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.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to address the issues of luxury gift giving and the giving of luxury wines as gifts from a conceptual perspective. Design/methodology/approach -The article considers the OA (aesthetic and ontology) model as proposed by Berthon et al. that permits the integration of various conceptualisations of different authors in the area of luxury branding. The model offers a typology of luxury brands that draws on Heidegger's theory of arts and Whitehead's process philosophy. This means that one can differentiate luxury brands along two dimensions: aesthetics and ontology. Findings -The paper contends that the four modes as set out in the AO model of Berthon et al. can be used as a typology of luxury wines, from both gift giving, and gift receiving, perspectives. Practical implications -Luxury wine marketers can make use of the proposed typology to target wine gift givers effectively, by understanding where on the proposed matrix both the giver and the receiver are positioned. The four modes that emerge can be seen as different target markets, with different motivations and different behaviors with regard to luxury wines as gifts. Originality/value -By applying the OA model to luxury wines and specifically to the giving and receiving of luxury wines, this paper offers wine marketers the insight to formulate different marketing mix strategies based on the different target markets that emerge from the proposed model.

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