TALKING WINE THE CHINESE WAY: A wine marketer's guide to Chinese consumers

In business there are two main kinds of innovation: making better products and finding better ways to market them. For the Australian wine industry, the challenge is how to creatively and appropriately promote and sell their reds, whites and sparklings to a new but rapidly expanding group of consumers. Right now, China is the growth market. With its burgeoning middle class, China drinks 6% of all wine globally. And, in 2015, China’s wine imports grew by 45%. Understanding what these new wine drinkers like, and how they relate to wine and wine culture, is of utmost importance. UniSA’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science is playing an important role in filling that knowledge gap.

News 9 years ago Unknown author

THE CHALLENGE

The rapid growth and repositioning of the Chinese wine market represents a significant growth opportunity for Australian businesses. Yet China still poses cultural barriers. How can the Australian wine industry maximise their exposure to China's burgeoning middle class?

THE RESEARCH

A series of wine research projects are helping to further understand the motivations and preferences of the Chinese market. The centrepiece is the Chinese Wine Lexicon which translates Western wine terms into familiar Chinese flavours, thereby enabling cross-cultural understanding and consumer authenticity—the key to creatively and appropriately promoting and selling wines in China.

In business there are two main kinds of innovation: making better products and finding better ways to market them.

For the Australian wine industry, the challenge is how to creatively and appropriately promote and sell their reds, whites and sparklings to a new but rapidly expanding group of consumers.

Right now, China is the growth market. With its burgeoning middle class, China drinks 6% of all wine globally. And, in 2015, China’s wine imports grew by 45%. Understanding what these new wine drinkers like, and how they relate to wine and wine culture, is of utmost importance. UniSA’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science is playing an important role in filling that knowledge gap.

Supported by the wine industry through Wine Australia, Professor Larry Lockshin, Dr Armando Corsi, Dr Justin Cohen and Dr Richard Lee have undertaken a suite of projects that test what Chinese consumers know about wine, what they want to know and what they need to know.

Full article from UNISA Business School Magazine.