Does your brand get the right balance of authenticity and prestige?

The luxury wine segment is one of the oldest luxury product categories with some wineries amongst the oldest brands in the world. Luxury wineries are particularly good at communicating both authenticity and prestige.

‘Authenticity’ requires a continued commitment to traditions and the place of origin, while on the other hand ‘prestige’ is a collectively held attitude that is socially constructed and motivated by status. An authentic message of genuine heritage should always be balanced with a sense of something aspirational and directional. However, these elements can feel like polar opposites and difficult to navigate. Getting it wrong can either make a brand feel stale and tired, or the opposite of feeling superficial and lacking in substance. Every luxury brand faces this dilemma and striking the right note between the two is the holy grail of luxury marketing.

When you consider English wine brands, there is often a tendency to follow the lead of French wine brands who of course have both authenticity and prestige in spades. However luxury British brands are as equally internationally recognised as French luxury brands. Everyone from Burberry to Aston Martin communicate their authenticity through genuine British provenance and their prestige comes from the cultural values and reputation of brand Britain, where heritage and innovation go hand in hand. Should we continue to try and look like the French when the world has already invested in the brand Britain message?

When you look at UK spirit from whisky to gin, they create rich brand stories that describe where they come from and that informs what makes them unique and special. If you were to apply the same theory to English wines what would your story be, what is it about where you are from that informs the wine? What would be the message to the customer and how would it make you stand out from your competitors?

We are still at the infancy of the English wine market but these are important questions which must be answered sensitively to position your brand in the market for years to come.