Marketing by Smaller Wine Producers and the Penetration of New Distribution Channels Available to Purchase

This paper considers the part played by the individual and collective marketing activities of wine producers in the Côtes de Duras region in South West France in the successful penetration by these products of the major UK retail outlets for wine. Most of the marketing effort by producers in Duras so far has been targeted at the domestic consumer and at visitors to the region itself. Analysis of a survey of UK retail buyers suggest that these communications focused marketing initiatives may have played a relatively minor role in the decisions by many of the major UK retailers to stock wines from Duras in their outlets. The survey re‐emphasises the power of the highly expert major retail buyers in this industry, with implications for the future development of marketing actions by growers.