gives the blender all the natural tools at their disposal to allow the development of their familiar “house style” and the magical champagne. Just as it was back in day of the so-called inventor of “champagne”, Monsieur Dom Perignon.
And so it is with us at Park Lane - to a point. We now know that personalised champagne is a product that is well suited to the internet. We have high quality champagnes and excellent service. Together this makes a winning and proven coalition. The web site we built needs plenty of work as it evolves but we can deliver that based around the constructive and helpful feedback we receive from our lovely customers (or rather that Nick receives as all feedback goes direct to him!); effectively the rear view mirror telling us what we are doing right and what would make it even better.
So there we are; 
learning from where we have been to navigate to where we are going; rear view all the way… EXCEPT on my recent visit to the producers in Epernay when, while boarding the channel tunnel, the rear view was horrendous and the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to be there! And that just goes right to the heart of things - add expect the unexpected into the mix and thank you Iceland for another round of UK disruption.
Of course, it is important to be specific about which rear view you are looking into and hoping to learn from…
Bottoms up!
Geek ‘n Rolla 2010
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010It is very nearly the one year web anniversary for Park Lane - how scarey 
is that and where have the last twelve months gone?
Our involvement with Geek n’ Rolla courtesy of Mike Butcher (Techcrunch Europe) and Petra Johansson (Twisted Tree) signalled the imminent launch of our great Park Lane online adventure last year; what an adventure it has been!
Thanks due to Ben and the boys at award winning design agency Fhoke for coming up with the excellent label design - all over again! Beware, there is likely to be an interactive competition with free champagne for the next Techcrunch awards…
And here we are a year on, thrilled to be the official supplier of personalised champagne again for the #gknr awards today and this is a photo of one of the speaker’s bottles before despatch from our cellars yesterday. Hope that is a good image of Mike and wonder who will be taking this one home
So, for all those interested and keen (especially to tune into @hermioneway’s background chat!), checkout the live feed of events and the after-party at SE1, London.
And for all those who get a bottle, give us your comments please!
Chin chin.
Funny Old World
Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Amid all the Election fever - and are those party leader live debates a good thing? - I never predicted a surge in champagne demand from nearly every category of customer we deal with; strange but true!
Maybe it is the time of year; maybe it is collective joy at emerging from the toughest winter for thirty years, or maybe some of those economic green shoots are for real as opposed to imaginary?
Either way, busy busy in Epernay - field report from France next week when I visit our producers - and busy busy in the UK. At Park Lane, personalised champagne orders and enquiries continue to arrive at all times of day and night - which is just SO exciting! I know the internet never sleeps, but why are some users never sleeping either?!
The build process for the totally new website is underway and we should be live testing in June. This site will offer depth and breadth so usability will be much much better - and thank you to everyone who does send feedback to us as this really does make a difference.
The technological advance also includes state of the art label production on the very best material available coming soon. This new equipment and technology is an enormous leap - think Rolls Royce Phantom from Rolls Royce Silver Ghost (both brilliant in their context) - and is fabulously exciting for us. 
The quality of the personalised champagne labels will actually be better than photograph output from next month so what more of an excuse is needed to break out the bubbly?
I am delighted to announce that James Ingle will be joining the team from 10 May to concentrate on building and reinforcing the bridges we maintain with all our corporate customers. James is a hugely dedicated and capable gentleman and, above all, someone you really want around as he is just so nice! The Park Lane quality and service ethos is second nature to James and I know he will be very popular with customers and fellow employees alike.
And what about the Premier League football shoot out? 
As I have said before, we love working for Barclays Capital as league sponsors but there is certainly something of a sweat on at the moment within the BarCap sponsorship team: at the time of writing, any one of the three league leaders could carry the trophy away! Barclays contingency plans - obviously including personalised champagne! - are being drafted for winning presentations at any of the three possible grounds. A bit like the apparent Buckingham Palace contingency plans for funerals of leading Royals - except rather less gloomy and with less obscure project names!
As a regular importer of goods from France, there is a certain satisfaction to me that the delicious Hélèna (and hubby Patrik) are buying 20 of our highland cows for live export to France next month! Vive Le Republic…
And on that bombshell, today’s 8 year old birthday celebrations beckon. Pip pip.
