INNOVATIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TOOLS FOR THE WINE SECTOR - A FOCUS ON SPARKLING WINE FIRMS IN THE HO.RE.CA. CHANNEL

The wine sector is undergoing significant transformations, with consumption declining across most wine categories except for sparkling wines. Within this context, fine dining restaurants emerge as one of the most value-adding channels for wineries. Wine lists, often curated by sommeliers, serve not only as tools for sales but also as instruments to shape the dining experience. Given the central role of wine in restaurants, successful establishments tend to achieve different levels of consumer satisfaction. However, wine lists are not the sole determinant of customer perceptions: other factors, such as the quality of the food offering and the restaurant’s location, also play a crucial role in influencing overall satisfaction. Therefore, this thesis targets several intersected topics, with different complementary studies. On a general perspective, the overarching aim is to provide insights into how the change in consumption can be faced in the hospitality sector towards wine list management, and how it can enhance both wineries performance and consumer experience in the context of sparkling wine and fine dining. While, in detail, the aims are several. The first aim is to individuate trends and gaps in the literature in relation to wine brands, to set the stage for the following parts. The second aim addresses directly the dynamics of the Sparkling wine industry in terms of territorial responses to globalization standards. The third aim is to investigate the role of restaurant location in city context in terms of effect on consumer satisfaction. The fourth aim is to investigate how consumers satisfaction is influenced by wine list features in the fine dining sector. The fifth aim it to depict the role of wine list in shaping the experts’ evaluation of upscale restaurants. The sixth and last aim is to investigate the reasons behind the choice of sommelier in terms of Sparkling wines to list in upscale restaurants. Moreover, this thesis includes six chapters and the conclusions. The first chapter presents a bibliometric analysis of wine branding research published between 1998 and 2024. By examining 579 academic articles, this study identifies leading contributors, thematic clusters, and emerging research trajectories. Findings reveal how collective branding, consumer segmentation, and winery branding for tourism have evolved as central research themes, with regional identity and experiential marketing playing an increasingly prominent role. Along with these findings, in this chapter are illustrated the gaps in the literature. The second chapter focuses on differentiation strategies in Classic Method sparkling wine production in three different areas. Survey data on vineyard management, vinification practices, and distribution highlight convergences in agronomy but divergences in cellar techniques, pricing strategies, and market orientation. These differences illustrate how value chain practices of the three territories are rooted in the response to globalization, and how the three areas set their value chain to be competitive. The third chapter investigates competition among restaurants in Milan by applying spatial econometric models to 4,108 establishments. The results show that restaurant ratings exhibit positive spatial autocorrelation, while neighbouring ratings exert a negative competitive effect. This indicates that spatial dynamics and proximity influence consumer evaluations, providing useful insights for positioning strategies in the Ho.Re.Ca. channel. The fourth chapter examines Michelin Guide restaurants in Italy, with a particular focus on how wine list elements, such as price ranges and origins, affect consumer ratings. Findings show that while higher menu prices and Michelin stars are positively correlated with ratings, excessively high wine prices or an overly localized selection may reduce consumer satisfaction. The fifth chapter extends the analysis to Germany, where a Seemingly Unrelated Regression model jointly considers consumer and expert evaluations. While both groups value similar features, although in different ways, experts are more sensitive to wine list composition, particularly price extremes and countries of origin, whereas consumers respond more broadly to menu characteristics. The sixth chapter investigates the role of sommeliers in curating wine lists, based on interviews with 20 professionals in German Michelin restaurants. The analysis highlights how sparkling wine selection reflects a balance between product quality, experiential value, and brand prestige, positioning the sommelier, along with chefs, as a central figure in shaping the dining experience and reinforcing symbolic value in the Ho.Re.Ca. channel. Finally, the conclusive chapter sums up the findings and discuss the theoretical contribution of this thesis. Along with the theoretical contributions, this thesis also offers several managerial implications. In the last part of the chapter, are addressed the limitations and the future research trends.