Thirst for less pricey wines by Australian wine drinkers

Two separate reports published by Wine Intelligence state that this growing dependence on discounting is undermining the growth of the industry. According to Australia Portraits 2011 (a detailed segmentation and profile of Australia's wine consumers) as the consumer uses price to determine purchase, he is becoming less experimental and less involved.

"Today the market is at a crossroads - do you focus on engaging consumers with the product itself, or do you focus on the deal?" asks Stephanie Duboudin, Australia country manager at Wine Intelligence. "Australia has been the 'Goldilocks' market for several years now -pushing up the average bottle price in the off-premise whilst engaging wine consumers in understanding why trading up is worthwhile," she adds.

Wine Market Landscape 2011, a sister publication of Wine Intelligence, further notes that retailers are demanding m文章来源中国酒业新闻网ore price promotions and are seeking to introduce more own-label and exclusive brands at low prices - something that is feeding the consumer's thirst for less pricey wines.

Although established houses are still seeing profits and consumers are willing to spend more per bottle than consumers in Germany or the UK, there is a likelihood of a price deflation in the off-premise.

Paul Henry, Wine Intelligence associate director, explains, "As the retail challenge in Australia begins to look similarly daunting to other maturing markets - price and margin compression, dominant buyer advantage, popular brands as traffic-drivers - brand owners must employ new consumer engagement strategies or risk losing equity and share to own-label and/or buyers'-own-brand."