Territorial identity as a competitive advantage in wine marketing: a case study

Abstract

This article presents a case study on territorial identity as a competitive advantage in marketing fine wines. The study is centred on three renowned Tuscan local wine systems strongly oriented towards quality and well-established on international markets. The survey aimed at understanding difficulties faced by these local systems in the UK market. An explorative ‘case study’ approach was adopted, aimed at supplying analytical dimensions useful in ‘framing’ a marketing problem to be solved. Experts and key informants were interviewed about their opinions and perceptions on the case study both in the production area and in the UK. Most of the problems faced when marketing the wines considered in this study may be described as a failure to join with the conventional definition of quality that is relevant to the British market. According to the proposed interpretation, a strong territorial identity is a necessary ingredient, but alone is an insufficient condition to build a competitive advantage. The proposed interpretation suggested a set of possible actions at the territory level to exploit economies of concerning market intelligence, marketing approach and collective communication.

Keywords:

• wine
• theory of conventions
• quality differentiation
• marketing
• territorial identity
• consumption

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by Monte dei Paschi Bank Trust and carried out by the Wine Towns National Association in collaboration with the University of Florence.

Notes

1. A detailed description of the actors and marketing strategies in the local system can be found in Rocchi and Gabbai (2010).

2. We define as wine groups medium and large corporations whose core business is wine production and trading, usually owning a number of wineries in different DOCG systems (Rocchi & Gabbai, 2010).