SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR WINERIES: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ADOPTION OF INSTAGRAM

Abstract

The diffusion of social media as means of communication and business instruments is influencing the wine industry. Wine companies are adapting to the digital trend and including social networks as a salient part of their digital marketing plans. The Instagram platform is increasingly popular, and it is particularly appealing for the wine sector, given the possibility it offers to communicate visually through images and to evoke emotions in the audience. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the adoption of Instagram by wine firms, with the aim of outlining why and how wineries are managing their presence on the social. To this end, a qualitative analysis through interviews and questionnaires is performed over wine entities of various size, to understand their different usage of Instagram and to illustrate the most used communication strategies.