Crafting brand authenticity: The case of luxury wines

摘要

To attempt at defining authenticity and describe its elements in the context of brand management of the luxury wines industry. The paper, in a lengthy way, as based on a review of literature, defines authenticity as a story that balances industrial (production, distribution, and marketing) and rhetorical attributes to project sincerity through the avowal of: 1. Commitments to traditions (including production methods, product styling, firm values and/or location). 2. Passion for craft and production excellence. 3. The public disavowal of the role of modern industrial attributes and commercial motivations. The author explores the strategies of 26 luxury wine firms to research the authenticity of specific brands. A case study method was employed to understand the philosophy and positioning of each firm. The average age of the sampled firms was 131.1 years (range 14-400+ ). A total of 53 interviews were conducted across the 26 luxury wine producing firms (four from Australia, 14 from France, one from Lebanon, five from New Zealand, and two from Portugal). All interviews were taped and then transcribed. Over 120 hours of interview material was recorded. Secondary data were also used, and in all over 200 sources were reviewed covering a period of 600 years.