The New Chinese Wine Consumer

(W&V) - After years of targeting Chinese government officials and businessmen known to buy cases of imported wine for banquets and gifts, speakers at the Exporting Wine to China conference hosted Oct. 16 by The Seminar Group said it’s time for executives in the North American wine industry to consider marketing to affluent women in China’s urban centers.

Linsey Gallagher, vice president of international marketing for the San Francisco, Calif.-based Wine Institute (WI), said the Chinese government has made an effort to crack down on corporate excess and gifting, and WI has seen a slowdown in growth during the past six months as a result.

“Right now 19 million people can afford a bottle of imported wine in China,” Gallagher reports, and 45% of these consumers live in Shanghai.

Brady Ni of The Nielsen Co. flew in from Shanghai for the export seminar and reported that consumer confidence among Chinese is nearing a historic peak. “People are willing to spend,” he said, and the places they spend their money are changing. Ni told the audience that consumers in the city of 19 million do much of their shopping at nearby convenience stores, a shift from the popular hypermarkets.

As far as the female segment of the market, Ni said Diageo has spent a lot of money marketing its Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur to attract urban women consumers, “And it has worked.” And while the tale of businessmen combining expensive red wine with Sprite seems to have gone by the wayside, Ni said the practice is alive and well with young, urban consumers, for whom it is common to down drinks quickly. Diluting the wine makes it last longer, and, he said, “They like the sparkles.”