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ROGUE WINE NOTES The 'Law of the Few' and Southern Oregon wine Comment By MJ Daspit for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By MJ Daspit for the Tidings Posted Apr. 1, 2016 at 12:01 AM By MJ Daspit for the Tidings Posted Apr. 1, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News In the title of this article readers may recognize a term appropriated from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller of 2000, "The Tipping Point." The book’s thesis rests on the idea that broad-based success in an endeavor is dependent on the involvement of people with a specific social skill set, and that those with these skills comprise about 20 percent of the total number of people involved in the enterprise. These few are identified as Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. When an enterprise or an idea goes viral, these are the carriers of the epidemic. Marilyn Hawkins is a Connector, the human equivalent of a cyberspace network hub. It is her job in Gladwell’s universe to develop a rainbow of acquaintances from disparate regions, backgrounds and professions and serve as a conduit for these people to meet each other and work together. Happily for the wine industry of Southern Oregon, Hawkins lives in Ashland, loves local wines and has taken up the cause of getting them noticed worldwide. A native of Washington state, Hawkins pursued a career in public relations and founded her own Seattle PR firm with an A-list clientele, including Xerox and Home Depot. When she decided to leave the corporate world in favor of a more laid-back lifestyle, she relocated to Ashland. Like so many of us, she came for the theater and stayed for the small town ambiance — and the wine. Twelve years later she is known as a mainstay of our wine industry, having attracted wine writers and judges with international reputations to our local wineries. She began with Peter Mitham, Northwest correspondent for the wine business magazine Wines & Vines, who was in Roseburg for the opening of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute at Umpqua Community College. At Hawkins’ invitation, he attended a soirée at Medford’s Pallet Wine Company and met many local winemakers. Establishing these contacts was key to getting news about Southern Oregon wines into Wines & Vines. Hawkins repeated this pattern when she learned that Wine Enthusiast columnist Paul Gregutt would be traveling from Palm Springs to Canyonville to be a judge at the Greatest of the Grape wine event. She insisted he join her for a tour of Rogue Valley wineries. Gregutt was so impressed he wrote up Ashland/Southern Oregon in the February 2016 issue of Wine Enthusiast as one of the top 10 wine travel destinations in the world. Similarly, when Hawkins learned that Eric Degerman was going to be judging wines at the Oregon Tempranillo Celebration in Ashland, she took him to several wineries after the conference. Degerman and his associate, Andy Perdue of Great Northwest Wine, were recently asked by Portland’s Portrait Magazine to do an article on Southern Oregon wines for the new Seattle edition of the lifestyle publication, premiering in March. The tour with Hawkins couldn’t have been more opportune. “I was lucky with the timing,” Hawkins says. “It takes a little chutzpah, too.” A member of organizations such as the Rogue and Umpqua Winegrowers Associations, Hawkins has also created a gathering of her own. Called the Wine Marketing Round Table, the group meets four times a year at different Southern Oregon wineries and wine-related businesses. “What I do is bring in five or six different speakers on various topics and give them each 15 minutes. We don’t need the documentary. We need the commercial. The 12 things you need to know about Twitter. David Gibb and Jim Craven on what constitutes good winery photography. We get about 30 people coming to these things all the time and it’s really peer to peer learning. Wineries talk about what they’re doing with experts in some field of marketing or communications. It’s really fun. People like it.” In about a week Hawkins will launch SoWine, a blog focused on applying “basic business principles and philosophies to the grape.” Posts will address topics such as customer service, marketing, direct-to-consumer sales, technology, staffing, pricing, community relations, branding, accolades and crisis response. With her seemingly endless enthusiasm and dozens of marketing ideas, Hawkins is one of the 20 percent poised to tip Southern Oregon’s wines onto the world stage. Ashland freelance writer MJ Daspit is co-author of "Rogue Valley Wine." By MJ Daspit for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By MJ Daspit for the Tidings Posted Apr. 1, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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