Like Scandinavians, the Dutch have high per-capita incomes are willing to spend for super-premium wines. They are unwilling to 'overpay' for quality, however, and are likely to compare the quality of an 8 pound Chilean wine to similarly-priced products from Australia, the U.S. And other major wine exporting countries. Chilean Wine Promotion in Europe

Chile is not alone in wanting to increase wine exports to Europe. Australia and the United States have developed significant market share and see growing exports to European markets. The Wine Australia organisation has researched the European market, and predicts country- and segment-changes in wine demand. The UK has long been Australia's number one wine importer, but overall trends there are static. The biggest growth is coming from "secondary" markets, such as Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. In those countries, Australian wine imports in which the per-case prices have exceeded AU$90 have changed as follows (Thomas 2007):

Country change

UK

Belgium

Netherlands

Sweden

Denmark

Chile signed a free trade agreement with China in 2007, which envisages a cut in tariffs on Chilean wine exports to China over the next 10 years. Chile's target is to become China's number one wine import source (Alcyon 2007).

Chile's largest wine producer and exporter by far is Concha y Toro, which has seen year-on-year growth between 12 and 30% in recent years (Food&DrinkEurope.com 2003). Concha y Toro has pursued a policy of emphasizing "super-premium" wines, which sell for over US10.00 per bottle at retail. As a result of their success in exports, the overall image of Chilean wines has been improving vis-a-vis other world wine exporters.

Segmentation by Retail Outlet

Wine is sold at significantly different prices in different retail venues. The lowest-priced (wholesale) prices come from sales for private label and bulk wines. Discount superstores (e.g. Tesco, Metro, and Carrefour) come next in pricing, although some hypermarkets attempt to use premium wines at lower prices in order to attract wine-savvy customers. Retail shops and liquor specialists are higher in pricing, while restaurants offer mark-ups of 2 to 4 times the retail "High Street" price.

The customer expects different levels of personal interaction and advice depending on the venue. One way to regard wine price vs. venue is the amount of interpersonal interaction and recommendation used in the wine purchase decision:

Venue

Price

Advice

Private label grocery store

Lowest (wholesale)

None -- depend primarily on store reputation

Bulk purchase (e.g. "wine from Chile")

Lowest (wholesale and retail)

None -- no personal interaction; sold primarily in hypermarkets

Corner grocery

Some, if store owner is enthusiastic

Corner wine shop

Shop owner and employees "push" favourite wines; know their customer and what they like Restaurant

Highest (2-4X retail)

Most important: most people try new wines at restaurants (Frost 2007)

Internet

High -- with tailoring to specific wants or needs

National market, chosen retail segments

This medium-sized producer has several positive trends in its favour in entering the European market now as opposed to a few years ago. The perception of Chilean wines as competitive on the world market, particularly through the active promotion of Concha y Toro, has opened retailers' and consumers' minds for other super-premium wines from the region.

Confusing brand images from major EU producers has made it easier for well-positioned non-EU wines to gain share, particularly in those countries which do not have significant wine production. Favourable exchange rates vis-a-vis the Euro and the UK Pound have made Chilean wines more affordable when compared to super-premium wines from Europe. The earlier success of the Australian and U.S. wine brands has also opened peoples' minds in some European countries.

As we've seen from the above analysis, some very large wine markets would not be wise choices for the Chilean producer; regional preferences and a high market-entry cost make it unlikely that a marketing effort in those countries would be a wise investment.

Given that this wine producer has no market share in Europe at the moment, it would be wiser to establish its brand and a loyal customer following in smaller markets....

It should also choose markets where the marketing expenses are reasonable, while achieving a brand image.
This author would argue, therefore, for a triple market entry strategy, with some differences in positioning in each of the chosen market introduction areas:

For Scandinavia, the company should pursue country-by-country advertising in order to establish an image. Since there is only one buyer in 3 of 5 Scandinavian countries, it can efficiently pursue those buyers with an argument for taste and value.

For the Netherlands, the company can pursue a "value-pricing" strategy, orienting its advertising and in-store marketing to comparisons against other well-known, non-European and European super-premium wines costing a good deal more.

For the UK, which is arguably the largest 'prize' in Europe, the company may consider a regional roll-out, with a concentration at first on restaurants and wine bars, rather than going directly to the (very tough) buyers at the major supermarkets. The goal should be to build longer-term brand awareness, then use demand-pull to come to the retail outlets.

Conclusion

It is always tempting to go after the biggest markets (France and Italy), the most populous (Germany) or the markets with the highest disposable income (Switzerland, Norway, Luxemburg). In the case of this Chilean producer, it may also be tempting to pursue the Spanish market, given language and historical ties.

A better, market-driven strategy is to focus resources where they can bring the best return. Market share is easiest to gain in countries where the market (in this case, for non-EU super-premium wines) is growing fastest. Thus the best countries for market entry include the five countries of Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and, gingerly, the United Kingdom.

Bibliography

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Frost, D. "Selling Wine: Most People Don't Prefer Wine in the Bottle, They Prefer it in a Glass." RestaurantOwner.com. 2007. http://www.restaurantowner.com/public/381.cfm (Accessed November 24, 2007).

Knight, J.G., Holdsworth, D.K. And Mather, D.W. "Country-of-Origin and Choice of Food Imports: An in-Depth Study of European Distribution Channel Gatekeepers." Journal of International Business Studies, 2007: 107-121.

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Thomas, G. Western Australian Key Trends and Market, a European Perspective. Economic Trade, London: Western Australia, 2007.

Wine&Vine. "Globalization Who's leading the way? - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included." Wine & Vine, April 2000: n.p.

Wittwera, G, Bergerb, N. And Anderson, K. "A model of the world's wine markets." Economic Modelling, 2002: 487-506.

Measured in thousands of hectoliters: one hectoliter equals 100 liters

Source: Global Wine Production, Consumption and Trade, 1961 to 2001: A Statistical Compendium (Adelaide: Centre for International Economic

Studies, 2003), by Kym Anderson and David Norman (Anderson 2003) (Anderson 2004)

Source: (Editor 2007)

Chilean wine marketing research and segmentation