Wines & Vines

January 2016 Unified Symposium Issue

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January 2016 WINES&VINES 141 MARKETING January 2016 WINES&VINES 141 and involved 5,000 consumers in nine Chinese cities. Participants were 18-50 years in age and al- ready drinkers of imported wines. One finding was that 90% of the participants knew that France made wine, while only 66% knew that Australia did. Bordeaux as a wine region had 85% awareness, and China's Ningxia region had 83%, while Napa Valley and Barossa Valley were far behind with just 48% awareness. Caber- net Sauvignon had 72% recogni- tion, while Merlot had only 46%, and Shiraz just 28%. Considering that the names of major wine-producing countries and major international varietals are not well known by Chinese consumers, Cohen said, "Most brands don't stand a chance of being known." His advice was to forget about bringing in lesser known types, varietals and re- gions, but instead figure out how to get into the minds of Chinese wine consumers. Wineries and their importers and agents should ask themselves how their brands can "get thought of " more often in buying situa- tions. "Most brands don't get bought because they don't get thought of," Cohen said. He stressed that the massive hyper- markets where many Chinese people shop are so cluttered with competing beverages and every other kind of consumer packaged product that wine sellers need a way to get attention besides sim- ply occupying a spot on a shelf. The research suggests, Cohen said, that wineries should think about what needs cause a buyer to enter the wine category and not about the brand itself. The prime category entry points are ques- tions like who, what, when and where. Marketing should succeed that targets who is having a birth- day, when are good times to serve wine, and so on. He explained that off-premise is a much more likely avenue of success than on-premise. An over- whelming number of restaurants serve traditional Chinese food, have no wine list and no one on their staff to hand sell wine. "No one is going to see a sommelier, and they will only be able to ask for something they have seen before." Brick-and-mortar stores are where 90% of wine sales occur, Cohen said. Hypermarkets domi- nate the channel, but nine other categories of retail exist. Wal-Mart and Carrefour stores have the highest sales conversion rates. Cohen pointed out that China has 15 cities with populations m o r e t h a n 5 m i l l i o n a n d 50 cities with more than 1 million residents, so wineries with enough production to fuel major distribu- tion would benefit from finding a partner that is already established in a lot of these cities. He said the multi-national companies with established spirits businesses in China are doing well with wine sales. The wine trade in Hong Kong alone showed tremendous growth in 2015. More than $360 million worth of wine was exported by Hong Kong in the first eight months of 2015, an 88.2% increase com- pared to the same period in 2014. Hong Kong's wine imports also strengthened during the same pe- riod, rising to $850 million, a 17% increase year-over-year. YOUR GATEWAY TO TEXAS Texas Wine And Grape Growers Association 2016 Annual Conference And Trade Show http://www.txwines.org/annual-conference/ February 18-20, 2016 Embassy Suites Hotel & Conference Center 7600 John Q. Hammons Drive, Frisco, Tx • Over 35 Hours Of Educational Sessions • 112 Trade Show Exhibitors • 13 Exhibit Hall Hours • Networking With Texas Wineries And Growers • Texas Size Wine Tastings Contact Office@Twgga.org or 817-41-3201 SELL TO MORE GROWERS The Wines & Vines Grower Online Marketing System (GOMS) enables users to create and save highly customized grower searches, and export results into advanced report types, data exports and mailing labels. (866) 453-9701 • winesandvines.com/OMS SELECT RECORDS BASED ON: SELECT RECORDS BASED ON: SELECT RECORDS BASED ON: region varietals acreage grape sales new vineyard winesandvines.com/subscribe

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