Italian Wine Firms: Strategic Branding and Financial Performance

Purpose – Over the last few years, the wine industry has been undergoing a process of acceleratedchange, consequent to the constantly changing wine geography, both from the demand and the supplysides. This research is based on the 2011 work of Rossi et al. and aims to develop a preliminaryprescriptive strategic branding framework for the Campania (Italy) wine firms.Design/methodology/approach – The research focuses on branding strategies and financialperformance. It is based on extensive secondary data; the research is exploratory in nature, and it is atheoretical research.Findings – The paper achieves four main objectives: to understand the industry’s local andinternational competitive situation; to identify the role and potentialities of branding in competitiveterms; to identify the underlying factors of consumer behavior in relation to wine branding; and todevelop a preliminary prescriptive strategic branding framework for the Campania wine firms, withgeneric application and value.Research limitations/implications – The limitations of the paper are the result of its very nature:it is a largely conceptual paper. Empirical research is therefore needed to test and validate theessentially preliminary framework developed and the (well-based) assumptions made towards itsdevelopment.Originality/value – The value of the paper stems from the fact that practically no research exists onthe subject and this work provides a solid and comprehensive theoretical foundation for furtherresearch to build on. Additionally, this research studies the subject but also through the identificationof true underlying consumer behavior factors.