Evelyn Pabst, M.Sc., has been carrying out research in the improved marketing of German wine for export, since the middle of 2017, as a doctoral student in the Geisenheim University's Department of Wine and Beverage Business. The project, which is funded by the Federal State of Rheinland-Palatinate and the Association for German Viticulture Research, focuses on Poland, Denmark and Great Britain, looking at improving the marketing of mid-price German wines in food retail. The project includes an online survey comparing new product ideas with products already on the market. Pabst used a shelf simulation for this, in which consumers could choose wine from a supermarket shelf graphic, just as they would in a supermarket.
The Wine Marketing Group at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science of the University of South Australia (UniSA), led by Prof. Larry Lockshin und Assoc. Prof. Armando Corsi, is an international expert in the use and development of such innovative market research methods. The Geisenheim project profited greatly from the fact that Pabst was invited to Adelaide by UniSA for a research and training visit, which took place between February and May 2019. This enabled Evelyn Pabst to increase her knowledge of Best-Worst Scaling, Experimental Design and Discrete Choice Experiments, which she could then apply directly to the export project.
The resuts of the research were presented to the wine industry at the DWI Forum Export in Oppenheim in June 2019, by Pabst and Prof. Simone Loose. The results, with information which is easily-understandable for consumers, were very well-received by exporters involved in the project. "We'll be doing our best to translate these very good results into measurable sales success”, commented Michael Probst, Export Leader of the Moselland eG Winzergenossenschaft (Mosel Wine Cooperative). The reports about the three export markets are freely available from Evelyn Pabst by Email .
In the remaining final year of the project, meetings and tastings with retail trade buyers and consumers in the three export markets will be taking place in close collaboration with the German Wine Institute (DWI) and German exporters. „We are, of course, looking forward to following the continuation of the work and the upcoming tastings”, concluded Michael Probst in a summary of the expectations of the German wine industry.
