Strategic interactive marketing of wine – a case of evolution

With the rapid evolution of technology and the changing pattern of wine purchase, providers need to consider the adoption of technology by consumers and hence how this impacts on strategic marketing planning. This paper tracks the evolution of Internet marketing of wine in the UK and focuses on whether wine providers currently use the Internet as a fundamental ingredient of their marketing strategy or whether the Internet is purely employed tactically. The authors present evidence that the wine sector is under‐utilising the potential of the Internet as part of an integrated marketing strategy and proposes that a customer‐oriented computer interface is required.