Wine origin no top choice influencer in Italy

Grape and wine Research and Developement Corporation (Gwrdc), an Australian Government statutory authority, has financed an interesting research that investigates the influencers on consumer wine choice in retail and on-premise buying situations in Australia and in key export markets. Earlier papers showed the initial results and segmentation analysis from Australian data, as well as results for China, France, Germany, Israel and the Uk. The second set of international results have been recently published in a paper. In Italy the most important influencer seems to be previous trial, followed by matching food, origin of the wine, reading about the wine, reading the back label and knowing the grape variety.

This Australian study demonstrate once again the need to consider each local wine market as a specific and original entity. Globalization, in other words, is preserving different buying patterns, and for wineries it's becoming quite impossible to apply the same marketing strategies in every market. At the same time, nevertheless, some buying patterns are often converging in the same directions. Particularly interesting is the fact that, even in a very traditional market like Italy, the ‘origin of the wine’ seems to be no more a top choice influencer.

Fashion drives Italian wines' perception

Does the perception of a country affect the way we value its wines? Indeed, does our love of a country’s wines influence our view of that particular nation? These themes were explored by a recent research carried out by Wine Intelligence. They found that Uk wine drinkers, who indulge in more international travel than their American counterparts, tend to drink wines from the countries they visit once they’re back home, giving them a broader repertoire than their Us cousins. American wine drinkers revealed more kinship with Italy than was reported by the Brits, but at the same time only 24% of them claimed to have enjoyed a visit to Italy, compared to 67% of the British. So where does American consumers’ love of Italian wines come from? Erica Donoho, Wine Intelligence’s USA research manager, believes this is partly down to the positive associations that Americans now have with Italy. Straw-encrusted Chianti is a distant memory: Italian wines are now regarded as part of a cultural family which includes Gucci, Ferrari and Armani. For those who can’t travel, a favourable perception of a country can be created through other means: Italy, for example, is clearly boosted by cutting-edge fashion.

In the future I think Italian wine exports will be subject more and more frequentely to exogenous factors that in a globalized economy cannot be controlled by anyone: rate exchanges, socio-political situations, other industries' image (Gucci, Ferrari and Armani brands),... Traditional endogenous factors (product quality, wine tourism, advertising, ...) will accordingly play only a partial role. How many wine bottles, for example, could have worth a European Championship victory of the Italian soccer team? It's a question that, unfortunately, may be useless asking any more....

Joint winemaking for tailor-made wines

Set up in 2003, Adria Vini is a joint winemaking venture owned by Boutinot, a Uk wine producer, importer and distributor, and Araldica Vini Piemontesi, a leading co-operative based in Piemonte. Boutinot imports acclaimed brands from the major wine producing countries, and sells them through the on-trade, independent sector and major multiples. It also independently source wines from producers located across the globe, ensuring that quality, wine styles and packaging are tailored as closely as possible to the needs of the Uk market. It is involved in the entire winemaking process: in fact it helps producers in selecting grapes and in choosing picking times, supervising all aspects of vinification and maturation. The first Adria Vini releases, from Campania, Abruzzo and Puglia, were launched in mid 2004 under the Ancora and Conviviale labels. Adria Vini is part of Meridian Wines, the Southern European division of Boutinot Limited, that distributes over 40 producers from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria.

In Italy almost nobody talks/writes about joint winemaking between wineries and foreign distributors. I can understand that producers want to promote their own brands, and are not interested in letting others knowing their businesses, but these kind of deals are really very common, and help wineries to sell large amounts of wine to the foreign markets. And that's true especially for big co-operatives, with large amounts of wine to be bottled. The secret to be kept, probably, is that wine is often tailor-made to satisfy the foreign markets needs. Why be ashamed in revealing something that everyone in the wine world needs to do in order to survive?

Wine shops go franchising

Meregalli Group, Italian leader in the distribution of wine and spirits, has launched a project called Ideavino. The idea took shape in Paris, where Meregalli opened a first wine shop some years ago, and has now been imported to Italy. The franchising concept leaves to the entrepreneurs/owners the freedom to interpret the taste and needs of the area where their shop is located, and offers a selected range of wines and spirits, wine accessories and promotional tools. The Ideavino project is aimed at those who are already selling wine, but want a more streamlined and less costly structure, or at those who want to start a new activity. A very great importance is given to training, so as to ensure proper knowledge of the wine industry with simple and easy informations. The Ideavino wine shops are already 16: one is located in Paris, one in Madrid, and the other 14 are in Italy. One on them is situated inside the Malpensa Milano airport - Schengen area terminal 1.

Every Italian region has its own wine market, with its peculiar consumption patterns. Till now it has therefore been very difficult to build a wine stores' national chain, or to launch a franchising project like the Meregalli one. The advantages, in this case, are essentially two: the large wine and spirits range, with well known Italian and foreign brands, and a very efficient logistic organisation, centrally managed. Franchising could help indipendent wine shops to survive the severe supermarket competition.

Bardolino and Coke

On the eBay wesite the Italian blogger Angelo Peretti has discovered an interesting 1964 advertising page. It shows a bottle of Coke with the words "Italy's favorite drink", and below a row of Bolla bottles, with the caption "America's favorite imported wine". The adv shows a Bardolino bottled in a curious fiasco, with a corkscrew stuck in, an Amarone, a rosé, a sparkling Soave, a Soave, a Valpolicella, and a Recioto. History says that the first shipments of Bolla wine arrived in the Usa in 1947, and that in 1959 Frank Sinatra walked out of a New York restaurant becouse it did not serve Soave Bolla. In the following years the Bolla winery was acquired by the Brown-Forman corporation, that in 2006 sold its production facility to Gruppo Italiano Vini (Giv) for an undisclosed sum. Today Brown-Forman has kept the trademark of the Bolla brand, and retains worldwide marketing and distribution rights. Giv, instead, is producing the wines for the Bolla brand and is acting as the brand's distribution company in Italy.

We can look at this "old" advertising with a smile, and maybe with a little bit of nostalgia. It was another era for the Italian wine industry, and Usa consumers already had to discover New World wines coming from Australia or Chile. But this advertising it's not only an archeologic find: it could also show a creative attempt to communicate the Italian wine culture to a market that in the Sixties mainly consumed Coke and beer only. It could be useful to remember these things even nowadays, when Italian wineries are introducing themselves in front of new consumers in China, or in Russia and India.

Brik retains 32% off-trade market share

In Italian supermarkets about 32% of the wine is sold in brik packaging (carton boards integrated with an aluminium and polyethylene barrier). Leader in this particular segment is Caviro, a cooperative founded in 1966, that began its activities transforming the vinification by-products. In 1978 Caviro bought a distillation plant from Calpo cooperative, entering in the production of concentrated and rectified must, and in 1989 it took control of two companies producing tartaric acid. In 1985, with the incorporation of the Corovin cooperative, Caviro finally entered the brik wine market. Today Caviro is the leader Italian daily wine producer with two major brik brands: Tavernello and Castellino. The two bottling plants are located in Faenza and Forlì, and the annual production is about 200 million litres per year, 16% exported in Usa, Japan, France, Germany and UK. Including Botte buona and Brumale brands, sold in traditional glass bottles, Caviro has achieved a turnover of 282 million in 2007.

Brik has played an important role in the Italian wine market recent evolution. This particular packaging, in fact, has become a substitute of the daily wine that Italian consumers used to buy directly from the wineries in "damigiane" (demijohns), to bottle it at home. Brik wine, in other words, has been able to satisfy new consumers' demands: the "one stop shop" shopping, the perceived scarcity of time, ... And now? Brik will not be able to compete forever against glass bottles only in price terms. Eco-friendliness could be a possible solution.

One glass before boarding

The Frescobaldi wine group has recently opened its third "flagship" wine bar in Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino airport, Rome. The first one was inaugurated in 1999 inside the departure area of terminal A (national flights), followed by onother one in terminal C (extra Shengen flights). The new wine bar, named “Dei Frescobaldi retail & restaurant”, is located in terminal B, where flights leave for European contries. It's an open space where travellers can eat fresh raw fish dishes, in addition to classic cold dishes and salads, accompanied by a large range of by-the-glass Frescobaldi wines. The new venue is situated in the middle of a shopping area, and it's surrounded by Gucci, Dolce&Gabbana and Ferrari stores. In 2002 Frescobaldi opened a restaurant and wine bar also in the historical centre of Florence, behind Piazza Signoria.

Air strikes, low cost/no frills airlines, exhausting security controls... Travelling by plane is getting difficult, and a good glass of wine can help. The interesting point is that wineries are starting to follow their consumers, experimenting new selling concepts, instead of simply waiting for them.

Caprai launches 2.0 wine community website

Arnaldo Caprai winery, acknowledged leader in the production of Sagrantino di Montefalco Docg, has always had a particularly open approach to new communication strategies, such as Internet. The wine producer is the first in Italy to have launched a "web 2.0 wine community" www.capraiduepuntozero.it, where subscribers can access and/or share multimedia contents like pictures and clips. "In Capraiduepuntozero - says Marco Caprai - it is possible to look at videos, photos and reports made during the events that we regularly organize worldwide during the year, and to interact with them". In the past Arnaldo Caprai used Internet also to establish a wine club (www.amicidelsagrantino.it/) and to offer a special wine sold exclusively on http://www.nerooutsider.it/.

In the Italian wine industry Web 2.0 is just taking its first steps. A few company blogs have appeared, and many of them have rapidly disappeared: probably the best one that you can look at is Poggio Argentiera's, a winery situated in Tuscany's Maremma, near the town of Grosseto. Caprai winery is trying to do something more, and use Web 2.0 not only to share information, but also to enhance creativity and collaboration among (young) users.

Consumer marketing? A gold dust

A research conducted by the annual publication Enotria, edited by Unione Italiana Vini, revealed that the Italian wineries invest in communication about 5,8% of their total turnover, with a maximum of 10% and a minimum of 1,5%. Press advertising represents on average 14,4% of the wine producers' promotional budget, attending at trade fairs 13,4%, public relations activities 12,2%, events organisation 15,0%, point of sales' promotions 12,6%, and packaging and naming research 8%. "The Italian wine world, with very few exceptions - commented Andrea Sartori, President of the Unione Italiana Vini - cannot communicate directly with the consumers. It's an element of weakness that we can not overcome, because the wineries average-size is small, and producers cannot afford big budgets".

"In the Italian wine industry there are no brands, but only names. (...) Each wine has an history to tell, and every brand must help consumers to discover it. Till now, unfortunately, in Italy we have only heard a very confused stammering", has recently told the famous sociologist Gianpaolo Fabris. The problem is not the lack of money, consequently, but the presence of a very fragmentated market, and the chronic difficulty for Italian wineries in joining shared promotional activities.

Eco friendly wines from Settesoli

On May 30th the Sicilian winery Settesoli is going to inaugurate a very large photovoltaic installation, built in cooperation with Enel group, that will be able to produce 370.000 Kwh per year. It's the largest photovoltaic plant till now built by an Italian winery, and represents a further confirmation of the growing attention given by wine producers on environmental issues. The photovoltaic installation will avoid the emission of 200 tonnes of CO2 per year, and will permit 80 Toe fossil fuels savings per year. The 1.500 panels occupy an area of approximately 5.000 square meters, and have been installed on the roofs of production buildings: therefore they are almost completely invisible, and have a very low environmental impact.

Wineries have to increase their wines' value, and environmental issues can help. Without forgetting that a photovoltaic istallation like the Settesoli's one permits very interesting energy savings. A last consideration, very important for me: try to forget the stereotypes, because Sicily really deserves it.

Italian wine brands missing

The Power 100 2008 is the third of Intangible Business’ annual reports into the most powerful spirits and wine brands in the world. Wine has been performing well across the board over the past year, but Italian wine brands are still missing in the top 100. Martini aperitif brand (Bacardi Martini group) has had a good year with its total score up 8% and its number 4 position maintained. Its brand equity too, has performed well with the panel of experts deeming it 6% more valuable than the previous year with a particular increase in its market scope, market share and relevancy. Number 39 is Fernet Branca (bitters, spirit aperitifs), while Cinzano is ranked 65th, Illva Saronno (liqueurs) 87th and Amaro Ramazzotti (Pernod Ricard) 89th. At the end of the 100 most powerful spirits & wine brands 2008 we find Martini Sparkling wine. Italy, like France, is missing out on valuable opportunities by failing to tap into a segment of the market that the new world wines have excelled in. The Australian Hardys, for example, provides a good standard of wine at reasonable price: now looks poised to become the most powerful wine brand in 2009. Workings have been deliberately left unlocked to allow for an open discussion of the brand rankings, and the full report can be downloaded here.

In the next years in Italy we are probably going to see a growing consolidation between coop and medium sized wineries. But this process will help building stronger brands? In Italy, in fact, brands run the risk to continue to be focused mainly on one appellation/varietal. Santa Margherita, for example, revolutionized the American market with Pinot Grigio more than a quarter century ago, and today has become almost a synonymous of that varietal. The same happened with Riunite Lambrusco. How do you consider these brands? Leave your opinions, if you like...

One bottle = one glass

Quanto Basta is a new Italian range of 20cl and 25cl wines that has just been launched in the Uk by Crush Wines Ltd. It is produced by Coltiva, an Italian wine coop representing 7.550 vintners, 10.000 hectares of vineyards, and selling more than 500 products in various formats in 40 countries around the world. Quanto Basta offers a range of quality sparkling and still wines coming from Italian regions like Veneto and Romagna, including some interesting labels such as Verdicchio and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Quanto Basta, that literally translated means 'just enough', comes with an easy to use screw-cap closure which is practical and avoids the oxidation effects. Capitalising on current growth areas such as sparkling, as well focusing on the role of social responsibility, the range includes a Prosecco Veneto, and a Vino Bianco Frizzante. Four of the wines in the range are low in alcohol.

(adapted from http://www.talkingretail.com/products/8950/Crush-Wines-launches-Quanto-Ba.ehtml)

Packaging innovation is becoming more and more a must for wineries willing to launch new Italian wine brands abroad. A unique bottle shape and label, with or without an alternative closure, is in fact capable to immediately differentiate the content. Nowadays packaging is also capable to satisfy eco-friendly/healthy living/handiness consumer needs. A question for everybody: a packaging can be copied more easily than a wine? Or not?

From the screen to the shelf: a new wine brand is born

For the first time a wine has born in a television fiction called "I Cesaroni", broadcasted by Canale 5 (Mediaset group). In the seventh episode of the fiction the two Cesaroni brothers decide to buy the vineyards that their father had sold before dying. Then they start producing a wine called "Senz'amarezza", that "never leaves a bitter taste in the mouth". A few months after the Cantina Cerquetta, located near Rome, has acquired the licensing rights and has started to sell a similar wine in the "real" market. The wine of the Tv fiction has been launched to the public in two versions: a white "Frascati Superiore Senz'amarezza Doc", and a red "Red Lazio IGT Senz'amarezza" (a blend of Merlot and Sangiovese).

(translated and adapted from http://www.teatronaturale.it/articolo/4620.html)

To comunicate a wine you need a story, and if you lack it you can invent it. This promotional initiative has helped launching a wine that, probably, will be forgotten in one/two years. But it helps us to understand that wine communication has to focus not only on the production, but also on the consumption. In the "I Cesaroni" fiction wine is drunk in a family atmosphere, as most Italians do at home every day.

Italians and wine: conservatives and unpredictables

The Italian wine group Santa Margherita has published an in-depth research on consumption patterns of wine, and on the criteria of choice and purchase, made in collaboration with the market research company Swg Tomorrow. The study reveils that 75,7% of Italians consume wine, and that about 50% of the interviewed drink it almost every day, mainly at home (58,7%). The purchase decisions are firstly motivated by color (58,8%), while for 27,1% the choice is split between still and sparkling wines. Brand and varieties are considered only by 22% of the consumers: only 50% of respondents are able to spontaneously mention a brand of wine. About 50% of the interviewed choose their wine in a well specific price range: 40,2% prefer inexpensive wines (less than 3 euros), 30,9% want to spend no more than 5 euros, and the remaining usually buy premium wines. More than 76% of the interviewed buy premium wines when bottles are going to be used as gifts. About 60% like to experiment new labels and denominations, suggested by friends and relatives other than by advertising campaigns on television, radio and print, while the remaining 40% use to buy always the same kind of wine. "The research - commented Lorenzo Biscontin, marketing director of Santa Margherita group - shows that the Italian wine market is more and more segmentated, and that buying decisions are no more determined by socio-demographic profiles only, but also by consumption occasions".

Wine marketing is not an easy job at all. In Italy, in fact, 40% of the consumers continue to buy the labels they have always bought, and the remaining 60% go looking for new wines driven more by the "word of mouth" than by the traditional brand advertising. The solution? Try to set up a wide "umbrella brand" under wich consumers can find many different wines, coming from different regions... And why not start using wineries' blogs to increment "word of mouth"?

Wineries and social responsability

The Sicilian winery Planeta has launched an interesting "social responsability" campaign in cooperation with Comunità di Sant'Egidio. On May 22th, between 6.30 and 8.30 pm, Planeta wines will be served in 13 bars and restaurants located in 10 Italian cities: Rome, Florence, Bologna, Turin, Venice, Milan, Palermo, Catania, Naples and Bari. Every glass of Planeta wine will be sold at a 3 euros price, and the provents will be devolved to the Dream project, managed by Comunità di Sant'Egidio. The Dream project is an initiative that, for the first time, binds quality wines to the fight of Aids in Africa, where more than 25 million people are ill, without medicines for treatments. Another similar project managed by Comunità di Sant'Egidio is called Wine for life: the wineries joining this initiative buy particular stickers for half euro each. The stickers are then glued on the bottles and, buying them, consumers can help figthing Aids in Africa.

Social responsability is quite a new marketing tool in the Italian wine industry. Can be useful to approach young new metropolitan consumers, but the risk is to oversimplify this comunication opportunity. Planeta has gone a step further, and has used this theme to create social events, where young people can talk and spend time together. Without loosing their time...

Badia Coltibuono brings Tuscan food and wine in Tokyo

Trattoria Coltibuono has gone straight from the heart of Chianti to the Ginza district of Tokyo, one of the city's major shopping districts. Housed in the middle of Tokyo's skyscrapers, the trattoria is more like a bastion of Tuscan flavours than a simple restaurant. The new establishment takes its name from the Badia a Coltibuono, one of the most well-known wineries in the Chianti Classico region. Winery director Emanuela Stucchi Prinetti - an expert on Japanese culture and member of the Onna No Wine association - accepted the invitation to collaborate with Kazuyoshi Arai, president of the Giraud group (owner of numerous restaurants). Stucchi Prinetti explained: ''We decided to accept the proposal of our clients in Japan, where we have been exporting wine since the 1990s. This initiative makes Badia a Coltibuono an ambassador for Tuscany''. Tokyo's Trattoria Coltibuono products and decorative items hail straight from the Badia a Coltibuono, where the Ginza staff was also chosen. The winery's Chianti Classico dominates the wine list and the menu is centred around Tuscan fare. Even the restaurant's design calls Tuscany to mind. The Coltibuono coat-of-arms hand-carved from a piece of local Chiantigiana stone is set amongst wrought iron pieces, leather chairs and wood tables.
(from http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/tuscany/traditional-tuscan-fare-goes-tokyo)
Italian restaurants have always been a strong promotional tool for the Italian wine industry around the world. Now it's time to experiment the "flagship-restaurant" concept (at this regard you can also read the post on the new Berlucchi wine bar in Shanghai). Difficult to find the right partner overseas, but a good opportunity to link wine and food "made in Italy". Creativity and a little bit of courage are probably two of the best keys to succeed.

First Berlucchi wine bar in Shanghai

A new Berlucchi Bar has been opened in Shanghai, inside the concept store "Villa Oro", that collects the best of the Made in Italy products. In its first "flagship bar" the sparkling wine producer, based in Franciacorta, sells its entire range of labels, ranging from Franciacorta Metodo Classic to the Tuscan reds and the Gavi produced in the Bollina estate. Villa Oro is a sumptuous residence located in one of the most vivid area of Shanghai, and the "Berlucchi bar" is located at the third and last floor of the Villa, owned by Andrea Mamo, President of Italian Wine & Food, partner of Berlucchi for the import in China. The art direction and the interior of the premises were designed by Lorraine D'Ilio, former creative for Roberto Cavalli and Cacharel, who has choosen furniture inspired by sparkling wine. According to the Institute for Foreign Trade (Ice) the import of Italian sparkling wines in China rose from 0.06 million euros in 2003 to 0.32 in 2007. "The Italian cuisine, with its simple, true, and universal flavors, is very appreciated by the Chinese people. Berlucchi is an Italian brand, that can and must grow in China, but we need to create brand recognition - said Cristina Ziliani, Berlucchi communications director - and Villa Gold, home of the "Italian ars vivendi", is the proper context to attend this goal".
(translated and adapted from http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Altro/?id=1.0.2091968902)