Class, sophistication and art; add these three in a sentence with the word ‘wine’ in it, and you can never go wrong! Wine, as a drink, has been associated with a certain sense of elegance and chic; coupled with low awareness, has led to its slow penetration and low appreciation in the country. Besides, the government prevents any kind of mainstream advertising for alcohol in India, unlike the West, where wine has lenient regulations. But with the continual efforts of the market leaders who are realising the potential of this industry, it is increasingly being re-branded as a fun, youthful drink. One of the major pushes have been provided by way of live events and activations thus generating high footfall, recall value and thereby looking at wine appreciation as an experience, and not just-another-alcoholic-drink.
Promoting experience, not the brand
Sula Vineyards led this change with its flagship Sulafest held in the harvest season in January, which is an annual music festival. In its fifth edition in 2013, the 2-day musical bonanza attracted around 8,200 enthusiasts from all over the country. This event is held in the vineyard at Nasik annually, where the visitors are also exposed to the winery tour, grape stomping and tasting sessions. In its 2013 edition, the fest conducted almost 700 tours and tastings. The company takes its winery tours as a serious marketing agenda. “A challenge that we face in India is the lack of wine knowledge. India has a tradition in drinking whisky and beer and the consumers have a lot to learn. We put a lot of efforts in wine education including tastings and trainings. We have opened up our winery to visitors in 2005 and are expecting 2,00,000 visitors at our winery this year. Wine tourism has become another important marketing tool for us,” says Cecilia Oldne, Global Brand Ambassador, Sula Vineyards.
On similar lines, another prominent name in the industry, the recently merged Grover-Zampa conducted its first wine festival in the harvest on 2013. Though there was a music festival, it wasn’t the main attraction of the event. Called the Great Grover Stomp, the festival concentrated more on wine cooking, tasting and appreciation. The organisers plan to include more attractions in the upcoming editions.
Classy associations
Apart from this, brand associations of wine can be seen regularly with golf tournaments, art exhibitions, derby and similar events. “Since there are so many restrictions around the promotion of alcohol brands, we have to rely on innovative marketing ideas to create brand awareness and engagement with our audiences. We carefully select events that match our brand sensibilities.
For instance, we partnered with Dinner for Pricks, a supper theatre programme that was a huge success and allowed us to create brand engagement with the right target audience. This association was the perfect ambience for wine enthusiasts to enjoy a satirical theatre show. The interactive event was a great platform to further build a culture of excellence around Indian wines,” said Kapil Sekhri, Co promoter and Director, Fratelli Wines. All Things Nice, a company involved in appreciation of gastronomy and which offers consultancy to wine brands, has created an interesting concept of Wine Week to interact with consumers.
This is a massive initiative to get people to experiment with wines from all over the world and pair them with cuisines. “We had in the August 2013 edition of Wine Week in Mumbai, 28 different restaurant partners that included restaurants such as Elipsis, San Qui, Olive, Koh, Vinoteca, Ming Yang, Vetro, India Jones to name a few,” says Nikhil Agarwal, Sommelier & Director – All Things Nice.
Also, increasingly women are being considered a target group for wine companies who are now concentrating their efforts on targeted communication to this them. An interesting figure was released by winetourindia.com, which conduct wine tours in India; it said that 60 per cent of their tours were booked online by women. “One of the dramatic changes occurring in India today is an increase of women drinking wine. Wine consumption among women throughout India has increased in the last 5 years, especially in metros. Women will become a huge demographic in the future and are important target group for us,” added Oldne.
The industry is seeing a growth rate of 25 per cent year-on-year, but still forms a small part of the overall alcoholic beverage industry in India. However, it is one of the fastest growing segments in the alcoholic beverages category.
Coming up next: Wine tourism
Wine tourism is not a new concept in the country. However, it is more of a factory tour than an experience to the visitors. Having realised this, the market leaders are revolutionising their efforts to promote wine tourism in a big way. Nasik, one of the major hubs of wine in India already has Sula and Grover Zampa wooing the visitors. Besides, Chauteau D’ori, Vallonne Vineyards, located at Dindori and Igatpuri respectively, and the York winery have plans to start wine tourism, converting their vineyards into a destination spot. Adds Sekhri, “Personalised trips to our 240 acre Fratelli vineyards offer a unique experience for consumers allowing them have a to first-hand experience the process of wine making. Fratelli also regularly hosts wine appreciation programs which allows guests to understand wines and aims to develop wine culture in India.”
So will this open up the markets in the tier-II cities? “Even in second and third tier cities we are seeing an increase in the consumption of wine. In select rural areas, wine is also consumed, but it is a sweeter, high alcohol style of wine,” says Agarwal. Most wine marketers in the country have increasingly been focussing on distribution and promotional activities in the Tier II cities, thus making it an important market to explore for a product like wine. “Though our initial focus was the metros such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, we are now focusing our efforts to Tier-II cities in India.
This is a potential market that is seeing significant income growth and employment diversity for the first time in its history. As it gets exposed, it will see enormous change in its employment patterns, consumption patterns, spending power and aspirations. It has enormous opportunity and hence I see there is a gradual acceptance of wine,” comments Oldne.
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