Master thesis - il marketing manager per le aziende vinicole

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Chapter one – Narrative and storytelling in marketing and management
• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Social Media in Marketing and Management
• 1.3 Digital Marketing Opportunities
• 1.4 Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing
• 1.5 The Influence of Social Networks Storytelling on Consumer Behavior
• 1.6 Advantages and Problems of Digital Storytelling
• 1.7 SWOT Analysis of Digital Storytelling
• 1.8 Digital Narrative: Definition, Advantages, and Problems
• 1.9 SWOT Analysis of Digital Narrative
• 1.10 Narrative and Storytelling in Marketing and Management
• Chapter Two – The role of digital narrative and storytelling in organic wine sector
• 2.1 Social Media and Wine: Introduction
• 2.2 Digital Marketing in Wine Sector
• 2.3 Organic and Biodynamic Wines Quality, Characteristics, and Market Analysis
• 2.4 The Italian Scenario of Organic Wine
• 2.5 Export of Italian Organic Wine
• 2.6 The Effect of COVID-19 on Italian Export
• 2.7 Competitiveness of Italian Wines in the International Market
• 2.8 Digital Marketing in Organic Wine Sector
• 2.9 Digital Storytelling in Wine Sector
• 2.10 The Main Digital Narrative Tools in the Wine Sector
• Chapter three – Case studies: Azienda Agricola D.S. Bio and Azienda Agricola Fra i Monti
• 3.1 Presentations of Companies and Analysis of Their Websites and Social Pages
• 3.2 The Export Level of These Lazio Organic Wineries
• 3.3 The Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing Strategies Used by the Two Lazio Organic Wineries
• 3.4 Analysis of the Role of Digital Narrative in Supporting Export Activities from the Two Lazio Organic Wineries
• Conclusions
• Appendix
• Integral Answers of the Interviews with the Entrepreneurs of the Lazio Organic Wine Wineries (in Italian): Answers to the Main Questions from the Entrepreneurs Danilo Scenna e Rocco Toti
• References

Abstract

The research is based on the study of the role of the digital narrative and storytelling applied as a digital marketing tool by the entrepreneurs and managers of the organic wineries of Lazio. The aim of this study is to analyze the influence and effectiveness of the digital narrative on marketing strategies about organic wine and the social media strategies used in the wine sector. Also, the focus is on the investigation of the digital narrative of organic wines by presenting a marketing and management perspective and examining the characteristics of winery owner’s online information which may shape wine consumers’ behavior and wine sector. For these purposes, a questionnaire is submitted to entrepreneurs of organic wineries of Lazio region investigating the effects of this strategy as a tool for the management and contact with customers.

Furthermore, the preliminary findings of this research showed that the exponential growth of the Italian organic wine market worldwide is mainly due to the ability to communicate the stories, value, and the context of the place around the wine production even through the digital narrative. Also, the findings of this study may be useful for organic wineries of Lazio willing to promote organic wines in markets analyzing the positive and negative factors of this technique by SWOT analysis. These new digital communication tools have increased the promotional potential of organic wineries but, at the same time, have also highlighted problems mainly related to the lack of direct competences of entrepreneurs and the need to spend time and capitals to manage the narrative. In the end, the interview with the two entrepreneurs of the Lazio natural wine cellar highlighted positive aspects that can be obtained through the use of digital narrative in the foreign market from an analytical, strategic point of view and in increasing sales.

Key words: Value Co-Creation, Digital narrative, Digital marketing & communication, Italian organic wines, Organic wineries of Lazio, Social media marketing, Digital storytelling.

Chapter one – Narrative and storytelling in marketing and management

1.1 Introduction

In the digital era, new technologies provide inspiring opportunities to enhance customer engagement in an evolving technological environment in which analogue and digital communication modes vie for attention. Mostly of these hold the promise to create a truly immersive storytelling experience. Both online and offline marketing research considers that a story captures a storyteller’s account of an event or a sequence of events, leading to a transition from an initial state to a later state or outcome. Marketing research also explores how stories engage and transform audiences. In this field, storytelling has a great impact. In fact, it is a powerful force in shaping mental models, motivating, and persuading others, and teaching the lessons of life.

Telling story extends back to a time when oral history dominated the tools of communication. Now the flood of technology tools that allow for instant communication has spun us back into a golden age where story again dominates the media landscape. Also, the storytelling is focused on engagement and, for definition, media engagement is the sum of the motivational experiences’ consumers have with a media product (Wang & Calder, 2009). Malthouse, Calder, and Tamhane (2007) demonstrate that media engagement is primarily an experiential response to aesthetic and visual elements of images whereas narrative transportation relies on a story that may not include visual content (e.g., Podcast stories). Also, engagement has historically been a common metric for evaluating social media performance but does not necessarily translate to sales.

In fact, social media engagement is a measurement of how effectively a company is creating interactions with its customers in the social stream. It can be measured in many ways and correlates with the number of people who are forming a relationship with the brand. For these reasons, social media marketing strategies reflect the reality that customers must market to customers where they are.

At the end, the digital world in general and technological developments customers are frequently exposed to stories on their own rather than with others (Van Laera et al., 2019). In fact, subsequently, this research will consider the action and digital storytelling strategies adopted by entrepreneurs and what the possible benefits and problems that may emerge from this use may be.

1.2 Social Media in Marketing and Management

Social media has been largely realized as an effective mechanism that contributes to the firms’ marketing aims and strategy; especially in the aspects related to customers’ involvement, customer relationship management and communication. For instance, from the perspective of the national governing bodies, social media could strategically enhance a two-way communication between firms and customers, and accordingly, attaching customers more with the organizations’ brands (Alalwan, et al., 2017).

Also, the narrative in marketing and management is about organizations shaping their constellation of elements across digital channels to allow their audience to draw from them, capture a truth about the organization, understand the corporate values represented, and most importantly, digital storytelling is about evoking wonder. In the contest of online marketing, digital storytelling aims to hold your audience still for a moment in their day.

The digital storytelling’s strategies have more purposes; in fact, shared stories accelerate interpersonal connection allowing us to retain stories longer than data. Also, using storytellers techniques to transmit information in the digital marketing efforts can drive success in capturing, directing, and sustaining the attention of online communities. In fact, building a personal connection with audience allows them to understand organizational context and build common reference points between the company’s actions and behavior in audiences personal lives.

Further building on detailed imagery of the characters involved in story will accelerate interpersonal connection and allow for longer lasting story retention. Also, storytelling marketing allows to present brand narrative in story form. Putting brand narrative into story form is a great way to boost engagement with brand, encourage people to learn more, and ultimately buy your products or services. Storytelling is also a great opportunity to convey mission and goals in a more human way that captivates audience.

Also, the primary advantages of social media marketing are reducing costs and enhancing the reach. The cost of a social media platform is typically lower than other marketing platforms such as face-to-face sales or sales with a help of middlemen or distributors. In addition, social media marketing allows firms to reach customers that may not be accessible due to temporal and locational limitations of existing distribution channels. Generally, main advantage of social media is that it can enable companies to increase reach and reduce costs (Watson et al. 2002; Sheth & Sharma 2005). Subsequently, in the next paragraph, this research will highlight consumer behavior regarding digital storytelling.

1.3 Digital Marketing Opportunities and Challenges

Digital marketing is one type of marketing being widely used to promote products or services and to reach consumers using digital channels. Digital marketing extends beyond internet marketing including channels that do not require the use of Internet. Through digital media, consumers can access information any time and any place where they want. With the presence of digital media, consumers do not just rely on what the company says about their brand but also, they can follow what the media, friends, associations, peers, etc., are saying as well. Digital marketing is a broad term that refers to various promotional techniques deployed to reach customers via digital technologies.

Digital marketing embodies an extensive selection of service, product and brand marketing tactics which mainly use Internet as a core promotional medium in addition to mobile and traditional TV and radio. Marketers increasingly bring brands closer to consumers’ everyday life. The changing role of customers as coproducers of value is becoming increasingly important (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). Khan and Mahapatra (2009) remarked that technology plays a vital role in improving the quality of services provided by the business units.

There are various elements by which digital marketing is formed. All forms operate through electronic devices. The most important elements of digital marketing are online advertising, Email marketing, social media, text messaging, affiliate marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC). With rapid technological developments, digital marketing has changed customers buying behavior. It has brought various advantages to the consumers as to stay updated with products or services, reach a greater engagement, obtain clear information about the products or services, make an easy comparison with others, do shopping 24/7, share content of the products or services, consider apparent pricing, and enables instant purchase.

1.4 Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing

Traditional marketing is the most recognizable form of marketing. Traditional marketing is non-digital way used to promote the product or services of business entity. On the other hand, digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital channels to reach consumers. Some comparisons are presented in the table below:

Advertising mediums that might be used as part of digital marketing strategy of a business could include promotional efforts made via Internet, social media, mobile phones, electronic billboards, as well as via digital television and radio channels. Digital marketing is a subbranch of traditional marketing and uses modern digital channels for the placement of products e.g. downloadable music, primarily for communicating with stakeholders e.g. customers and investors about brand, products, and business progress.

1.5 The Influence of Social Networks Storytelling on Consumer Behavior

Consumers are increasingly connecting in social media where the sharing of personal stories influences their behaviour, including where they go and what they purchase (Adams, 2012). As social media provide popular spaces for people to communicate and share content, they have also become an important source for prospective consumers to find information and search for prices, suppliers, availability and product features (Buhalis & Foerste, 2015).

However, social media also elevates the role of consumers in the co-creation of brands and communications. Social media therefore pose a challenge for marketers, as they must deal with a new situation where brands are increasingly the product of people’s conversations in social networks, rather than formal marketing strategies (Fournier & Avery, 2011) because the classic marketing model premised on control and predictability is no longer viable (Fisher & Smith, 2011). The emergence of social media thus requires a fundamental rethink of marketing practices as brands are now co-created through informal conversations by authors largely outside marketers’ control (Lund et al., 2018).

Also, as Berelowitz et al (2012) claim: digital storytelling connects better with customers; in fact, it is a different way of directing users to get these users to pay more attention to what you tell them. Also, it helps customers better identify brand; because they will remember what say and how say it. In fact, a brand that chooses a message where it has something more to tell than its desire to buy its products is an identifiable brand. It is important to implement a system that will differentiate you and be an element that customers can identify, among others. So, brand will benefit by choosing a different way of doing marketing.

Also, again, the digital storytelling updates the brand image; indeed, storytelling is the way to tell stories of the 21st century. It has triumphed in social networks and is the form of marketing that likes the young people. Using this technique in marketing strategy will allow to update brand image and renew the perspective that users and buyers have. So, when people connect in social media and share content with their virtual friends and acquaintances, they are all storytellers and the sharing of stories is how they perform socialites.

Stories come with many touch points to the lives of the listeners, facilitating an emotional connection (Woodside, 2010), and communicating brand values (Fog et al., 2005). Without a special story, there is nothing distinctive about brands (Bierman, 2010). Consumers can use brands to enact archetypal myths (Woodside, Sood & Miller, 2008). At the end, brands should therefore be a result of embodied performances of storytelling in social circles. They are employed in the construction of social roles and identities (Zambrano, 2018).

1.6 Advantages and Problems of Digital Storytelling

At this point of the research, now it is possible to establish what are the negative and positive aspects that arise from the use of digital storytelling. As for the positive aspects, it is possible to analyze four important aspects: connection, share, representation, and networking.

The "connection" allows research methods and resultant activities connect with the indigenous communities in a respectful and enhancing manner. In fact, digital storytelling provides the platform for people to not only to remember their roots, but also to connect to themselves, their histories, their ancestors, and their culture through stories and video. These stories can be shared between and among community members, as well as with other communities and audiences nationally and internationally. Also, the second advantage consider that digital storytelling intersects with and complements this project by making it possible to "share" these stories on websites, social networking sites, via email, and other methods. In addition, these stories also allow the creator to share a wealth of complex relationships and experiences by transporting viewers into the story through voice, pictures, and sound. Also, the other advantage is focused on the "representation" that provides the platform for people to tell their own stories, in their own words, in th