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Berthold Salomon is one of the few players to have worked on both sides of this debate. For years he was the managing director of Wines of Austria (ÖWM). Today, he has returned to his family’s property and runs Weingut Salomon (www.salomonwines.com) in Krems on the Donau.
The function of a national marketing body should be seen in two perspectives. Domestically it must ensure that as much as possible is written about individual wine regions. Journalistic freedom will not always guarantee only positive reports, but only this will keep the consumers interested. Abroad, it must also build platforms for those wineries wanting to be active in selective international markets. This is essential for smaller wineries, which are often the quality leaders, but could not otherwise effectively sell their wines off-shore. All this is done with a constant flow of news and press releases about the wine country, annual tastings for the trade and press in important international markets as well as trips to the wine regions. As a small winery, we cannot organize this for writers or broker agreements with special wine and food publications to secure independent research and media coverage.
Whether the reviews be positive or negative is secondary. The important thing is to have them! That said, I don’t believe that you can create an image for a region with only logos or pure media spend. Wine from a country like Austria is not a single brand, does not have a single price level or a single policy of distribution. For this reason, the marketing rules for classic brand building cannot be applied to a country. In that respect, a national marketing body can save money on poster campaigns, television spots and the like to focus on building platforms and education.
Michael Willkomm is the managing owner of Peter Mertes (www.mertes.de), the world’s largest shipper of German wine. Although their name seldom appears on the label, or at most in small print on a buyers’ own label, they are a major shaper of the world’s perception of German wine.
For small producers, we still believe in the traditional system: There have always been wine merchants or shippers operating internationally to bring the wines of small producers to the trade and thus the consumer. The historical development over the last 40 years has taught us that the direct link from producers to consumers has destroyed the viability of merchants in many regions. The German Wine Institute (DWI) cannot do much for our business. We ask them merely to help protect the integrity of German regional wines in countries like Russia, where Liebfraumilch and Zeller Schwarze Katz are often bottled using foreign bulk. The DWI should be an institution for all the producers and the trade – and must remain neutral. Its main function should |
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be to promote the German wine regions and our traditional grape varieties in the wine world.
Emilia Nardi is the general manager and owner of the Tenute Silvio Nardi (www.tenutenardi.com) in Tuscany, which has been one of the leading producers of Brunello di Montalcino since its first vintage in 1958. The recently released 2003 bears a new label.
Business is always done by people. Thus, at least in my experience, the efficacy of governmental promotions depends almost entirely on the people working in any given office or even on a single project. The Italian Trade Commission has helped provide the world with an overall idea of Italian wine, and to organise numerous tasting events, but it’s always our responsibility to make a single event successful by promoting it on our website, via emails and through our importers. What I criticise is their lack of precise information about importers who come to visit us, especially as we are now facing difficult developing markets like China. In particular, financial information is very difficult to obtain. We were fortunate to have been present since the beginning. However, for new producers all governmental help is vitally important. Access to detailed addresses of importers in numerous countries and the opportunity to participate in various events at very reasonable costs is a key to survival.
Johann Krige is the managing owner of Kanonkop (www.kanonkop.co .za), one of South Africa’s oldest and most respected wineries. For some 25 years he has also been on the board at Wines of South Africa, which has gone through various name changes.
I believe that Wines of South Africa’s (WOSA) function is to create an environment within which producers can successfully export their wares. This implies generic research, creating strategic frameworks and multi functional directions as well as lobbying at all levels. Too many producers expect WOSA to play a functional role within their export drive, which is contrary to WOSA’s mission of generic assistance. What else needs to be done? This is primarily a function of money. WOSA, in its current format, has enormous budget constraints. As it is self funding, this can become problematical, as WOSA has to manage the universal problem of self interest. As your financial contribution is a function of volume exported, the larger players often become prescriptive in terms of strategy, as they want a higher return for their ante. The small players have a different approach, claiming their labels add more value to Brand South Africa, thereby a higher return. Both miss the strategic importance of a united generic approach. We must first establish Brand South Africa. When this has been done, we can move on to regionality. Within very sophisticated European markets, I expect regionality to become extremely important |
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within the next 10 years. South Africa has the potential to champion this concept, as no other wine producing country boasts so many microclimates. Thereafter, we will see terroir become the overriding factor, which should further boost the unlocked potential of New World wine producers.
Joseph Rollo is the head of the international department at the Wine Institute in California (www.wineinstitute.org). Under his direction, Californian wines were one of the major international success stories of the 1990s.
The California export program provides market information, organises California pavilions at trade shows and develops events that allow wineries to efficiently meet importers and retailers. This assistance is of particular value to small producers who don’t have the staff or time to organise events or climb the steep learning curve necessary to enter new markets. The image of the country of origin is a strong factor in the retailer’s support for that category and the consumer’s choice of individual brands. The positive factor of diversity and range of quality is difficult to demonstrate without a representative sampling of products from the many geographical areas of each region. Therefore, it is in the interest of large producers to support programs that encourage smaller wineries to achieve distribution in all markets.
Although minimising the cost of market visits and trade show exhibitions is always an objective, today’s export manager also values efficient scheduling so that many markets can be visited on each trip. It is more difficult to attract wineries to attend four and five day trade shows as one-day events can often attract most buyers in small markets. A series of one or two day events in four or five countries can provide a low cost way to develop market entry plans in new countries and expand market penetration with current importers. As new countries such as China become viable targets, efficiency in travel cost and time becomes a major benefit.
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