How to build value for wine in GDO in the new phase of consumption, to overcome the logic of price.

For years, price was the first (and often the only) message with which wine was presented to consumers in the large-scale retail trade. But today the context has changed. Not only have traditional promotions lost effectiveness-as we have already seen-but more importantly, the cultural and psychological framework in which purchase choices are made has changed.

The contemporary consumer, even in everyday spending, is less loyal, less predictable, more sensitive to stimuli of meaning, aesthetics, sustainability, experience. In this scenario, wine risks being squeezed into a category perceived as difficult, unspeakable, and non-essential. If it wants to remain relevant, it must learn to build value, not just defend it.

Price is no longer enough (neither to sell nor to explain)

Promotional pressure remains high, but the data clearly show that the price lever alone no longer moves choices as it once did. And not only because consumers are more attentive, but also because they are more confused: the assortment is vast, the labels similar, the messages poor in real content. In the absence of strong and consistent signals, price does not distinguish, guide, or reassure.

Indeed: a low price can become a negative signal, if it is not accompanied by a credible narrative of the value behind it. The paradox is that even high-end products suffer, not because they are too expensive, but because they are not adequately explained.

What do we really mean by “value”?

Building value does not just mean raising the price or talking about quality. It means making it understandable to the customer why a product has a certain positioning, and doing so with consistency, simplicity and continuity.

In wine this can occur on several levels:

Use value: When do I drink this wine? With whom? At what time of the day or week?
Identity value: What does this wine represent? A territory? A family history? A production philosophy?
Relational value: Does it help me to make a good impression? To surprise? To pamper myself?
Symbolic value: Does it communicate an aesthetic, a world, a way of being in the world?

If these layers are not activated-in the point of sale, on the label, in the digital content-there is no price that matters.

What can the large-scale retail trade do? What can the supply chain do?

To build value, we need a new alliance between those who produce and those who sell. No one can do it alone. Some levers to work on:

Talking packaging: it’s not just a matter of graphics, but of immediately giving a “key to understanding” the wine.
Segmenting by occasions of use: classifying wines by time, function, concrete use (e.g., “for the Saturday barbecue,” “for an elegant but undemanding gift”…) is more useful than distinguishing them by grape variety or gradation.
Consistent content across channels: value must be told in the physical shelf, but also in the website, app, newsletter. There must be narrative consistency.
Presence of wine in loyalty programs: if wine is associated with rewards, points, personalized choices, it comes out of commodity logic.

A new phase of consumption

The real turning point is cultural. Today the average consumer is no longer satisfied with technical quality, but seeks products that represent, reassure and inspire him. In this phase of “slowed but selective consumption,” wine can play a role if it can emerge as a interesting, not intimidating category; accessible, but not trivial.

Building value, then, means making wine relevant and not just competitive. It means helping the customer understand what they are buying, why they are buying it, and why it is worth it.