Sub Headings are Exciting Too!

Selling wines to China have becoming a very popular topic among Australian wineries these few years, according to data from the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, in 2008 China imported 25.1 million litres of Australian wine, this was increase to 40.5 million litres in 2009 and now still growing, making China as Australia’s fourth largest exporting market by value but number one for value growth. As many Australian wineries all gearing up to catch the wave, here are some of our insights.

The look & feel
Researches shows that chinese consumers are particularly sensitive to packaging styles which communicate history, prestige and heritage. Such preference often lead wineries to choose cork over screw caps, simulating aged paper labels via design and having crest like logos.

Majority of Chinese consumers are Aspirational wine drinkers, whom often focuses on the value of the brand more than the wine itself. Hence, they would pay more attention to the brand's heritage, culture and wine regions.

Association of words & numbers
Due to the differences in culture, a perfectly appetising name in the western world may sometimes bring a mind of unpleasant images or connotations to the Chinese consumers.

For example, a well known Australian wine brand often uses Bin to name their wines, the English word "bin" pronounces the same as “sick” in Mandarin. Its is very common in Chinese culture to make associations with numbers or words based on how they are pronounced, this is also why the number four (4) is often avoided in the Chinese society as it shares very similar pronunciation as the word "death" in Mandarin.

Bring on the Red
Approximately 80% of the Australian wines exported to China are red wines. This is often attributed to health benefits, the similarity between red wine tannins and those found in tea, and the fact that the colour red stands for happiness and celebration in Chinese symbolism.

International brand with localised strategy
Developing a truly localised strategy for both packaging and marketing in response to specific consumer preference has became critical in current Chinese market, however there is often a gap between the western and eastern culture and their preferences in taste, colour and packaging design. This makes sub branding an excellent strategy which allows wineries to tailor made a sub brand specifically to attract positive attention and increasing the sales in China while avoids cultural impacts to the master brand in Australia.

As part of the risk management, it is also critical for wineries to register both the English and the Chinese brand names before entering the Chinese market to preserve intellectual property.

With Australian wine’s current positive momentum in the ‘high-end’ and ‘premium’ segments in China, this is the season for success to those wine makers sensitive of these cultural variations.

Bottoms up! or should we say Gan Bei!