With more than 100 trade visitors, the first "Forum Markt & Wein" got off to a successful start at Weincampus Neustadt on April 11, 2019. The German Wine Institute (DWI) and the Weincampus Neustadt were pleased with the great response and the high quality of the lectures and workshops. "We have touched a nerve with this event" says the managing director of the DWI Monika Reule, "The need to understand the German wine market and its consumers is great. Data, discussions and analyses were of great interest to the professional audience".
Prof. Dr. Marc Dreßler from the Neustadt wine campus formulated the challenge of the German wine market right at the beginning of the event : "Wine consumption in Germany is stagnating. Growth hardly took place last year. In addition, the wine market is in strong competition with trendy alcoholic beverages such as craft beer and gin." How can German wine-growing regions distinguish themselves in this environment and gain market share over imported wines? These questions were the focus of the first "Forum Markt & Wein".
Answers and analyses were presented by the two market researchers Wilhelm Lerner from Wine Intelligence and André Beron from GfK in their presentations. As the most important current consumer trend both had worked out the rising demand for branded products. Many consumers would orient themselves to brands when buying wine in the absence of expert knowledge. "Brands win when wine knowledge is lacking," was how Wilhelm Lerner put it in his presentation.
Another positive trend is that consumers are willing to spend more money on branded wines. This market development is referred to as "trading up". Class instead of mass, is how the market researcher summed it up. To attract young target groups, winemakers should therefore focus on quality, organic viticulture and sustainability, according to Beron's analysis.
In the afternoon, the participants divided into four workshops. The topics of the working groups were wide-ranging:
- How does the label influence my sense of taste? - A practical self-experiment
- Improving tourism value creation - Necessary conditions from the perspective of business, science and politics
- Customer-centered wine design: From consumer preferences to successful wine styling using the example of reduced-alcohol wines
- Future potential for wine sales in Germany
Finally, the working groups presented the results of their workshops in the auditorium of the Neustadt wine campus. A concentrated exchange in the plenum about market strategies and new target groups rounded off the day.
"We were able to initiate important discussions with our forum and build a network of experts that we want to further expand," says Monika Reule of the DWI. For this reason, the "Forum Markt & Wein" is to be continued as an annual series of events. With April 23, 2020, the date for next year at the Neustadt Wine Campus has already been set.
About the Wine Campus:
The Neustadt Wine Campus is a joint scientific institution of the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences with the universities of Bingen and Kaiserslautern and the Dienstleistungszentrum Ländlicher Raum (DLR) Rheinpfalz. The tasks of the scientific institution include the dual bachelor's degree program in viticulture and oenology, the part-time master's degree program MBA Wine, Sustainability and Sales as well as research in viticulture and oenology.
More info at: https://www.weincampus-neustadt.de/
