Here's how Lescombes Family Vineyards and Esparza Advertising collaborated to refresh an iconic brand

To arrive at a new look for its St. Clair New Mexico brand, Lescombes Family Vineyards turned to a trusted partner from a previous collaboration: Albuquerque-based Esparza Advertising.

Sandra Pacheco, the national sales director at Lescombes Family Vineyards, said it was not only important to work with a New Mexico company but to work with one that would be a trusted steward of a well-known brand.

Pacheco, who is about to celebrate her 18th year of working with the Lescombes family, together with Esparza's staff worked through a series of steps in the design process to arrive at a new brand and marketing campaign that is New Mexico-centric.

Incorporating New Mexico's rich history and culture, St. Clair's new look pays homage to the past and looks forward to the future with a new color scheme, typography and patterns.

Lescombes Family Vineyards will officially unveil the new branding beginning Saturday at the New Mexico Wine Festival which takes place in Albuquerque and Las Cruces and lasts through Memorial Day weekend.

In advance of the New Mexico Wine Festival, Albuquerque Business First caught up with Pacheco and Del Esparza, the president and founder of Albuquerque-based Esparza Advertising, to learn more about the creative process that led to the rebranding and some of the New Mexico-specific flourish that can be found on the new label.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Albuquerque Business First: What led the winery to decide that now is the time to give this label a fresh look?

Sandra Pacheco: St. Clair has been around [for] almost 30 years. I don't want to say it was becoming a little stale. But even for my eyes, I see it all the time and that's kind of how I was looking at it. And if I'm seeing that, I'm sure our customers are seeing that. That was really kind of the [factor in our decision].

We also wanted to attract a younger demographic. Most people in New Mexico are familiar with the St. Clair brand. We want to keep those customers of course, but we also know that there are emerging consumers that may not be familiar with St. Clair and we certainly wanted to provide them a visual that would stand out and say, 'Hey I'm here, I'm here, come try me.'

And then we wanted to be very authentic to New Mexico. We have rich traditions, we have an authentic product. We wanted to convey that on the label.

Albuquerque Business First: What did you find out in the research about how both existing and prospective customers view the St. Clair label?

Pacheco: We did send out a survey and I guess what I would say to prospective folks trying to make a change in what they do [is to] not assume that what you do — what you feel as the owner of the brand or the product — is necessarily what the consumer is looking for. We've done this a couple of times now where my team has felt a certain way about some changes [we might make], and once we go out to the consumer, we find that that indeed is not the case.

It was phenomenal to hear the support that St. Clair brand has, the positioning of the brand and [its] strength with existing consumers. But we also — in the process — learned what the younger demographic is looking for. They're looking for something different. They want that authentic feel to a product. They want to know where it's made. They want to know who made it. They want to know what are you doing in your business to make this a good product.

Del Esparza: I will say Sandra and her team, the way they handled this and the way they approach is textbook. There were a lot of assumptions that were made at the onset of this project. So the hard work — and again it goes to that 80% science, 20% art — is absolutely necessary to ensure the success of any new brand or rebranding effort.

One of the things that also [came] out of the research is New Mexico pride. There's a lot of New Mexico pride that exists out there and there's a story to be told when it comes to the Lescombes Family and St. Clair.

Albuquerque Business First: How do you take that information and translate it into a color palette and a brand identity?

Esparza: It is a tremendous amount of work. When it comes to leaning into New Mexico, it's knowing the landscape of New Mexico, making sure that that comes across and in some of the designs as well as some of the advertising tactics that are deployed.

It's using design approaches that only a true New Mexican would know. So a lot of the designs in the bottle, you'll see subtle, subtle nods to other New Mexicans. People outside of New Mexico would just view it as something that's very aesthetically pleasing. But people inside New Mexico would be able to take ownership and know that this is something that is representative of them ... [they are] some winks and some nods in there for sure.

...I think the incorporation of the rosettes, what you would see in tin work, for me that was really important and I thought that that really communicated New Mexico. I think that just kind of sets it apart from, from other products out there, number one. But for me, that was a really strong direction as well as the tactile feel of the label. You know, it's not just a flat label. There's a feel to it and it just, it looks — I hate to keep saying the word authentic — but that's where it [gets] to New Mexico.

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