Brands’ matter

At present, red and white wine is more popular than other imported wine in hotel and at bar where wine chanllenge is undergoing. However, there is an obstacle for the imported wine in the course of marketing. How to cater to the China’s market with the traditional wine culture is a topic worth further discussion.

 

“Compared with spirit and beer, most of the imported wine is less recognizable due to its obscure brand and producer, which makes it difficult to market in China.”said Liu Yuan, Deputy Director of Wine Trading Association of China, to the reporter from China Wine News.Liu’s words points out the fact that brand recognization is the obstacle for the marketing of imported wine in China. Many imported wine dealers also express their concern over wine marketing. What they are doing is not simply to sell their products but market the wine culture to the target customers, otherwise they’ll lose them.

 

Many domestic wine producers advertise their products on CCTV Channels, but international counterparts seldom do.The agent for French wineyards told the reporter the international wine producers wouldn’t take the risk of putting the money into advertising without considering future profits. Even if they did, they would have to face the problem of how to meet the huge demand with their limited production. Some wine dealers tend to be target-oriented in their marketing effort, that is, different brands and different type of wine for different customers, which is not expected to work through traditional advertising. Till now wine challenge is still the best way for them to promote their products.

 

Some international producers said they would rather sell their products to the wine dealers in the lowest price than put a lot of money into advertising in such a huge market in China. As far as they are concerned, a certain number of wine dealers will be enough to work to meet the demand of their target customers.

 

At the present stage wine consumption in China is still brand-oriented. Chinese customers exercise less individual choice in choosing wine. Advertising matters. So the international wine producers will have to change their idea of brands and advertising in order to market their products successfully in China.

 

In China’s domestic wine market, four famous wine producers (Zhangyu, Greatwall, Dynasty and Weilong) take the lead and have their own market share with their brands. Therefore, these domestic brands will dominate the wine market within a number of years. At the same time, the  sales of imported wine, especially the top

quality brands will keep growing.