Flavoured Wine – Fad, Fashion or Trend?

Sonoma State University, Wine Business Institute, 1801 E Cotati Ave, 94928 Rohnert Park, CA, USA

Abstract

This project was initiated because of the increased diversity in demand across global wine markets. Traditional wine producing countries have experienced strong, recent growth in new categories like flavoured wines, while New world countries create publicity for such innovations and traditional categories like organic wines. Ironically, the amount of publicity afforded such categories is contradictory to market trends, which illustrate growth in categories like Prosecco and red wine blends. Categories like organic, natural and orange wine have numerous endorsers, but actual sales figures suggest such wines are yet to capture the interest of the greater market.

With this divergence between publicity and market behaviour being echoing across the globe, wine producers need to be able to determine whether a new category represents an opportunity to consider a strategic change in business direction. Although publicity has been shown to effect a change in wine consumer behaviour, the conditions surrounding a new wine category's growth from fad, trend and fashion are analysed for the purpose of strategic management. This study extends findings from historical narratives through the use of empirical evidence from both European and New World wine markets. The evidence is contrasted with a contemporary phenomenological experience expressed by influencers within both of those markets, as a means to illustrate the disparity between the contemporary appeal of popular publicity, and the challenges faced by wine producers having to respond to the market reality. This study illustrates that implementing strategic decisions on whether to engage in a new trend, depends on the innovative category being consistent with existing strategy and able to impact the market without reliance on external publicity.