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The Best Of Both Worlds?
d=”standfirst”>Waverley TBS has teamed up with the wine producer Boisset in a bid to create a global French wine brand. But can it combine the heritage of the Old World with the accessibility of the New, asks Robyn Lewis
These days one does not need a set of Nielsen stats to know that France is a wine category in crisis (though just for the record the numbers show France is down 14% and 4% in the on and off-trades respectively, ACNielsen MAT to Jan 05). In the UK, a market of increasing wine consumption, France is losing market share. Why? Well, anecdotal evidence would suggest that consumers find the category intimidating and old-fashioned. They are suspicious of the value-formoney ratio of what is on offer and, by and large, while we are developing more and more into a brand-savvy society, this is a discipline the French have failed to master.
Discounting Champagne, Chablis and Claret as brands, in the wider sense of the term, the French have really very little on the shelves that can compete with New World offers. Piat d’Or is still growing, up 4% by volume (ACNeilsen UK off-trade, MAT to w/e 25.12.04); JP Chenet is certainly seeing some serious growth (up 467% by volume in the off-trade, ACNielsen, MAT to w/e 25.12.04), but otherwise the sector is pretty much in decline – as dead as an ortolan, you might say. Or is it?
Well, there are signs of life in the category, with brands such as French Connection from Bottle Green, No2 Merlot, No4 Chardonnay and Blasons de Bourgogne from HwCg, but none has really hit the big time yet. The question remains, is there anything on offer that ever could?
Hew Dalrymple, director of wine at WaverlyTBS, says: “We definitely need a solution to the French wine issue. Consumers are increasingly accustomed to the New World brand strategy and if someone doesn’t make a move soon it will be too late for France to ever compete.” So what needs to be done?
According to Dalrymple one of the most significant barriers to overcome is the need to think about France as a category and not just as a series of separate regions. “Each region occupies a niche in the market but there is nothing that encompasses the whole of France,” he says. “There is definitely a feeling in the trade that there is a need for a French brand to renew the category and solve the issues of too many references, too many suppliers, complicated product offerings, and so on. And, as well as this, they expect all the things you get from the New World too – consistency, quality – and that can only be achieved by looking at the large scale.”
With this in mind Waverley TBS has teamed up with the French producer Boisset, which owns several vineyards in France (“along the axis of the Rhône, tying together Chablis and the Mediterranean,” according to the website blurb), and was interested in doing something unique with its existing Burgundy brand, Ropiteau.
The deputy vice president at Boisset, Jean-Francois Curie, says: “We acquired Ropiteau some 10 or 11 years ago and invested heavily in quality over that time. In 2000 we made the decision to move from négociant to winemaker. Then more recently we took the view that more could be done with our resources and the brand and so we approached WaverleyTBS, who already listed Ropiteau in their portfolio, and they agreed that there was a match in their marketing and branding skills and what we could provide at the producer end.” The joint venture that Boisset and Waverley TBS have established is unique, and while the nittygritty terms of the deal are, naturally, not forthcoming, the basis of the agreement is that each side will share the benefits 50/50. Curie says: “This is because of the sheer scale of what we are proposing. We are looking at creating a global brand. That is why Waverley, who have partners and subsidiaries in other European countries, made sense for us. Already the brand is being rolled out across Belgium and Northern Europe.”
Brand analysis
Clearly a lot of hard work has gone into getting this far, beginning with some consumer research undertaken by Margaret Reid Consumer Research in London with existing French wine drinkers, exclusively New World wine drinkers and those consumers who enjoy a glass of both. Dalrymple says: “The consumer research objectives were to determine the strengths and weaknesses of France as a category, to assess the part played by those other elements of a wine brand, for example varietal, AOC, etc, and to see what positioning and personality might be appropriate for the new Ropiteau brand. Some of the more interesting results we found were that most New World drinkers, especially the men we interviewed, found significant barriers to choosing French wines, things like not recognising names, the inability to find the same wine twice, as well as the lack of knowledge about regions and a perception that France was difficult to get to know, which could lead to potential embarrassment in a social setting. Even among those samples who were regular drinkers of French wine, the levels of knowledge differed greatly and there was an underlying idea that good French wine is relatively expensive compared to the £5 price-point for most popular New World offerings.”
On a more positive note, however, the research also threw up the notion of there being some kudos in being confident and knowledgeable enough to buy good French wines, which was even more impressive if that wine was affordable. And there is a perception of wine from France as a treat purchase, particularly among regular female French wine drinkers. There is also the suggestion of a trend in which New World drinkers are moving on to Old World wines, in search of more complex wines and different styles, which will be very interesting to watch in case it develops into something more significant.
One of the most interesting elements of the consumer research, however, was probably the work the team did on establishing the role of varietal versus region on the bottle. How do consumers use grape variety in their selection process, they asked, and what do French wine regions mean in the same context?
Dalrymple says: “There is no doubt from our research that varietals rate highly in the consumer buying process. What we found was that, essentially, it was a recognisable indicator of what a product was going to deliver, which is extremely important to the wine selection process. There are only really very few varietals that are widely recognised, though. As for regions, it seems that there is really very little role for these on the label as, apart from Rioja, Champagne and, for some, Chablis, they hold very little meaning. Even among regular French wine drinkers the role of region in indicating a quality level or product delivery is minimal, because of a lack of knowledge.”
The research also indicated that there was much in the way of prejudice. Vin de Pays, for example, indicated inferior wines of poor quality to many and AOC is almost devoid of meaning for the vast majority.
Family values
With the initial research done, both Waverley TBS and Boisset were satisfied that there was a real opportunity for an accessible French wine brand, and they began taking the project forward in earnest. Dalrymple says: “We started to look around at the competition, both other French brands and brands from other countries, and then came up with three possible routes that we could take the brand down. We looked at, for example, aligning the new Ropiteau with the idea of French flair – food, fashion, something to admire and envy – but this had a tendency to seem arrogant. We also looked at emphasising the rural appeal of France, but eventually what we found worked best was to concentrate on the Ropiteau name. The heritage, expertise and family connotations offered a lot of what French wine drinkers look for in a French wine.”
The aim of the brand, however, was very much based on the idea that it would appeal to both Old and New World drinkers. Thus Ropiteau had to be given the accessibility of the New World as well as the tradition and heritage of the Old.
This meant that the brand had to represent a safe and reliable choice, be consistent, widely listed and promoted, and, of course, there was the varietal issue too. Dalrymple says: “One of the decisions we made was that the varietal should be given prominence on the label, while retaining references to regions and slowly educating consumers, pitching it as ‘Ropiteau Chardonnay from the best French Chardonnay-producing region, Burgundy.’ This approach is also interesting when you look at some of the New World producers, who are now introducing the idea of a region onto their labels.”
The next step was to redesign the packaging, keeping the traditional French cues but making the brand stand out and have relevance to New World drinkers. Even though the London design agency DJPA was commissioned to help, this was one of the more difficult elements of the project. “I think there were as many as five designs in contention in the end,” Dalrymple says. “There was a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing before we came to a decision, and even then more tweaks were made as the project went on.” The final design, with its embossed bottle and gold lettering was an expensive choice. The mould for the new bottle cost £25,000 and “would not have been possible, if not for the scale of the project,” Dalrymple says.
French heritage
Finally, with the London International Wine and Spirit Fair upon us, the fruits of the Ropiteau re-brand are ready to be officially launched. The final offer consists of an umbrella brand, in the style of some New World competitors but with an authentic French heritage.
“What we have got now with the Ropiteau range is a brand of French wines that can be easily understood without losing that je ne sais quoi,” Dalrymple says. “We have built a brand pyramid with our icon range, a selection of excellent wines from Meursault, the home of Ropiteau, at the top, then below that we have the classic range, consisting of the traditional French terroirs and finally, at the bottom, the Ropiteau Vin de Pays varietal and dual-varietal range, called L’Emage in the on-trade, which are fruit-driven wines.”
This final line-up stretches over some 30 wines. Dalrymple concedes that “some might say we are overstretching ourselves, but the very nature of the project means that this level of variety is rather the point.” In price terms the team has been very careful to ensure the wine can compete with its New World rivals, with the bottom segment coming in at between £4.49 and £5.99, the classic range from £5.99 to £9.99 and the icons at £15.99 and above.
“What we have maintained at the core of this project is this idea of pyramid branding,” Dalrymple says. “Think of Kettle Chips or Lindt chocolate; everyone knows they are massproduced but they have retained a hand-crafted image. What we hope is that the fantastic quality and style of the icon wines at the top will encourage people to try the lower tiers of the brand in the expectation that it will be well worth the risk.”
It is now the hard work really begins, with listings needing to be secured and marketing and promotional strategies rationalised. The targets are ambitious. The partners hope to double their existing 100,000-case sales base in the on-trade over the next couple of years and sell a quarter of a million cases of varietals and 50,000 cases of the classics over the same period. “For me, we need to reach half a million cases within the next two years to feel we’ve really got there,” Dalrymple says, to nods from Curie. No doubt the trade will be watching closely to see if they do and if anyone else will follow suit. Is this the first step in France’s recovery?