THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BRAND IN WINE BUSINESS DURING THE TRADE AND CATERING GLOBALIZATION

This article points out the importance of a brand in the wine business and the possibilityof creating a unique brand for the specific type of wine, as well as for the entire wine-growing region. Croatian wine – growers use the product brand on only 50% of their products, whereas 99% of the wine products are branded in the leading wine countries like France and Italy. Specific qualities of wine (alcoholic beverage, bans of commercials, fragmentationof the wine-growers) have affect on the use of the brand. Researches proved that 86,2% of Germans consider the brand to be very important. In the USA most of the consumers do not read the label in details; just seeing the brand is enough. In modern trade the wine brand gained an extra importance because most of the wine products have generic names (grasevina, chardonnay etc.) leaving the brand as the only thing that enables distinguishing the products of different producers. The role and the importance of a brand in the trade and catering sector are speciallypresented. The big trade chains want a brand of their own, what the wine – growers findvery hard to accept as they are losing the identity that is crucial for the wine consumers. Ajoint performance makes the market conquering easier.It is pointed out that in this kind of situation the uniting for the single brand for aspecific type of wine, as well as for the unique brand for entire wine-growing region isessential.These conclusions are drawn from and presented by the professional work examplesof the leading wine-growing countries.