Reading keys in the communication of wine in China. Wine marketing strategies

Mestrado Vinifera Euromaster - Instituto Superior de Agronomia - UL

The wine market in China is currently the most attractive one because of its prospect of economic growth in volumes of consumption and trends during several years of promotion of wine in the Chinese market as a product, which expresses territoriality and authenticity. It has been realized that the classic marketing tools do not work, as they should. The market today is partially unstable and unpredictable. The aim of this research is to find ways of marketing and promotion functional for the Chinese market. The objective of the research is to identify guidelines and directions to optimize functional communicative content in the produced wine, which can transmit the added value that makes the product stable in the cultural imagination. The method of research is based in part on an analysis of bibliographic data, with the reclassification of the weak points of communication and potential adaptations of language for a culture very different from that of Western Europe. A questionnaire on quality samples was proposed during a trip in China. The respondents were the main wine journalists, importers, caterers and distributors in China. The questionnaire was distributed during the event of the Consortium of “Carignano del Sulcis” in Shanghai. The interviewees were asked which product they liked most highlighting features and details which could catch their clients’ interest. The third part of the research is based on an experimental study with the French magazine "Revue du Vin de France", the leading trade magazine in China. The managing editor and two senior class journalists has represented the magazine. The RVF group made a trip to several wineries in different Italian regions (Alto Adige, Veneto, Umbria and Marche) tasting their wines. A questionnaire has been studied for the journalists that could collect fees impressions, preferences, vision and communicative functionality of the wineries visited. The results obtained by this magazine during the last decade prove that the Chinese consumer market has been largely dominated by French brands. The communicative filters seem to be one of the keys on the process of transformation in the language of communication of the wine. The newspaper and the readers have a strong correspondence, this leads to identify new trends and tastes. The synergistic analysis of various experiments leads to an apparent complexity to matching the results of the experiments. This complexity is described as a list of warnings and directions that can be used as multipliers of the normal marketing tools. In particular the result involving in four different topics: the verbal communication, the promotion strategies, the perception of the graphic impact to the Chinese client and the practical strategies to fit in the market