The problem statement:
   There is no way to uniquely identify, and quickly and easily find back a specific wine and all relevant
   information about that wine.

   This lack of wine market transparency has important consequences for consumers and companies.

Most wine producers do not use brand management

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Background (« back)

Because there are many ten thousands wine producers and wines, consumer transparency of individual wine producers or wine names is low: it is not easy for humans to see clear in a see of hundred thousands of wines that vary every year.

For most of history and until recently, wine markets have evolved in a very traditional way, mainly because of the complexity of the product and the limited capacity to handle and share information. Through the ages, word of mouth has spread the reputation of quality wine areas. Examples are Champagne, Tokaji, Meursault, Bordeaux, Rioja.

Most countries tried to solve the problem of marketing wine by establishing a system of Quality Levels or Appelations, inspired by historical success of the geographical appellation system in France. However the success of these Quality Levels varies greatly between countries (e.g. Italy and Germany), and they are not generally perceived by consumers to be the best quality or value indicator for a wine.

As a logical consequence of the above, most important wine areas have marketing organizations to manage the brand profile of their region or quality level (appellation), e.g. Chianti Classico.

More recently, the so called New World countries have successfully used new media and marketing techniques to compete with the long standing reputation of historically established wine countries.
The increased popularity of mono-varietal wines (or ' monocepage', produced on the basis of a single grape variety), has increased consumer awareness of names of grape varieties such as Chardonnay or Merlot.

Summary (« back)

Current wine marketing is mainly based on georgraphical origin (reputation of the wine producing area) and grape varietal. As discussed below, a complementary approach focusing on wine marketing by producer brand profile and wine name could add greater consistency, specificity and relevance.

Brand Management in Wine Marketing (« back)

In most consumer goods industries, the producer takes products to market and builds brand name and image in the consumer markets.

The modern equivalent for the wine industry is that consumer markets get clear information and the (price/quality) value proposition of wine producers and their products.
 

Therefore it is imperative to develop brand recognition:

a. consumers have to be able to clearly distinguish between different products and producers, and the value proposition they stand for

b. producers need to manage their winery profile and product portfolio, and apply modern marketing techniques to "build brand" for their winery and distinguish the brand profile of their wines.
 

Examples of branding the wine producer:

producers that have strongly invested in brand are e.g. Louis Latour (Bourgogne, France), Mondavi (California, US), BRL Hardy (Australia).
 

Examples of branding the product portfolio:

a. the so-called Second Vin or Second Wine produced by the Crus Classes Chateaux in Bordeaux, France, are basically flankers to their premium brand. Note the name of their primary (winery) brand name often appears in the name of the second wine.

b. in Spain, wineries use the Gran Reserva label to denote the top wine(s) from the winery

c. some producers have invested heavily in build brand for specific products, e.g. Mouton-Cadet, ...