Search results

The abolishment of the wine tax in Hong Kong has led to increased wine consumption and increased demand for wine-related professionals, such as sommeliers. Yet the importance of sommeliers’ value-adding performance in the context of upscale Chinese restaurants has not been examined. To address this gap, the SERVQUAL framework is adopted to examine the influence of sommeliers’ service quality (SQ) on customer satisfaction (CS) and loyalty in the context of upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.

The survey method is used to collect data from 302 units of the population of interest, partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the links between constructs.

Four of the seven dimensions of sommeliers’ service quality, namely, empathy, tangibles, credibility and assurance, have a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, whereas the impact of perceived value and responsiveness on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is positive but only marginally significant. Reliability has a weak and non-significant impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Examining a small number of upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong limits generalisation of the findings to other contexts. Replication of the research in different contexts will enhance generalizability. In terms of implications, the discussion highlights the importance of sommeliers’ service performance on customers’ SQ perceptions SQ, CS and loyalty, all of which are important variables for restaurateurs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of the influence of the quality of sommelier’s SQ on CS and loyalty in upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Given the lack of attention to this service role in the literature, the study contributes theory from which further understanding can develop.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how sommeliers influence wine sales in US restaurants and to understand how US restaurant sommeliers sell wine to customers, select for the wine list, and keep current on wines.

Data from 250 telephone interviews among people at fine restaurants who were in charge of the selection and recommendation of wines for customers was reviewed. Fine restaurants were selected from wine spectator's “Gold Medal Winners” list and supplemented by Zagat's top 2,000 restaurants. The interviews averaged 29 minutes in length.

On an average, customers ask a sommelier to provide wine recommendations 38 per cent of the time and sommeliers volunteer wine recommendations 42 per cent of the time. While wine is becoming increasingly popular and consumers are more knowledgeable, sommeliers play an important role in identifying best products available to meet restaurant customers' expectations.

Sommeliers play an important role in influencing the sale of wine in restaurants, in particular, in smaller restaurants and in fine dining restaurants. Focusing on value for money, winery reputation, type of variety and tracking customer preference are all critical factors that respondents considered when selecting wines and when recommending wines to customers.

This paper addresses the advantage of employing a sommelier in fine dining restaurants, given that when there is a designated sommelier more parties order wine (an average 76 per cent vs an average 70 per cent), the average check is higher ($62 vs $55) and the wine list is updated more frequently. Fine dining restaurant managers, owners and sommeliers will find value in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role and influence of cultural intermediaries in the developing wine markets of Japan and Singapore by taking a discursive view of relationships amongst these cultural intermediaries, as well as between them and various members of the supply chain in international wine marketing – including consumers.

The authors explore cross‐cultural issues by taking a discursive perspective to studying representations of self, and of inter‐organizational and inter‐personal relationships in the global wine business, specifically through the analysis of a series of accounts of cultural intermediaries and key stakeholders involved in potentially influencing the extent to which New Zealand wines achieve a greater presence in the Japan and Singapore marketplaces.

In their talk, participants explicitly (and sometimes implicitly) construct “vertical” relationships with downstream and upstream supply chain actors (consumers and producers, respectively) as needing guidance or assistance that seemingly only they are capable of providing. They also construct “horizontal” relations with fellow cultural intermediaries. In these discursive constructions, evaluative positioning often occurs, as the various actors are constructed positively or negatively, depending on the nature of the legitimisation sought by the speaker as they seek to justify their contribution to the network.

The insights gained through an examination of discourse should help B2B practitioners in the increasingly globalising wine industry to navigate through the complexity of emerging wine markets in the Asian context.

The paper's contribution is in looking at these cultural intermediaries as cultural bridges in the context of “sophisticated globalization” in specific Asian societies not traditionally known for wine‐drinking.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the developing wine markets of Japan and Singapore for New Zealand (NZ) wine. It is principally an opinion piece with some reference to the academic literature, to the trade literature and quite a bit of the authors' own experiences as marketing academics conducting research in East Asia on the growth of wine drinking in this region of the globe.

This paper is atypical in that it is more of a descriptive commentary, or “Viewpoint”, that draws on the literature interspersed with the autoethnographic reflections regarding the experiences in looking at NZ wine in Japan and Singapore as well as drawing on data from face-to-face interviews and focus groups with a variety of participants with knowledge of the global wine industry. Informal meetings were held with individuals representing NZ wineries, Japanese and Singapore wine distributors, restaurant food and beverage managers, wine journalists, wine shop proprietors and sommeliers data. Personal reflections and opinions are interspersed with the trade and academic literature in relation to the exploration of the NZ experience in the wine markets of Japan and Singapore.

The major finding is that there are marked differences between Japanese and Singaporean consumers and that the adoption of wine drinking or the incorporation of wine into one's non-traditionally wine-drinking society involves individuals who play cultural intermediary roles as communicators and distributors of “cultural products” and as translators of cultural products into meaningful local, consumption experiences. Based on personal observations, there appears to be a functional aspect to this facet of globalisation in that cultural intermediaries facilitate the adoption of wine consumption in emerging Asian markets simply through promoting it as a social accompaniment much like local alcoholic beverages, but also that wine has the capacity to enhance local cuisine.

The insights gained through personal reflection and an examination of perspectives from participants with knowledge of the wine industry in Japan and Singapore should help NZ wine producers with specific knowledge to navigate through the complexity of emerging wine markets in the Asian context.

The contribution is in looking at “sophisticated globalization” in the context of NZ wine producers looking to market a cultural product such as wine to specific Asian societies not traditionally known for wine drinking.

This paper aims to explore the dynamics and performance of on-premise wine trade business.

The study involved in-depth interviews with six on-premise businesses in Seoul, South Korea. The data obtained were methodically analysed to understand the impact of different variables through a qualitative business dynamic model.

Customer satisfaction and number of customers are key performance factors for on-premise wine trade business. Customer satisfaction is driven by servicescape, wine lists and front-line employees. However, the length of wine list impacts directly on inventory costs and staff knowledge, while the number of service staff in the business has a non-linear effect on profits, as service staff does not grow linearly with the number of customers.

One important limitation is that the business dynamics model, which is based on South Korean cases, used only owners/sommeliers’ perspectives but not consumers’ perspectives. There are two implications. First, in terms of on-premise wine trade, the alignment of servicespace, front-line employees, wine lists and pricing strategy is key to shape customers’ expectations and confirm the market positioning of the business. Second, for wineries, understanding the dynamics of on-premise wine trade can help them to find strategies to position their wines.

The paper offers two contributions. Firstly, the paper provides the first exploratory study on the business dynamics of on-premise wine trade businesses, which complements existing wine-buying behaviour studies. Secondly, the study explores the on-trade channel in South Korea, providing insights into an important Asian market.

Purpose: This paper adopts a practice-oriented approach to address gaps in existing knowledge of the significance of cultural producers’ and intermediaries’ practices of taste for the construction and organization of markets. Using the example of the cultural field of “natural” wine, I propose how taste operates as a logic of practice, generating market actions in relation to the aesthetic regime of provenance.

Methodology/approach: The paper sets out the conceptual relationship between aesthetic regimes and practices of taste. The discussion draws from interpretive research on natural wine producers and cultural intermediaries involving 40 interviews with natural wine makers, retailers, sommeliers, and writers based in New York, Western Australia, the Champagne region, and the Cape Winelands.

Findings: Three dimensions of how taste is translated into action are examined: as a device of division, which establishes a fuzzy logic of resemblance; as a device of operation, which provides an intuitive platform for shaping the means of production; and as a device of coordination, which enables an embedded experience of trust.

Originality/value: The paper’s discussion of dispositions, affect, intuition, and pattern identification provide new insights into the translation of taste into action, and the macro-organization of markets. I argue for attention to how cultural producers and cultural intermediaries are mobilized through their habitual sense of taste, shifting the focus away from consumers to those whose market actions are largely self- and peer-referential. This is important for understanding processes of market development and value construction.

Previous research suggests that constructions of legitimacy play a central role in the development of markets, yet little attention has been given to how that legitimacy is constructed through the material practices of market actors. This paper aims to address this gap via an examination of cultural intermediaries in the fine wine market of Shanghai.

An interpretive thematic analysis was carried out on data from 13 semi-structured interviews with fine wine intermediaries based primarily in Shanghai (5 wine writers/educators; 5 sommeliers/retailers; 3 brand representatives).

The dimensions of the legitimation of wine were examined, identifying three key themes: the legitimacy of intermediaries as experts; the legitimacy of a particular mode of wine consumption; the legitimacy of the intermediaries as exemplars for not-yet-legitimate consumers. These findings suggest that cultural intermediaries’ personal, consuming preferences and practices are significant to the formation of a new market, and that they must negotiate potential tensions between interactions with legitimate, not-yet-legitimate and illegitimate consumers.

Limitations with regard to generalizability are discussed with regard to potential future research.

The focus on cultural intermediaries and dimensions of legitimation can be used to examine the case of other emerging markets to anticipate the pathways to institutionalizing new forms of taste and consumption practices.

The paper offers an empirical insight into the market dynamics of distinction in the Shanghai wine market and conceptual insight into the importance of cultural intermediaries as exemplar consumers.

This paper aims to situate restaurant experiences and in particular the wines available on wine lists, within the wider context of wine tourism. This is done by examining the wine lists of restaurants in two New Zealand destinations, focusing in particular on the showcasing of “local wines” and the factors behind these offerings, and outlines the potential implications for hospitality managers and a wider academic audience.

The population of restaurants in each destination was identified using online directories, from which a sample of wine lists, comprising 84 in Christchurch and 43 in Queenstown, was systematically analysed to identify number of wines, regional origin, price and other information. Following this, key informant interviews in restaurants in each destination explored decision-making factors in stocking local wines, including consumer base, existing networks and reputation and additional challenges and opportunities.

Restaurants in each destination offered more New Zealand than foreign wines on their lists, though significant regional differences are apparent. Queenstown restaurants offered slightly fewer imported wines and significantly more local (Central Otago) wines than Christchurch restaurants. The global awareness of Central Otago pinot noir is a factor in this wine list representation, but there are also other influences, including the greater concentration of overseas visitors (pre-pandemic) and more significant visibility and greater opportunities for wine tourism experiences within the destination.

This paper represents an important addition to academic research on wine marketing in the on-premise sector of emerging wine regions. This paper also highlights the potential significance of restaurant meals – including wine choices – in overall wine destination experiences and demonstrates differences in approach between restaurants in wine regions of similar size but with different reputations, international visitation and wine tourism infrastructure.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of perceived risk and implementation of risk‐reduction strategies (RRS) regarding the consumer wine purchase decision in the fine dining restaurant environment. The study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of elements within the control, or influence of the restaurant (staff, reputation, previous visitation and previous consumption) on reducing the perceived risk of consumers.

Data are collected through the use of a self‐administered, highly structured questionnaire in a well established fine dining restaurant in central Adelaide, South Australia over a three week period in April and May 2008. The sample consists of restaurant consumers who made a wine purchase decision at the restaurant during the collection period. A response rate of 85 per cent is achieved resulting in 105 useable questionnaires.

A low overall level of perceived risk is noted in the wine purchase decision‐making process in the fine dining environment. The restaurant's reputation and advice from staff are found to be important RRS with a high incidence of utilisation. The reputation of the restaurant, incidence of previous visitation and previous consumption of the wine ordered in the restaurant, are all found to reduce the level of perceived consumer risk. A significant incidence of customers engaging in risk‐seeking behaviour through selecting wines with which they are unfamiliar, is also noted.

The findings of this research suggest that the overall level of risk associated with the consumer wine purchase decision may be lower than previously observed and can be reduced through measures within the restaurant management's control. Although tentative due to the exploratory nature of this study, these findings may provide useful insights to the wine and restaurant industries and would benefit from further investigation on a larger scale.

This study is of value to academic researchers, restaurant managers/sommeliers and the wine industry as it highlights important aspects of consumer behaviour with regard to wine purchases in a growing and lucrative sector of the on‐premise trade.

This case introduces students to the heritage brand Maille. Dating back to 1747, this brand has managed to elevate the image of mustard from commodity to premium product, capitalizing on brand authenticity and adopting the codes and strategies of luxury brands. Present in supermarkets with a premium price positioning, Maille develops its image through creating an elaborate customer experience in its boutiques, as well as through a communication strategy based on storytelling. Yet, the core base of customers who identify as gourmets is aging. To sustain its development, Maille needs to gain appeal among younger generations of consumers, without betraying its identity.

The Maille brand manager was interviewed in relation to the case. Participant observation was conducted in the boutiques in Paris (both Place de la Madeleine and Caroussel du Louvre) and in London, followed by discussions with Maille sommeliers. Data were also gathered through secondary sources. The question “How to seduce younger consumers with mustard” was proposed by Unilever.

This case has been effectively used with MBA and MSc Marketing students in Brand Management classes to demonstrate how brands draw inspiration from the luxury sector to become aspirational, enhance their social prestige and position themselves at higher price points. Students must reflect on how to build on the brand’s current strengths in order to protect it from a decline in consumption and competitive threats. Based on this analysis of the current situation, students must decide on the value of Maille differentiation strategy to younger consumers and on which segments to target without harming the brand’s identity. The rejuvenation of heritage brands (or gaining appeal to younger generations of customers) is a major issue in many sectors, from luxury, to wine and spirits, to food.

The case fosters discussions on core marketing concepts such as heritage branding and brand authenticity as well as differentiation and premiumisation strategies, all concepts that should be developed when answering the assignment questions. Furthermore, students should choose between a segmentation based on demographics (age, generations), and a segmentation based on lifestyle and attitude toward food.