Go-to-market strategy of Chilean wines: Case study and Comparative analysis of three main Chilean producers: Pérez Cruz, Casa Donoso and Santa Carolina vineyard.

Details

Supervisors

Paque, Bernard ; Lejeune, Christophe

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

The Chilean wine industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Due to the large number of wineries in the country (more than 300) and to the low wine consumption, local offer largely surpasses local demand. In order to deal with this phenomenon, Chilean wineries have turned their strategies to the export of more than 80% of their production abroad. In this context, to study and describe Chilean wineries’ “Go-to-market” strategies can be essential to understand the survival of incumbent firms in such a competitive market. This case study is based on Lawrence Friedman “Go-to-market” theory, and intends to describe and compare GTM strategies from three main Chilean wineries: Casa Donoso, Pérez Cruz and Santa Carolina Vineyard, and to illustrate how these wineries have managed to reach international markets and find new business opportunities abroad. As we will see, there is no such a thing as a “best Go-to-market strategy”. All firms have different realities, face different challenges and, thus, it becomes vital to adapt GTM strategies to each business’ reality. Finally, this case study shows that there is an important lack of knowledge about GTM strategies, which causes most Chilean wineries to make poor GTM decisions. None of the wineries analyzed in this study use a formal GTM framework, or have structured GTM steps to follow. In fact, none of the seven people interviewed during this study knew what the term GTM strategy meant. This study is an invitation to start giving more importance to GTM strategies around the world, and to show wineries and other companies from competitive industries, that establishing serious GTM strategies is essential to the survival of their business’ in highly competitive markets. This case study opens the discussion on GTM strategies and invites all scientific scholars to write about this subject and increase global awareness on the importance of efficient GTM strategies in competitive markets.