Nowadays the market is filled with so many different kinds of wine. But when a person wants to buy a bottle of wine, the problem arises which one to choose? Red, white or rose? Dry or sweet? Many people are confronted with these choices when they are looking for a good wine to drink while having a dinner or for other occasions. Furthermore, people do not have enough knowledge about wines and are overwhelmed by the amount of variety in the market.

The consumer faces many obstacles: Factors like time pressure, different points of purchase, social pressure and unclear information form a barrier for unskilled consumers: ‘wine seekers’ Other consumers which are more skilled, ‘wine lovers’, do not find it a hassle to find different types of wine and talk about them.

Moreover several benefits were derived from the consumption situation. Firstly, the information should be understandable in order to grasp relevant details. Next to that personalized recommendations are needed by consumers to make the right decisions while lacking the skills to describe their taste. People want to be able to rely more on independent comments and require rather information from other consumers than comments from wine experts or other dependent information sources. Consumers are also in search of helpful information like places where the wine can be bought. Saving time and irritation when buying a bottle of wine, without any hassle is required to have an enhanced wine experience. Last but not least it is important for consumers to find good wines for an affordable price.

The relevant consumers’ groups are the following:

• Wine seekers’ – people who like to drink wine for a dinner or any other occasion, but are not sure which wine they should choose.
• ‘’Wine lovers’ ’ – people who like to share their experience and give recommendations about wines to others.

Our proposed business idea is an online platform MyFavoriteWines.nl that attracts both relevant consumer groups described above. It facilitates ‘wine seekers’ to find the right wine, learn more about wine culture and give recognition to wine experts who wrote reviews about the wine. ‘Wine lovers’ can use the platform to store and share their wine experience. They can gain recognition in the ranking system and receive special offers to make it interesting to write reviews.

The revenue for the platform will be coming from third parties. These parties can be wine retailers, restaurants, travel agencies or wine magazines. The platform enables these third parties to target specific segments.

The platform links all the groups together and they should be active to create value. Although it requires effort for all parties, everyone involved will gain a higher utility compared to the current situation and therefore they will definitely switch to the new system.

The proposed marketing value system meets the key joint pay-off maximization criterion. It can be summarized as following:

Utility level ‘Wine seekers’ (⇡)= [social benefits (⇡) + convenience benefits (⇡) + learning benefits (⇡)] – [time investment (⇡)]

Utility level ‘Wine lovers’  (⇡) = [social benefits (⇡) + sharing benefits (⇡)] – [time investment (⇡)]

Utility level third parties (⇡) = [targeting benefit (⇡) publicity benefits (⇡) + economic benefits (⇡) – [advertising costs (⇡)]

Team 4

Jurgita Kanaukaite 388064

Cees de Vreugd 376970

Gerson W, van Stuijvenberg 363300