Luxury wine brands visibility in social media: an exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the visibility of luxury wine brands, in particular the Bordeaux first growth brands in social media. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses data from howsociable.com to portray similar luxury wine brands in multi-dimensional space. To identify the associations between the brands and the social media visibility indicators, the paper uses correspondence analysis. Findings – The findings of the paper show that some of the brands considered did not, at the time the data were gathered, have a clearly defined social media strategy. Practical implications – The indication is that there are opportunities for luxury wine brand managers to use social media as a tool in their marketing strategies; also some threats may exist to these brands should they take a laissez faire approach to social media, particularly when social media are becoming as influential, if not more so than conventional media. Originality/value – Brands can take directions in social media today that would have been unlikely if not impossible five years ago. While brand managers may not fully be able to control the destinies of these brands, this paper suggests that the approaches followed in this particular research will present brand managers with a tool that will assist them in directing conversations that occur around their brands.