There are 430 million wine drinkers around the world but only 7% of regular drinkers are ‘highly involved’.
Those of us who work in the trade might think the world revolves around wine but for most normal people, it’s just a drink.
Lulie Halstead, director of Wine Intelligence, which published these findings, told delegates at Wine Future, “Consumers have little interest and commitment to wine.
“They enjoy it but it’s not the be all and end all of their lives,” she added.
And while we’re all tweeting and facebooking ourselves to death, it appears that in many markets regular wine drinkers aren’t much interested in social media for recommendations and commentary.
Social media is relevant to just 13% of regular wine drinkers in the UK, 21% in the USA and 13% in France. However, 62% of regular wine drinkers in China’s tier 1 cities (Beijing, Shanghai and so on) find social media relevant.
So, outside of China, who are we tweeting and blogging to? Ourselves. There’s nowt wrong with that but reaching the consumer might be harder than we first thought. But then again, ten years ago social media was all but nonexistent so it appears that we are at the start of a marathon of interaction.
