1. PrefaceThe present paper is part

of a line of research whichanalyzes market implemen-tation through the use ofempiric surveys on pro-cessing industries basedupon recent theories whichconsider enterprises as ag-gregates which create valuethrough the use of re-sources and capacity(Stampacchia, 2003).

The theoretic prospectiveof the “enterprise outline”could represent a key toreading the currently usedmarketing concepts; moreprecisely, this theory deals,on one hand, with the con-tent and the hypotheticalchanges in marketinganalysis and, on the other,with management sensibili-ty in respect to thosethemes already developed and strengthened in theoretic stud-ies such as those relating to resources and capacity.

The work has been divided into two parts. The first focus-es on the evolution during the period between the industrialand post-industrial era (until today) concerning marketingmix trademarks, the Sicilian wine enterprises which also im-plemented their own activity. And this particularly for thosehighly market-oriented enterprises.

The second part of this work starts from a survey carriedout in 2001–2002 by the CORERAS and the Sicilian coun-cillorship of Agriculture and Forestry on the market–oriented

Sicilian agriculture andfood industries1. Thepresent research wantsindeed to update andthoroughly examine theabove-mentioned surveyresults, extending it un-til 2003–2004. For thispurpose it has focusedonly on highly market-oriented wine industries(a total of 19) and a ques-tionnaire was used in orderto acquire detailed infor-mation on market activi-ties as well as on the mainstructural and managerialaspects of the enterprises,making use of the market-ing mix instrument.

Once the acquired datahas been processed, select-ed, ordered and written intables and figures, it willbe necessary to further de-velop the interpretation of

results in order to know the market orientation grade of theseenterprises, its evolution in the last three years and over thenext three years. This will imply some evaluations on themarket orientation evolution of these enterprises.

Even though these enterprises represent just a small part ofthe total Sicilian wine industries, the analysis carried out willshow the results obtained by some enterprises that will growin the future years thanks to the implementation of marketingstrategies, by increasing the influence range on the Sicilianwine-growing sector and on the market of the same products.

From the empirical survey carried out on some Sicilianwine industries some really important factors came out. Themarketing aspect is well-conceived and realized consideringits cultural and operative dimensions, although there are dif-ferent kinds of interpretation and implementation. The evo-lution in the wine enterprise marketing activities of the ex-amined enterprises have shown a concrete approach to theclient and the market. The aim of developing a more cus-tomer-oriented enterprise doesn’t seem to be supported by

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Strategies of improvement of marketing mixin the sicilian market oriented wine entrerprises*

Claudio BELLIA*

AbstractThe present work follows the research line which examines the implementa-tion of the marketing, through the development of empiric investigations onprocessing enterprises, on the basis of recent theoretical theories which con-sider the enterprises as aggregations (sets) of value generatrix activity, by theuse of resources and capacity.The main point in this study is in fact represented by the marketing mix, inwhich many variables converge in order to achieve the aims pre-defined in theobjective market, to realize some competitive advantages.This work has allowed to identify and analyse the critical factors of success ofthe Sicilian vine-growing and wine-producing enterprises (market-oriented).

Key words: Competitiveness, sicilia region, wine sector, marketing

RésuméCet article s’insère dans le sillon de recherches qui examinent la réalisationdu marketing par le biais d’enquêtes empiriques concernant les industries detransformation sur la base de théories suivant lesquelles les entreprises sontdes agrégations d’activités produisant de la valeur à travers l’utilisation deressources et de compétences. Le point central de cette étude est représenté par le marketing mix dans lequelconvergent plusieurs variables afin d’atteindre le but prédéfini par le marchéet un avantage compétitif.Ce travail a permis d’identifier et d’analyser les facteurs critiques de succèsdes entreprises vinicoles et viticoles siciliennes.

Mots Clés: Compétitivité, region Sicilia, filière vinicole, marketing

26

* The author is researcher in the Agriculture Faculty Of The Univer-sity Of Catania and also Contract Professor in the Chemist’s Facultyof the same university. This note summarizes the method and the re-sults of a wide led investigation in the context of the Regional Con-sortium for the Applied Research and the Experimentation (CORE-RAS), under the coordination of Prof. Antonino Bacarella.1 Cfr. BACARELLA A. (2003): Le imprese agroalimentari “marketingoriented” in Sicilia, CORERAS, Palermo.

Jel classification: Q130

the adoption of a logic based on processes for marketing ac-tivities and by the management and development of compa-ny skills.

There is still time to wait till the evolution trend started inSicily about ten years ago and that has seen an increasing im-plementation of the marketing activities in the wine enter-prises, further increases in the future also under the impulseof public initiatives; the latter cannot but take part in the evo-lution process that has concerned (and will even more so inthe future) the entire Sicilian wine production sector, in par-ticular that of high-quality ones.

2. Survey on sicilian highly market-orientedwine enterprises

2.1.Survey methodologyWine surely is one of the most important agricultural and

food products of Sicily, that manages to convey, in Italy andabroad, some intrinsic values of this land or of the main pro-duction areas. Wine is able to convey images of culture, folk-lore, culinary and tourism tradition.

But there’s more. Nowadays we can talk of “wine econo-my” (Pastore, 2002), thus referring not only to the world ofwine and to its traditions but also to the several activities con-nected to wine production.

“Wine economy” is already a well-known reality in Italy ingeneral and particularly in Sicily following what has hap-pened and still happens in countries with wine tradition, forexample France, which has focused on enhancing its wineindustry through a scrupulous quality policy based on quali-ty and origin trademarks.

Since the beginning of the 90’s, Sicily has also been mov-ing towards this evolution aiming at the well-knownMediterranean diet and the made in Sicily. These two trendsare already famous abroad as a recent survey on consumermarkets carried out in Canada demonstrated2. The presentwork is connected to the above-mentioned study, analyzingjust the wine industry which, following the CORERAS re-sults on the agricultural and food industry, had a “high rate ofmarket orientation”, therefore market-oriented.

We selected 19 enterprises, equivalent to 24% of those be-longing to the total wine industry, analyzed in the above-mentioned survey in 2001 and 2002 (the enterprises were 79in total).

The work is therefore an effort to trace the main causeswhich have pushed the Sicilian industry to model its own be-haviour according to the market–oriented scheme. An ad hocsurvey, based on marketing analysis technique, has been thencarried out, we repeat, to update and to examine closely theCORERAS survey3. This kind of survey has been carried outin two different complementary and superimposable phases.

The first analysis consists of acquiring all the documenta-tion relating to the general marketing characteristics, mainlyexamining those marketing mix elements which a firmadopts in order to make its own strategic choices accordingto its marketing plan. Such a plan is really important to im-prove competitiveness in a market, like the one of wine, al-ways in evolution. This will help to realize, for each firm, itsown corresponding chain of values, thanks to the integrationof the different production cycle (production, processing,transformation, packaging) where most of the value added tothe production cycle can be defined and providing occupa-tion and income in the area where the firm is located togeth-er with the promotion of a development process, consistingin industrial activities and/or services (marketing research,applied research, tourism, artisanship, etc.).

The second phase of the survey, which is the longest andrequired a lot of effort, has been carried out using a specificmethodology. For this purpose we used a questionnairewhich we gave to a sample group of wine firms havingstrong market orientation and located in the main Sicilianwine areas. These enterprises (15 in total) were chosen fromthe 19 firms examined by the Coreras survey in 2001-2002,also considering their willingness to take part in the surveyand also other factors.

In fact, this part of the research is dedicated to the methodand results of the above-mentioned survey which was carriedout during the second semester in 2004.

The study was carried out to understand the different s-trategic choices of the firms and their corresponding sellingprices. We then proceeded with open interviews, trying torecognize the marketing mix elements which the firm uses todevelop a competitive advantage over its competitors as wellas the corresponding structural and managerial factors of theenterprises here in exam.

The questionnaire has been split up into 5 coordinating sec-tions to obtain a better knowledge of the analysed market.

These 5 parts focused mainly on: 1) defining the firm’sfunctional position within the Sicilian wine industry; 2) ob-taining information on the different range of wines producedby the surveyed firms, the selling strategy of these wines andmarketing plans, speed of sales and consumer purchasingreasons, by means of specific questions on the main factorsthat favour the selling of their own wines; 3) as well as ac-quiring information about preferences, motivations and fu-ture conditions concerning the wine production in the areashere analyzed.

During our interviews we tried to establish an informal re-lationship with the interviewee, so additional questions wereasked in order to go more into depth concerning some as-pects of the survey. However, we tried not to be too intrud-ing, sometimes noticing reserve and sometimes refusal to an-swer.

In this paper we analyzed a sample of 15 wine firms locat-ed in different Sicilian provinces, concentrated mostly in thewestern part of the country, especially in the Trapani

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2 Cfr. BELLIA C. (2004): Produzioni agroalimentari “made in Italy” e“made in Sicily” sui mercati di consumo canadesi: analisi della domandae strategie di marketing, CORERAS, Palermo.3 BACARELLA A. (2003): Le imprese agroalimentari “marketing ori-ented” della Sicilia, Op. cit.

province. However, these records just outline the true wineproduction distribution and its enhancement in the region.

Hence we may notice that among the wine firms in analy-sis, there are none from the Catania and Ragusa provinces.That is why none of these provinces belong to the 19 strong-ly market-oriented firms studied by the CORERAS survey in2001–2002.

The survey has been carried out through a face to facemethod, using the questionnaire briefly explained before-hand and the new means of communication (e–mails, websites, etc.). In this way we managed to acquire additional andmore precise information in order to define the survey fieldof observation.

Given that this survey’s main purpose was to verify themarket-oriented firms’ behaviour in relationship to the char-acteristics of the constant changes in the retailing market andits user, we then tried to closely examine the characteristicsof quality wine.

The Sicilian market-oriented firms we examined are exam-ples of different management and organization realities.Thanks to this survey we managed to gain data on the differ-ent social-economic and cultural aspects, the policy for theraw material supply and distribution of the wine, the promo-tional strategy of the renowned Sicilian wines, the qualityperception and the decision on the selling price.

Before taking a look at the survey results, it is necessary torepeat that we found some resistance among the intervieweesespecially when asked about business costs, and more pre-cisely when speaking about promotional strategy cost. Thisdifficulty in obtaining such personal information is directlylinked to the problem of the survey, when dealing with man-agement and economic aspects of wine firms, at times therecan be someone who mistrusts the interviewer, not only forfiscal and administrative reasons, but also not wanting to dis-close personal and important economic data to competitors.

Within these limits, this survey becomes really interestingbecause it shows aspects and problems of the Sicilian winemarket which could be useful to those surveyed firms. Fur-thermore, it might also be useful as a tool of knowledge andinterpretation by the entire Sicilian wine sector for its futuredevelopment.

2.2. Survey main results analysisConcerning the data survey carried out on a sample of 15

strongly market – orientated wine enterprises, we can statethat they increased their sales by 45% in the four years(2001-2004) from 10.6 million Euro in 2001, to more than15.4 million in 2004, as shown in table 1. Hence, we may saythat this performance, considering only the period analyzedand the region of Sicily, was the best among the market-ori-ented agricultural and food industry.

The table also shows the minimum and maximum profitfor the period in question. This data is quite variable espe-cially in relation to the consistency of production and to thedifferent size of the surveyed enterprises. Minimum profitshave been registered from 1.1 - 2.3 million Euro and a max-

imum of 30.0–43.0 million. Moreover, we can notice how,from 2001 to 2004, there was a completely different dynam-ic between the minimum profit (more than doubled goingfrom 1.1 million Euro to 2.3 million) and the maximum (al-though it increased, it didn’t exceed 43%, going from 30 mil-lion to 43 million). Consequently, profit range of the exam-

ined enterprises has notably reduced going from around1:27.3 to 1:18.7.

For better understanding the changes in the 15 firms, theanalysis should have also been extended to the wine produc-tion and its relating dynamics, but this was not possible, giv-en that just some of the total firms (8 out of 15) provided theinformation on the 2001–2004 production.

Since the dynamics we observed in the wine firm profit did-n’t correspond to an increase in wine production, but seemedto depend more on high prices, we thought it could be moreuseful to develop a comparative analysis between the profitdynamics and the production ones, just taking into consider-ation only the 8 firms which provided the necessary data.

As shown in tab. 2, together with an average profit increasebetween 2001 and 2004 of 41%, in the same period wine av-

erage production rose by 29%. In 2002 we also registered ev-ident differences between profit dynamics and production, infavour of the first. This may happen because of the high price

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Tab. 1 - Average sales and relative variation of the wine enterpri-ses in analysis (2001-2004) (*)

Tab. 2 - Comparative analysis between dynamics of wine produc-tions and the correspondent sales in the wine enterprises examined(2001-2004) (*)

policy during the analyzed period, together with a high de-gree of development and differentiation of the final producton the market and due to the firms commercial strategies.

Although it is not possible to extend these results also tothe other Sicilian market-oriented wine firms, we can proba-bly state that, thanks to other information, the data in tab. 2is sufficient to show an evolution in progress whereby therange of high quality bottled wines of renowned firms pro-ducing quality and origin trademarks grows.

Another interesting result which emerged from this surveyshows how the wine production of the surveyed firms is notexclusively launched on national market (in Sicily and in oth-er Italian regions), but also on foreign markets, within the EUcountries and or outside, in the so-called third countries, inparticular North America (USA and Canada), and recently onthe Asian market (Japan).

Between 2001–2003, 40.3 % of the surveyed firms averageprofit was made on foreign markets, compared to the 33.2%gained on national ground and 26.5% on the Sicilian market(with just 6% gained on the local market).

This data allows us to make some useful conclusions,which will be analyzed more in depth later, about the impor-tance of our high quality wine production dependent on for-eign export markets. As a matter of fact, recently, wine hasgained a good share on foreign markets, also thanks to itsconnection with the tourist and gastronomic image whichwell market-oriented firms are able to express, as well asthrough the good reputation gained over time by the Made-in-Sicily quality wines and the Mediterranean diet. It is notby chance that wine represents one of the main items in theexport of Sicilian agricultural and food products, and more ingeneral, in the agricultural and food balance.

The possibility of placing Sicilian wine on internationalmarkets has increased steadily over the last 10-15 years. Thisis because of: a) gradual reduction of institutional and eco-nomic barriers in trade; b) the exchange in real time of nec-essary trade information c) the advent of faster and faster car-riers, with a wider range of services. In other words, we maystate that the integration and unification processes betweenthe different market areas have stepped up even in the winetrade market. Thus creating an epochal change which hasbeen defined, since the beginning of the 80’s as “marketglobalization”.

In connection to this subject, fig. 1 shows the volumes ofSicilian wine export (2001–2003) of the surveyed firms onthe main foreign markets. The graphic shows how the Euro-pean countries represent the highest percentage of Sicilianwine export. The leading countries are France (11.3%), Ger-many (7.9%) and UK (6.7%), however, we cannot underrateAsian countries (in particular Japan with 10.4% is one of themain import markets) that constitute an important market forthe wines of the surveyed firms.

We should then consider North American markets thathave steadily increased over the last 10-15 years and willcontinue growing over the years to come. It is not bychance that the USA and Canada make up 13% of relative

export, placing themselves among the first of the import-ing countries.

A good sample of Sicilian market-oriented wine firms togetherwith an integrated documentation obtained through other sources,have enriched the survey helping with important information onproduct,process and or-ganizing innova-tion. Concer-ningthe diffusion ofthis technology,tab. 3 shows howsome surveyedfirms have intro-duced all thenew technolo-gies such as e-mail, ISDN In-ternet connection(Integrated Ser-vices DigitalNetwork) andthe web site fol-lowed by othertechnologiesconnected to thevideo-informat-ics world, such asIntranet. This wide use of technology by the firms in questiondemonstrates how they are increasingly influenced by the tech-nological changes in an always more digitized market.

This use of modern video-informatics technology has be-come essential to firms with the aim of gaining competitiveadvantages as it allows them to break down the barriers to en-ter a highly differentiated, such as agriculture and food mar-ket in general and wine in particular. Furthermore, it helps fa-cilitate supply-demand relations which become more directand faster bypassing intermediaries. That’s why, as shown intab. 4, the surveyed wine firms have adopted a growing num-ber of new technologies: 66.6% of all firms adopted between6 and 7 technologies out of 9 shown in the tab.

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Fig. 1 - Wine exports on principal foreign countries, as final market ofthe productions obtained in the examined enterprises (2001-2003) (*)

Tab. 3 - Level of innovative technologies used bythe examined enterprises (2004) (*)

Concerningthe total use ofnew technolo-gies introduced(considering al-so product andorganization te-chnologies), thesurvey has high-lighted how, inthe last 4 years,the surveyed wi-ne firms weregreatly influ-enced by 2 ormore innova-tion groups (pro-

duct and/or process and/or organization) as shown in tab 5.It fact 73.3% of firms have introduced new products, and

the same for new processes, while two thirds introducednew organization methods.

Regarding information sources used by the wine firms inorder to gain the necessary know-how of the type of inno-vations to introduce and the relative impact on enterprises,most of the interviewees stated that they had found infor-mation through ad hoc consultant offices, and/or Researchand Development project results and of course not forget-ting the importance of specialized magazines.

Concerning the competitive market positioning of the Si-cilian highly market-oriented wine firms, we asked ad hocquestions in order to underline which of the strategic factorshave been used to develop competitive advantages for abetter wine production positioning.

As regards to what has been analyzed, we may say that:all the surveyed firms operate on the market with theirown trademarks, and concerning wine sales they mainlyuse, wholesalers for national markets (35.1%), followedby the Large Organized Distributors (LOD) distributors(29.7%) and wholesalers on foreign markets (27.7%),while other distribution channels are not of great impor-tance (“traditional retailer” and “on-trade channels”).However, the importance of the different channels is

bound to evolve involving a more widespread use of LODand on-trade channels.

Another inter-esting fact arisesin tab. 6 wherefirms have beenanalyzed on thebasis of the dis-tribution chan-nels that use themost. Accordingto results, twothirds of the sur-veyed firms useat least 3 differ-ent distributionchannels for pla-cing their wineon the market, thus assuming sales policies focused on a d-ifferentiation of markets and distribution channels to placetheir own products.

Regarding wine sales dynamics in the years 2001–2003, d-ifferent situations have been highlighted: 8 firms out of 15declared high growth performance (53.3%), 6 firms a slightgrowth (40%) and only one of the total remained stationary.Really different are the interviewees’ wine sales outlooks forthe next three years, slightly higher in 14 out of 15 firms(93.3%) and very much higher for the rest (6.7%), as shownin tab. 7. This is why they forecast, not only a rise in pro capi-ta consumptions in all net wine importing countries (USA,Canada, Japan, etc.), but also in those countries which do notproduce it at all (UK, Sweden, the Middle East, etc.).

Another important element which characterizes the com-petitive positioning of these firms concerns the fact that theyproduce large quantities of high quality wine with recogni-tion for denomination of origin and geographical indication(DOC, DOCG, IGT). For many years now quality wines arean important component of the Sicilian balance of trade.In order to have abetter understand-ing of the elementson which market-oriented wine fir-ms have centredupon over the lastthree years (2001–2003) and thoseon which they aregoing to focus up-on in the next(2004-2006) to de-velop their com-petitive advan-tage, we drew upfig.2. Here bothanswers refer-

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Tab. 4 - Distribution of the transformation enter-prise examined according to the number of theused innovative technologies (2004) (*)

Tab. 5 - Main groups of innovations introduced by the examined wineenterprises in the last quadrennium (2001-2004) (*)

Tab. 6 - Distribution of the examined wine en-terprises, according to the number of distributi-ve channel used (2004) (*)

Tab. 7 - Course of the sales of the examinedwind enterprises (2004) (*)

ring to the last three years and the next were analyzed, us-ing a method where the interviewee has to express a syn-thesis judgement divided into “irrelevant”, “not very rele-vant”, “quite relevant” and “very relevant”.

Based upon the interviewee’s opinions, we managed to s-tate some conclusions regarding those elements character-izing the competitive advantage of the surveyed firms tak-ing into consideration the products (cf. fig. 2, I) and otherfactors (cf. fig. 2, II).

As far as products are concerned, eight elements wereconsidered: product quality, innovation, design, reliability,standard of customer service, large range, distributionchannels protection and marketing communication.

The competitive advantages related to the products areshown in fig. 2 I and the results are as follows.

Concerning product quality, the judgement was very rel-evant in 93.3 % of interviewees in 2001-2003 and 100% inthe following (2004-2006); on product innovation judge-ments are very relevant in 53.3% and quite relevant in33.3% in 2001-2003, while in the following three years(2004-2006) we passed to very relevant (73,3%) and quiterelevant (23,3%) judgements.

As for the product design the judgement is as follows:“Very relevant” in 46.7% of cases both in the last and nextthree years; “quite relevant” in 46.7% in 2001-2003 whileit decreases to 33.3% in the following three-year period(2004-2006). As for the product reliability, the intervie-wees have answered as follows: a “very relevant” in 60%of cases and “quite relevant” in 40% in 2001-2003, whilein the following three years (2004-2006) percentagechanges with a 13.3% increase of the “very relevant”judgment and a 20% decrease of the quite relevant.

Another important element is the service standards toclients where the “very relevant” judgement is the prevail-ing opinion both in the last three years (2001-2001) with a80% percentage and in the following ones (2004-2006) with

86.7%. As for the variety and range of products the judge-ment is “quite relevant” in 66.7% of cases, “very relevant”in 20% and “little relevant” in 13.3% in 2001-2003, while inthe following period (2004-2006) the judgement is “quiterelevant” in 80% of cases and “very relevant” in 20%.

The judgment for the protection of the distribution chan-nels expressed by the interviewees in the surveyed Sicilianwine enterprises is as follows: “quite relevant” in 60% ofcases, “very relevant” in 20% and “little relevant” in 13.3%in 2001-2003, while in 2004-2006 the judgment is “quiterelevant” in 66.7% of cases and “very relevant” in 26.7; asfor marketing communication there is a very relevant judg-ment in 53.3% of cases, a “quite relevant” one in 33.3%, a“little relevant” and “irrelevant” in 6.7% in the 2001–2003period, while it is “very relevant” in 83.3% of cases, “littlerelevant” and “irrelevant” in 8.3% of cases in 2004-2006.

As for competitive advantages concerning other factors(see fig. 2, II), the opinion of the managers in the surveyedwine enterprises can be summarized as follows, specifying,however, that the other factors taken into consideration are:production costs, human resources skills, quality and up-dating of production technology, working environment se-curity, the environmental impact problems, the firm image,location and process innovation. Concerning productioncosts, the judgement is “quite relevant” in 66.7% of cases,“very relevant” in 20% and “little relevant” in 13.3% in thefirst three years (2001–2003) taken into consideration, whilein the following period (2004–2006) the percentagechanges only for the “quite relevant” judgment in 73.3% ofcases and “little relevant” in 6.7% of cases; as for the hu-man resources skill the judgment is as follows: “quiterelevant” in 53.3% of cases, “very relevant” in 40%,“little relevant” in 6.7 in the first period (2001–2003),while in the following three-years (2004–2006) the“quite relevant” judgement increases to 66.7% and the“very relevant” decreases to 33.3%.

As for the quality and update ofproduction technology the judge-ment is as follows: “very rele-vant” in 53.3% of cases, “quiterelevant” in 40% in the first trien-nium 2001–2003, while in the fol-lowing period (2004–2006) it is“very relevant” in 53.3% of thecases, “quite relevant” in 33.3%and “not very relevant” in 13.3%;concerning working environmentsafety the opinion was “very rele-vant” in 46.7% in the two trienni-ums (2001–2003 and 2004–2006),and “quite relevant” (26.7%).

Another important element isthe environmental impact issuethat has the following results:“quite relevant” prevails with60%, followed by “very relevant”

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I Fig. 2 - Characterizing elements the competitive advantage of the transformation enterprises, ac-cording to the apprlaisals of the management business (2004) [I] (*)

and “not very relevant” with the same percentage (20%)for the first period (2001–2003), while in the following pe-riod (2004–2006) the “quite relevant” opinion decreases to46.7% and then the “very relevant” and “not very relevant”both go up to 26.7%. Regarding company image, the inter-viewees in the surveyed wine enterprises are as follows:“very relevant” (86.7%), “quite relevant” and “not veryrelevant” (6.7%) in 2001–2003, while in the following pe-riod “very relevant” (93.7%) and “quite relevant” (6.7%).Concerning the Localization factor, “quite relevant” pre-vails with 80%, another three judgments have the samepercentage (6.7%) in the first triennium (2001–2003),compared to the following period (2004–2006), where“quite relevant” decreases in percentage (66.7%) as com-pared to the “very relevant” with (26.7%). As for processinnovation, the results are as follows: “quite relevant”(73.3%), followed by “very relevant” (20%) and “not veryrelevant” (6.7%) in the first triennium 2001–2003, while inthe following period (2004–2006) we registered “quite rel-evant” (86,7%) and “very relevant” and “not very rele-vant” have both a percentage of 6.7%.

The picture we have from the comparative analysis ofsynthesis judgment expressed by the Sicilian wine firms

management in exam is certainlyinteresting. This confirms thatthese firms have a strong interestin developing competitive ad-vantages from both a productpoint of view and from all theother factors too. In our surveywe consider the main factors (16in total), but they are not the on-ly elements which a firm mighttake into consideration.

However, if we analyze justthe main ones, we can find that“very relevant” and/or “quite rel-evant” prevail both for the firsttriennium (2001–2003) and evenmore in the second one(2004–2006).

In conclusion, the group ofsurveyed wine firms, accordingto the expressed evaluations

would follow strategies aimed at developing and /or pre-serving competitive advantage in order to place their prod-uct on the market more easily. This behaviour clearlyshows the main characteristics of these medium-large andstrongly market-oriented enterprises, not only towards thenational market but also to the foreign one, which repre-sent the main export markets.

2.3. Use of the “marketing mix” frameworksin the surveyed Sicilian wine enterprises

On the basis of the results presented in the previous para-graphs, it is possible to assert that Sicilian wine firms giveimportance not only to the organization activities of pro-duction processes and services, but also to the marketingplan, and in particular to marketing mix4.

Given the real importance of these policies , the secondpart of the questionnaire has been created in order to un-derline which marketing factors the wine firms mainly use.

Starting from the product policy, a question was askedabout the importance that the firm gives to the main attrib-utes of the obtained product and, on the basis of the answertab. 8 was drawn up, that provides some useful informationabout it. What firms consider the most important factor isthe quality of the product which they consider “very rele-vant” (93%); quality concept is analyzed in its total formu-lation, from raw material acquisition, to its manipulationthrough production processes and finally to the stage whereservices are incorporated to the obtained products.

Other important attributes of this selection are: shape,colour, design and packaging which have won approvalfrom 73.3%, and finally the brand registered 53.3%.

Moving the analysis approach and adding together the t-wo positive answers (quite relevant and very relevant) theprevious scenarios would spread a lot and other importantattributes would become relevant to the analysis: warranty

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4 For a better analysis of the marketing mix concept, we need tospend just some words on its constitutional elements: Product plan-ning: all the decisions an enterprise must take concerning the productthey want to launch on the market.

Distribution: all those decisions an enterprise must take in order totransfer the product from the place (and/or from the time ) where itwas obtained to the end user location.

Promotional strategy: all those strategies enterprises must undertaketo differentiate the end product and increase the perceived value, ana-lyzing the demand (also considering its different components) and gen-erate a positive response to the consumer.

Pricing: all those decisions enterprises must take concerning the pro-duct demand and its components, placing the product on the market,possible profits and etc, with the effects on final consumers, commer-cial intermediaries, public institutions and on the producer himself.

Fig. 2 - Characterizing elements the competitive advantage of the transformation enterprises, accor-ding to the appraisals of the management business (2004) [II] (*)

(93.3%), Accessories and Services (93.3%) and Functional-ity (66.7%). This would result in a higher approval of theprevious attributes.

Another kind of analysis which is used by enterprises fortheir product policy, is related to The product life Cycle.This method is really useful to understand the progressionof the product through its life cycle (Introduction, Growth,Maturity and decline)and the best marketing strategy toadopt for each phase.

As the product progresses through its life cycle,changes in the marketing mix are usually required in or-der to adjust to the evolving challenges and opportunities.

Thanks to the results obtained during our survey carriedout by strongly market-oriented Sicilian wine enterprisesfig. 3 has been developed. This compares the products of

the surveyed firms with the life cycle model of such prod-ucts. According to the information acquired, most of prod-ucts of the Sicilian wine firms (32 out of 41, equal to ap-proximately 80%) would be in the growth phase of theirrelative selling cycle.

The growth stage is a period of de-mand growth, where market share and,consequently, profit increase. Duringthis phase, the goal is to build orstrengthen brand image and prefer-ence. It is also possible to incentive atrademark change by means of com-parative advertising.

Our survey has also registered a cer-tain number of wines in their intro-duction stage (about 10%). Duringthis phase, sales and consequentlyprofits are low.

During the introduction stage, theprimary goal is to establish a market

and build brand awareness for the new product or for newapplications of a pre-existing product. The marketing strat-egy may include: “penetration pricing strategy” (that means“low prices”) in order to gain market share rapidly, or onthe other end, “skim pricing strategy” which consists inhigher prices, compared to the competitors’ ones, to recov-er costs.

Another 10 % of Sicilian wine firms is in its maturitystage where sales and profits become stable. During thisstage brand awareness is strong, so the firm shouldplace effort into avoid losing a share of the market tocompetitors. The marketing strategy should focus onbrand loyalty and on the convenience of buying theproduct.

In order to establish the marketing strategies that the sur-veyed wine firms use to improve their productpositioning, we used another section of the sur-vey dedicated to these market-oriented wine en-terprises.

Tab. 9 shows the hypothetical strategies aimedat improving wine positioning, according to thefirms efficiency degree estimated by the manager.

According to the Table, the best strategyseems to be the one aimed at entering new seg-ments of market. This method represents 93.3%of the approval (“very relevant” (66.7%) and“quite relevant” (26.7%) although it is not al-ways put into action because of high costs.

However, it is obvious anyway that these choic-es are especially related to the firm size and or-ganization system, its external relations, bothshort and long term objectives and to the type ofgoods and services in which the firm itself is en-gaged in the relative location on other marketsegments.

Another relevant strategy, which is linked tothe previous one, is Entering new distribution channelswith 93.3% of approval opinion (very relevant” (53.3%)and “quite relevant” (40%).

If we proceed to a combine analysis of the two best pos-sible answers (“very relevant and “quite relevant) we get

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Tab. 8 - Analysis of the importance that wine enterprises examined attribute to the characteri-stics of the products, according to the interviewd’s judgement (2004)

Fig. 3 - Indications of the life cycle model of such products obtained of the exami-ned wine enterprises (2004) (*)

important results also for the other strategies such as prod-uct characteristic improvement with 86.7% of consent andinvestment reinforcement within profit niches (86.7%).

Other strategies may be: increase the number of end usersand operate on the consumption. Both of them have greatconsent with 80% for the former and 60 % for the latter.With these strategies, demand increases and the firm gainsnew consumer niches. This is not always that easy, in thewine market especially, given that wine is not always seenas a healthy product or it is considered a more niche prod-uct, according to age and health.

Considering the pricing strategy now, it would be useful totouch on the sequence of steps that might be followed for de-

veloping the pricing of the product. Theseare the following: a) survival; b) profitmaximization, when the firm seeks tomaximize short-term profits, rather thanlower the long-one; c) market share lead-ership, when the firm decides to positionsmaller quantities if wine demand is ex-pected to be relatively flexible and bigquantities if wine demand is expected tobe relatively inflexible; d) quality leader-ship, the wine firm uses relatively highprices standing for high quality in an at-tempt to position the product as the quali-ty leader and to recover costs due to theproduct high standard services.

As regards to these objectives the inter-viewees answered questions about the pricing policy. Wehave to say that most of the interviewees were clearly sus-picious and reticent about discussing their business. How-ever, despite this difficulty, we managed to state some re-marks on (results are shown in fig. 4: a) the wine price lev-el set by the surveyed firms; b) the factors that influencefirms when they determine pricing c) the analysis method(general methods) followed, when developing the productprice.

Concerning price level we registered that 93.3% use low-er prices in response to competition.

As for the analysis methods, 51.7% of the intervieweesmake use of analysis schemes based on their own costs, an-

other sample (31.1%) set the price on the com-petitors’ strategy and finally, the rest (17.2%)considers the wine demand analysis and its de-velopment.

Finally, the surveyed wine firms stated theyset their prices according to prospective sales,followed by the break–even point, also called:“balance point”, “flight point”, “criticalpoint”.

As for the distribution decisions, it is impor-tant to analyze the most strategic channels con-venient to the firms. Distribution channels areused to transfer goods, services and informationstarting from the planning-production stage, tothe intermediate use and finally to the end con-sumption stage.

Another important element is to know thedistribution channel length immediately,through which the product reaches the cus-tomer as product/service.

We then asked the wine operators to revealthe distribution channel they use, infact the sur-veyed enterprises mainly use the long distribu-tion channel (40%), followed by the brief chan-nel (36.7%) and finally the long one (23.3%).

Anyway, we have to consider that each firmmay use two or more channels at the same time,

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Tab. 9 - Analyses of the possible strategies in order to improve the position on the market ofthe wine produced from the examined enterprises, according to the efficiency degree (2004) (*)

Fig. 4 - Level of the prices of wine and general criteria followed by wine enterprisesduring their formulation (2004) (*)

according to their export market. fig. 5 shows the distributionchannels wine firms prefer, where the highest consent is forthe long channel, followed by the brief and then the directchannel.

Besides the care and efficiency of the sales personnel , an-other important element is related to the size of the distribu-tion network, which depends on the number and localizationof sales points and on the commercial intermediaries.

Fig. 6 better shows the differences of the existing meth-ods, and states how favourite selling strategy of manage-ment is the selective one (37.5%), which consists in posi-tioning their own production through some intermediaries-retailers, chosen in advance. And that is why, wine, andabove all high quality ones (speciality goods), cannot besold through the selling channel of convenience goods.

Another selling method is the inclusive strategy (34.7%)where management does not make neither any introductoryselection on the type of used channels, nor on intermediaries-retailers. The third method is the exclusive distribution(28.1%), mainly used for the so called “important” winetable. These are valuable bottled wines made by renowned

firms which use quality and origin brands, as shown in fig. 6.It is important to state that even for this strategy, wine firms

do not implement just one kind of selling method to positiontheir production on the market, but on the contrary they useat least two methods, depending on the destination marketand the end user targets.

In the context of marketing mix, marketing communica-tion represents the heart of the market-oriented wine firmstrategies. This has the goal of evaluating the demand evo-lution in order to arrange the necessary offer adjustments.

Effective marketing communication relies on a carefulblend of all the communication mix elements: a) advertis-ing, which is, as it is already known, a non personal paysales presentation; b) sales promotion is aimed at arousingintermediary and end user behavioural answers, but also fo-cuses on pricing and distribution policy; c) public relationsare any kind of communication with customers, dealers,and others involved in the marketing mix for the purpose ofenhancing the image that the consumers have of the prod-uct; d) sponsorship, expressed by financing events of pri-vate and/or public interest; e) communication to whole-salers, that involve sales policies and therefore the interme-diaries; f) internal communication that represents the ex-pression of those communication actions aimed at arousingbehaviour and attitude in the concerned personnel accord-ing to the pursued policies (internal marketing).

The combination of different communication strategiescarried out by firms, and by the surveyed forms in particu-lar, depend on different factors. Most of these take into con-sideration, besides future objectives, also the market andthe end user target, the firm strategies and the available fi-nancial resources.

For this marketing strategy we also created an ad hoc sec-tion in our questionnaire to have a better understanding ofthe communication strategies wine firms use. According tothe answers received, we can understand that the firms use,in order to spot the consumers’ needs, the councelling ofspecialised agencies.

If we have a look at fig. 7 we see how the commonestcommunication methods is sales promotion (29.7%), to-gether with all the promotional activities aiming at posi-tioning the wine on the market, increasing its perceivedvalue and developing product new consumption methods.

Another means of communication, very common amongwine firms, is advertising (22.5%), aimed at developing winebrand equity. The brand can add significant value, contributein differentiating the product from that of competitors (witha high quality product and a well-conceived warranty) and fi-nally can lead the end user to an alternative selection process.

Less important is internal communication (17,4%), pub-lic relations (13.6), sponsorship (10.5%) and communica-tion to wholesalers (6.2%).

It is important that also for the communication policy mixfirms do not use a single method, but two or more, accord-ing to the their products and market targets.

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Fig. 5 - Information on the typologies of distributive channels from theexamined wine enterprises (2004) (*)

Fig. 6 - Mode of sale of the wines in the examined wine enterprises(2004) (*)

The last method of the communication policy that sur-veyed wine firms make use of is the different ways of giv-ing out information. fig 8 shows that different sized printedmatter (for example, brochures which describe the product)represent the most common method of divulgation (57.4%).

In an already computerized area, where the globalizationprocess considers international marketing a strategic factorfor global economy competition, where the well known

concept of “death of the distance” and with the advent ofE-Commerce, an abundant use of the Web Page (26.8%),among the surveyed wine firms, has been disclosed. Thisallows the product to be known outside of the firm’s ownmarket boundaries, with the possibility of placing the prod-uct on different markets and on different end user targets.Also in this specific case the strategies that wine firms use,together with the main methods, are different according tothe firms marketing policy and to the number of markettargets.

3. ConclusionOver the last 10-15 years, changes in the wine industry

concerning consumption behavioural evolutions and pur-chasing motivation, have been quite fast in Sicily too,

sometimes even unexpected. For this reason, nowadays,wine marketing is a crucial element, not only for winefirms, but also for business and distribution enterprises.Marketing must not be ignored by the organization andmanagement of the production units and, above all, fortheir market relations.

The core of the analysis is the marketing mix which rep-resents different parameters that the marketing managercan control to order to reach objectives within the targetmarket (Kotler, 2002) and realize competitive advantages.

Marketing experts judge marketing mix components asessential tools in order to organize the firm’s strategieswell. A good marketing plan, above all when based on themarketing mix strategies, can be the firm’s key to success.

The present work managed to uncover the critical suc-cess factors within Sicilian wine firms (those market-ori-ented). The choice of such a sector can be explained if weconsider the special aspect of the product and if we takeinto consideration also the target consumer. The wine in-dustry is a sector where its products are gaining more andmore fame on both national and international markets andwhere wine firms are increasingly implementing market-ing tools.

The wine market with its corresponding marketing s-trategies, should not be considered in a simplistic way be-cause the true meaning stands behind a business philoso-phy which is both end user and target market oriented.Furthermore, an industry which takes into considerationboth the development of new products and, finally, thelevers of the marketing mix which support firms whenplacing their products on the market.

This main goal of this work is to outline the scenariowhere the Sicilian wine firms (already market-oriented)operate and yet not scorn the strategies and policies whichdifferent wine firm management uses in order to manageits competitive advantage. The survey results show howSicilian wine firms thirst for a predominant role in themarket, thanks to lasting competitive advantages, that is tosay a value differential that wine firms can offer their cus-tomers. Although this is not always possible, due to exist-ing competition and wine market high differentiation inthe situation of time and place, according to wine supplyand demand, to its organization, entrance degree (en-trance barrier) and market transparency.

In spite of difficulties, the survey has been carried outfocusing on some key aspects showing what can be calledthe first approach to the marketing system of the firms inanalysis: the meaning, objectives, strategies, skill and,above all, the ability for coping with any changes.

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Fig. 7 - Importance relative clause of the main communication ac-tions used by the examined wine enterprises (2004) (*)

Fig. 8 - The different ways of giving out information used by the exa-mined wine enterprises (2004) (*)

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