SOWINE is a French marketing and communication agency dedicated to wine, champagne and spirits and assists clients from the strategic planning stage through to developing their communication tools. The sowine/ssi Barometer is the first survey to study the influence of the Internet and new technologies on the behaviour of wine consumers in France and they have just released the results of their 3rd edition.
The survey was carried out between 1st and 6th February 2012 and the sample of 1,200 people was representative of the French population, aged between 18 and 65. The results show four major trends in 2012:
The Internet ranks 4th among information sources
The popularity of the Internet as a source of information continues to grow. It now comes second behind word of mouth and ahead of the press.
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Recommendations from friends and family
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Advice from wine merchants
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Advice from wine professionals
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Advice on the Internet
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Advice from wine producers
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Advice from print media
80% of the people surveyed say that you need to find information before buying wine.
Increased demand for participative content
Blogs are an important source of information about wine, although people are now less inclined to trust the information found on private blogs. Social networks dedicated to wine have not yet found their place on the French market.
62% of respondents agreed that “It is essential for a winegrower to have a website.”
Increasing need for mobile information access
In 2012, mobile access to information (from tablets and smart phones) will become essential for French wine consumers: 47% of visitors to wine makers’ websites want to be able to access the site from their mobile, and for 42% of major customers being able to buy their wine using an app is essential.
Changing Online purchasing profiles
In 2012, online business is up only slightly from last year, with only 12% of respondents buying wine online (compared to 10% in 2011). Most were male city-dwellers, and two thirds were aged over 36. Of those who used the Internet for pre-purchase information, 34.4% replied “Yes” to the question “Do you buy wine online?”
To read the survey results in full see SOWINE’s blog here.
