Essay on Strategic Analysis of Robert Mondavi Inc.

Bonny Doon Vineyards, a successful winery business based in Santa Cruz, California, has grown from selling 5,000 cases of wine a year in 1981 to 200,000 cases a year in 1999. To keep growing and be more profitable, the business must choose amongst three possible strategic directions. The first strategy is to start importing wines from Europe into the United States. The second alternative is branching into a retail outlet for unusual wines of great value, accompanied by a high level of service. Lastly, the business’ D.E.W.N could be expanded to include wines not made by the company itself but by other wineries that follow the same values and philosophy.

1) Evaluate the structure of the global wine industry? How and why is that structure changing? What threats do these changes present for Robert Mondavi?

Since the late 1960’s, California wine-maker Robert Mondavi has been perceived by its stakeholders as one of the world’s most innovative and high-quality producers of fine wine. It is therefore not surprising that the company has endured great financial success; in fact, it has secured an impressive annual growth in earnings per share of ~28% over the last 8 years. Recently however, there have been many external forces that may serve to threaten the long-term profitability of the firm: sales have been decreasing over the last 6 months due to a staggering economy, Australian imports are on the rise, shrinking the size of the pie for domestic firms, and there has been an industry wide trend to consolidate; existing firms are merging and

Wine production involves two parts of economic activity – viticulture and wine making in the winery. In the global context, wine production is dynamic due to the influence of globalization, technological advancements and extensive research. These have essentially influenced the nature, spatial patterns and the ecological dimensions of the wine industry.

The buyer’s power within the wine industry varies between different places in the world. There are for example strategic differences between Europe and the “New World”. The “New World” includes countries like the US, Australia, Chile and South Africa. In Europe there is a big competition

Bonny Doon currently has an enviable position in the 1990’s Californian wine-producing industry. The company has successfully differentiated itself from its competition and achieved a first mover advantage in terms of selling “undervalued” wines. However, due to increased rivalry and a changing and increasingly challenging market,

Vincor does market wine alternatives itself, as a way of dealing with substitute demand. Vincor makes cider and has a wine kit business division (Spagnols) that gives Vincor some product diversification. Partly because of the ease of competition and as part of the differentiation and protection of the Canadian wine industry, Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), a quality assurance program that identifies Canadian premium grape content, assists in making start-up more difficult for those wishing to emulate Canadian wine brands. The dollars spent on marketing and brand loyalty play a large part in protecting market share and there are certain absolute cost advantages that contribute to establishing some barriers to new competition. Ultimately, there is little cost to the consumer when considering switching brands. Experimentation in wine drinking is often a characteristic of the wine drinking market and thus can contribute to promoting new substitute entry into the market.

While bargaining power of buyers is ranked the least important of the five factors for Mondavi’s strategy, its importance should not be understated. One of the Wine is typically sold to wholesalers who then distribute to retail outlets. With the decreasing number of wholesalers and the consolidation of retailers, buyers negotiating power is increasing. It is difficult for companies like Mondavi to make consistent profits and maintain market share if they cannot keep products on retailers’ shelves.

The business is owned and operated by Tony Bonatelli and the mission is simple: produce quality, boutique wine at a reasonable price, with the aim of building customer loyalty and securing repeat purchases. Tony’s goal is to establish and maintain a thriving family business that provides an enjoyable lifestyle and comfortable standard of living.

As the marketing manager of Bonatelli Wines, I have been asked to prepare a marketing program to establish Bonatelli Wines in a South East Asian Market in which I believe offers the best opportunity for expansion. Working with my team of staff members Maria, who is responsible for advertising and promotions, Thomas, who manages liaison with the current US distributors, and Rob our freelance web designer we will execute a marketing program that manages to compliment the objective of Bonatelli Wines.

In 2001 there were over 1 million wine producers worldwide, and no firm accounted for more than 1% of global retail sales. Because of this, it would be nearly impossible for the Robert Mondavi winery to dominate sales in any region. Due to Mondavi’s efforts, the winery became one of America’s most innovative,

While focusing on its premium and super-premium segments, Mondavi plans to introduce new wines within the segment. These wines are expected to compete with the wines from other countries such as France and Italy and are expected to have positive returns.

Through heavily exporting to U.K and U.S, MontGras segmented and exposed to some of the top wine consumers in the world

Making wine is nothing else but a touch of passion, love and few drops of magic. From the first view, wine industry seems very artistic and secret at the same time. There is no doubt that hearing that Robert Mondavi Corporation is going to layoff 4% of its workforce ring the bell to the investors, at the same type the stock price dropping down dramatically makes an impression that the company is going through difficult period as the senior management is upon completing the reconfiguring future strategy. The big decision is whether to get back to original vision, and focus on the domestic market, which bring a 90% of revenues or continue diversification and keep on pursuing the vision of

Chateau Margaux’s current distribution system is completely traditional, which means that it is handled by the specialized and independent merchants. The merchants are a major part of the distribution system for the Chateau Margaux’s wines. Besides the responsibility for the distribution of wine, the merchants also have other significant roles, for instance