Cultural heritage and branding of family firms in the French wine industry : A case of Burgundian wineries

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Cultural heritage and

branding of family firms in

the French wine industry

A case of Burgundian wineries

BACHELOR THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 ECTS PROGRAM OF STUDY: Double degree program AUTHOR: Emilie Theau Laurent Sery Jeanne Duranton TUTOR : Michal Zawadzki JÖNKÖPING : 18.05.2020

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Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration

Title: Cultural heritage and branding of family firms in the French wine industry, A case of Burgundian wineries

Authors: Emilie Theau Laurent Sery & Jeanne Duranton Tutor: Michal Zawadzki

Date: 18 May 2020

Key Terms: Family Businesses, Wine industry, Branding, Brand Identity

Abstract

Background: The wine industry is often linked to family business, due to the tradition of some long-standing family winery. Scholars agree that, the family elements are a factor of success in this industry. A reason for this success can be found in the branding of wineries. While the literature in branding is extensive, the link between wine family firms and their cultural heritage in the branding and the brand identity is poorly tackled. Given the wine history in a country like France, cultural heritage is a key point and its effect on wineries is a subject that deserve further research.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the branding of wine family firms. The focus is set on exploring how and why family wineries are using their cultural heritage in branding, and how it affects the brand identity of wineries. By explaining the use of cultural heritage, we wish to understand the reason of the success in turning their personal background into the main asset of their branding strategy.

Method: This research is qualitative and based on an interpretivist paradigm. Research method is following the Grounded Theory approach. Primary data are collected via open-ended interviews and all participants are family wineries with significant business seniority in Burgundy, France, as well as wine experts.

Conclusion: The results show that family wineries use cultural heritage within their branding for three reasons: (1) Terroir gives the components of the product and directly influence the product positioning, (2) Customers behaviour and expectations is influenced by winery cultural heritage, (3) Industry requires higher reputation and singularity, brought by innovation and tradition. The leverage of their cultural heritage in branding and its outcomes on brand identity is done though (4) Storytelling of wineries cultural heritage which plays on the pleasure, emotional and cultural aspect of wine.

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Acknowledgement

There is no better way to start this research than by thanking all the person below for their involvement and meaningful help during the construction of our thesis:

· Michal Zawadzki from Jönköping Business School, our thesis tutor, for his advice and follow-up during the 6 months of thesis development.

· Jean-Marc Brocard, founder of the Brocard Domain and now co-director of the domain with his son Julien in Chablis,

· Gauthier Pajona, journalist, and culinary columnist for France Bleu (French National Radio),

· Thierry Richoux, director of the Richoux Domain and currently working with his two sons Gabin and Félix in Irancy,

· Bruno Verret, director of the Verret Domain in Saint Bris Le Vineux, ·· Pierre-Louis Bersan, director with his father Jean-François Bersan of the domain

Bersan in Saint Bris Le Vineux,

Romain Bouchard, co-director with his brother Damien Bouchard of the “Domaine de l’Enclos” in Chablis,

· Renaud Laroche, formerly working for his father’s domain as a marketing director at the domain Laroche in Chablis and now sales agent in wine,

For having granted us in-depth interviews on our subject, for having answered our questions in a sincere and involved manner and for having provided us with precious

information necessary for the development of our thesis.

Jeanne Duranton & Emilie Theau Laurent Sery

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6. Conclusion ... 56 7. Discussions ... 57 7.1 Theoretical Contributions ... 57 7.2 Implications ... 57 7.3 Limitations ... 57 7.4 Further research ... 58 Conflict of interest : ... 59 8. References ... 60 9. Appendix ... 71 9.1 Glossary ... 71 9.2 Process of winemaking ... 73 9.3 Interviews sum-up ... 74

9.4 Final axial and selective coding ... 77

9.5 Participants consent forms ... 80

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Tables

Table 1. Data selection criteria of the literature review ………. 14

Table 2. Keywords Table ……….………...…… 16

Table 3. Summarize T able ………..………... 17

Table 4. Post-it Table ……….………... 17

Table 5. Summary Table of respondents………... 29

Table 6. Sample of open coding n°1……… 32

Table 7. Sample of axial coding and selective coding ……… 34

Figures

Figure 1. Summarize Framework: Why do wine family firms leverage their cultural heritage in their branding ………. 49

Figure 2. Summarize Framework: How do wine family firms leverage their cultural heritage in their branding and its outcomes on brand identity ………. 55

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1.Introduction

This part is a preliminary presentation of our study and aims to present the terms and subject necessary for the understanding of the study

1.1 Background

1.1.1 Problem history

A century ago, all businesses were considered family businesses, thus, there was no need to use the term family to describe them. With time, business and family became separate institutions. Today, family business represents the majority of businesses that are existing. Scholars have to use the word “family” in their research even though the large majority of businesses are still family businesses (Heck & Trent, 1999). In Europe, they represent between 55% and 90%, according to the country (European Family Business, 2018). Their weight in the economy is huge: 30% of the firms that generate a turnover of 1 billion euros, or more are family businesses (KPMG, 2016). Often, they are more successful than their non-family firm counterpart (KPMG, 2016).

Indeed, passing a business to the next generation has always been a challenging process. No matter how willing the company owner is to take their business to the next generation, the handover is most of the time a failure (Oliveira et al., 2012). Nevertheless, this does not mean that the business is doomed to defeat, but only that it will not be kept in the family settings. In view of this observation, the wine sector seems to be a sparse case. Where most companies fail, the wine industry still retains most of their family businesses of several generations.

The term family business is commonly associated with small businesses in specific industries. Wine industry is one industry often linked to family business, due to the tradition of some long-standing family firms (Giacosa et al., 2014 ; Contò & Lopez, 2008). For 86% of French people, wine is associated with a set of values and 90% think that wine maintains a specific relationship with the population (Vins et société, 2020). Moreover, in this industry, family businesses are the most useful type of business at least in the Old world1_.

The success of the family firm model in the Old wine world is a question that research poorly tackled . This success could be explained by the branding of wine, which uses the codes

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8 of each family’s cultural heritage. Studies focus mostly shows that this is a very competitive industry, but using tools like wine tourism (Robert, 2018) or efficient marketing strategy, is a leverage to add value to the business. Also, packaging is often depicted as the main tool for differentiation as added value in the wine sector (Pinto et al, 2018). They most often mention the name of the family or in some cases the domain.

Strength of winery brand identity is partly due to regional branding. Association between a region and/or country is generally considered as a means to stenting the brand identity (Durieu, 2008). The perceived quality of a wine region is one of the most important criteria for consumers and builds the appreciation of a product. Moreover, regional information on a label increased consumer confidence in the quality of the product (Johnson & Bruwer, 2007). In Europe, to ensure the origin of a product and reassure consumers, “Appellations

d’Origine Protégé2_{” (AOP) was put in place. Literally it means «Protected Designations of}

Origin» (PDO).

To sum up, studies on branding in wine are tackling different aspects of the business (place, packaging, consumers’ perspective) but we rarely find the term cultural heritage. Even though, they all fall under the cultural heritage. The few studies on the cultural heritage of French wineries tackle the importance of wine for French history (Wolikow, 2017), and how it strengthens the French food culture (Barrey & Teil, 2011). Studies also demonstrated the importance of leveraging the cultural heritage of wine to support the sector and better the economy (Wolikow, 2017). Other research has shown the influence of history and culture on wine marketing (Charters, 2008b), but again failing to mention its effects on brand identity.

Often taken as an example, the relationship between wine and France is representative of all the weight that cultural heritage had in this specific industry. To fully understand the origins of this special bond, it is necessary to highlight the history of French wine.

1.1.2 History of French wine

Renewed interest towards the origin of wine (Thode & Maskulka, 1998) shows the importance of linking the product with its cultural heritage. Today, 88% of French people think that the history and the culture of the vines have to be protected and transmitted to the next generation (Vins et Société, 2020).

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9 Today, France is one of the most remote countries in the world when it comes to wine. They are ranked 2nd_{, after Italy, for wine production (Hilario, 2019). France also comes number}

one in terms of consumption per habitant (Layen, 2017), and that is no surprise given the strong history of French wine. Understanding the history of French wine gives an idea to understand why it is so deeply rooted into the culture and understand the depth of the cultural heritage.

This history goes all the way back to the Roman empire. It is believed that soldiers brought grapevine from Italy and planted them in French territory (Bazin, 2002). Around 200 B.C., places like Bordeaux or Burgundy were already wine producers. During the Middle-Age, wine gained a new dimension thanks to the catholic Church. Wine production is mostly handled in abbey (Marres, 1961). As a matter of fact, some of the wineries acting as foundation for this study, as the one named “Domaine de l’enclos”, are built on old vines formerly belonging to the Abbey of Pontigny where the wine production was handled by the monks. The Burgundian region gained its renown all the way back from Middle-Age. What brought this place to light is the abbey of Cluny which was offered by the pope with a huge vineyard in the village of Chardonnay, which later became the famous white known worldwide (Bazin, 2002).

Burgundy is one of the main wine regions of France and enjoys an international range. The Burgundian market today represents 5% of the global wine exchange, 200 million bottles a year are produced, and about half of them are dedicated to export (Bivb, 2014). In France, they represent about 3% of the French wine production which represents 1,2 billion turnovers and 150 000 jobs. Burgundian wine is exported in 180 countries all over the world (Bivb, 2014). Their main foreign markets are located in North America, as the consumer rediscovers old whites such as Chablis or Maconnais. The USA and Canada represent, by themselves, 30% of exportations (Latour, 2019). Asia is also a big market, especially in China, Korea, and Japan. (Latour, 2019).

Importance of wine in France shows through language. The winemaker for example, is held in high regard for their ability to bring out the terroir in the fruit (Bazin, 2002). The importance given to the winemaker is seen in the name given to them in French. They are called vigneron which, etymologically speaking, means winegrower not winemaker (CNRTL, 2019), and which suggest that wine is not made but is grown in wineries. Moreover, the history of French wine has such an impact that today, almost all of the terms related to wine come directly from the French language. The most common being the term “terroir” originated in France in the middle of the 19th century and is still used today to link products, especially agricultural ones, to a specific place (Spielmann & Gelinas-Chebat, 2012).

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1.2 Problem discussion

Family businesses have been runned by members of the same family for several generations. It is therefore easy to imagine that these businesses have accumulated over time, a certain number of unique traditions and knowledges specific to their family. Knowing that wine is a set of family traditions, values, deeply rooted in where the family is established, it is easy to understand why the wine sector supports many long-standing family businesses (Giacosa et al., 2014; Conto & Lopez, 2008). An interesting aspect of this type of business can be found in their branding of wine, which uses the codes of their family’s cultural heritage in order to build their own brand image and thus effectively differentiate themselves from the competition. Thereafter, we started the process of gaps spotting in the existing literature on family business in the wine industry. We identify some neglect spotting gaps in an under-researched area. More precisely, we pointed out various gaps.

On one hand, the fact that there is no satisfactory general definition and many way to define what a family business is (Astrachan & Shanker, 2003; Agyapong & Boamah, 2013) make the studies in this field diverse and scattered (Cano-Rubio et al., 2017). Consequently, the emerging theories are disorderly and opposed (Schulze & Gedajlovic, 2010), which represents, according to Astrachan, Klein and Smyrnios (2002) one of the biggest disadvantages of this field. In addition, these existing theories could not be generalized (Craig et al., 2008) because of the different view and perspective in this field of research.

On the other hand, the field of family business is considered as largely neglected and understudied (Craig et al, 2008) and definitely needs to lead to further research (Litz et al., 2011). Some authors even highlight the tendency for family business to “borrow heavily from other disciplines without giving back to these fields” (Zahra & Scharma, 2004, p331). Hence, Zahra and Scharma (2004) encourage researchers to respond to the request made for improving the knowledge in family business research in areas such as marketing, to contribute to general theory.

Consequently, research on family businesses in the wine industry is practically non-existent (Soler et al., 2017). When looking at the branding phenomenon in family business, results are similar. A year ago, CB Astrachan, Botero, J.H. Astrachan, and Prügld (2018) stated that family businesses branding is a new, growing and promising area of research and express the need to develop a more substantial understanding of the branding process in a family business setting. Craig, Dibrell and Davis (2008) argued that there is an opportunity of research

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11 on the family-based brand identity among several factors such as customer perspective or impact on the strategy and see potential in investigating the positioning of the firm as a family business. Moreover, studies on wine branding in France are mostly looked at under a consumer's perspective (Aurie, 2005) and how to stay competitive within this fierce industry, using wine tourism (Robert, 2018) or marketing strategies that focus on the packaging of the bottle (Fontan, 2019). Some others also demonstrated the importance of leveraging the cultural heritage of wine to support the sector and better the economy (Wolikow, 2017) however, without linking it to branding strategy.

The case of France is also unique. In this country, no time and money are allocated to research and wineries playing on market niches tend to distance themselves from competition which make France an atypical and sparse case (Gamble & Taddei, 2007). “The French wine industry therefore faces severe marketing problems'’(Thomas et al., 2012, p211). Even though more and more wineries tend to emphasize branding in their strategy, very few researches have been conducted on the concept of branding from the perspective of the winery (Vlachvei et al., 2012). Vrontis, Thrassou and Rossi (2011) that have been studying strategic branding in Italian wine firms advise to make some research in other localities different from those of Campania region in Italy.

Bàu, Block, Discua Cruz and Naldi (2017) offered some examples of unexplored research in this field such as how do local roots shape family strategies and how do families leverage regional cultures, networks, and embeddedness in their strategies. We thought of merging those concepts under the term “cultural heritage”. Furthermore, cultural heritage is an infancy area of research (Balmer, 2013). “There are a number of latent theories relating to corporate heritage which are likely to be elaborated in the future” (Balmer, 2013, p321). Some studies have shown the influence of history and culture on wine marketing (Charters, 2008b), but again failing to mention its effects on brand identity.

Interest of this study lies into the exploration of the use of cultural heritage in the brand identity, with a focus on Burgundian wine family firm. Cultural heritage is poorly researched in the wine industry but is interesting to potentially understand the success of family business in the wine world. The wine sector is actually one that will benefit from in depth study on region identity through family wine business (Vrontis et al., 2016).

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1.3 Purpose

We aim to address the use of cultural heritage of family wineries in the construction of their brand identity. By explaining the use of cultural heritage by wine family firms, we wish to understand how and why they succeeded in turning their personal background into the main asset of their branding strategy.

Our purpose is explanatory: we will shed light on why leveraging the cultural heritage of wineries is so important for their branding. A part of our reach will also be focused on how those firms manage to communicate those traditions, norms, and family values that constitute the cultural heritage and what motivates them to do so. The goal here will be to identify processes and mechanisms through which heritage is communicated.

This process leads us to a framework development which is the use of cultural heritage from family wineries to maintain strategic branding. Even though it is established that family businesses are using a lot of different capabilities to create their brand image, the use of cultural heritage is a part of key factors in the construction of their identity that is yet still not covered. We want to highlight the importance of celebrating business’s roots and how firms can benefit from that by positively impacting company's branding.

1.4 Perspective, description, and delimitations of the

field

For the purpose of our thesis, our focus will be on the wine industry, as it is a sector where family ownership is common. Moreover, in the wine industry, the cultural attachment is very strong for producers and customers. We are going to focus on the wineries as producers. Our research purpose centre on how the company leverages its cultural heritage into branding, hence the choice to solely study the subject from a company’s perspective. To be more specific, we are going to zoom in French wineries, located only in Burgundy. This choice is based, first of all on the fact that France is one of the most ancient producers of wine, consequently its cultural heritage is stronger, and Burgundy wine sites are classified as world heritage by UNESCO. Our choice was also motivated by the better feasibility of our study. The feasibility is a crucial aspect to ensure access to qualitative data. In Burgundy, contact with experts and family wineries is facilitated due to personal networks. For the understanding of the research,

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13 it is interesting to look at what attracts customers in the wine industry and how they can be influenced by strategic branding. Literature is quite extensive in that regard, so for that matter, drawing from existing research will be enough. Consumer’s perspective will just be a way to analyse our subject more clearly.

The main point of research will be cultural heritage and its use within branding strategy. Branding encompasses a diversity of aspects for a company, but our choice of cultural heritage is a relevant point as it is a big focus on the consumer’s mind and a poorly talked topic.

1.5 Research question

The problematization process is a critical step during the research. Between all the gaps that have been previously identified, we have evaluated the possible assumptions underlying

the existing literature in this field. The most interesting aspect of our research is therefore to try to document connections between the cultural heritage of family businesses in this industry and their brand identity. With that, the following research question was reached :

How and why do wine family firms leverage their cultural

heritage in branding and its outcomes on brand identity ?

For the reader, this research represents the first draft of exploring the cultural heritage of wineries and how it is leveraged into the branding of the business. This study is relevant because the wine industry carries its share of history and tradition. This then strongly influences the branding. Cultural heritage can be seen as even more important for wineries as they are family run and therefore have strong cultural associations.

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2.Literature review

This chapter provides an overview of previous research and literature related to the field of family business in the wine instruct and the use of cultural heritage in wine branding.

2.1 Methodology of literature review

2.1.1 Criteria for the selection process of the secondary data

Secondary data is defined by existing data collected by others (Donnellan & Lucas, 2013). This type of data consists of all the already existing literature on a subject and which can be used by other authors in the construction of their research. Secondary data is generally used by the authors in the construction of the literature review, to make a clear state of the existing knowledge on their subject.

To start our research process, data selection criteria were defined:

Secondary data consist of literature of all the concepts implied in the use of cultural heritage by wine family businesses. In order to collect it, we used different databases because it is known that no search tool is perfect, complete, or all-inclusive. We then decided to use Primo, the discovery tool of the university library that allow us to search in all print and electronic books, Google Scholar that give us free access to scholarly material online, Research Gate to access over 135 million scientific publication and Science Direct which offers us to explore scientific and technical open access content. Sources are fundamental to our data collection. We have therefore chosen to only use academic sources reviewed by peers.

Thereafter, we proceed to a critical evaluation of our sources by questioning the relevance for our topic, the review process, the reliability of the publisher and the author. In order to be precise, data has to be as recent as possible, which is why knowledge over its last 10 years was the most used when possible. However, some older sources are also used when

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3_{relevant, 10 years being a fairly short}

period. Lastly, we carry our research in 3 languages: English, French and Italian. English, because it is an international language and most of the knowledge is translated in this language, and French and Italian because these are two languages used in countries where knowledge on the wine industry has been conducted but not always translated in English. Moreover, those two countries are considered as the founding countries with Spain, of the “Old Word” of wine (Alonso et al., 2019). In terms of reputation, history, production, and worldwide market share, they are still key players in the wine industry justifying the choice of searching in those languages (Anderson, 2004, Anderson et al., 2017, Alonso et al., 2019, see graph below).

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Graph retrieve from: Anderson, K., Nelgen, S., & Pinilla Navarro, V. (2017). Global wine markets, 1860 to

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2.2.2 Process of literature review

The following literature review is a critical review, done under a narrative form. It summarizes research related to our topic, what has been done and how the thesis fits into the research field. Moreover, it gives contrast and compares perspectives on the existing knowledge. We use a descriptive-analytical method (Akther, 2018), which means that we move from an author's idea to another to form a master analysis by identifying similarities and differences between them. This method allows to better identify the gaps in the existing literature.

To start the process of reviewing the literature, we followed a keywords table model. This first step consists of breaking down the research question into keywords and search for synonyms, related terms, alternative spelling, broader terms, and narrower terms:

Example of the Keywords table :

After using all those keywords in the search process, as well as multiples search techniques like phrase the search, truncation, advanced search and combine search terms (AND-OR-NOT), articles are classified in a summarize table :

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17 Example of the summarize table:

After gathering in the summarize table around more than 40 sources we started classifying them according to the main theme that compose our literature review:

Post it table:

This final table led to the writing process of the literature review. For that, we followed the MEAL organization model of the literature (Duke University).

2.2 Family business in the wine industry

The particularity of family business over non-family business is that family ownership is overlapping management systems. Though the degree of overlapping varies between firms (Aronoff & Cawly, 1988). While this definition gives a good perspective, it was said to be too wide and not entirely satisfying (Kent, 1990). This author argued that it should include additionally the definition and the emotional and cultural phenomenon that play a non-negligible role in family businesses (Aronoff & Cawly, 1988). Since then, numerous definitions have been given to family business (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2003). Those definitions seem to converge toward three core elements: ownership and control (1), family involvement in management (2) and the expectation or realization of family succession (3).

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18 However, Fukuyama (1995) argues that it would be a mistake to assume that a general definition would translate across different societies due to international, social, and cultural differences (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003). Family businesses have a set of specific attributes that makes them unique, like simultaneous role, shared identity, common history, and emotional involvement. Those features can be both a source of advantages and disadvantages (Tagiuri & Davis, 1996). One of the main aspects of talking about family business is succession. The reason is that it is considered to be one of the most critical situations faced by family business (Oliveira et al, 2012). Succession is most often considered as a multi-generational process of knowledge transfer, which includes the transmission of values and the company's culture takes place. That notion of values and culture transmission is particularly interesting in the context of cultural heritage (Lambrecht, 2005).

We notice that in certain sectors, a large majority of businesses are family-owned, as in the wine industry. There is no clear number on the percentage of family owned versus non-family owned in that industry but the latest data, coming from the US indicates that 95% of wineries are family run worldwide (Steinthal, 2018).

The literature on family business within the industry is limited(Soler et al., 2017). Few scholars have tackled the specificities of this. The one that did, focus mainly on comparative studies between family and non-family businesses. Within the industry family businesses are proven to have an advantage over non-family firms. They mobilize their characteristics and resources as such to gain competitive advantage. One of the main thing is that there is a sense of closeness with the stakeholder (Soler et al., 2017) and knowledge sharing between different generations (Woodfield & Husted, 2017) especially in the context of the craft where expertise is a significant factor for success. Another family firm's advantage of family business over non-family firms is shown in studies that demonstrated the non-family variable is a real and tangible advantage to reach good economic and financial performance in the wine (Bresciani et al., 2016). Comparative studies have shown that family firms outperform non-family firms in terms of return on equity and return on assets (Bresciani et al., 2016).

In the wine sector, there is also a strong attachment to tradition and history, hence the linking for family businesses. We can observe a strong link between the family and their product. Wine becomes a way to convey the set of family values, symbols and traditions rooted in the territory (Bresciani et al., 2016). Moreover, according to a case study in Australia, success of wine family firms is measured in terms of how proud the family is to make a contribution to wine making. That shows the attachment to family involvement within the business. Even more so, the same study also points out that in wine, one of the most important

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19 aspects are to maintain solid family relationships and passing on the skills of wine craft onto the next generations (Dufour et al., 2007). Strong attachment to family and transmission of knowledge tend to naturally deepen anchored traditions within the business (Vrontis et al., 2016). Traditions, though important, can become a break to innovation, and therefore a loss of product attraction (Wongprawmas & Spadoni, 2018). Hence the importance of balancing the two. It is argued that innovation and traditions are not necessarily opposite, and that it is the combination of both that creates and allows to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage (Vrontis et al., 2016).

2.3 Cultural heritage in the brand identity of wine

Before going into the particular aspect of branding and brand identity in the wine industry, an explanation of what those concepts mean is required. First, brands each have their own personality and enhance the utility and desirability of the product in the customer's eyes (Kotler & Gertner, 2002). A company’s brand identity is a set of promises from the buyer that implies trust, consistency, and a set of expectations (Davis, 2000).

According to this specific industry, Nowak et al. (2006) defined wine branding as how the wine product and name are perceived from the consumer’s mind. This sector has such a unique way of branding because before selling a drink, selling wine means above all selling a history, a tradition, a region, and a family (Rouzet & Seguin, 2004).

Those aspects are likewise the components of what cultural heritage is. According to Maroevic (1998) a concise definition of cultural heritage is a value from the past noticed in the present to keep it for the future. Cultural heritage is also characterized by this author as a testimony to time, space and society which together form the three components of the environment that surrounds us (Maroevic, 1998). Moreover, the territorial dimension is seen as a major part of cultural heritage as well as the role of communities, residents, and customers, in transforming the features of systems (Cerisola, 2019; Symbola & Unioncamere, 2017). In fact, most of the material that composed the cultural heritage has a powerful bond with the territory that it originates from and in which it exists (Maroevic, 1998).

Regarding these definitions, we can understand why wine is not just a simple product. It reflects on the symbolic meanings of cultural heritage (Sims, 2009) deeply linked to the local and traditional environment that the society perceived. Wine is the perfect image of the interaction between nature and society and has a symbolic power (Lugeri et al., 2011).

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20 Wine is such a unique product that having an effective marketing strategy is more than vital given the highly competitive challenges that faces the wine industry (Thomas et al., 2013; Giacosa, 2012). The highly competitiveness of this market makes it a very difficult place for brand differentiation (Bruwer & Johnson, 2007). Finally, Nowak et al (2006) identify several reasons that make a successful branding strategy inevitable in the wine industry; the simplification of purchase decision and wineries effort to sell, the increase of wineries image and customer willingness to buy and the differentiation from other wineries.

Acquiring an advantage compared to competitors in the wine industry depends heavily on the customer's perception of the wine’s identity (Santos & Ribero, 2012). Perception of the brand identity is strongly linked to the brand’s personality (Pizzichini, 2020). Brand personality is the set of human characteristics linked to a brand (Aaker, 1997). This goal is that customers can identify the brand characteristics (Venable, 2005). A few studies have addressed brand personality in the wine market context (Brochado et al., 2015). Researchers concluded that the top brand personalities associated with wine are successful and spirited (Boudreaux & Palmer, 2007). Brand personalities, but also brand names are associated with a strong symbolic meaning in wine (Heslop et al., 2010). Symbolic associations with wine are due to connection with history, its attachment to religious belief (Charters, 2008a). Wine symbolic significance can be applied to both premium and bulk wines (Charters, 2008a). Symbolic association usually comes from a subjection place, but brand symbols are enhancing brand awareness and are efficient communication tools.

2.3.1 Cultural heritage as a way of differentiation

With internationalization, promoting places as part of the brand helps companies attract new activities and consumers (Ruzzier & de Chernatony, 2012). In some cases, it is even more beneficial to highlight the place identity. Some product categories are, from the customer's perspective, identifiable or linked to a place, such as cars, electronics, or wine, which here represent an interest for our study (Kotler & Gertner, 2002). Place identities are built upon historical, political, religious, and cultural discourse as well as local knowledge (Govers & Go, 2011). In the wine industry, there is a long tradition of relying on place identity. Place branding invests specific identities to a place (like cities or regions) to differentiate them from one another. Three major perspectives are adopted in place branding studies: (1) branding as production, with a focus on creating and managing a place brand as production, (2) branding as

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21 appropriation, with a focus on how place brand are used, (3) and critical studies of place branding that examine the effect of place branding (Lucarelli & Olof Berg, 2011).

The cultural heritage of wineries offers them several differentiation tools that are not replicable by competitors (Riviezzo et al., 2016). In fact, the story, traditions, culture are things that cannot be replicated, making all the wineries unique in their own way. However, there are still other ways to differentiate family business thanks to its cultural heritage. As for an historical example, the French system had created a classification system that was originally dedicated to differentiating wine from aristocrats and wine from commoners (Fourcade, 2012). Nowadays, the French system have created labels of origin, AOC4_{for “Appellation d’Origine}

Confirmé'' a geographical indication system, which are assign based on the place of production and aimed to guarantee a traceability of typical product from a particular place and promote innovative rural development (Christensen et al., 2015). As argued in the article from Vlachvei, Notta and Efterpi (2012) and Christensen, Kenney and Patton (2015), this type of geographical indicators can be sleep in two categories : the protected designation of origin (PDO, geographic, environmental and human influence) and the protected geographical indications (PGI, quality, reputation). Even if nowadays those indicators can be used by wineries to differentiate themselves, those certifications were created at first to protect national product interests rather than a marketing tool (Ilbery & Kneafsey, 2000).

2.3.2 Cultural heritage as a meaning for quality and influenced on the customer

behavior

Customer buying behavior is made out of the 6 different steps of the decision-making process: (1) Need recognition, (2) Information search, (3) Evaluate alternatives, (4) Action, (5) Purchase, (6) Post-Purchase Feelings (Wright, 2006). Those steps are known to be influenced by internal and external influence that can be memory, past experience or beliefs (Wright, 2006). Product as wine, has varying levels of risk: Functional risk, money risk, social risk, and psychological risk (Wright, 2006). Hence, the question here is to investigate on which aspect the cultural heritage can play on.

First, regional identity helps businesses of the industry to convey the unique characteristics of their products and to indicate quality. In fact, when we’re taking a look at customer consumption, the reputation of a placed is most of the time associated with the quality

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22 of the wine (Lockshin et al., 1997; Orth et al., 2005; Charters & Pettigrew, 2006; Lockshin et al., 2006; Guidry et al., 2009; Atkin and Johnson, 2010; Famularo et al., 2010; Riviezzo et al., 2014; Moulard et al., 2015). The geographical origin of a wine is one of the criteria that customers are using to assess the quality during the purchase process (Orth, 2010). Speaking about the purchase process, the geographical origin has been described by Hall, Batt and Dean, (2000) as the third most important criteria by Australian people, the first one being the price followed by the brand. In Europe, this geographical origin is the first consideration in the purchase decision process (Skuras & Vakrou, 2002; Dean, 2002; Koewn & Casey, 1995; Gluckman, 1990). Research has proved that the region has an important impact on wine purchase (Lockshin et al., 2006) and even more if these products are the symbol of tradition, heritage, culture, ethnic diversity, and identity of a particular place (Conto et al., 2014). As mentioned previously, the creation of a label for wine can initially serve as a means of differentiation, but also as guarantee of quality (Vlachvei et al., 2012).This dimension, identify as a quality warranty dimension, means that the consumer believe that the label is supporting local economy, impacting directly his purchasing behavior (Vans der Lans et al., 2001; Van IItersum et al., 2007). However, the success of a marketing strategy based on the region of origin depend on consumer’s awareness and favorable image of the region (Van del Lans et al., 2001) or even more if the winery has a good reputation in the market (Gallucini & Nave, 2012). According to Rocchi and Gabbai (2012), a part of the reputation of the most important Old-world wines relies on a recognized historical and cultural heritage. To conclude, those authors argued that a strong territorial identity is necessary however not sufficient to itself, since the family business should support a set of assets, as characteristics of the terroir, a contextual knowledge or a local social network (Rocchi & Gabbai, 2012).

2.4 Cultural heritage of family business in the wine

industry

Within the wine industry family business are viewed as an advantage. To gain advantage it is necessary to communicate the family dimension clearly (its history, its values, and its identity) to influence consumer behavior (Gallucci et al, 2015). When family characteristics are specified, family firms reach sustained advantage, due to their capacity to create and maintain superior customer relationships based on strong identification on the family firm (Teal et al, 2003). That is especially true in traditional industries such as wine where family is

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23 leveraged as a real plus (Maguire et al, 2013). It can be leveraged in five aspects: (1) family as key strategic marketing; (2) day-to-day family involvement; (3) family heritage; (4) family as a symbolic quality; (5) and the brand as family (Maguire et al, 2013).

Studies on consumer behavior in the context of the wine industry shows that they are sensitive to storytelling. Storytelling is the art of communicating ideas and correlation between various stakeholders by sharing experiences through stories and anecdotes (Mora & Livat, 2013). When communicating their product, vineries put the accent on family, history, geography, and geology to sell their story. If all put on display the same elements, their ways of building their stories are all different from one another and provide consumers with different experiences (Mora & Livat, 2013).

Wine is based a lot on its local identity in terms of branding. Terroir is talked about a lot by consumers in the buying process. Terroir is strongly connected to the soil and climate which is so determined by the region in which the wine is produced (Mora, 2016). Especially in today's context, where people are looking for authentic products that are the representation of a place and a culture, communicating regional identity and family values provides an advantage (Sims, 2009). In the context of our thesis, we are going to focus our study on France. France is considered to be part of the « Old world » in terms of wine production, as opposed to the « new world », which encompass emerging countries of that industry, such as Australia, Chile, or USA. Old word producers have a stronger connection with their territory, traditional values, and historical families (Vrontis & Thrassou, 2011). By neglecting the familial and regional aspect of winemaking, wineries lose customers. Case has been shown in Australia, where in the beginning of the 1980’s, the wine industry was successful. But starting in the 1990's, people started to see their process of winemaking as too industrialized, as people called it “cocacolized” (Vrontis & Thrassou, 2011). By distancing themselves from traditional art of winemaking, consumers perceived the industry poorly.

The image given to a product on its origins influences the customers’ perception with a set of mental associations, even more with the renewed enthusiasm for traditional and local food products. Local food product is perceived as authentic and a product that is a symbol of a place and/or a culture. It connects customers to the region and its culture heritage and identity (Contò et al., 2014).

Wine has always been strongly related to tradition for consumers. Over the recent years, food has become more than just a way to satisfy a primary need but became an experience that people search for, even more so for wine. Consumers of wine are not buying the product just to fill a need but to live a sensory experience. Wine is often considered as a cultural good. Cultural

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24 good implies that the good in question involves creativity in their production, and that they embody some form of intellectual property and they convey symbolic meaning. Hugh Johnson (2009, p. 195) recognized wine as a cultural good stating « Wine, its properties, traditions, varieties, and indeed its effects, are a part of European culture and identity as important as any other. It is as much our right to enjoy them as it is to walk our streets or fish our rivers […] our duty is to conserve such a cultural asset ». Among many others, a wine geographer (Sommers, 2008) has described that the appreciation of wine goes beyond the wine itself but is a form of expression of a place and people. If we look at wine as a cultural good, we can better understand why family heritage and regional identity are such important elements in wine consumption. With consumers turning back to traditional products, wine embodies the perfect product for them to go back to their roots (Marks, 2011). Let’s take the example of a Burgundy family; when buying wine, they are most likely to turn toward a product that conveys their place identity for the simple reason that they can relate more to what the product is in terms of values and symbolic meaning. Indeed, for wine, consumer choice is made based on images, beliefs, and associations with socio-cultural aspects. Buying decisions rests mostly on intangible assets rather than tangible ones, such as country and lifestyle and their association through the product (Vrontis et al., 2011) hence the importance given to branding strategies. It is equally important to upgrade the quality of the product and branding to successfully influence consumers (Vrontis et al., 2011).

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3.Methodology and method

This section focusses on methodological approach of the research. It includes the research philosophy, approach, and design of study as well as explanation of the process of data

collection, data quality, analysis of data and ethical considerations.

3.1 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy paradigm is interpretivism. This paradigm dictates that truth and knowledge are based on lived experiences and the understanding that we have of them, thus that truth and knowledge are subjective (Ryan, 2018). More specifically, we use the verstehen approach on interpretivism (Weber, 1947), whose goal is to study the point of view of participants to understand the phenomena and the phenomenology approach, based on the interpretation and description of people experienced (Ryan, 2018).

Interpretivist paradigm is, most of the time, linked to qualitative research, because it aims to describe and decode a phenomenon's meaning rather than measuring it (Rowlands, 2003). This type of research is mainly subjective and humanist and has a more phenomenological approach (Akther, 2018). Interpretive paradigm is a way to get insight through understanding of social world reality (Mattila & Aaltio 2006; Ting-Toomey, 1984) and discovering meanings (Neil, 2006). In our thematic, we study the phenomenon of the use and the importance of cultural heritage in the brand identity.

Wilson (1981) depicts four reasons why you should use an interpretive paradigm, one of them being a dissatisfaction with the information result, which is in our case, the fact that the existing knowledge on our field of study is understudied and sparse.

Moreover, we decided to choose an interpretivist paradigm since we perceived ourselves more as ethnographers, curious about the social world that surrounded us. As ethnographers, we search to understand the patterns of human activity through social acquired knowledge (Akther, 2018).

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3.2 Research Design

Our research will be based on Grounded theory. Grounded theory is relevant for our research as there is little theoretical insight about the phenomenon of interest (Goulding, 2002). The choice of Grounded theory in the frame of our research is justified because it detects and explains social phenomena (Haig, 1995) and because it answers questions of what and how those social phenomena occur (Douglas, 2004). Plus, this method helps build links and relationships between different study subjects. Building connection between different case studies is what will help us understand the importance of leveraging cultural heritage in branding, but also it will allow us to identify similarities and how the heritage is implemented in the brand identity.

With grounded theory, it is hard to predefine with accuracy the design of a study (Czarniawska, 2014). As it is based on the constant comparative analysis, the frame of the study is always changing, as the data is collected, and new aspects of the theory are uncovered. The term of continuous design is often used when referring to grounded theory (Akhter, 2018). Grounded theory builds theory directly from the data through coding data into categories and data is collected until no new insights arise from data saturation (Akhter, 2018). This approach is based on systematic coding techniques and permits a preliminary literature study to identify research problems and the areas in which to look for data (Thai et al., 2012). Our approach of the study will therefore be abductive. “Abduction is a form of logical inference that goes from a minute description of some event to a hypothesis” (Czarniawska, 2014, p. 24). During our research, information will be collected and then put together in order to reach a conclusion. Hypotheses are drawn from the observation, the later are then confirmed by being tested on the next case.

3.3 Data collection

3.3.3 Criteria for the selection process of the primary data

Primary data is the data collected by the authors dedicated to the specific problem of the research using methods that fit the best for the research (Hox & Boeije, 2005). In order to select our qualitative data, we identify a sample, choose our data collection methods, determine what data will be collected and design the questions. (Akther, 2018).

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27 According to this plan, we sculpted our sample. A sample is a subset of a population, in our case Burgundy familial wineries and wine experts. We used purposeful sampling, which allows a selection of complete cases in addition to having an effective management of limited resources (Patton, 2017). This method implies the selection of individuals or groups that are particularly knowledgeable or already experienced with the phenomenon of interest (Creswell et al., 2011). Purposeful sampling also involved the availability and involvement character of the participant as well as the ability to communicate their experiences and opinions in a clear and reflective manner (Bernard, 2002; Spradley, 1979). Naturally, these criteria helped us to form the criteria for the selection of our participants.

To select our participants, here are the criteria that we applied for both wineries and wine experts: We formed a sampling frame of about 20 wineries and wine experts that meet our criteria: wineries must be located in Burgundy and have a significant family seniority and wine experts must have the knowledge and expertise on the Burgundian market. To select wineries, we observed the available information that can be found on the internet as their reviews or websites. A subset of this population has been identified and composed by the family businesses that were most inclined to participate (acquaintances, contact information available as telephone number or email address, perfect fit with our subject) in order to compose our sample. A sample of around 10 wineries and 2 wine experts was formed, we started the process of getting in touch with all the companies by sending a first explanatory email and an appointment booking SMS with more precisions about the interview. Our response rate was about 30% after the first week. To increase this rate, a follow-up was launched after two weeks, which made it possible to raise the response rate to 60% with 5 companies and 2 wine experts that accepted the interview.

3.3.4 Process of Interview Guide construction

We choosed interviews because it was the best way for us to collect qualitative and in-depth insight of the phenomenon under study. The willingness to have a wide perspective from the participant, led to conduct open ended interviews as suggested by the grounded theory approach.

Open-ended questions are used by researchers in order to study processes and diagnose potential causes of observed correlations (Weller et al., 2018). This method empowered participant vision and point of view on our problem which responded to our goal of understanding the use of cultural heritage by our participants.

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28 We were wishing to conduct face-to-face interviews at first, but due to recent difficulties caused by the COVID-19, we were not able to meet in person. We therefore conducted the interviews via phone as it was the easiest way to get in touch with most of our participants. Most of them were still working in the winery, so it was complicated for most of them to do Skype interviews. Interviews were led in French, as most of the participants are not able to speak fluent English. This was also in order to have maximum details and insight which cannot be brought in other ways than via the use of native language, French.

Following the grounded theory approach, we have chosen to follow the eight steps framework recommended by Barbabara Czarniawska (2014) when collecting data:

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5_{Our theoretical relevance site is composed by a group of family Burgundian wineries}

in where we were able to find our phenomenon of interest: the use of cultural heritage in the branding of the firm.

The first interview was conducted with a family winery that is currently using cultural heritage in their branding strategy as long as it brings us new information. Interview was stopped when new information was no longer gathered meaning that after some repetitions, we attained the state of theoretical saturation (1). After this interview, focus was brought to our data collection process by analysing the main important insights and implementing it for our second interview with the most possible similar case (Difference Minimization). Thus, we

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30 started to search for similar cases. After reaching the state of theoretical saturation in the second interview with Gauthier Pajona, the main important aspects identified in the first interview were still relevant. We therefore chose to conduct all the other difference minimization interviews. The following interviews of Thierry Richoux, Bruno Verret and Pierre-Louis Bersan were quite similar which has drawn our sample of difference minimization. through difference minimization, poorly developed categories were filled in until reaching saturation. We were then able to offer well thought-out propositions for our theoretical elaboration.

Thereafter, search for participants that were the most different as possible from the first 5 interviews (Difference maximization) was led. The case of Romain Bouchard and Renaud Laroche are really different for several reasons and compose our sample of difference maximization. In the first place, what is different from the other participants was that the name of Romain Bouchard’s domain is not his family name and is “Domaine de l’enclos” which highlights the history of the place rather than the history of the family. In the wine industry, domain’s names are usually the family name of the owner. Moreover, he and his brother express a desire to stand out from previous generations by restarted in a new location in 2016. Regarding the case of Renaud Laroche, he previously had been working with his father in the family business but decided to quit before the business was sold in 2010 to the group Avinile, what already makes this case different from the others.

Data was collected over the span of three weeks. After this duration, Theoretical Saturation 2 was reached, hence the interviews were stopped.

3.4 Data Analysis

Grounded Theory data analysis involves searching out concepts behind the actualities, categorizing them, and then linking the categories to develop a theory (Czarniawska, 2014). The following will describe the coding process of Grounded theory, to be able to better understand the analysis of our collected data. The whole process of Grounded theory requires constant comparison, meaning a back and forth between analysis and data collection.

First step was open coding. The goal of this first step was to uncover concepts and categories within data. The idea was to break down information collected in the interviews and categorize them by identifying recurring themes or ideas. Each category had to be named following conceptual labelling (Thai et al., 2012). Naming of these codes was resulted from

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31 relevant literature review because concepts well defined in the literature can help eliminate confusion and misinterpretation of words. Each of these categories forms a conceptual code.

The starting point of the open coding was the transcription of the interviews. Following constant comparison, critical for the grounded theory approach, we started with the first interview, we did the open coding for it and then we went on to the second interview. This allowed us to adapt the questions for each interview. This process was repeated until no further interviews were needed. In our cases we had 7 of them. Each transcription was therefore analysed individually, and the main information was pinned down and put in a table. Information at that stage are quotations from the transcription. As all were in French, we translated the citation in English for better reader comprehension. All similar quotations have attached properties. Properties are names of category that help regroup quotations that have the same idea to them. Then, properties were also regrouped under an even wider category. That formed our final open codes. Names of the open codes were thoroughly discussed to avoid confusion and misinterpretation of words that were used. All of this process was done manually, thanks to the Excel software.

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32 Out of our 7 interviews, we had a total of 76 open codes. Each one of them represents different ideas or concepts that emerged the most from the interviews:

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33 Second step of the analysis is the axial coding, which consists of finding relationships between categories. The aim is to note the dynamic relationship between categories to form the basis for the theory construction (Thai et al., 2012). With the support of the literature and information gathered by the case study, conceptual codes are newly categorized under higher-order concepts. This helps reduce the number of units of data that we work with and increase analytical power.

In order to complete this second step of the analysis, we first laid out the properties of each open code, previously identified. We identified the conditions that allowed us to form those previous categories, meaning the context in which it was embedded, what perspective it was coming from, what consequences it had etc. We tried to answer such questions as why, where, when, by whom, how, and with what results. These questions helped us to contextualize the phenomenon. Also, through re-examining the quotations of open codes, we were able to have a more precise understanding of these conditions and were able to form a more precise and complete explanation. After that, we were able to regroup the open codes that had the same underlying meaning, regardless of concepts underneath them. Those groups were then titled to form the axial-coding. Titles were found from the name of the open codes, the goal was to make clear what was the main idea emerging from all the codes put together, while being concise. The last step of data analysis in grounded theory is selective coding. “Selective-coding is the process of integrating categories to build a theory and to refine the theory” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p. 16). Here, each of the categories found in the axial coding process must be put under a core category that represents the main themes of the research. The step was also about checking conceptual density to see if data is enough for each concept that arises. Once selective coding was done, we had all the information needed for the theory formation. With a similar process to the previous step, we regrouped and categories our axial codes under broader categories, that form the basis of the answer to the research question. In the second step of the analysis, we identified 9 axial codes that were narrowed down to 4 selective codes.

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34 Sample of the Axial and Selective coding (fully available in Appendix):

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3.5 Research Quality

Validity of the study is constructed through using multiple sources of evidence and establishing a chain of events is key (Akhter, 2018). The process of data collection is crucial to have diverse and qualitative data to be able to see the big picture. Our approach to ensure validity was drawn from Grounded theory. Internal validity is ensured by this methodological approach . Internal validity is related to the causal relationship between variables (Akhter, 2018). Through difference minimisation and maximisation, we were able to establish a trustworthy cause-and-effect relationship between initial information and the outcome.

Confirmability is there to verify that the findings are shaped by participants more so than they are shaped by a qualitative researcher (Akhter, 2018). To achieve confirmability, researchers must demonstrate that the results are clearly linked to the conclusions in a way that can be followed and, as a process, replicated (Moon et al., 2016). Results were shaped by following the strict steps of the grounded theory approach. In social science, it is not possible to avoid the researchers bias. Attention was brought to be as objective as possible during research. Being French and enquiring about French markets, we analysed results and led conversation with participants according to our shared values on our research. Though, it does not cause harm to the research credibility. On the contrary, sharing common ground with the participants allows to make stronger connections and have more in-depth information.

Lastly, trustworthiness of the study and showing the research is credible has, in qualitative research, originate from the intended research purpose and the decision that followed and if those are consistent between one another (Patton, 2002). It requires critical thinking and appropriate methodological approach (Moon et al., 2016). Through primary data sourcing and constant comparison of secondary data, all information was verified and corroborated before use. Also, grounded theory seemed to be the better fit for our study and allowed us to have a thorough approach to handle information and make sense out of them.

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3.6 Ethical consideration

Ethical considerations of research are concerned with the behavior and the set of rules that guides the conduct of the authors in relation to the rights of those who become subjects of their work, (Saunders et al., 2012).Through all parts of the thesis, we paid attention to follow our values and those of all participants as well as their boundaries and expectations. We also kept in mind that the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the existing knowledge of this area. With that said, we took cared throughout the study to bring a wide variety of sources to our work, to consider all studies that had been led in the past.

Interviews were based on voluntary participation. All participants were explained the goal of this study and in what context it was taking place. They were also informed that they were being recorded and that recording will then be transcript, for us and our teachers to have access to. All gave their consent. We also asked them if they wished to stay anonymous, and all agreed to have their names revealed. The thesis will then be sent out to them in order for them to see what came out of the information that they gave us. All participants on this project were treated respectfully, in avoidance of causing any harm to anyone. Respect for everyone, ethnicity, origins, and beliefs were cared for.

This thesis includes no plagiarism. All the work exposed here comes from our own reflection and secondary data collection. All sources that inspired our reflection and helped us build our study were sourced. In respect of intellectual property, all authors that supported our development have been given credit and are cited in references.

Cultural heritage and branding of family firms in the French wine industry : A case of Burgundian wineries