How important is a brand? Traditionally, it is considered that brands add value to the worth of a business and the products it sells. However, there is a row going on between critics of the French wine industry, who believe that French wines should be sold by the grape variety and wine purists, who argue vehemently that each French wine is the unique, resulting from the combination of a microclimate, the local soil and the human inspiration of the vintner.They believe there is an assault on traditional French wine labels which include the region, district and vineyard. Indeed, France has few big, branded wines, but has tens of thousands of others produced by small vineyards. Conversely, New World producers pool their resources to make wines known by the grape variety — such as Merlot, Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon, produced by huge companies such as Jacob’s Creek. This provides advantages of economies of scale in production and marketing.
Resistance to change appears to be waning after what Le Figaro described as France’s annus horribilis. However, French wines are losing sales to their New World rivals with France’s share of the global wine market falling from 51 per cent in 1990 to 34 per cent last year.Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy all recorded big falls. Exports of wines and spirits, France’s third-biggest foreign currency earner after aircraft and cosmetics, fell 16.6 per cent in value to €7.7 billion in 2009, according to figures released by the Federation of French Wine and Spirits Exporters.
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A firm’s brand is often its most valuable and enduring asset and, consequently, needs to be protected and developed, modernised and nurtured. BrandZ reported in 2010 that consideration of brand in the purchase decision had risen by 20% since 2005.
