Strategies France must implement to stay a leader in the global wine market

Résumé du document

The main reason to explain this crisis simply is that there is an extremely harsh worldwide competition. Indeed, the 'powerful' competitors to France's wine industry knew how to push their strengths using 'competitive and attractive' wines which charmed consumers and mainly irregular consumers. Of course, this does not concern premium wines (their historical image is very powerful and receives a lot of media coverage due to the 'Union des Grands Crus'), but mainly all the other kinds of wines.

Extraits

[...] The aim is so to seduce consumers with every tool possible (labels, displays, shape of the bottles which is not always a preoccupation for the French. Moreover, consumer's tastes have changed and for most people, a wine made by a single grape variety is easier to drink. Thus, foreign wines (mainly those from Australia, Chili, Argentina ) have a real success, to the detriment of French wine. They simplified offers due to branding and simplicity on their labels, allowing everybody to have an access to the wine market. [...]

[...] The prestige of French wines and their qualities are not sufficient for this market anymore: There is an urgent need for change! As a result, an analysis is needed to understand the French position in the world today and the possible evolution in the French wine sector, as well as to know and underline the reasons of these problems. As a result, we will have to answer the one which wine actors could have: What strategic actions must France take to stay a leader in the global wine industry? [...]

[...] This can explain the attraction for wine sold in supermarkets. People want to enjoy it with a seducing wine, easy drinking! Things linked to the appellation are less interesting and sometimes its flood him. Furthermore we are children of globalization and the notion of “terroir” (the French term for an agricultural region) is disappearing little by little, making way for the notion of grape variety. However despite these problems we can't forget that behind French wine it exist others things. [...]

[...] The decrease of consumption of wine from France seems to be attributed to a weak wine adaptation (too much alcohol, lack of visibility ) to the modern way of drinking, made by a population more and more urbanized and sedentary. Nowadays, people buy bottles in little quantity. They are often attracted by curiosity and they are looking for wines which seem to be good, at lower prices. When it is a question of choosing, consumers are not helped by the labels of the wine. [...]

[...] They are also attracted by the marketing associated to the bottle (labels, packaging, shape Producers have to turn their production to the new generations. Moreover, too many producers try to avoid facing the truth, often putting their wines as the market reference and they don't want to change their minds. They have to accept that they have to play in an other category than the one that allowed them to first grow. Finally, there exists in France a large scale wine classification system which is often related to the prices of its national wines. [...]