Monthly Archives: May 2008

Do we judge a wine by its label?

Do we judge a wine by its label?

Yes, and new research done in Oregon counts the ways.

The results shed light not only on consumers’ snap shopping judgments but also on marketing opportunities for other consumer products, including fragrances, footwear and MP3 players.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in helping consumers make a good choice,” said Keven Malkewitz, an assistant marketing professor at Oregon State University who co-authored the study. “The package helps people make a decision.”

The study, “Holistic Package Design and Consumer Brand Impressions,” appeared this month in the Journal of Marketing, co-written by Ulrich Orth, a marketing professor at the University of Kiel in Germany. It was funded in part by Willamette Valley Vineyards Inc. in Turner.

Past marketing research suggests that packaging is extremely important in selling products because consumers encounter them when they’re highly engaged mentally in making buying decisions. But little independent research had been done on which designs evoke specific, desired responses, Malkewitz said.

To figure that out, Malkewitz and Orth photographed 160 wine bottles, mostly of less-recognized brands. They asked 125 experts — graphic or industrial designers — to analyze the aesthetic attributes of each bottle. Then, they sorted responses into five primary design types: massive (or bold), contrasting, natural, delicate and nondescript.

Read the summary and download the full report.

Italian Wine Tourism Grows

The popularity of Italian wine tourism continues to grow and now generates some 2.5 billion euros annualy in revenue, according to data released during the wine and food tourism fair Biteg Forum 2008.

There are currently around five million practising wine tourists, also known as ‘wine-nauts’, in Italy and experts believe that the wine tourism movement is operating at only 20% of its potential and could easily double in the near future.

Among the factors helping the movement to expand are Italy’s 140 ‘wine roads’, specialised itineraries through wine-producing regions, as well as annual events like Open Cellars, which draws over a million tourists to vineyards in the spring.

Evidence of wine tourism’s success is the fact that of the three million euros in turnover made by 82 of Italy’s leading wine producers, 7.5% comes from direct sales at the vineyards themselves.

Source: italymag

Winery Lets Customers Set Prices

What works for alternative rock music, might also work for wine. You may remember how Radiohead got the world’s attention when it let listeners download its album In Rainbows, asking them to pay whatever price they thought the music was worth. Sales of the album reached USD 10 million. Since then others have tried the pay-what-you-like marketing technique, including Paste magazine, which Springwise featured last October.

South African BLANKbottle has gone a step further. The boutique winemaker’s founder, Pieter Walser, sent 20 cases of its latest premium white wine Moment of Silence to loyal customers on consignment, asking them to evaluate the wine and then pay him what they thought it was worth. They paid up to ZAR 90 per bottle (USD 11.80 / EUR 7.50), and the average price came to ZAR 50. Since BLANKbottle aims to exceed customers’ quality vs. price expectations, the wine went on sale to the public at a price of ZAR 40.

Walser, for his part, got a high return on the wine he risked in the venture. In addition to the publicity he garnered, he determined a new product’s price point based on the actual purchasing decisions made by the winery’s best customers. Feedback that’s likely to be more valuable than the opinions volunteered by focus groups or market research experts. And by involving them in such a fundamental business decision, he no doubt increased brand loyalty among the winery’s core customer base. One to try out with your own best customers!

BLANKbottle blog.

Source: Springwise.


Wine Tasting Goes Online

A website challenging consumers to show off their knowledge of wine has been launched by Wine Australia.

Described as “virtual wine tasting”, The Regional Heroes Tasting Challenge has been designed to assist people to learn more about wine.

Visitors to the site can pick a wine and select the appropriate characteristics to describe it. They will then receive a score, and tasting notes.

“The challenge is designed to build awareness of Australia’s wine regions and inform consumers about an Australian sense of place and particular flavour, or style of wine, from a region,” said Lucy Anderson, AWBC’s manager international marketing and communications. “There are 20 wines to choose from, including a Tasmanian sparkling, Margaret River Cabernet and Rutherglen Fortified.”

Click here to visit the site.

Source: Food Week Online

Cartons are the future of wine packaging, says report

Concerns about costs and the environment mean cartons will replace bottles as the wine packaging of choice within the next 50 years, says a new report.

Using glass will become unrealistic for all except higher quality wines as retailers and suppliers look to cut costs and waste and erase their carbon footprint, says respected UK merchant Berry Bros & Rudd.

Bulk wine shipments are also likely to increase, says Berrys in its Future of Wine report.

By 2058, it predicts, “bulk shipments of wine could arrive, before being put into plastic or reinforced cardboard containers in a bid to reduce environmental emissions and create a domestic bottling industry”.

View the full report.

Source: Off Licence News


Gallo Most Powerful Global Wine Brand

Gallo is the most popular global brand with Hardy’s of Australia being the runner up, with USA owning the maximum Top 100 wine brands, though no brand has made it to the top 10 slots in the spirit and wine category, declares an annual independent survey.

Compiled by Intangible Business, the report titled ‘The Power 100- The World’s Most Powerful Spirits and Wine Brands 2008′ has evaluated over 10,000 brands across the world.

Here are the wine brands that find a spot in the Top 100 spirits and wine brands:

1.

Gallo

Gallo

USA

18

2.

Hardy’s

Constellation

Australia

19

3.

Concha Y Toro

Concha Y Toro

Chile

21

4.

Robert Mondavi

Constellation

USA

36

5.

Yellow Tail

Casella Wines

Australia

38

6.

Beringer

Fosters

USA

44

7.

Jacobs Creek

Pernod Ricard

Australia

47

8.

Sutton Home

Trinchero Family Est.

USA

52

9.

Lindemans

Foster

Australia

60

10.

Blossom Hills

Diageo

USA

63

11.

Wolf Blass

Fosters

Australia

75

12.

Kendal Jackson

Brown-Forman

USA

82

13.

Banrock Station

Hardy Wine Co.

USA

83

14.

Penfolds

Fosters

Australia

84

15.

Inglenook

Robert Mondavi

USA

86

16.

Torres

Torres

Spain

88

17.

Kumala

Vincor Int.

South Africa

98

Chile, Spain and South Africa seem to be the party spoilers for the USA and Australia who have virtual brand monotony.

France may not enjoy the brand popularity in the still wine section but has a near monopoly in the sparkling wine sector with only Freixenet (49) and Martini (100) give some competition to Champagne brands.

Moet Chandon is the obvious king (14). Other brands enjoying a spot in the Top 100 Spirits and Wine Brands are Veuve Clicquot (26) also owned by LVMH. Other brands at the fag end of the ceremonial parade are Laurent Perrier (73), Piper Heidsieck (74), Mumm (76), Dom Perignon (79), Taittinger (91) and Nicolas Feuillatte (99).

Download the entire report.

Source: Indian Wine Academy


Wine Cork Recycling Gets Organized

When it comes to recycling most people don’t think of the wine cork. Usually people either save them as mementos, turn them into trivets, bulletin boards or in one rare case a suit, or the simply place them back into the wine bottle and toss the bottle in the recycling bin.

For personal consumption it’s perhaps not that big an issue but when you are talking about restaurants and wine tasting rooms, that can be a lot of corks. ReCork America is a new recycling program sponsored by Amorim, a Portuguese cork manufacturer. The project began as a pilot program in Oregon is in place in many San Francisco businesses and restaurants and is spreading into Napa Valley, the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena recently came onboard. The plan is to eventually take cork recycling nationwide.

Used corks can be recycled and remade into floor tiles, insulation, gardening products and more. According to an article in the Napa Valley Register, the biggest problem is logistics, if it takes more energy to pick up the corks than it negates the worth of the recycling. So far, this has been a grassroots program with people getting the word out and working to gather corks to deliver to collection centers as well as starting to brainstorm new uses for the recycled cork.

For more information, visit the ReCork America website.

By Deidre Woollard.