A winery wants to launch a fresh white wine. It commissions a striking label, buys advertising and announces that the wine is “for everyone”. The design may be excellent. The strategy is still missing: who is supposed to choose this wine, on what occasion, instead of which alternative, and why?
Wine marketing and branding connect a product with a defined customer need and a commercially workable offer. Promotion is one part of that task. The wine, price, route to purchase and people delivering the experience must support the same proposition, or the advertisement will promise something the business cannot consistently provide.
The WSET Diploma specification asks D2 candidates to identify the product or brand, analyse the market, identify consumers, set objectives and devise a strategy. It also includes marketing labour, bottle and label work, and campaign costs. Follow that sequence and the five Ps become practical decisions rather than five headings waiting for memorised definitions.
Identify the product and what the brand promises
Identify the product or brand before choosing a campaign. Is the business launching one wine, extending a range, entering a new market or changing how an existing offer is understood? These are different problems. A campaign for a new release cannot be evaluated against an objective nobody has stated.
The product includes style, quality level, format, packaging, origin and associated service. A brand gives customers a recognisable set of expectations around that offer. A name and visual identity help recognition, but repeated experience determines whether the promise becomes credible.
For an original fictional case, imagine a small winery’s dry, fresh white wine intended for relaxed meals. It has limited supply and no national distribution. The useful proposition might emphasise an approachable food-friendly style and dependable local availability. Claiming universal exclusivity or global access would distract from what the business can actually deliver.
Keep claims accurate and supported. An attractive account of provenance should match the actual wine and permitted labelling. Environmental or production claims need evidence, not suggestive colours alone. Branding can make a real difference legible; it shouldn’t invent the difference.
Analyse the current market before selecting tactics
Analyse the current market using an explicit territory, period, channel and product category. Overall wine consumption can move differently from a particular price segment or occasion. A national average doesn’t establish demand for a small winery’s offer in a specific group of local restaurants.
Assess competitors, substitutes, buying patterns, available channels and relevant constraints. Compare like-for-like prices and formats, including promotions and delivery. A competitor’s published price is an observation, not evidence that it sells profitably or that customers will accept the same price from an unfamiliar producer.
Primary research can include interviews, tastings, customer records and carefully designed surveys. Secondary research can provide wider context. Each has limits: existing customers may not represent non-buyers, stated interest may exceed actual purchasing, and an old report may describe a market that has changed.
For the fictional white wine, ask which local accounts serve the intended meals, what their guests currently choose and what price positions are already crowded. Evidence of an unmet need is more useful than discovering that people generally like wine. Distinguish what the research establishes from the assumptions still needing a test.
Segmentation makes differences useful
Segmentation groups customers by relevant differences in needs or behaviour. Geography and demographics can help, but occasion, involvement, desired benefit and purchasing behaviour may explain more about a wine choice than age alone. The same adult may buy differently for a quick meal, a gift and a special dinner.
New Zealand’s government guidance on understanding customers links customer knowledge with suitable products and communication. Apply that principle to evidence rather than inventing a detailed persona and mistaking it for research.
Identify the target consumer by selecting a group the offer can serve and the business can reach economically. A target should guide decisions, not merely sound flattering. “People with good taste” doesn’t help choose a sales channel, price or message.
The fictional winery might target adults who want an easy-to-understand dry white for informal meals and already shop through selected local merchants. That defines a need and route more clearly than “all young consumers”. It still requires testing: the segment must be large enough, accessible and willing to buy at a workable price.
Positioning explains the intended place in the customer’s mind
Positioning defines how the offer should be understood relative to relevant alternatives. State the target, desired benefit and credible reason to choose it. A concise internal positioning statement helps align decisions; it isn’t necessarily the wording printed on the bottle.
For the example, the position could be a reliable, fresh local white that makes choosing wine for an ordinary meal straightforward. The liquid style, label clarity, price, availability and staff recommendation should all support that idea. A heavy luxury package and distant premium placement might send a conflicting signal.
Differentiation must matter to the buyer. A technical production detail may be important to the winery but irrelevant to the occasion unless its benefit is explained. Don’t assume that a longer story, rarer grape or more expensive bottle automatically strengthens the position.
Set objectives that can be evaluated
Set strategy objectives before choosing activities. Separate awareness, trial, distribution, repeat purchase and financial outcomes. They relate, but one doesn’t prove another: many views of a video don’t establish that a retailer reordered the wine.
An original hypothetical launch objective could be to secure six suitable local retail accounts within four months, with at least four placing a repeat order by the end of month six, within a defined budget. Specify suitable account, order size and reporting so the target cannot be satisfied by token or unviable orders.
The Australian government’s marketing-plan guidance connects targets, activities, budgets and evaluation. Set realistic measures and a baseline. A target without a time period or a reliable way to measure it is difficult to use for decisions.
Use the five Ps as one connected marketing mix
The marketing mix’s five Ps are product, price, place, people and promotion. Australian government guidance on the five Ps provides the framework. The value comes from alignment: changing one choice can require changes to the others.
Product: choose the wine style, format, packaging and service that suit the need. In the fictional launch, a clear dry-white identity and practical meal occasion matter more than a complicated range extension. Check whether supply and quality can support the promised experience.
Price: set the customer’s cost and the relevant trade terms in line with positioning and workable returns. Compare producer receipts, channel margins, discounts and other costs. A price chosen solely to look affordable may leave insufficient contribution; an aspirational premium needs credible willingness to pay.
Place: decide where and how the target can buy. Selected local merchants may suit the winery’s volume and its customers’ habits. Advertising nationally before establishing suitable supply could create interest that cannot convert into sales.
People: consider the customers, staff and partners needed to make the offer work. Salespeople and merchant staff need enough knowledge to recommend the wine appropriately. A friendly, clear explanation supports the proposed position better than a technically impressive speech that leaves the customer confused.
Promotion: choose communication and activities that make the relevant benefit visible and encourage the desired action. A staff tasting and a clear shelf recommendation may be more appropriate for this launch than a broad campaign reaching people who cannot find the bottle. None of the five decisions should be made in isolation.
Match marketing options to the task
Marketing options include advertising, public relations, direct communication, social content, events, tastings, sponsorship and sales promotions. A trade-focused activity aims at buyers or those recommending the wine; a consumer-focused one aims at final demand. The two can support each other, but need different messages and measures.
Paid advertising can provide reach and targeting while requiring spending and creative work. Public relations can earn attention, but the business cannot assume favourable coverage or control the final message. Direct communication can be relevant to an existing relationship when used appropriately and lawfully.
Events and tastings let people experience the wine, but samples, staffing, travel and organisation cost money. Social content can support recognition and explanation; an account described as free still consumes time. Promotions may stimulate trial while lowering the amount earned per sale or shifting the timing of purchases.
Choose activities through the objective and target’s actual behaviour. New Zealand’s government guidance on promotion emphasises audience and buying patterns. More channels don’t automatically make a coherent campaign. A manageable combination that reaches the intended buyer is preferable to activity nobody can deliver or evaluate properly.
Budget for people, design and production
In-house and third-party labour both use resources. An employee writing campaign content has a cost and an alternative use of time. An agency or consultant can add specialist capability and capacity, but needs a brief, coordination and an agreed scope. Compare complete work rather than treating internal labour as free.
Bottle and label design and production combine creative decisions with physical commitments. Artwork, proofs, printing, materials, minimum orders and compliance review can affect the budget and timing. A visually successful design still needs to work on the chosen container and production line.
The marketing campaign budget includes content creation, media, samples, events, travel, administration and measurement as relevant. Distinguish one-off development from repeated spending, and don’t count a cost twice if it already sits in packaging or another budget. The business needs a clear boundary for any claimed campaign return.
For a small launch, sequencing can reduce commitment: test the proposition and buyer response before printing an oversized run or paying for broad exposure. Testing also costs time and samples. Evaluate the value of learning against the risk of committing more resources to an unproven assumption.
Measure response and commercial outcome separately
Use an original hypothetical campaign costing 2,000 currency units. Suppose it generates 100 orders that would not otherwise have occurred, each contributing 12 after the stated product and fulfilment costs but before campaign spending. Incremental contribution is 1,200, leaving negative 800 against campaign cost on that boundary.
Revenue or order count alone would miss that result. Future repeat purchases could improve it, but must be measured and associated costs included. If many orders would have occurred without the campaign, claiming all 100 as incremental would overstate effectiveness further.
Track intermediate indicators without mistaking them for the final objective. Reach, visits, enquiries, tastings, first orders and repeat orders can reveal where the process works or stalls. A good test identifies which assumption to revise: message, audience, availability, price or the product itself.
Build a strategy that the winery can deliver
A strong D2 response follows the sequence from product and market evidence to target, positioning, objective and coordinated choices. It explains why a tactic fits the customer and the business, then evaluates resources, constraints and measurement.
The fictional white-wine launch doesn’t need to please every wine drinker. It needs to offer a credible benefit to reachable customers, through partners capable of selling it, at a return that supports the work. Branding makes that promise recognisable. The rest of the business has to keep it.
Use D2 business exam practice and wine supply and demand as tests of the business reasoning here: identify who bears a cost or risk, explain how the route to market changes it and distinguish revenue from the return retained by the producer.
Original Diploma practice
These original exercises are not official WSET questions and have no official mark allocations.
Question 1: diagnose an incomplete launch
A small winery with limited local distribution plans national advertising for a new white wine aimed at “everyone”. Explain the missing strategic work before assessing the advertising choice.
Indicative answer points: product definition; market evidence; segmentation; target; position; availability; objective and budget.
Outline answer: Define the product’s relevant benefit and examine the intended market and alternatives. Select a reachable target and evidence-based position, then set measurable objectives. Check supply, legal access, route to purchase and resources. National advertising may create interest outside availability; assess an activity matched to actual distribution rather than assuming reach is the objective.
Question 2: apply the five Ps
A winery positions a fresh white as an approachable local meal wine but proposes a heavy luxury bottle, a much higher price, remote exclusive outlets and no staff explanation. Evaluate the alignment.
Indicative answer points: product; price; place; people; promotion; customer benefit; consistency.
Outline answer: Test whether the packaging and price support the intended occasion and willingness to pay. Check whether the selected outlets reach the target and whether staff can explain the offer simply. Align promotion with the benefit and actual availability. The choices may suit another position, but their proposed combination conflicts with the stated approach unless research supports a revised strategy.
Question 3: evaluate campaign return
A campaign costs 2,000 and produces 100 incremental orders, each contributing 12 before campaign cost. Calculate the defined result and assess a claim of success based only on order count.
Indicative answer points: incremental contribution; negative result; boundary; repeat behaviour; attribution; objective.
Outline answer: Contribution is 1,200, leaving negative 800 after the campaign cost on the stated boundary. Orders alone don’t establish a financial success. Verify incrementality and included costs, then measure repeat contribution rather than assuming it. Awareness or learning objectives may provide another benefit, but should have been defined and assessed separately rather than used to obscure the arithmetic.
