Of Wines and Reviews: Measuring and Modeling the Vivino Wine Social Network

This paper presents an analysis of social experiences around wine consumption through the lens of Vivino, a social network for wine enthusiasts with over 26 million users worldwide. We compare users' perceptions of various wine types and regional styles across both New and Old World wines, examining them across price ranges, vintages, regions, varietals, and blends. Among other things, we find that ratings provided by Vivino users are not biased by cost. We then study how wine characteristics, language in wine reviews, and the distribution of wine ratings can be combined to develop prediction models. More specifically, we model user behavior to develop a regression model for predicting wine ratings, and a classifier for determining user review preferences.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appears in the Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2018). This is the full versio

Website quality for SME wineries: Measurement insights

PurposeThe study aims to offer a general review of website evaluation, with particular application to the winery tourism field. Automated website evaluation is explored as a complementary tool in the evaluation of small and medium enterprise (SME) winery websites.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a mixed-method investigation including a critical review of winery website evaluation literature and analysis of winery website scores generated through a free service of a commercial automated evaluation scoring system.FindingsNo standards currently exist for winery website evaluation metrics and current evaluation processes suffer from human rater bias. An automated evaluation scoring system used in the study was able to discriminate between a sample of known best practice websites and other independently formed samples representing average wineries in the USA and in North Carolina.Research limitations/implicationsWineries and other small business tourism firms can benefit by incorporating automated website evaluation and benchmarking into their internet strategies. Reported human rater limitations noted in manual evaluation may be minimized using automated rating technology. Automated evaluation system metrics tend to be updated more frequently and offer better alignment with trending consumer expectations for website design.Originality/valueThe current study used an automated website quality evaluation tool that serves to move winery website design efforts forward and supports the goals of reputation management for tourism businesses relying on internet marketing

Finding your niche in a global wine market - Establishment of the new wine brand #QSTG with focus on product development and entrepeneurial marketing

Vinifera Euromaster European Master in Viticulture and Oenology - Instituto Superior de Agronomia / EMaVEThe author intends to establish a new wine brand named #QSTG, which is a diminutive of the German term Quereinsteiger (in English: career changer). The name refers to the completely different professional background of the author, who has been a lawyer and entrepreneur for many years, before studying viticulture and enology. The idea is to create a brand for wines, produced by the author and other winemakers who also have other professional backgrounds, bringing in new ideas based on their different perspective, approach and style of winemaking. Within this project thesis the author first describes the scenario in which the new wine brand should be established, before defining the term entrepreneurial marketing by reviewing the existing literature and analyzing the current wine market. In the next step the author develops the wine brand #QSTG in accordance with the targeted niche market. This includes key aspects, such as positioning, brand name, logo, wine style and quality. Finally the marketing mix of #QSTG is developed, considering the findings about entrepreneurial marketing. Besides designing the product in collaboration with different graphic designers, this thesis also includes detailed elaborations about pricing, placement and promotion of the #QSTG products. Due to the concluded feasibility, the author will implement the project following the graduation. Therefore the master thesis ends with an outlook on the next steps of the implementation of the #QSTG wine projectN/

Masters of Wine on Twitter: presence, activity, impact and community structure

[EN] Globalisation, the Internet and social media have changed the kind of actors with influence in the wine industry and the way these actors create signals to communicate credible information about experience and trust attributes. Among the most prestigious experts in the world of wine are the Masters of Wine (MW). Although initially devoted to international trade, they have spread their activities and their opinion is more and more appreciated by producers and consumers. The main objective of this article is to determine this community of experts¿ behaviour on Twitter. In order to do so, four factors (presence, activity, impact and community) have been considered. All Twitter profiles belonging to users awarded with the MW qualification were identified and analysed. In addition, a set of 35,653 tweets published by the MWs were retrieved and analysed through descriptive statistics. The results show MWs on Twitter as high attractors (number of followers), moderate publishers (original contents published), moderate influencers (number of likes and retweets), and low interactors (number of friends and mentions to other users). These findings reveal that the MW community is not using Twitter to gain or reinforce their reputation as an accredited expert in the wine industry, giving more influential space on Twitter to consumers and amateurs.This work has been supported by the eMarketwine project (CS02016-78775-R), funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) in Spain. The authors sincerely appreciate the work carried out by the two anonymous reviewers, who have helped to improve the manuscript in a remarkable way.Orduña Malea, E.; Font-Julian, CI.; Ontalba Ruipérez, JA.; Compes López, R. (2021). Masters of Wine on Twitter: presence, activity, impact and community structure. Wine Economics and Policy. 10(1):73-88. https://doi.org/10.36253/wep-9055738810

Impacts of Marketing Strategy and Social Media Activity on the Profitability of Online Wine Shops

Today, the wine business can benefit significantly from the advantages of online sales and the use of social media. However, while the online wine business is growing and the number of online buyers is increasing in Hungary, the impact of online marketing and social media use on their profitability is understudied. The research aims to apply qualitative data collection techniques such as web-content analysis to capture the elements of online marketing as an engine of stimulating profitability. For this reason, the top 12 Hungarian online wine shops were analyzed. The results revealed that the Hungarian online wine business is highly concentrated, the five main players (Vinotrade, Törley, Grape-Vine, Borháló, and Bortársaság) attract most buyers and account for the highest profit rate. Using online marketing channels and social media, wine shops can positively influence their profitability. In addition to the classic online marketing tools of the Internet (blogs, newsletters), social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest) of wine shops become highly relevant to boost wine sales. However, offline platforms (wine tastings, dinners, picnics) are still used by Hungarian online wine business. Online shops with strong retail and wholesale connections were better off, and the retail pillar becomes more important

FROM GRAPES TO WINE TO BRANDS TO CULTURE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF KENTUCKY WINERIES AND KENTUCKY WINE PRODUCERS

The Kentucky wine industry has grown from six wineries in 1999 to more than sixty wineries as of 2013. However, the industry has reached a crucial point in its development as funds allotted from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement ended in 2014. As a result, Kentucky wine producers must navigate the demands of local, regional, national, and international wine markets without the same amount of economic support provided in the early stages of the industry’s development. The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) how Kentucky wine producers use cultural associations to manage their brands, (2) communicate with multiple stakeholder groups in varying contexts, (3) determine the structure of the industry, (3) analyze how the industry’s organization affects stakeholder communication, and (4) identify the most pressing challenges affecting the industry. A conceptual framework was constructed in order to answer the following research questions: (a) what are the cultural meanings produced through the communicative interactions of Kentucky wine industry producers and stakeholders, especially consumers? And (b) how do Kentucky wine industry businesses use brand management to position themselves in wine markets? A qualitative study involving participant observation, website analysis, and interviews was conducted. Analysis revealed similarities between the Kentucky wine industry and Bourdieu’s description of a field of cultural production. Cultural associations were determined by local geography, local culture, and individual winemaker life experiences. Cultural associations were integrated into brand management strategies with interpersonal communication, particularly wine tastings and winery events, as the primary channels of stakeholder interaction. Websites were used as a channel for information dissemination. Future brand management concerns involve the establishment of a Kentucky terroir, availability and quality of local grapes, and the cultivation of partnerships with other state alcohol industries and state universities. Implications suggest that the cultural production of wine functions in the same manner as the aesthetic fields of art and literature. Also, wine is a postmodern product in an industry demonstrating postmodern communication. The study expands the use of Rothenbuhler’s ritual communication and demonstrates the value of secondary texts for identifying the cultural position of a phenomenon as Oriard predicted

The interrelationship of family identities, personalities, and expressions on family winery websites

PURPOSE : Family businesses feature prominently in economies, including the South African wine industry, using websites to convey their family identity. This research paper aims to explore the family identity elements that family wineries use on their websites, their alignment and how these are communicated online. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : Based on Gioia’s methodology, a two-pronged approach was used to analyze 113 wineries’ websites’ text using Atlas. ti from an interpretivist perspective. FINDINGS : South African wineries use corporate identity, corporate personality and corporate expression to illustrate their familiness on their websites. It is portrayed through their family name and heritage, supported by their direction, purpose and aspirations, which emerge from the family identity and personality. These are dynamic and expressed through verbal and visual elements. Wineries described their behaviour, relevant competencies and passion as personality traits. Sustainability was considered an integral part of their brand promise, closely related to their family identity and personality, reflecting their family-oriented philosophy. These findings highlight the integration that exists among these components. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS : Theoretically, this study proposes a family business brand identity framework emphasising the centrality of familiness to its identity, personality and expression. Using websites to illustrate this familiness is emphasised with the recommendation that family businesses leverage this unique attribute in their identity to communicate their authenticity. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : This study contributes to understanding what family wineries communicate on their websites, specifically by examining the elements necessary to create a family business brand based on the interrelationship between family identity, personality and expression with familiness at its core, resulting in a proposed family business brand identity framework.https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1061-0421hj2023Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS