The Challenge for French Wines in the United States

Abstract

This essay aims to present the way in which France operates to remain competitive and succeed in foreign markets. This study illustrates the United States wine market, now the first wine consumer country, where France is focused in order to secure a long-term position and to increase wine revenues, even if challenged by other countries such as Italy and the New World wine producers. Firstly, is presented an overview of the American wine industry, with its structure, production, consumption, trades and regulations. Secondly, the report will investigate the way in which producers form the Old World countries, such as Italy and France, were able to enter the US market and successfully compete with the New World wines; then it will follow a comparison between Italian and French wines together with the way they are perceived by American consumers. Besides, thanks to the expansion of tastes, different eating and drinking behaviours and growing incomes, it followed the emergence of new consumers onto the scene. This study will thus investigate the evolving scenario of the Wine Industry together with the increased presence of social media and e-commerce channels and will propose new possible strategies for the wine companies to increase their sales and brand awareness. To conclude, it will follow a presentation of a concrete case study of a French company: Les Grands Chais de France, leader in the export and import of French wines in France, to demonstrate how a company that started as family business was able to succeed in the US market and the strategies it used to compete with both Italian and New World American wines.