Essay Sample on Consumer Preference and Marketing Strategies

Introduction

Wine tourism is increasingly developing to be an important sector for the producers of wine in Italy and other wineries around the world. In Italy, presently the wine is sold directly to consumers. The country is renowned as a classic destination for wine tours. The country is equally known for its natural attractions as well as its rich historical heritage. All these aspects play a crucial role in the marketing of the local wine to the tourists. Its ancient tradition has been recognized for continuous enhancement of its wine tasting experience. There are a number of unusual opportunities, in regards to the variation of the wine tourism products, resulting in the establishment of synergies through the packaging of diverse products to create an exceptional blend. Wine Tour, as well as Golden Travel, offers multi-packaged tours operations in the Tuscany wine region (Colombini, 2015). For instance, these two firms offer a profile of wine tourist who can be enticed to the fairly higher quality package. The producers of wine in this region provide a wide range of wine tourism experiences which entails train ride as a portion of the touring package on the production of wine and tours to several wines regions. The country has several wine regions like the Tuscany, which is characterized by several synergies between the wine tour providers and consumers, therefore improving the experiences for the lovers of wine. There are other factors that equally plays a key role in marketing the local wine and local wine destinations in the country. These factors include motivational factors like relaxing and recreation, sophistication passion and appearances for wine.

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In a comparison of the packages offered by these firms, it can be stated that Wine tour and Italy offers a fairly higher quality in comparison to Golden Travel tour. The profiling and description of wine tourists as having relatively higher income, suggests that they will not be fascinated by the cheap package deals. The segmentation of the wine market is high compelling the wineries to be accurate concerning industry segmentation.

SWOT Analysis

A vital strategic tool for planning is the SWOT analysis which summarizes all the issues involved in the region. The SWOT analysis will identify Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities and Threats that this region present.

Strengths

Classification of Italian Wine

The Italian government has been very active and supportive in promoting the wine industry. The government has established four classifications of the country's wine. In this classification, the first class is the general Vino da Tavola, while the second classification is Indicazione Geografica Tipica, which suggests branding wines according to their region of origin. The other remaining two classifications are Denominazione d' Origine Controllata e Garantita which is the top class and Denominazione d' Origine Controllata. These two categories must comply with tight regulations (Fortis, 2016). This classification has made it mandatory for some wines categories such as DOC to be produced in specific areas and to adapt to particular requirements. The DOCG label is given to DOC wines which meet certain quality criteria. Majority of the DOCG wines are just permitted to be packaged in glass bottles. Other constraints are mentioned to the limits on the degree of grape and alcohol per hectare that can be produced. The government has indeed put in place intricate but transparent system of laws and legal requirements which are considered to be the strength behind the Italian wine industry. This laws and regulations have been key in ensuring high standards, integrity, and quality of Italian wines.

Weakness

Rigidity

The inflexibility of the Italian wineries has been seen as one of the major weakness in the Italian wine industry. Most of the wineries in Italy are small, family-owned and firmly tied to traditions. This makes them have a weak ability to tailor their production to the ever-changing demand in the wine market. Managerial and technical skills, as well as knowledge, cannot change as fast as consumption partialities do. Basically, the Italian wine firms have the problem of structural sluggishness which entails that the speed of restructuring is much slower compared to the rate of environmental change. From this perspective, a tradition in Italy is a limiting weakness should producers decide to continue sticking to it.

Opportunity

Favourable Exporting Conditions

The Italian wine producers have favourable conditions when it comes to exporting their products into other European markets such as Sweden. First, the majority of the alcoholic drinks are only permitted to enter the Swedish market through a licensed importer. This, therefore, entails that exporters will have to choose between various competing producers. The Tax-free-market on the Baltic Sea is another major market which the Italian wine producers can exploit to market and sell their products.

Threats

Aggressive Competition

The global competition change is gravely harming the Italian wines in most global markets. The country is at risk of losing its dominance of the wine producer in the global arena to the emerging wine producing nations such as the United States, Chile, and Australia. These emerging nations possess a strong competitive edge in comparison to old wine producers' nations like Italy and Spain (Tourism, 2009). This is so because these countries are offering wine at highly competitive prices and promote their wines through highly appealing and catching images. For example, in 2008 Italy was at the top of the wine sales list. Surprisingly, two years later in 2010, it had been overtaken by South Africa which topped the list with a market share of 20 percent. Amongst the major significances that the rising level of competition arises, are a powerful battle for table place and hostile pricing. The outcome of them has been the loss of the Italian competitive edge, quality and brand name.

Potential Areas of Conflicts

Wine Production Approach

The wine production approach that is used in Italy should be reviewed. The country should adopt an innovative approach to the production of wine as well as a liberal culture. The tradition has restrained wine producing firms the ability to preserve quality while ensuring profitability when it results in structural inertia. In regards to this approach, flexibility will only be realized through a process of managerial and technological inventions which should be founded on tradition as a solid main feature and support continuous learning.

My thought about wine tourism prior to taking this course was narrow. While I knew Italy was a major global producer of wine, it is its marketing strategies that have fascinated and changed my perception of wine tourism. This is completely an eye-opener when it comes to wine tourism.

My thought about wine tourism has changed since now I have adequate knowledge regarding how wine tourism is carried out, its significance to the wine industry and its important when it comes to enticing and attracting local and international wine consumers.

References

Colombini, D. C. (2015). Wine tourism in Italy. Milan: Dove Press.

Fortis, M. (2016). The Pillars of the Italian Economy Manufacturing,... by Marco Fortis. London: Cham Springer International Publishing.

Tourism, I. D. (2009). The Italian wine guide: where to go and what to see, drink, and eat. Milan: Touring Club of Italy.