Can marketing save the day in France?
Severely limited in advertising wine since 1991, French winemakers appear poised to be able to market their products more after a bill passed the French Senate.
The Loi Evin, has been the bete-noire of the French wine industry since its passage in 1991. It has been blamed for contributing to the decades-long decline in French wine consumption. Wine consumption among young French in their 20s has declined sharply and the thinking in the wine industry is that more marketing will better capture this generation that prefers the heavily marketed beer or soda.
However, supporters of the Loi Evin point to France’s high level of road fatalities, nearly twice that of the UK. Limiting alcohol is the best way to make the roads safer in their view (although one group in the south of France wanted to remove all the trees that so often line the roads in French departements.)
The campaign against drunken driving has taken its toll on the marginal and mainstream players in the wine industry. In a recent interview, a wine authority in Paris told me that, diners, limited to one drink if they intend to get behind the wheel, now choose to forgo the aperitif. As a result the makers of the sweet vin doux naturel, a common aperitif in France, are suffering. But the campaign has hurt consumption of other wines as well.
More marketing is not a panacea. To date, French wine ads even in America have been much more bland than their full-bodied wines. Better get the creative juices flowing and come up with a good ad campaign.
Or else start subsidizing the metro!
