Few people in China acknowledged Chile as a wine producing nation of any stature. The Chilean trade commission teamed up with Ogilvy Public Relations to change the situation with an informative online campaign.
Background
China offers huge potential for the wine industry, but being a young market, it is also full of confusion. A lack of knowledge often leads consumers to default to French wine and high prices to ensure quality while demonstrating the desired status that goes with drinking wine.
Aim
Recognizing the potential of the China market, Chile’s trade commission in Shanghai, ProChile, set out to help consumers understand that there is more to choosing wine than the price tag, and to present Chilean wine as an attractive, more affordable alternative to premium European wines.
As the winter season rages on, don’t forget one of the best ways to keep warm during the chilly season: Curling up in front of a roaring fire with a thick woolen blanket and a big goblet of hot mulled wine in your hand.
This being China, however, you may have to substitute the wine for a shot of erguotou, but worry not, because the Chinese market for wine (a daily staple of most Westerners’ diet) has been skyrocketing along with the rest of the Chinese economy.
Though in the eyes of many independent wine importers, restauranteurs and connoisseurs, attitudes toward wine in China still have a long way to go if they’re to match the ethusiaism commonly associated with French tipplers.
Guesses are, the concept of Chinese wine, taste, and design coinciding as a single concept never crosses one’s mind. A pretty smart guess. However, examining historic Chinese wine labels sheds some light on a unique design oriented past.
Not too long ago, Chinese wine connoisseurs had a diverse range of wine selections with amazingly intricate and detailed design packaging. But after foreign imported wines began entering the Chinese market, many of these wine brands died off, along with their special wine design aesthetic.
Any major themes to take note of? Comparing this commercial, with that of the Remy commercials in yesterday’s posts, one thing is indeed VERY clear.
When marketing a product that is (generally speaking) for the masses of everyday consumers, tapping a worldly theme is very important. China wants to fee like it is not only a part of the greater global community, but that it is contributing to it. This commercial highlights such a theme perfectly in a very straight forward fashion.
The commercials from Remy Martin (see yesterday’s post) target a wealthier consumer and promote images of peace, tranquility, class and sophistication which are derived from the pleasure of enjoying a exclusive and expensive beverage like Remy Martin cognac. Perhaps this is tapping into the desire to find a way to relax and disconnect from a life of a over-worked Chinese executive. Offering a type of reward incentive for ones hard work, in the form of a “special” drink, the you work hard to be able to afford, consume and thereafter experience the feeling promoted in the marketing image.
Chinese culture tends to place far less emphasis and importance on receiving and giving compliments. Confucius said, “to remain un-soured even though one’s merits are not recognized by others, is that not what is expected of a man of virtue?” In other words, when the over-worked, wealthy business executives in China see this commercial, they see a beverage that creates the aura of achievement, recognition and merit so desperately desired.
The Tsingtao commercial on the other side wants you to let go of that hard day, drop your personal barrier and simply enjoy a beer with the world around you (not escape from it).
The article discusses the failure of official promotional strategies of Brand South Africa wines.
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No matter from which angle you look at it, however, SA wines are promoted too irregularly in China, if at all, and for the most part China’s burgeoning middle class has little inkling that our country produces any wine, never mind being a source of excellent wines.
French wines sell themselves with little effort due to an enviable country brand positioning they hold in China. Australian wines, especially the Jacob’s Creek brand, is advertised so extensively that its posters could rival Coca-Cola billboards in Africa. All this while this year we celebrate 350 years of SA producing wine, yet nothing is being done to generate awareness of this in China.
[South Africa Vineyard ~ http://www.ultimatehideaways.co.uk/]
Yet while this logic is apparent to most, SA wine exporters seem either completely ignorant of China’s growing consumption market – or are so utterly scared of the foreign of foreign markets – that it is not even considered. Of equal concern are the companies already exporting to China that do little to promote their brands in the local market; for them I have included some takeaway points.
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Much like Mir Global’s own efforts in promoting Argentinean wines, a major challenge has been to educate the Chinese consumer on the mere fact South Africa even produces wine.
The author describes one particular situation where Cloof Wines of South Africa combined cultural and historical education with a marketing event they hosted at a South African restaurant in Beijing. Upon learning about South Africa in such a situation, the culturally curious Chinese became eager to sample a “exotic” bottle from a place like South Africa.
Cloof Wines is a South African company which has signed up with a large Chinese distributor but is also seeking further opportunities in other market segments within China that the distributor does not target.
From our experience we feel this is the ideal way to approach entering the Chinese market with a novel and niche product like South African wine. The distributor instantly enables a particular wine to begin branding itself with the Chinese consumer. If your wine has found success, or a potential client sees that you are already operating and have a presence in the market, he/she will be far more willing to do business with a entity it already perceives as legitimate and having experience in the China market.
I definitely suggest reading this article, which inspired this small analysis at Globowines. It presents two clear wine marketing strategies for the China market–one which the author of the article feels to have succeeded, and the other which he feels has failed.
~ Bennett Reiss – International Trade Consultant at Mir Global Marketing LLC
Golden Dragon Holdings, Inc. is a Chinese company which conducts the majority of its food and beverage business in the Asia-Pacific Rim economies. The company’s functions as a importer, exporter and distributor of staple, organic, specialty, gourmet and foreign foods and beverages.
This week, Gold Dragon Holdings announced that it had registered its new trademark for its private label wine, “Endless Wines.” Both the red and white wines are made from a blend of exclusive grapes from Spain’s Rioja region.
The company mission statement is simple. “Good food, high-quality food, wholesome, healthy, and delicious food”. Gold Dragon Holdings strives to help independent producers and growers worldwide of fine quality foods, introduce their products to China and other areas in the Asia region.
Chief Operating Offiicer, Mr. Cesar Cuenca explained in this article“We have identified a unique niche in the wine market in China, we call this niche the 100RMB retail wine market. Typically imported wine in China sells at a higher end of the wine market, we have selected exceptional grapes to start producing high quality red and white wines at reasonable cost to consumers. Good wine does not mean expensive wine.”
I highly recommend checking out the full article linked here and in the above paragraph because it is full of the company’s assessment of various elements of the China wine market.
Current State:
China is a large emerging country with an amazing potential of wine consumption. The influence of western eating, drinking habits and rising average incomes have been key factors in the fast development of wine market in China. China has stepped into one of the ten largest wine consumption markets in the world. The value of the market has more than doubled over the last five years and a lot of signs are showing a bright future of China wine market.
Growth Rate:
What greatly spurs the speedy growth of imported wines from wine producers around the world, such as France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Austria, US and some other European traditional wine-producing countries. The annual growth rate of imported wines is up to 13-15%.
Targeted customers:
Wine is now becoming the fashionable drink for the wealthy younger generations in China’s cities, and the “badge” drink for China’s wealthiest elite. With about 600 million young Chinese exploring new types of alcoholic drinks, the potential market for sales of wine in the future is so great without any doubt.
In February 2008, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government waived duties on wine and beer. With the scrapping of wine duties, Hong Kong becomes the first free wine port among major economies and is fast developing into a wine storage and distribution hub in Asia.
The total value of wine imports from around the world reached US$370 million in 2008, representing a year-on-year increase of almost 80 per cent. According to the US Department of Commerce, the total value of US grape wines exported to Hong Kong had increased by more than 500% in January 2009, when compared to the same period in 2008.
On April 30, 2009, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco will host a luncheon event at Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, the Culinary Institute of America. Hong Kong Financial Secretary, John Tsang will be the keynote speaker to give an update on the development of this exciting and flourishing business in Hong Kong and the business opportunities available to the American wine industry.
Date: April 30, 2009 (Thursday)
Time: 12:15 -2:15pm
Venue: Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant,
the Culinary Institute of America
2555 Main Street, St. Helena
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~~ Click here ~~ to visit our company website. Our current catalog includes new wines are from Argentina and Chile, which have have been especially chosen for the China and Singapore market
