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International Journal of Wine Business Research Using social media in the wine business: An exploratory study from Germany Szolnoki Gergely Taits Dimitri Nagel Moritz Fortunato Alessio Article information:

To cite this document:Szolnoki Gergely Taits Dimitri Nagel Moritz Fortunato Alessio , (2014)," Using social media in the wine business An exploratory study from Germany ", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 26Iss 2 pp. 80 - 96 Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJWBR-09-2013-0031 Downloaded on: 22 February 2017, At: 19:36 (PT) References: this document contains references to 35 other documents.

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*Related content and download information correct at time of download.Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) Using social media in the wine business An exploratory study from Germany Gergely Szolnoki, Dimitri Taits and Moritz Nagel Department of Business Administration and Market Research, Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany, and Alessio Fortunato University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France Abstract Purpose– This paper aims to conduct two studies to investigate the use of social media tools by wineries in Germany and assess the impact of Facebook membership on customers by comparing them with customers who were not members. Today, a vast number of books and studies are being published about social media in general, but less is known about their usage and effectiveness in the wine industry.

Design/methodology/approach– The first study was conducted among 321 German wineries. It focused on the attitudes and preferences of the winemakers regarding social media, and it analysed the daily use of this new communication tool. The second study took place in August 2012, and it set out to define the value that accrued to a winery from having Facebook fans. This analysis was based on an online survey with customers of the winery as well as on a comparative analysis of the buying patterns of customers who were Facebook fans and those who were not. The analysis compared the turnover from the purchases of both groups over a period of three years.

Findings– It was determined that 60 per cent of German wineries did communicate with their customers using social media. Facebook was the most important social media channel, followed by Twitter and YouTube. Of the winemakers interviewed, 40 per cent planned, in the near future, to implement additional activities involving social media. The consumer study proved that Facebook fans had a higher turnover compared to the non-Facebook fans of the winery studied. This finding emphasises the loyalty of Facebook fans. In addition, the study revealed that Facebook fans are open to receiving sales offers from the company which they support.

Practical implications– Winery owners should be aware of the effectiveness of this modern communication tool. This is not only because Facebook fans generate a much higher turnover but also because of the possibility that they are interested in additional special offers on Facebook, which could mean an expansion of the available sales channels.

Originality/value– To our knowledge, this kind of overview about the Germany wine sector as well as about the value of a Facebook-fan of a winery has not yet been undertaken.

KeywordsMarketing research, Germany, Consumer behaviour, Customer loyalty, Survey research, Surveys, Value analysis, Wines Paper typeResearch paper 1. Introduction The Internet has contributed massively to globalisation and to the geographic decoupling of producers and consumers. One of the driving forces behind both globalisation and anonymisation, this medium, ironically, creates communication channels that can bridge this distance to a certain extent. In recent years, the Internet has The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available atwww.emeraldinsight.com/1751-1062.htm IJWBR 26,2 80 Received 16 September 2013 Revised 27 January 2014 Accepted 27 January 2014 International Journal of Wine Business Research Vol. 26 No. 2, 2014 pp. 80-96 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1751-1062 DOI 10.1108/IJWBR-09-2013-0031Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) developed from a mere source of information into a force that communication experts now call the ‘Social Web’ ( Schindler and Liller, 2012 ). First, the latest developments in the field of social media should be identified here. Facebook, Twitter and other services allow people to remain participants in never-ending conversations. These conversations are already taking place through different platforms, accelerated by the intuitive functionality and epidemic spread of social media. Germany’s Facebook, for example, recorded 25 million users in December 2012 ( Roth, 2012 ).

The society thus experienced a massive change in terms of gathering and disseminating information. Producers are suddenly forced to listen to consumers’ voices spread through several social media channels. However, they can also obtain valuable feedback, which is helpful to better understand the needs of customers.

Wine seems predestined to benefit from social media in a special way. Wine is a very emotionally loaded product. Anyone who consumes it usually has an opinion and is often willing to share it with others. In contrast to complex and difficult to handle products, wine is approachable intuitively and can be appreciated by engaging only instinctive senses. The transformation of communication media and the level of interaction social media is producing could, thus, open new opportunities for the wine business.

On the other hand, the actual business benefits of this relatively new form of communication have hardly been investigated, particularly within the wine industry.

Furthermore, the penetration of social media usage by German winemakers has not been subject to research until now. Therefore, this study had two objectives – to determine the use of social media by German wineries and to compare wine customers of a winery who are Facebook fans to customers who are not connected with the winery via Facebook (defined as non-Facebook fans).

2. Theoretical foundation 2.1 Literature overview This presentation is not an exhaustive review of the vast literature that has been published on social media generally. Rather, the goal is to give a brief overview of selected studies dealing with social media and wine. Thach (2009) reported that there is very little evidence about the use and effects of social media in wine business. With the help of qualitative methods (content analysis), she analysed 200 wine blogs in the USA, and she defined nine major categories of wine blogs, the most common being reviews and ratings of wines by consumer bloggers. In addition, 813 wine brands and 450 advertisements were found in the analysis. According to Yarrow (2008) , there were approximately 560 blogs in the English language and 160 in other languages. Four years later, this same researcher recorded 1,200 wine blogs ( Yarrow, 2012 ), which shows the dramatic change in the use of this new online medium. Reynekeet al.(2010) undertook an analysis with five premier cru wines from Bordeaux with the help of the website “www.howsociable.com/”, which tracks the visibility of brands through 30 different social media platforms, providing an overall score for the visibility. This can be used as a benchmark tool when comparing different brands. It turned out that the brand Lafite Rothschild was associated with business brand networking, Mouton Rothschild with individuals who were actually discussing the brand, while Haut Brion was associated with enthusiast groups. The brands 81 Using social media in the wine businessDownloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) Margaux and Latour were relatively undifferentiated in terms of social media, and it dominated in level of visibility.

The online community is used by the winegrowers in Burgundy to try to increase brand communication and consumer contact. Pelet and Lecat (2011) demonstrated, with a qualitative study focusing on the winegrowers in Burgundy, that the online community may experience negative aspects relative to consumer behaviour, owing to the inability of members to see the product. The online community represents one of the six confidence factors than can increase online selling of wine ( Init, 2010 ).Habel and Goodman (2010) as well as Szolnoki and Taits (2012) gave advice and suggestions concerning the frequency of posting, the topics, the likes, etc. to use Facebook for better branding of wineries.

The winery operator must try to understand the needs of the different brand communities and try to connect them to the real image of the brand characteristics.

Members of these brand communities are strongly motivated to share knowledge when they can find specific benefits, such as saving time. On the contrary, the study of Bian et al.(2008) demonstrated that feedback may be so powerful that some users try to use it to enhance their image with the aim of making a profit based on that. This kind of activity may be considered as spam and can also modify the behaviour of the old members of the community that has been cultivated. Lee (2012) showed that many consumers related the price of wine with perceived quality of the wine. The judgement of quality is subjective and based on many factors, but positive brand perception and higher price can increase purchase intention and play a mediating role in purchase intentions. All these findings confirm that the interaction between social media, the activity of winery owners and consumer behaviour constitutes a complex and intricate field, and each set of quality factors has the power to change the equilibrium.

With the help of content analysis, Vranaet al.(2012) conducted a study investigating wine blogs. They defined two clusters of online communication: cluster one contained very few but very popular blogs with a high number of incoming links, while cluster two consisted of peripheral blogs which did not have many incoming links. Bouquet (2012) investigated 200 wineries in the USA and France and came to the conclusion that American wineries were much more active in regard to their use of social media than the French wineries were. According to the results, 94 per cent of the interviewed winery representatives from the USA were active on Facebook, while only 53 per cent of the French ones used this communication channel. Nearly all of the American representatives reported that they derived benefits from using Facebook, and half of them stated that they generated sales with the help of this medium. Of those involved, 72 per cent of the American and 69 per cent of French wineries wanted to increase their activity on Facebook in 2012. Wilson and Quinton (2012) analysed the connection between wine topics and Twitter.

Overall, 1,500 English language tweets on the subject wine have been investigated using qualitative data analysis. The authors of this study examined the construct of both soft and hard value within social media and found that Twitter is able to create soft value for wine-focused businesses but hard values are not strongly evident.

A quantitative study conducted by Synapse (2010) with 4,000 panellists in North America investigated and quantified the value of Facebook fans of different brands.

This study revealed that consumers spent US$71 more on products of which they were IJWBR 26,2 82Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) fans and that fans were 41 per cent more likely to recommend the admired brand to their friends. Regarding brand loyalty, fans were 28 per cent more likely to continue using their chosen brand. The questionnaire, however, required panellists to self-identify those companies with which they could be identified as fans. Because of the self-identification, the calculation of the value of Facebook fans is based on a hypothetical approach. Lenhartet al.(2010) hypothesised thatanother obstacle to participating in communication through social media could have been related with academic qualification – higher education, higher social media usage. A key challenge for those who wish to take advantage of social media is to understand and define the type of community that exists through such media and to develop the ability to cultivate such communities. Laverieet al.(2011) asserted that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter offer this opportunity. People mainly use social media as alternatives to Web searches; through them, they can find any kind of information, and they can also link this information to the other users’ experiences. Users feel more comfortable and trust the previous experience of other users, so enterprises should be able to manage and choose the information about the brand characteristics that they will make visible to the community. The brand characteristics have a stronger influence on brand communities, which are also influenced by relationship factors such as brand identification, brand experience, brand update, customer service and interaction ( Laverieet al., 2011 ).

The study of Brzozowskiet al.(2009) showed than many users were encouraged to take part in online communities if they felt their contributions would be unique.

Different factors can stimulate the online community to use social media. Visible feedback encouraged users to continue their contributions, and visible activity involving managers/co-workers motivated employers to make their own contributions to social media ( Brzozowskiet al., 2009 ). The brand communities were influenced by feedback from other users ( Brzozowskiet al., 2009 ). The winery with control of the relationship factors and winery brand ( Laverieet al., 2011 ) may have had an influence on feedback and on the economic drivers ( Brzozowskiet al., 2009 ). Table I summarises the most important wine-related social media studies which have been conducted through the past years. Table I.

Overview of wine-related social media studies Author(s) Topic Specification Yarrow (2008) Blogs English language blogs Thach (2009) Blogs USA Reynekeet al.(2010) Social media generally Bordeaux brands Init study (2010) Online community France Laverieet al.(2011) Online community Theoretical model Pelet and Lecat (2011) Online community Burgundy Habel and Goodman (2011) Facebook Branding, generally Yarrow (2012) Blogs List of wine blogs – international Lee (2012) Blogs International Vranaet al.(2012) Blogs International Bouquet study (2012) Social media generally The USA and France Wilson and Quinton (2012) Twitter English language tweets 83 Using social media in the wine businessDownloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) 2.2 Development of the research questions The literature overview listed in Table 1 shows the lack of social media studies in the German wine sector as well as the nonexistence of measurements concerning the value of Facebook for wine companies.

Therefore, within the framework of this research, two studies were conducted. The first one focused on the use of social media by German wineries in general, whereas the second one investigated the importance of using Facebook in wine business and compared the volume of sales involving non-Facebook fans and Facebook fans. To our knowledge, this kind of analysis of using social media in the wine sector has not yet been undertaken.

For both of these studies, hypotheses were developed which were based on previous social media studies. Bouquet’s (2012) study served as a basis for the survey conducted with wineries to get a real picture about the use of social media in the wine industry in Germany. Bouquet (2012) submitted that the use of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs among French wineries is much lower than among US wineries. Although France and Germany belong to the “old world” and both are traditional wine-growing countries, we hypothesise (H1) that “German wineries have a different user rate of social media tools as France wineries”.

Because Facebook is the most frequently used among the social media tools worldwide, we focused on this medium in theH2: “The problems winemakers facing when using Facebook is independent from the location”. Thus, winemakers in the USA have more or less the same problems with Facebook as their French or German colleagues.

Regarding the measurement of success with Facebook, there are several possibilities.

Facebook Inside is the most popular software which gives one access to standard metrics such as how many users view your page, how many users interact with your page, how many of your friends return more than once to your page, how many fans did you lose on a specific data, how many people liked your page on a specific day and how many people liked your page through a like box as well as demographics of visitors and friends ( Gattiker, 2013 ).Drula (2012) described methods and tools are often used to study and analyse online digital media. However, these statistics do not provide any information about the value of Facebook friends of a company. Thus, we decided to use the method of an international study which investigated the importance of Facebook fans of a brand. The Synapse (2010) study provided some orientation to the subject when we prepared a survey comparing Facebook fans and non-Facebook fans of a German winery. Based on the results of this study, we developedH3that “Facebook fans of a winery spend more money for wine of this specific winery per year than non-fans”.

3. Current research 3.1 Study 1: social media usage by German wineries 3.1.1 Design and procedure.For the recent survey, we used a database of 1,500 German wineries compiled during 2007-2010 by the Geisenheim Research Institute for a previous study. It should be noted that this database contains only wineries that already have some sort of online presence. It means that wineries not having access to the Internet were not included in our research. The link to the online questionnaire was sent via email to all 1,500 wineries. The survey ran from 31 August to 31 September, 2012. After two IJWBR 26,2 84Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) weeks, the wineries again received the email with the link to improve the number of respondents. The questionnaire included questions about the social media platforms used by the wineries, the fields in which they applied them and the expectations associated with their use and the kinds of problems presented by using these social media channels; in cases where these tools (e.g. Facebook and blogs) were not used, there were questions about the reasons for non-use. In 2011, a similar study was conducted with the same database of wineries. The questionnaire in 2012 was based on the survey administered one year before and supplemented with questions from the Bouquet’s (2012) study. Altogether, 321 wineries participated in the survey, which equals a response rate of 21 per cent.

3.1.2 Results and discussions.Approximately half of the respondents had already participated in our study in the previous year, while almost 55 per cent were answering the questionnaire for the first time.

Of the respondents, 96 per cent maintain a website for their wineries, and 50 per cent run even an online shop. Both numbers appear high, which might indicate a positive predisposition to online-related topics and a certain connection between interest in social media and overall online affinity.

More than half of the respondents rated the importance of social media in the medium range and just above the median range (mean: 3.48; standard deviation: 1.29 on a scale from 0to6)( Figure 1 ). Apart from that, the histogram displays a nearly perfect Gaussian distribution. The arithmetical mean is slightly above the scale’s average. Thus, the importance of social media is still evaluated positively, though it cannot be described as euphoric. Figure 1.

The importance of social media (N 321) 85 Using social media in the wine business Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) The results in 2011 showed a strong polarisation regarding the use of social media in different areas of life: 45 per cent of wine producers did not use any kind of social media in the preceding year. This fraction was much smaller in 2012, being only 32 per cent.

Instead, the share of blended usage (for private and business purposes alike) had increased significantly to 47 per cent from 32 per cent in 2011. Sixty-seven per cent stated that they participate in social media in some way, private or business purpose; 56 per cent already did specifically for their wineries. The sample was not representative, hence the high ratio of social media users is not to be generalised to the whole German wine sector. It indicates, however, the existence of a group of winemakers who based their communication strategy on social media or used it at least for supplementation.

This group has grown considerably from 2011 to 2012 ( Table II ). Table III shows the popularity of the social media tools among the winemakers in Germany extended by the results of the study by Bouquet (2012) . With a penetration of 70 per cent of those who use social media tools, Facebook took first place when it came to application of social media for business purposes. This is clear evidence of publicity and popularity. Reading and commenting on blogs for business matters was placed second with 30 per cent. The German social network Xing seemed to have lost users and appeared at third place in 2012 – it was second in 2011. YouTube and Twitter had 14-15 per cent users in 2012. Twitter accounts for most wineries have existed since 2010.

Writing blogs seemed to be of little interest to winemakers (6 per cent); this is perhaps because it is supposed to be very time intensive. Google Plus increased from 2 to 10 per cent usage by wineries since 2011 Thus, reading and commenting on business-oriented blogs and using Google Plus can be named as relative winners for the year 2012. On the other hand, Twitter and Xing were the losers during this period. Table II.

Use of social media (N 321) Frequency a Per cent Do not use social media 104 32 Use social media only for private purpose 39 12 Use social media only for their winery 28 9 Use social media for private purpose and for their winery 150 47 Note: aMultiple responses allowed Table III.

Usage of social media tools in Germany compared with The USA and France (N 199) Frequency a Per cent The USA b France b Facebook 139 70 94 53 Twitter 28 14 76 41 YouTube 29 15 46 26 Blog 12 6 28 19 Reading blogs 59 30 – – Commenting blogs 18 9 – – Google Plus 20 10 – – Xing 39 20 – – Notes: aMultiple responses allowed; bBouquet study (2012) , result in per cent IJWBR 26,2 86Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) Some of thetools for which we examined usage for in Germany are not available in the study by Bouquet (2012) ; however, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs are comparable. By comparing the German statistic with Bouquet’s (2012) results, we can see that the German wineries have a completely different pattern of social media usage. In all three countries, Facebook is the most important social media channel. The usage of Facebook is, however, in Germany (70 per cent) higher than in France (53 per cent). Using Twitter seems to be very popular both in the USA (76 per cent) and in France (41 per cent), but in Germany, tweeting among the wineries is quite unpopular (14 per cent). Also using YouTube and Blogs for the winery are more common in the USA and France than in Germany.

Because of the heterogeneity of social media usage, the first hypothesis (H1) can be confirmed, as there is a completely different structure when comparing social media tools of US, French and German wineries.

Concerning the number of channels wineries use for their communication, 45 per cent of respondents utilised two or more social media channels for their business purposes. For the majority of wine producers, the commercial goals of using social media were to distribute information about their estate’s events (84 per cent) and to promote their wines (63 per cent). Furthermore, winemakers tried to gain new customers and to serve existing customers through these channels. This analysis of goals shows that social media is used as a multidimensional tool for a different kind of purpose.

Being the most important new communication channel, Facebook was extensively surveyed in this study. Twenty per cent of its users in Germany did not point out any problems concerning this channel. Comparing this result with Bouquet’s (2012) study, we can conclude that the level of dissatisfaction with Facebook in Germany is the highest, as there are proportionally more French and US wineries which have no problems when using Facebook. Thirty-six per cent described it as very time-consuming; however, this source of problem was only asked in the German study, and therefore it is not comparable. Approximately one-third of the participants found it difficult to come up with new ideas and interesting topics for postings, while this problem was especially lower in the USA (22 per cent). Twenty-five per cent of respondents had difficulties gaining new fans, which occur among the US and French wineries more frequently (30 and 35 per cent). Around 20 per cent were frustrated by the limited response from their communities; however wineries in France have more problems with this phenomenon ( Table IV ). Although these results show in patches similarities, theH2must be rejected, especially because of the statement “I have got no problems with Facebook” there are clear differences between countries. Table IV.

Difficulties with managing Facebook pages in Germany compared with the USA and France (N 178) Frequency a Per cent USA b France b I find Facebook very time consuming 46 36 – – I find it difficult to always post new and interesting topics 61 34 22 29 I find it difficult to gain new fans 64 26 30 35 I get only little response when I post something 36 20 12 34 I find it difficult to manage Facebook 10 6 – – I have got no problems with Facebook 35 20 42 34 Notes: aMultiple responses allowed; bBouquet study (2012) , result in per cent 87 Using social media in the wine businessDownloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) In the framework of this study, also the question “who is performing most of the social media activity in your winery” was analysed, separately for Facebook and for Twitter.

The majority of wine producers (64 per cent) who operated a Facebook page took care of it by themselves. For 22 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, a family member and employee were involved. Only 1 per cent of Facebook pages were maintained by external persons or companies. A mere 2 per cent were managed by friends or acquaintances free of charge, and 1 per cent were maintained for payment.

Twitter seemed to be an even more personal medium. A total of 78.4 per cent of the respondents who had Twitter accounts tweeted personally, while for 13.5 per cent, a family member was involved. Only three wineries had their Twitter accounts managed by a friend, an employee or an external company.

We also analysed the reason for not using Facebook for the winery. Those who refrained from using Facebook did so primarily because of the lack of time to do so (61 per cent). Other important reasons stated for not using Facebook included doubts about the effectiveness of this network (33 per cent) and lack of technical know-how (23 per cent). Other aspects such as level of trustworthiness or data security seemed not to play an important role (2 per cent). The situation was similar when it came to Twitter. Lack of time was identified by 53 per cent of winery operators as the reason for abstaining from this micro-blogging service. The effectiveness of Twitter was doubted even more than in the case of Facebook – 41 per cent compared to 33 per cent.

Social media communication requires a serious investment of time. More than 16 per cent of users invested four or more hours weekly in using these channels, although the majority of users (83.3 per cent) were content with 1-3 hours of activity a week.

In terms of increasing social media activities in the future, 60 per cent of participants did not plan any new social media activities in the near future; 38 per cent of these represented wineries which already utilised social media but did not want to broaden these activities. The other 22 per cent did not practice any kind of social media communication and did not intend to do so in future. Thirty-two per cent of the wineries expressed the view that they would deal with social media in future. Here, Facebook took the first place again, followed by YouTube, an owner’s blog and Twitter. Google Plus and Xing were mentioned rarely ( Table V ).

3.2 Study 2: analysis of the effect of social media use in the wine industry 3.2.1 Design and procedure.This study entailed a survey which was carried out on Facebook among the fans of a world famous German winery in August 2012 and Table V.

Increasing the social media activities in 2013 (N 321) Frequency a Per cent Using Facebook 76 24 Using Twitter 24 8 Using YouTube 37 12 Using Google Plus 13 4 Using Xing 16 5 New blog 24 8 No activity planned for 2013 191 60 Note: aMultiple responses allowed IJWBR 26,2 88Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) included an analysis of thepurchasing behaviour of customers of this winery who were Facebook and non-Facebook fans. The survey was conducted using the database of registered customers and was launched on the Facebook page of the winery to receive unique information about the fans. In this survey, demographic questions and questions about buying behaviour and the use of social media were asked. Altogether, 70 participants completed the survey, which shows a 14 per cent response rate. A central component of the 17-question survey was the issue of how the fans reacted to specific sales offers posted on Facebook by the winery. The survey took place on an online platform for scientific surveys, and it was only accessible for the Facebook fans of the winery.

In addition to this survey, an analysis of the customers’ records was conducted. First of all, we identified 30 of the 500 Facebook fans in the company’s database. These were private consumers who had purchased from the company in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and who had a turnover of a maximum of €4,000 per year. Using the same criteria, we found 3,000 additional non-Facebook fans in the database, from which we randomly selected 30 customers to compare them with the 30 who were Facebook fans. For this comparison, the following data about the selected customers were analysed: overall turnover; turnover in 2010, 2011 and 2012; place of residence and postal code; number of wines they purchased in the following price categories: €6.90, €14.60 and€23.80; frequency of the purchases; and turnover per purchase. All these variables were based on the study by Synapse (2010) .

3.2.2 Results and discussion of the Facebook survey.The results of the survey showed a distribution in respondents of 56 per cent men and 44 per cent women. The age segments of the participants reflected 87 per cent in the range of 25-49 years old and only 13 per cent who were 50-60 years old. These results were similar to those obtained by Blasius and Brandt (2010) , who noticed in their study a higher proportion of younger and more educated Internet users. The evaluation of the respondents’ educational standard showed a sharp separation between participants with higher education, such as university degrees or technical training (87 per cent), and participants who had not completed professional training (13 per cent). This very high educational standard was probably also responsible for the high income structure of the participants. According to these statistics, we can see that the buying power of the potential customers among the fans of the winery on Facebook is very high. Of all the participants of the survey, 87 per cent stated that they were already customers of the winery, and 15 per cent of them said that they bought wine from the winery on a regular basis. This again showed that these customers should be considered for future activities on Facebook aimed at generating sales Table VI .

In general, the customers interviewed reported paying significant attention to where they bought wine. More than half of the participants stated that they bought wine directly from wineries. Twenty per cent bought wine from specialised traders, and another 20 per cent bought wine in wine stores, while 8 per cent bought wine over the Internet. The official statistics in Germany, however, show a completely different usage of distribution channels: directly at the winery (16 per cent), wine store (11 per cent) and the Internet (1 per cent). This shows that Facebook fans of a winery have an above-average proportion of the premium distribution channels ( Szolnoki and Hoffmann, 2012 ). From these results, it can be deduced that the participants pay a lot of attention to personal contact when it comes to buying wine. When asked how they liked to gain more knowledge and information about wine, 20 per cent of the participants 89 Using social media in the wine businessDownloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) responded that they consulted with the winegrowers and merchants directly; 17 per cent answered that the exchange of information with family and friends was important to them; and 12 per cent reported that they visited wine education events. When it came to getting information about wine, 50 per cent of the participants preferred personal contact. Although this does not allow a direct conclusion on the prospects for using social media channels, the opportunity for direct communication with the customers through these channels should not be disregarded in the future.

To find out whether the strategy being used by the winery with the Facebook page was the right one, the participants of the survey were asked to indicate the social media platforms associated with wine that they used. In this case, the results were positive in regard to the social media strategy of the winery. Almost 90 per cent of the participants reportedly used Facebook every day and 9 per cent used Facebook several times a week, only 1 per cent used it once a week. With this intensive usage of Facebook by the participants, it can certainly be assumed that the content which was posted on Facebook by the winery was also seen by the participants in the Facebook newsfeeds of these customers.

After Facebook, YouTube was mentioned by the participants as the second most frequently used social media platform concerning wine. In this regard, 88 per cent said they used the platform actively. Therefore, it is advisable for the winery to upload more videos on their YouTube channels to enhance the social media mix.

An essential aspect of the survey was the analysis of the decision-making patterns for the purchase of wine as far as the promotion and advertising activities of wineries on Facebook were concerned. Of all participants, 75 per cent suggested that a wine recommendation on Facebook could influence their buying behaviour in a positive way towards sales; only 15 per cent did not support this statement and the rest did not know whether it would. This very important issue was further analysed in another two questions posed at different points in the survey to get a precise result. The two questions were intended to help find out how much the participants trusted wine offers posted by wineries on Facebook. The answer to these questions emerged almost equally, which supported the participants’ opinion mentioned above in regards to wine Table VI.

Sociodemographic character of the participants (N 70) Frequency Per cent Gender Male 39 55.7 Female 31 44.3 Age (years) 25 17 24.3 25-34 22 31.4 35-49 22 31.4 50-59 7 10.0 60 2 2.9 Income/month (€) 1000 6 8.6 1000-2000 9 12.9 2000-3000 8 11.4 3000-5000 28 40.0 5000 6 8.6 No answer 13 18.6 IJWBR 26,2 90Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) advertisements on Facebook. The results showed an average value of 4.7, evaluated on a 1-6 scale (1 completely disagree; 6 completely agree). From these results, a clear opportunity for wine offers from wineries on Facebook can be identified and, therefore, wineries should use this trust on the part of the Facebook fans to promote their sale activities and special offers.

3.2.3 Results and discussion of the comparison of Facebook and non-Facebook fans.

The aim of the analysis regarding the 30 randomly selected customers and the 30 clearly identified Facebook fans was to find out which of the two groups performed better in regard to their wine-purchasing behaviour. Every one of these Facebook fans mentioned was also a registered customer of the winery.

In the first step, the turnover during the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 (up to August) of the two customer groups mentioned above were compared. The results clearly showed that the group consisting of Facebook fans spent more money on wine in the winery than the other group. Expressed in numbers[ 1](Table VII ), the Facebook fans had a 46.6 per cent higher turnover during the years 2010-2012. The details of the levels by which the turnover rates of the Facebook fans exceeded the rates of the non-Facebook group are as follows: in 2010, 37.1 per cent; in 2011, 39.9 per cent; and up to June 2012, 60.5 per cent.

For more detailed information, the overall turnover of the two customer groups was also calculated by checking every invoice of the customers in the database since the date the customer was first registered. The results showed the group with the Facebook fans had a 17.7 per cent higher turnover compared to the non-Facebook fan group. Looking at the year 2012, the Facebook fans also had a higher turnover ( 60.5 per cent) until June, which led to the expectation that this customer group could respond very positively to further offers and sales promotions on the Facebook page of the winery. To support this assumption, specific activities involving sales promotion should be arranged for this specific customer group. Whether or not the higher turnover of the Facebook fans resulted from past wine sales promotions through that medium cannot be detected at the moment, but this should be investigated through more advanced analysis.

Based on the analysis of Table 7 , we can conclude that Facebook fans of the selected winery generate a higher turnover than non-Facebook fans. This statement is valid both for the years 2010-2012 as well as the overall turnover. Therefore,H3can be confirmed, because the results show that consumers who are registered on the official Facebook side of the winery spend more money on wine produced and sold by this winery than non-registered customers.

Besides the analysis of pure customer turnover, it was also essential in this research to find out the different price segments in which the wine purchases of the two customer groups fell and which quality they preferred ( Table VIII ). To do this, the quality categories associated with the price ranges were reviewed. The first category consisted of a light dry wine in the entry-level quality range of the winery, sold for €6.90, the second category was a late harvest high-quality premium wine for €14.60 and the third Table VII.

Comparing turnover of Facebook and non- Facebook fans of the winery (N 70) Turnover 2010Turnover 2011Turnover 2012Turnover 2010-2012Overall turnover Differences in flavour of Facebook fans (per cent) 37.1 39.9 60.5 46.6 17.7 91 Using social media in the wine businessDownloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) category was an ultra-premium dry wine for €23.80. In all of the previous results, the Facebook fans were clearly ahead regarding the turnover, but regarding the price/ quality category the results showed that the non-Facebook group dominated the ultra-premium wine category (€23.80) and the entry quality category (€6.90). Only in the category of the late harvest premium wine (€14.60), did the Facebook fans buy more wine. As mentioned with regards to the premium quality category for €14.60, the sales showed dominance by the Facebook fans with 32 per cent more than the non-Facebook group. The questions which could be derived from these numbers concern the reason for such big differences between the different price/quality categories and the strategies that have to be developed for the future. One strategy could be better promotion of the two price/quality categories on Facebook, where the sales are lower than those for the non-Facebook fans group.

In conclusion, the average turnover per purchase and the frequency of purchases by the two customer groups were examined as part of the analysis. Here, the results were again in favour of the non-Facebook fans; regarding the average amount of money spent per wine purchase, the non-Facebook fans group spent 16.6 per cent more money per purchase. After close consideration of the frequency of purchases, the results showed that the group comprising Facebook fans bought wine from the winery 40 per cent more often than the other group.

The examples discussed only reflect the analysis for the two selected customer groups and not the total number of the winery’s customers. The results can also not be generalised to other customer groups; however, it has been proven that the turnover rates of winery customers identified as Facebook fans were very high and with the right promotion and advertisement on Facebook, they could be even higher in the future.

4. Summary and managerial implications A producer survey involving German wineries and a consumer survey among the Facebook fans of a selected winery were conducted to investigate the use of social media, first, by the producers and, second, by the consumers. The aim of our investigation was also to evaluate the effectiveness of these media. These two studies demonstrated that social media as a new communications channel have a place in communicating with customers and prospective customers, as well as in promoting products and brands. In addition, they are able to generate extra turnover for companies/brands.

The study of producers showed a high level of acceptance of social media by German winery operators. Comparing these results with those of Bouquet’s (2012) study, one can conclude that Germany is located between France and the USA in terms of winery use of social media. However, one-third of the winemakers do not use social media for either private purposes or for the winery. Some of them plan social media activity in the near future, some of them (20 per cent) do not even want to hear about it. Nevertheless, 40 per cent of all the interviewed winery operators aim at extending their social media activities. Table VIII.

Comparing Facebook and non-Facebook fans of the winery in terms of purchasing behaviour (N 70) Price 6.90 € Price 14.90 € Price 23.90 €Purchasing frequencyAverage price Differences in flavour of Facebook fans (per cent) 59.0 31.3 76.7 40.0 16.6 IJWBR 26,2 92Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) A study conducted by Booth and Beyond (2012) came to the conclusion that, in the USA, a huge number of consumers use social media to search for restaurants. According to a recent study by the digital marketing agency ODM, 74 per cent of consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions, and Facebook is the most effective platform to get consumers talking about products ( ODM, 2012 ). According to Watson (2011) , 50 per cent of Facebook members use this platform when they seek information relevant to wine tasting.

Current statistics show the strong penetration of Facebook among German Internet users ( Table IX ). The statistics below present information of the most popular social media sites used in Germany. In October 2013, 82.7 per cent of Internet users accessed Facebook. YouTube was ranked second with 51.8 per cent ( Tomorrow Focus Media, 2013 ). All these outcomes indicate the potential of social media in promoting different products and services.

Considering the results of this study and Bouquet’s (2012) study, we anticipate that the social media platforms will be of much greater importance in the future, including wine business. According to the data of eMarketer (2013) , there are 33.10 million social media users in Germany; however in 2017, it is estimated that there will be around 40.1 million social network users in Germany.

As for the consumer survey, a very positive outlook is expected for the future use of the social media platform Facebook. On the one hand, Facebook fans of the winery spend a lot of time with social media; on the other hand, they do trust the offers made by wineries on Facebook, and they are willing to pursue these offers. The survey has produced a lot of information about the potential customers of the winery on Facebook in regard to social media. However, to gather more information about the actual buying behaviour of the fans, a second analysis was carried out.

Threatt (2009) reported three years ago that the “difficult part about entering the social media world is that, for many users, it serves as a personal environment where messages from third parties – especially marketers – may not be welcomed”. However, as we have already seen, these results show that Facebook fans of a winery are willing to receive special offers from the company. Marketforce (2012) found that 79 per cent of consumerslikeda company’s page on Facebook because it offered discounts and incentives. Also ExactTarget (2012) came to the conclusion that special offers for Facebook fans are very important. The statistic by ExactTarget provides information on the reason why Facebook users in Germany have liked a company on Facebook. In the framework of this survey, it was Table IX.

Social media sites used by internet users in Germany as of October 2013 Social media channel Share of respondents (per cent) Formularbeginn Facebook Formularende 82.7 YouTube 51.8 XING 33.6 GooglePlus 27.8 StayFriends 22.6 Twitter 21.9 Wer-kennt-wen.de 16.6 LinkedIn 12.9 Source: Tomorrow Focus Media (2013) 93 Using social media in the wine businessDownloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) found that 32 per cent of respondents gave a like to a company on Facebook to receive discounts and money-off promotions ( ExactTarget, 2012 ).

Our lastH3which suggests that Facebook fans spend more money on wines of the selected winery was confirmed. We should stress, however, that this fact might be understood as follows: higher involved customers of a brand pay more attention and at the same time more money on a product of this brand. Therefore, highly involved customers give a “like” more easily to the brand’s official Facebook site than those who are not involved. In this context, Facebook sites of wineries are online platforms, where loyal consumers with higher willingness to pay meet and show their loyalty towards the brand.

In developing the social media strategy of wineries in the future, it is advisable to include more promotions and advertising on Facebook owing to the high income and turnover rates of the existing customers and to be present on several social media platforms. Based on the results of the customer survey, when considering “next steps” in the use of social media, winery operators should consider posting profiles on Google Plus and creating official YouTube channels. Furthermore, the respondents of the survey showed interest in the presence of the winery in Web blogs and on Twitter.

Hence, there are prospects for using these platforms as well, in the future.

The current study provides only a snapshot of the whole German wine market. Only a limited number of wineries with Internet access were involved, and the study did not take into account wineries without this facility. Although Moore (2011) reported approximately 90 per cent Web presence among US wineries, in Germany the proportion is lower. In addition, only one winery and its Facebook fans were investigated in the framework of the consumer study. In the future, the producer survey should be continued to examine, in detail, the development of the use of social media in Germany. Furthermore, a consumer study based on analyses of various wineries and their experiences with their Facebook pages, and possibly their Twitter accounts, should be conducted, as well. Note 1. We only display here the relative difference between Facebook and non-Facebook fans, as the real turnover of the winery is confidential.

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Corresponding author Gergely Szolnoki can be contacted at: [email protected] To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints IJWBR 26,2 96Downloaded by University Library At 19:36 22 February 2017 (PT) This article has been cited by:

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