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Over the last thirty years, wine has taken an increasingly large share of the UK alcoholic drinks market with sales volume growing at a rate of 4.2% per annum. However, although the market has expanded there is now increasing competitiveness within this market from the new wine producing areas. More recently, competition is emerging from new drinks such as speciality beers and alcoholic soft drinks. The implications for the wine marketer is that there is a need to make full use of all the ‘tools’ within the marketing management toolkit. One of the most popular responses for marketers under competitive pressure in a range of industries is sales promotion. But despite being popular, sales promotion is poorly understood compared to advertising. This is partly because it has never enjoyed the academic scrutiny afforded to the more glamorous field of advertising. However, promotional techniques are now being studied individually and their appropriateness for different markets and marketing tasks is being discussed. Price‐based promotions have been the most popular in the drinks market, as in many other markets, but there is growing awareness that non‐price based promotions can add value for the consumer while meeting a range of marketing communications objectives. This article looks at the use of consumer competitions, one of the most popular non‐price promotional tools, with a survey of 319 competitions run by the drinks industry.

Most wine in the UK is sold in supermarkets and most of this on promotion. This holds down average bottle price squeezing profit margins when wine is sold below‐the‐line. This paper aims to develop understanding of what currently influences consumers to buy in supermarkets and what might influence them to trade‐up.

Literature related to supermarket shopping and to wine buying in an off‐trade environment was reviewed. Several issues which may influence wine buying in supermarkets in the UK, particularly the impetus to trade‐up, were identified. An exploratory study using focus groups followed to explore these issues in further depth.

Wine bought along with groceries can be seen to be as ordinary as any other fast moving consumer good. This perception influences consumers’ wine buying behaviour in supermarkets. In particular it influences perceptions of suitability and price.

This was an exploratory study with a small sample population and so cannot be taken to be fully representative of the whole UK adult population. Nevertheless, it raises many significant issues in relation to wine buying in supermarkets, all of which would benefit from further research.

The results highlight areas where all off‐licences, particularly supermarket chains, could usefully review their current marketing strategies.

This study highlights the fact that there are two wines in many consumers’ minds. Much wine related research has been undertaken at the high involvement, luxury end of the market, but very little at the low involvement, ordinary end where most sales take place. This paper starts to address this issue.

The broad area of the wine industry and the marketing of wine, particularly, are focused on with regard to the changing environment in which wine is made and consumed. The marketing process is described in the context of its application in the wine industry and the environment in which it operates: changing consumption patterns in the industrialised nations, new distribution patterns, and different social and environmental issues. The segmentation of the wine market into two distinct areas, fine wines and beverage wines, each operating independently of the other, is described and the marketing mix factors which the wine marketer can deploy in order to maximise opportunities in these markets are detailed, utilising research into wine consumers' behaviour. The factors detailed are the product, its tangible and intangible benefits; the price — market skimming, market penetration, neutral pricing; the communication mix — word of mouth, journalism, sales promotion, advertising; branding and positioning; ranging, and the distribution channels. It is shown that marketing planning is essential for the winemaker, whether a one‐person boutique winery or a large multinational. The steps to take in preparing a marketing plan are described and guidance is given so that the winemaker can make it happen, both to satisfy consumers' needs and to make a profit.

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 purpose of this paper is to investigate how new wines are introduced to and adopted by the consumer within the grocery retail sector in Ireland.

Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with eight wine buyers/distributors for the grocery retail sector in Ireland and two retail store managers. Interviews were conducted early in 2004. Observation of wine displays in stores was used to confirm marketing communications and promotional techniques employed.

The findings confirmed a market that is growing, especially in the grocery retail sector and at the lower end of the pricing points. Competition and a desire for growth create the demand for new products and all the elements of the marketing mix are used to support the market entry and adoption of the product by the consumer.

This is an exploratory study with a small sample size; further studies could be carried out to confirm the findings of this study or to replicate elsewhere in the UK or in the non‐wine‐producing countries of Europe.

The findings highlight the strength of competition within the grocery sector and the continued use of discounting as a promotional strategy; this has implications for wine producers in the longer term. There is a need to educate the customer with a view to encouraging them to trade up.

The paper provides some insight into the distribution and marketing of wine in the grocery retail sector in Ireland.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on both the sales effects of free wine tastings and the effects on attitudes towards future purchases four weeks after the tastings.

Store scanner data for the four weeks before and after each of ten wine tastings are used to measure the effect tastings had on sales. A total of 170 consumers, who attended a free tasting in wine shops across 4 cities, are interviewed as they leave the store and 37 of these consumers respond to a call back survey one month after the free tasting.

Scanner data shows a 400 per cent increase in sales of the wines tasted on the day of tasting, and a small but significant effect on sales during the four weeks afterwards. The survey shows that there is no difference in purchasing between those attending a tasting with the intention to purchase and those just stopping by. Both groups purchase at about the same rate. Only about 33 per cent of the attendees purchase; the other two‐thirds are boozing.

Free tastings boost immediate sales just like most price promotions, but the effect on the intention to purchase is stronger for those who made a purchase. The study is conducted in one country among a small number of buyers, which limits its generalisability.

The results and implications of this research can be used by retailers and wine companies to make more informed decisions about free tastings. From this small study, attracting the maximum number of tasters to increase sales and long‐term purchasing intentions would be recommended.

The purpose of this paper is to assess women winemakers’ motivations for and objectives in creating a formal, horizontal, and inter-organizational network in Portugal. To this end, an analysis was carried out of the practical case of a network of women wine producers from some of the main wine regions of Portugal (i.e. D’Uva – Portugal Wine Girls).

Qualitative data analysis was carried out of in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven wine producers and the network manager. The content analysis of interviews was done with QSR International’s NVivo Version 11 software.

The results support the conclusion that the D’Uva – Portugal Wine Girls network promotes the creativity and innovation fundamental to communicating unique features to consumers. These are narrated in a feminine, cohesive, and united voice and supported by a passion for winemaking. The network is open to adding other women producers, which could contribute to its growth and further sharing of knowledge, contacts, and experiences.

The findings provide a better understanding of the processes of internationalization and networking among women winemakers in Portugal.

The benefits of this network in terms of relationships were examined, showing that the stimulation of better performance and the effects of antecedents were important in the creation and formalization of the network.

This research sought to contribute to the literature on female entrepreneurship and, more specifically, networks of entrepreneurial women. The findings stress that, through the formalization of networks, women can gain more advantages, namely, sharing knowledge and experiences, increasing their level of internationalization, and expanding their networks.

The paper aims to analyse the current situation and the perspectives of Italian wine in key Asian export markets – China, Japan, India, Singapore and South Korea. These countries show the highest growing rates in wine consumption and are forecasted to become increasingly more strategic for Italian wine producers.

A SWOT analysis is applied to the most recent set of secondary data available from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), the Italian National Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), the International Organisation of Wine and Vine (OIV) and Euromonitor International reports.

The study reveals that the most interesting markets for Italian wines are China and South Korea. The key strengths are mainly related to high quality products, evoking classic values and being perceived as a status symbol, while the main concerns for Italian wines are mainly related to promotion and distribution issues.

The SWOT analysis can be used to develop a strategy that takes into consideration the potential strengths and opportunities and the impact of weaknesses and threats, but it cannot cover all the possible aspects Italian wineries must know about Asian markets. It offers a base for further and deeper thoughts about the how to succeed in the most dynamic and challenging markets of the next 20 years.

Differently from other studies, which tend to analyse Italian perspectives in Asian markets on a country‐by‐country basis, this work represents the most recent and comprehensive research on Italian wines in Asian markets.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on promotional strategies, on which there has been relatively little research. The aim of this paper is twofold: first to review promotional strategies used by Greek wine producers to differentiate their products and second to develop and test a model that evaluates the relative importance of advertising expenses and other promotional expenses in explaining profit rates across Greek wine firms.

An extensive literature review relative to the question under investigation is presented. A survey among 43 Greek wine firms was carried out to identify the main categories of promotional expenses and their contribution to the total promotional expenditures for 2000. Annual balance sheet and income statements data for these firms were collected for the period 1993‐2000. The fixed effects method is used to estimate the coefficients of the specified empirical model using time series cross‐section panel data for the 43 Greek wine firms over the period 1993‐2000.

The non advertising promotional expenses were found to be the major part of promotional expenses, in the case of the Greek wine firms. For the Greek wine firms promotional expenses include promotion through the development of new informational labelling referred to origin and specific wine attributes, coupons, free samples, catalogues, new market channels through “wine routes”. These ways of promotion seem to be more effective to create goodwill for the company and to increase consumer loyalty than advertising. The fixed effects results show that total promotional expenses along with market share affect profitability.

This paper provides an outline of promotional strategies (advertising and non advertising) – a topic that has not been widely discussed in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method by which to audit winemakers' communication of regional wine brands and to illustrate the method's conceptual basis through its empirical application to the Swiss wine Merlot Ticino.

The audit is comprised of two parts: one captures producers' intentions regarding the communication of the regional wine brand while the other determines what wineries actually convey through their formal communications. Data about intentions were collected through qualitative interviews and a survey of producers, while data on what wineries convey was based on a content analysis of wineries' communication materials.

The application of the audit to the brand Merlot Ticino shows that the proposed method provides several insights into the brand's personality, possible gaps between producers' intentions and actual communications, the potential target of the communication, the level of consistency of communication content and style, and the expressiveness of wineries in communicating the regional wine brands.

The content analysis adopted in this research focuses on formal communications issued by wineries. Adding oral contents and consumer perceptions would considerably improve the audit tool.

This paper provides winemaking regions with a useful tool with which to determine the effectiveness of their brand projections in the collective promotion of their regional wine brands. The paper is of value for academic research because it illustrates that results may be obtained in the wine brand field using methods traditionally used in corporate communication research, like projective techniques and communications audits.