sales & marketing

How (and why) are wineries using Facebook for marketing?

Rebecca Dolan, Dr Steve Goodman and Dr Cullen Habel

The research
We conducted a series of in-depth interviews during May with wineries from the Barossa, Yarra and Hunter valleys, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and Tasmania. We were interested in how Australian wine brands are using Facebook as part of their marketing communications strategy, and found our answer with winery staff responsible for the winerys social media. The research explored the winerys objectives, approaches to use, their message content and how they measured the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using qualitative analysis software, nVivo 9.

Objectives
This research is part of a study funded by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC), and seeks to explore the optimal use of social media within the wine industry. The study will identify and describe how wine marketers may elicit appropriate consumer responses and outcomes for their brands. Findings can be seen over the next three years in Grapegrower and Winemaker Magazine, as well as regularly through our Facebook page: h t t p s : // w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / AustralianWineandSocialMedia

Wine brands were near unanimous in declaring they want to give a behind the scenes look into the operations of the winery. This is mostly communicated through photos. The most successful photos include those of the winery activities, vintage, winemakers and interestingly any pets! Facebook provides a valuable platform for this, even on a daily basis. There is no other media type where you can provide such a personal insight into your brand, so its important to take advantage of this, but you need to be consistent. Think about brands positioning, what you want people to take out of your communication, and how you want people to engage with you. Ask what am I trying to do here?

How are wineries using Facebook?

Brands tend to focus their online communication in one, two or all three of the following orientations:

just selling things. I dont want to make it sound like propaganda so there has to be a bit of a balance between pushing wine and pushing different events and just saying heres whats actually happening. Funnily like sometimes putting up things like you know if its a particular day e.g. Valentines Day and saying you can get something for Valentines Day here they seem to not pull as much interest if you make it kind of obvious that youve got something for sale. "Its really interesting because we put one up, and I think it was one for Valentines Day and just sort of had it, there was a special pack that you could get and it didnt have pricing or anything like that, but just said that there were special and no, that one didn't really get a lot of interest.

Orientation 3: Relationship building

Wineries were observed to be utilising social media to develop a sense of community and build relationships with their consumers. Such wineries frequently use photos posted on the fan page of the local area and employees, depicting the culture of the brand. Wine brands also appear to utilise social media to demonstrate concern for the environment and region, promoting and sharing other local businesses, charities and events. Personally I think its to connect with our customers or our audience, on a different sort of level Its the best way that I can give people a personal experience of the winery in real time It is the friendly stuff that people can see that there is a human-ness to what youre doing and your business and I think people relate to that so they want to come to your business or go to your website, buy your product because they see that you are all real people working hard We have a story and we want to share it so thats what we use the social media for, for sharing our actual story The diagram depicting the proposed brand communication orientations demonstrates the overlapping nature of online communication messages observed. We propose that various
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Orientation 1: Promoting events

Significant promotion of off-site and on-site events, music concerts, available facilities, wine tastings and corporate function. In this case, the brand representatives most commonly use social media to provide information on booking procedures, availability and pricing: its pretty much whats happening, you know if we are going to open a particular bottle over a weekend, so like we did for Easter long weekend we put that up there as well or if theres going to be specials coming up or events

Why are wineries using Facebook?

A common thread across the wineries we spoke with is they use Facebook because everyone else is doing it and it would be weird not to. Whilst this demonstrates the popularity and widespread use of Facebook, particularly for brands, its important to approach any marketing strategy with a clear set of goals and objectives to work towards, whether its weekly, monthly or even yearly. As with all marketing communication activity the first step should be to identify what you are trying to achieve, followed by working out what you need to do to achieve your objectives and then how you will measure the results of your effort. Theres a danger in simply using Facebook because everyone else is a danger of wasting your marketing resources and not knowing what you stand for.
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Orientation 2: Selling
Information provided focuses largely on sales and promotional discounts. Additionally, the brands use Facebook to inform users about product availability, sales incentives, wine reviews, and awards. Information of product specification and tasting notes was also frequently shared amongst brand users. Wineries did however notice a need for balance between pushing the hard sell, and communicating other information: We use it sell things obviously, we use it to advertise specials but its also to connect with them on a level that isnt
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combinations of each type of use will create diverse responses amongst consumers. The combined orientations are illustrated as A, B, C and D. Future research exploring to what extent consumers perceive there are differences in the types of winery communication. This is currently underway using a quantitative approach with real brands and constructed postings. Understanding consumer perceptions of these three orientations will help us to determine the most suitable combination. Current research has indicated that the key focus is balance between all three types of posts. The research agenda will also explore how the combination of use type influences consumer perceptions of the brand; to propose where the balance point lies.

A key takeout for wine marketers

We notices a substantial disconnect in the use of Facebook, the firms marketing effort and the firms operations. As we mentioned earlier consistency is important. The typical staff member responsible for the wine brands Facebook activity was female, early 20s with a nontechnical wine understanding. This in itself isnt the problem - the problem is that many wineries run their social media in isolation from other marketing activity and independent of both the business and winemaking operation. There is one person who understands how to use Facebook, but not necessarily how to use it to achieve the wine brands marketing and business objectives. In fact, the absence of any Facebook objectives or strategy might mean that any success is largely accidental. As with all marketing communications integration is vital.

Where to from here?

The first step is for wine marketers to identify what they want to achieve through using Facebook (and other social media). Consider the three orientations weve identified, how they relate to your wine brand and how they might fit with your other marketing efforts. Ask yourself, are you all sell, sell, sell? If your social media use sits too much in the pocket of just one of the other orientations then you most likely need to change it up a little. Its planning time. Time to establish what you want, look around at other wine brands Facebook use, the orientations discussed here, the work available on our Facebook page. Call in some help if you need to. Make sure you arent mis-spending time where you could be delivering results that will help grow your brand. And feel free to drop us a line, a visit or a comment via https://www.facebook. com/Aust ralianWineandSocialMedia. Itll also help keep the research news from this work coming your way.
Rebecca Dolan, a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide, is researching social media and wine marketing. Dolan has worked with Dolan Family Wines and Treasury Wine Estates rebecca.m.dolan@adelaide.edu.au. Steve Goodman, senior lecturer in marketing at The University of Adelaide Business School, specialise in Wine Business Research steve.goodman@adelaide. edu.au Cullen Habel, independent market research consultant and adjunct lecturer in marketing and market research at the University of Adelaide www. cullenofadelaid.com.

Figure 1. Social media communication orientations

1. Sales and promotion focus

A D

2. Community and relationship development focus

3. Event and visualisation focus

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