Editorial

Citation

Orth, U.R. (2007), "Editorial", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 19 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijwbr.2007.04319caa.001

Editorial

This issue of IJWBR is a nice demonstration for the journal’s acceptance as an international medium to publish quality papers on a broad array of subjects. Having successfully passed editorial and reviewer scrutiny, the five articles originate in five different countries, with the first article on drinks marketing addressing an issue clearly relevant across nations and beyond the product category wine. In addition, this issue holds articles employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide insights on empirical phenomena.

The first article by British author Hugh Burkitt draws from work conducted by a group of experts working with the International Center for Alcohol Policies in Washington, DC. The article sets a precedent for viewpoint contributions that IJWBR will occasionally publish with the goal of broadening discussion and stimulating research on issues deemed to merit more attention. In the current case the article expresses the perspective of leading firms in the beverages industry on issues related to marketing alcoholic beverages. Clearly, divergent viewpoints can be envisioned examining the issue from ethical or public health perspectives. IJWBR welcomes such different and possibly opposing viewpoints and hereby specifically invites interested authors to submit their work – possibly in the form of a rebuttal to this article – to the journal.

A “classic” research paper, the second article by Claire Boudreaux and Stephen Palmer examines links between wine label design, brand personality impressions, and purchase intentions using an experimental approach with a sample of consumers in California. The design focus is especially intriguing given that only few studies examine package design in contrast to the substantial bodies of research on advertising or pricing. On the other hand, many wineries rely heavily on label and package design as a major or even only means of communicating their brand to customers because they lack the financial resources required for other means like advertising. Based on a strong theoretical background of self-concept brand congruity the authors focus on label dimensions such as color, illustration and layout, and their ability to create brand personality impressions. Their study shows that label elements commonly employed in wine packages contribute substantially to brand personality impressions and that downstream effects exist from those impressions on consumer purchase intentions. In an industry where product attributes (e.g., wine color, varietal, or origin) dominate marketers’ mindset brand managers will find the study particularly useful for rethinking their brand positioning in terms of brand personalities as well as for decisions on label design and brand extensions.

The following article by Jaime Fensterseifer adopts a cluster perspective to assess challenges and opportunities for the emerging Brazilian wine industry. Integrating different concepts the author develops a multi-faceted perspective on Brazil’s prime wine region, the Serra Gaucha, for the purpose of identifying threats and opportunities to its future development. Mostly qualitative in nature the article establishes salient characteristics of the cluster and links those to measures of performance suggesting the cluster meets basic requirements for sustainable development. Managerial relevance stems from the author detailing a number of options for decision-makers within and outside the wine industry. Those cooperative and firm-level measures possibly benefit other emerging wine industries beyond the Brazilian context. The article is further remarkable in that it provides insight into the Brazilian wine industry as an upcoming player little known to other parts of the world.

The fourth article by Canadian researcher J.E. Barth utilizes data envelopment analysis to compare operational efficiencies of different wine stores. In contrast to the approaches followed by many researchers who measure individual performances against pooled mean scores the author applies a technique that utilizes the best performer as a basis for comparison. Based on input data including sales dollars, labor hours, and liters of inventory depletion, the study shows that “new” wine stores incorporating tasting facilities, lecture theaters and demonstration kitchens possess higher retail efficiencies than “old” stores lacking those additions. Thus, concerns that updating and refurbishing wine stores may not really help sales efforts are not supported.

The last article by Italian researchers Cristina Santini, Alessio Cavicchi, and Benedetto Rocchi is a qualitative investigation into the potential of premium bag in box (PBIB) as an innovative packaging for Italian wines exported to the U.S. market. Focusing on a leading producer of PBIB as an example the authors employ SWOT analysis to develop guidelines for the Italian and other wine industries on how to use innovative packaging for succeeding in the competition for buyers.

Taken together, the articles in this third issue of IJWBR present a collection of research and viewpoints demonstrating the variation in approaches and issues relevant in wine business management and research. I feel that numerous readers will benefit from the knowledge and insights conveyed by those articles regardless of their location and level of expertise. I also hope that this issue will contribute to attracting more contributors and subscribers to IJWBR. Let me stress again that although this issue is still heavy on marketing the journal seeks to publish contributions from all business disciplines. Lastly, please consider submitting a paper in response to the current call for papers on “Direct Wine Marketing Channels” which Johan Bruwer is guest-editing.

Ulrich R. OrthChristian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Kiel, Germany