The Wine Influencers: Exploring a New Communication Model of Open Innovation for Wine Producers—A Netnographic, Factor and AGIL Analysis

Abstract

Wine Influencers (WIs) represent a new type of independent third party endorsers that are progressively establishing themselves within social networks. This study analyzes the characteristics of the activity of WIs and the communication model used via Instagram. Netnographic Analysis, Factor Analysis and AGIL methods were applied. The results show five Key-findings within specific relationships established during discussions: advice from Wine Influencers and generalized reciprocity in relationships; structural and social bonds established based on the frequency of messages from regular followers; peer-to-peer relationship development through recommendation; development of trust established through online relationships; wine influencer’s influence on followers regarding everything about the wine. The study derives a model that explains the communication dimensions used by WIs that are: advertising (information about product/brand) (35.71%); persuasion—added value to brand and product (42.62%); brand democratization (10.07%); and identity (8.03%). This study provides a novel contribution to the open innovation process of small and medium-sized wine industries for their marketing strategies.

Not just food: Exploring the influence of food blog engagement on intention to taste and to visit

“…The interest and involvement toward blog contents and activities may push the follower to organise a food tourism experience based on the blogger's recommendation and personal experiences (Getz and Robinson, 2014). Through a netnographic analysis, Ingrassia et al (2020) demonstrated that wine bloggers may influence followers' purchase intentions for all things relating to wine, including the intention to visit places of production. The emotional attachment to the blog (engagement), supported by personal stories and experiences, sustains the persuasive power of the blogger.…”

Reaching for Customer Centricity—Wine Brand Positioning Configurations

“…Although the grounded theory is almost exclusively qualitative in nature, it is rooted in a pragmatic-oriented school of thought and often deploys classification as a preparation for building a theory [91][92][93]. Similar, netnographic classification and interpretation of online content in wine branding has been previously conducted by Ingrassia, Altamore, Bacarella, Columba, and Chironi [20]. Previous research on branding and marketing is based on the well-established methodological framework for brand positioning regarding (A) price as well as brand core, consisting of a dichotomy between (B) brand identity (internal orientation) and (C) brand image (external, customer orientation) [1][2][3].…”

“…The second research stream deals with winery social media research [55][56][57][58] and is characterized by an increasing usage of public data on wineries, online services for social media metrics, and online questionnaires. In addition, the role of new actors, such as wine influencers, has been researched along with their importance for wine brand online communications [20]. Advanced statistical techniques are increasingly applied in this research stream, spurred by evolving sample sizes and data volumes.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that brand loyalty, as well as recognition of winery websites, is generally very low among millennials, whereas lively, novel, and interactive websites seem to catch their attention [59,133,134]. Enriching the research on online debates, communities and influencers with further wine marketing cases present a promising future field of research [20,125,135].…”

“…This research approach is designed to advance the wine brand personality and image research but also contribute to wider brand research efforts in other industries. Previous research has identified the research gap on useful models for supporting open innovation in wine branding in the sense of enabling the deployment of multiple data sources for analysis of wine brands [20]. This research sets out to address this research gap.…”