Wine MBA Chronicle 4
11 April 2011
No Comment28 Jan 2011 by Laura Conway
In mid October the Wine MBA class collected in London at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (pictured) for its fourth session. At this point the programme is half-way complete as there remain just two additional class sessions, at UC Davis and Bordeaux, as well as the completion of our dissertation projects before graduation in the fall of 2011. Despite my giddiness at making progress, I expect the coming months to be the most demanding as we complete our long-term assignments and prepare for exams. I like to think of the time as ‘measured’ fun.
While in London one of our primary tasks was to consider the wine business from the UK’s perspective, taking note of the particular needs of this important market. Despite their both being English speaking countries, it was readily apparent to me that the wine culture in the UK is very different from that in the United States. Over those few weeks it was fascinating to explore those differences in attitude, and practices, in the on- and off-trade.
For example, the UK does not have America’s three-tier system of alcohol distribution, nor such varying state laws on sales and taxation, and the legal drinking age is 18 instead of 21. Furthermore, there is Britain’s history of port consumption, her ties with Bordeaux and the long-established tradition of building private wine cellars.
Another difference in the UK that was particularly obvious to this San Francisco resident is the lack of regional wines from California such as those from Napa and Sonoma, although I discovered Diageo’s popular brand Blossom Hill. [Lucky you - JR].
During our stay, guest instructors from the research firm Wine Intelligence tasked us with conducting market research to seek out wine lists in restaurants and pubs, as well as to observe the consumer experience at wine retailers. As I had expected, I found that overall the wine culture is more established in the UK than in the States. It is more established as a part of the lifestyle. (Personally I was pleased to see a larger Champagne selection available, even in small corner stores.).
However, our research concluded that much work could be done to improve wine presentation at grocers and on most on-premise wine lists. To my surprise, wine lists were typically listed by price instead of being categorised by style as in much of the US. I found this emphasis on price a lost opportunity to educate consumers on varietal and style alternatives (not to mention provide an easy reading experience). I thought that as a business exercise, the research was good practice in gathering market data, conducting analyses and finally presenting our findings with suggested recommendations.
In addition to spending time understanding the UK wine market, we studied many other topics in London including finance, international marketing, information systems, wine markets and research methods. Some of the additional wine markets we examined included Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Wines of Chile’s UK director Michael Cox gave us an in-depth look at Chile’s wine market and illustrated typical wine styles with regional examples. Likewise, we also had a French guest lecture on rosé wine and Provence’s economy.
In addition to enjoying the variety of topics discussed, I appreciated having a diverse set of instructors that included university professors, business professionals and researchers. We also had a Wine MBA graduate lecturing on international marketing using his work as a case study (selling Brise de France wines to the Dutch market). I thought one of the most valuable exercises we did was the ‘French Paradox’ game that forced us to employ both financial and marketing strategy as competing wine companies.
Another session was spent considering the adoption of e-commerce in the wine industry and learning about Bordeaux professor Gregory Bressolles’ ‘E-performance Barometer’ for evaluating websites in terms of loyalty, satisfaction, and CRM [customer relationship management] variables. After a lecture and McKinsey case study on knowledge management we had an exam evaluating our grasp of the topic. Finally, I thought it was very helpful to have a discussion on quantitative research including how to build a robust sample. I will leverage this information as I prepare my survey on social media for my personal dissertation project.
For me, one of the highlights of the London session was an industry visit to Constellation Europe in Guildford. Through interactive activities, I learned about Category Management, which I discovered was essentially R&D for wine brands including research on consumer segments and innovative packaging possibilities. In retrospect, I would have liked more time with these managers for discussion and questions as I found this real-life business connection extremely interesting and eye-opening. I hope we will have more opportunities like this in the future.
While in town I had various wine experiences through our ‘on-/off-premise research’. One of my favourite discoveries was Cave London (www.cavelondon.com/), a small boutique on Bermondsey Street that sells flowers, wine and chocolate. I found their Ch Moulin de Curat 2005 Puisseguin St-Emilion to be a delicious Bordeaux when given a moment to breathe. My favourite wine experience was at the fabulously geeky wine bar Terroirs (www.terroirswinebar.com/), where I paired an Italian Primitivo with charcuterie, bavette and bitter chocolate. This wine bar has a really exciting list including a large selection of organic and biodynamic wines. I needed more time to really appreciate all the options.
As I reflect on what I enjoy most about these vinous class sessions, I realise it is learning about the wine business from so many cultural perspectives. Yet again I am pleased to absorb the nuggets of life experience from my diverse set of classmates, knowledge from academic and industry professionals, and the reality of my surroundings. Up next is UC Davis in January, my turn to share the California lifestyle.
After classes ended my husband and I took a short vacation to Piemonte, where I visited several wineries (Malvirà, La Spinetta, and Rocche dei Manzone) and luxuriated in seasonal white truffles. The Ligurian coast was equally charming with its delicious focaccia bread, pesto-flavoured trofie pasta, and floral iacchetra Rosso dessert wine. A real epicurean treat! The picture shows us in Cinqueterre.
