Changes in the wine consumption habits of the Spanish consumer threaten the wine industry as it has existed until now. According to studies by the International Organization of Wine (OIV), the production of wine in Spain is three times larger than consumption. Statistics from the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV) show that consumers are drinking less wine in general, but are opting for higher quality wine. The consumption of other drinks (soft drinks, beer, spirits and imported wines) is growing. The anti-drunk driving point system is leading restaurant patrons to drink less wine with their meals. For their part, younger consumers are more likely to be attracted to distilled spirits, packaged cocktails and beer due either to lower prices, a livelier, less pretentious image, or flavor preferences.

The other day I ran across this article in Spanish written by Steven Tollvier of the Spanish wine blog Manfatta. It was originally published on the website Flyosophy and its main thrust is wine marketing and the fact that people are looking for new markets and new customers. What does that mean? From emphasizing a new grape varietal to using celebrities, Steven lays out the numerous ways in which wineries can change in order to attract a new type of consumer. I think all of his ideas are good and wineries could do themselves no harm in trying some of them out.

Near the end of the article, Steven finally brings up blogs. Being in Spain, there really isn’t much emphasis on the web in wine marketing. People here think of Web 2.0 as a marketing strategy for the new Spiderman 2 film before they would ever relate it to the increased sales of their wines. However, everything takes time. Therefore, wineries would behoove themselves in implementing some of the more mainstream solutions he lists here first. In the end though the winery that eventually accesses the new online wine communities successfully through the new social web, will most likely be astounded by the results. When and with which winery this will occur? I don’t know. It could take awhile.

I want to thank Steven for taking the time to translate this article for me to share with all of you. If you like it or want to ask questions about it, please head over to our new Wine Marketing forums and let us know what you think!

Cheers,

Ryan

Download the English version here…Jump to the Spanish version here.

Popularity: 5% [?]