Search results

Wine exports from Australia are expected to double within the next five years and much of this growth has been forecasted to occur in the traditionally non‐wine drinking countries of the Pacific Rim. This paper, based on lengthy interviews with importers, agents, and buyers for various retail institutions in Thailand, uses a case study approach to argue that export strategies based on successful entry into the UK and US markets will be less efficient in the Pacific Rim. A detailed analysis of the market structure, including the types of wines and strategies of institutions from the top to the bottom end of the price spectrum is presented. The success of Australian producers entering the Thai market will be achieved only by changing the strategy they have used in the UK and US. A stronger focus on Australia must be made along with the use of fewer, but bigger agents and distributors. Marketing strategies for each type of retail institution are provided as well.

Wine tourism is an area of growing interest because of its potential to contribute to regional development and employment at times of rural restructuring, particularly through the development of inter and intra industry networks. This paper provides a review of wine tourism, briefly discusses networks and their value, then analyses the development of wine tourism networks in Australia and New Zealand. The research indicates that although wine tourism network development is being actively encouraged, substantial difficulties exist because of the perception by many in the wine industry that they are not part of tourism. The paper concludes that while the development of new organisational structures to encourage wine tourism development are useful, they must be complimented by research on linkages, education of potential network members in order to close information gaps; and the development of network structures which maximise the overlap and linkages mat exists between the wine and tourism industries.

The wine industry has been criticised in the past for adopting a mass‐marketing approach but in the current ultra‐competitive wine market the inevitable outcome of a production rather than marketing orientation is almost certain failure. Whereas the Australian domestic wine market is currently experiencing a low growth rate, a precursor to any future growth strategy is a clear understanding of the market. Acceptance of market segmentation as a strategy to target consumers more effectively enhances the focus and differentiation essential to achieve growth in the wine market. Recently a new segmentation approach of lifestyle based on a cognitive deductive perspective that makes lifestyle specific to the area of wine consumption was developed by Bruwer et al. (2001). This process included the development of a wine‐related lifestyle (WRL) measurement research instrument and the identification of five wine‐related lifestyle market segments. In this paper, a study conducted in the Australian wine market on 363 consumers to empirically confirm or disconfirm the previously identified five wine‐related lifestyle segments is reported on. The further theoretically‐driven development and improvement of the WRL research instrument is also described.

Who is the wine consumer? Who cares? The wine industry globally is a multibillion dollar industry, yet research into the behaviour of the typical wine consumer is limited. This article is a partial review of the literature and by deduction from current trends endeavours to provide the wine maker with a broad profile of who drinks wine and what they might be drinking in the future.

The paper shows how sustainable value chain analysis (SVCA) can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify misalignment between resource allocation and consumer preferences, using a case study of the Oxford Landing wine chain, from South Australia to the UK.

The study incorporates a combination of value chain analysis (VCA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) in a single methodology to determine which activities, at each stage in the supply chain, create value (in the eyes of consumers) and the contribution of these activities to greenhouse gas emissions.

The case study demonstrates the value of comparing the consumer value associated with a particular activity with the emissions associated with that activity, as this draws the attention of managers, at each stage of the supply chain, to the potential trade‐offs that exist and the danger of focusing on either one (adding value or reducing emissions) in isolation.

The main limitation of the research methodology is that the study focuses on a single product (Oxford Landing) and a single chain to a single country (UK). Thus, it is difficult to generalise from the results of this single case study to the (South Australian) wine industry in general, without further information from other wineries and consumer perceptions of their brands in different parts of the world.

The case study highlights the importance of taking a holistic view when considering the sustainability of a product, process or chain – trade‐offs between environmental benefits and consumer perceptions of value can have significant commercial implications. It also illustrates the potential for SVCA to be used as a guide for the allocation of research and development expenditure (public and private) in pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage.

The study is the first to combine LCA with VCA in a context that allows researchers, practitioners and policymakers to identify areas for improvement, in what they do and how they do it.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how a wine region should develop and position its brand using the best worst scaling (BWS) approach. A better understanding of the features that characterize a wine region is critical when raising the profile of a region and trying to capture wine consumers’ share of mind.

In this study, the degree of importance was measured of 13 features that can represent and characterize a wine region currently perceived as commodity‐based, using a questionnaire designed for the BWS approach.

The results mainly showed key similarities between the consumers and wine professionals regarding the features that can activate to raise the profile of the region. Findings also contradict the positioning recommended by industry groups and consultants.

Using an original way to assess and measure features that would support regional brand salience, these findings confirmed the importance given to geographical names as well as activating a set of features.

The paper's findings suggest that the Riverland or any commodity‐based wine region would benefit from using a set of features in order to build their brand salience than relying on one single feature.

This paper provides preliminary findings showing the relevance of using the BWS approach when developing the key positioning messages for a wine region, or for other brands.

There are many factors which may influence the ability of wineries to build and maintain long‐term relationships (LTR) with their suppliers of grapes. The aim of this paper is to identify the most important factors which enhance LTR between Australian wineries and grape growers.

A qualitative in‐depth interview technique was employed with 13 Australian grape growers.

The relational dimensions of communication, goal compatibility and use of power were found to influence the relationship quality dimensions of trust and satisfaction, which are also linked to the level of commitment and hence long‐term relationship.

The Australian wine industry is currently suffering economic instability which has resulted in the demise of some relationships between grape growers and winemakers. However, economic misfortunes will no doubt change and inefficiencies will result if LTR are not maintained. These inefficiencies could prove detrimental as the Australian wine industry strives to produce regionally branded and higher quality wine products which are both grape grower derived element. Furthermore, issues related to communication frequency and reduction in trust have implications for communication strategies which may result in the reduction of winery grower liaison staff.

This paper offers a grape/grower‐winery perspective on buyer‐seller relationships. It moderates the theory on communication and its effect on trust and commitment. Furthermore it posits the issue of buyer size on relational dimension and outcomes, which has had little attention in the literature.

Who is the wine consumer? Who cares? The wine industry globally is a multibillion dollar industry, yet research into the behaviour of the typical wine consumer is limited. This article is a partial review of the literature and by deduction from current trends endeavours to provide the wine maker with a broad profile of who drinks wine and what they might be drinking in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of a domain-specific research instrument (the wine-related lifestyle (WRL)) to determine the different lifestyle-related wine market segments in a country and compare the findings cross-culturally.

The research instrument included 48 psychographic activities, interests and opinions (AIO) statements, plus socio-demographic, product consumption and purchasing questions. A final sample of 376 South African wine consumers was utilised, whereon exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, combined with Hough’s Euclidean test, were applied to determine the existence of clusters (segments), assign descriptions to them, and link these to product consumption data.

Five wine segments recurred when comparing wine market segmentation studies cross-culturally. This means that cross-culturally, similar types of people drink wine with similar AIOs towards wine. In the South African market, four of these segments were identified.

This study achieved a robust lifestyle-based market segmentation algorithm which can be used by researchers in different country environments for wine as a domain-specific product.

The contribution of this research is threefold in that it tested the WRL instrument in a cross-cultural context which is the first time this has been done; in the process it interpreted the wine consumer segments in South Africa for the first time; using a WRL-based (AIO) approach. The study demonstrated that market segmentation based on psychographic (lifestyle) behaviour is strengthened when supported by two additional segmentation methods, namely, socio-demographics and product involvement (purchasing and consumption).

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.