From firm’s brand identity to cluster’s brand identity: a web-based analysis of Tuscan wineries

Abstract

Purpose-This paper aims to investigate the brand identity drivers used online by wineries and to assess cluster identity from the analysis of firms' specific branding strategies. Design/methodology/approach-Chianti, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino wine clusters (located in Tuscany, Italy) were selected as the set for this study. A total of 452 wineries websites were analyzed using a text frequency query, and the results were further examined through a discriminant analysis. Findings-The theoretical framework was modeled after a careful analysis of the literature and is composed of three macro-areas of identity drivers: locational, product/process and social attributes. The analysis of winery websites shows the presence of all the drivers examined, which explain not only the wineries' specific strategies but also the drivers of a particular cluster's brand identity. A discriminant analysis highlighted that some drivers are able to explain the unique characteristics of the three clusters. Originality/value-This research seeks to build a holistic investigation of all the identity drivers used by firms online. The specific brand identity focus and the holistic approach can enrich both academics and practitioners with a framework of current branding strategies.

Branding your identity online! The importance of the family dimension for Italian family wine businesses’ foreign turnover

“…Branding your identity online! The importance of the family dimension for Italian family wine businesses' foreign turnover Moving from Devigili et al, (2018) framework, this paper concentrates on the locational and the social attributes and focuses on two of their constituting dimensions, namely the territorial identification and the governance attributes, as determinants of family businesses' foreign sales turnover. More precisely, the paper disentangles the effects of the subdimensions characterising territorial identification and governance attributes, namely denomination, locality, region and country (as subdimensions of the former) and family, tradition, innovation and storytelling (as sub-dimensions of the latter) on foreign sales turnover.…”

“…Focusing on the wine industry, this paper moves from Devigili et al (2018) framework according to which the wine brand identity is defined along three attributes: product/process, locational and social. Each of them results from two dimensions, namely the product and the process characteristics, the territorial identification and the collateral experiences, the external approval and the governance attributes.…”

“…Governance attributes. According to Devigili et al (2018), the governance attributes refer to the family, the innovation, the tradition and the storytelling. In the wine sector, often the winemaker is the family per se.…”

“…To perform the analysis presented here, two databases were merged. The first one, collected in 2017, aimed to identify brand identity strategies employed online by wineries (Devigili et al, 2018). Data were gathered downloading the full content of wineries' websites, page by page.…”

“…Based on Devigili et al (2018), we selected two sets of macro-drivers, namely territorial identification and governance attributes. Territorial identification drivers capture the crucial role played by terroir in the wine business (Johnson and Bruwer, 2007) Each of the former drivers is associated with a list of words coherent with its meaning, selected by the research team and validated in a previous research article (Devigili et al, 2018). Comparing the total words included in a website with that list of words, we calculated a weighted frequency of occurrence per each attribute on each website.…”