Decanter World Wine AwardsFrance loses US market share but is most discussed online
- Thursday 7 July 2011
- Comments (4)
France: less volume but more tweets
According to the latest figures from analysts Nielsen, France and Australia have gone down 9.3% and 7.2% in terms of volume of imports into the United States in the last 12 months.
South Africa and Portugal have similarly dropped in market share.
Argentina, New Zealand and Germany have gone up, building their positions in the US market by 18.6% for Argentina, 34% for New Zealand and 10% for Germany.
The latter two have less than one percentage point of the market, but Argentina is building on a robust presence of 1.8% of the market.
Nielsen also looks at the amount of talk, or ‘buzz’ online about wine regions, analysing chat rooms, bulletin boards and social networking sites like Twitter, and classing chat as positive, negative and neutral.
According to these findings, the amount of talk France generates online far outweighs its market share.
‘The obvious challenge for French producers and agencies is to convert more of that discussion into actual purchases,’ director Danny Brager told a press conference during Vinexpo in Bordeaux.
Other countries producing producing positive buzz in disproportion to their market share are Chile, Argentina, Spain and Portugal.
Nielsen also asked wine consumers which opinions they value most, and found an overwhelming approval rating for personal recommendations and opinions posted online.
Conversely, advertisements on TV, radio or in magazines and newspapers had a very low trust rating.
Ads served in search engine results, as online banners, products placed in TV shows, ads in social networks and ads on mobile devices were given a negative rating – the majority of respondents saying they don’t trust them ‘at all’.
Have your say!
Joel Watson
December 27 21:39
Having started my wine carrier in the Mid 60’s drinking wines on a regular basis in Turkey then in Paris while at the University. I drank what friends recommended and what wine tradesmen recommended. When I became a sommelier in 1968 and then later a wine salesman in 1971, I always recommended wines for a wine tradesman or restaurateur based on personal tasting and not what I was seeing on the TV or in the magazines.
Through the 70’s and forward, 5th Avenue has been driving the liquor and wine trade with splashy adds for run of the mill products in fancy bottles or with fancy labels. No wonder when a company puts a lack luster produce in a fancy bottles and sells it at a top price, they have the money to spend on 5th avenue. But that is not the real problem, it is the consumer does not have a good basis of facts to understand what is a very good and honest, bourbon, scotch, cognac, gin, vodka or wine.
But after forty years of constant 5th avenue flash in the pants advertising, many consumers are disappointed in what they taste after paying a premium for the product. I am glad that consumers are rejecting the TV, Magazine, newspaper and ads on Google for beverages and looking for more personal recommendations before buying new beverages.
Nicholas C. Richars
July 10 06:14
David,
As I wine buyer for a restaurant I have seen a very large decrease in French wine sales, as have most of my colleagues with whom I have spoken. As I read it, the article speaks of gross imports, which entirely encompasses all of the markets you address.
David Lincoln Ross
July 08 12:26
Fair enough, but your reporter does not mention that data does not include restaurant sales volume, or sales from major chains like Costco, Wal-Mart, let alone independent retailers....
So it's an incomplete picture, but it's all we have to go on, so still noteworthy, and Mr. Lechmere is accurate as far as there is the data at hand.
Well-written as always.
David Lincoln Ross
dalianwine
July 08 04:22
so cool!