Qu'est-ce qu'une marque de vin ? Approche sémiotique du développement comparé des vins européens, australiens, sud-africains, américains et chinois

Abstract

One of the key factors of success in the wine business consists in the capacity of the sellers to differentiate themselves by communicating towards consumers a different qualitative value for their product by means of a set of signs, designing a pattern of brands and marks on the main medium for the wine market : the labeling of the bottle or any other packaging. A semiotic point of view when analyzing the world wide wine market development since the XIX° Century, both in European countries and in the «New Worlds», is pointing out that the packaging narratives aiming at the differentiation of the wines `value need to set up a complex enunciator, matching in the same instance of enunciation elements of private branding (under trademark protection) and elements of public or collective marks. This research is showing that the signs which are expressing the offered quality are not sent by the sole initiative of the firm's private brand, even as a registered trademark, but also are partly depending on an external instance of enunciation with a collective and «king» status, poised to ensure trust in the product communication. We have to take into account this particularity of the wine packaging narrative when studying the marketing strategy of the wine players and when carrying out wine consumers' behavior researches, whatever way you look at their knowledge and experiences of wines, and the reason why of their consumption. The findings obtained by this semiotic approach pave the way to new qualitative and quantitative research protocols which could be built on such a specific discourse about the wine branding, within the field of food products' communication and, more generally speaking, among commercial discourses. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]