A hearty appetite for International promotion

The region’s wine industry decision makers met last Thursday (19th August) at
a Wine Summit at Vidal Estate to determine future direction and marketing
strategy for Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc. Chaired by respected winemaker
and industry leader, Dr Alan Limmer, the summit included presentations from
Rod McDonald, HB Winegrowers Chairman, Lyn Bevin, Executive Officer and
John Buck, Te Mata Estate.

Steven Green of Carrick Wines in Central Otago was the guest speaker and
spoke with extensive knowledge of Central Otago’s regional marketing efforts,
the structure developed to provide regional marketing, commitment and focus
for those efforts and the challenges faced then and now.

Mr Green urged Hawke’s Bay’s representatives to take the Central Otago
experiences and adapt them for Hawke’s Bay. In comparison, Hawke’s Bay
has a far greater number of producers of different sizes and an extensive wine
industry history unlike Central Otago. The messages resonated strongly with
the 40 plus attendees from Hawke’s Bay’s wineries and growers.

Regional marketing of Hawke’s Bay as an international wine region had to be
self-funded to be able to do what the industry wanted and needed to do.
Maintain cohesiveness within the region and work together to promote the
regional brand “Hawke’s Bay wine”. Focus on quality and ensure the decision
makers in Hawke’s Bay are committed to the development of the “Hawke’s
Bay” brand. "These are all strong statements and the fact that they were
welcomed and supported by the local industry says to me that the region is
ready to invest further in the Hawke’s Bay Regional Wine Brand” says Rod
McDonald.

John Buck stressed that the region is the brand as the fine wine world is
based on geography. He pointed out in these challenging economic times
with supply and demand imbalances dictating market activity, no winery or
grower could afford to neglect the importance of the “Hawke’s Bay” brand for
our wine industry.

An open session throughout the afternoon addressed funding issues, gaining
buy-in from all producers, developing national and international regional
programmes, achievements of the regional organisation and potential steps
forward.

With 60 wineries categorised as small within the region, 9 medium and only 2
large, the biggest benefits are going to come from aggregation of capital in
regional promotion.

Questions and answers flew back and forth around the room with passionate
discussion of where future direction should be. Lyn Bevin, Executive Officer,
said she was delighted with the result. “We wanted to determine that we were
doing the job our members wanted us to do and to keep directing our efforts
in this way. More international promotion of the region is top of the list but not
at the neglect of the local market. It’s my job now to take away the positive
outcomes of the meeting and develop a marketing and promotional
programme for the next 5 years that is achievable with the resources we
have.”

Xan Harding, Director and Deputy Chair of HBWG asked the Board to make
minor alterations to the organisation’s mission statement to reflect the summit
meeting outcomes – to bring more focus to building the Hawke’s Bay wine
brand by collective regional effort.