Study: Wine marketing leaves a lot to be desired

Marketing expert Silvia Bargähr from the Bargähr Weinmarketing agency asked 300 Swiss winegrowers about their understanding of marketing and their specific use of marketing tools. Around a quarter of those surveyed responded. The study concludes that marketing measures such as product quality, customer care, new customer acquisition, customer service, design, communication measures and sales promotion are considered important by winegrowers. Winegrowers are aware of the increasing competition. In principle, the winegrowers surveyed are aware of marketing and communication measures. Nevertheless, most respondents cannot bring themselves to allocate fixed budgets for marketing and communication. The survey showed that farms with four hectares of land, for example, spend an average of CHF 6,000 per year on marketing activities (consulting, advertising, graphics, printing, hosting/web, etc.). With a production volume of around 25,000 bottles, this amounts to just 24 centimes per bottle, which is not even half the price of a cork (53 centimes).