UK-based Wine Intelligence and Geisenheim University in Germany have agreed to work together on academic and commercial projects where combining their respective data sets and intellectual capabilities will add value.
“On commercial projects, we’ll collaborate where appropriate from a client point of view,” Richard Halstead, chief operating officer of research-led strategy consultancy Wine Intelligence, told BeverageDaily.com.
He explained what each party would bring to the venture: “Geisenheim is a world leader in vinology and viticulture and brings technical knowledge of the science of wine and sensory analysis of products, as well as skills in consumer insights in Germany."
"Our work spans top level business strategy through to tracking data for brand health and consumer perceptions on a European and global level.”
Commercial project underway
He confirmed that the two organizations were already working together on a research project for a wine producer, but was unable to disclose any details due to client confidentiality.
As an example of the type of commercial activity they could jointly undertake, Halstead said that if a wine producer was developing a new product, Wine Intelligence could help with marketing and consumer insights, whilst Geisenheim could carry out sensory testing.
On the academic side, Geisenheim and Wine Intelligence will be exploring how they can leverage their collective data and insights to develop articles for academic publications, give presentations and hold seminars.
“We hope to develop new intellectual capital from existing data sets we both own, such as consumer behavior and attitudes research, supply chain data and surveys of markets. There is a raft of data we can both use for fuller analyses to create publications," said Halstead.
“For example, Wine Intelligence has a big syndicated research business that publishes reports every two weeks. It is entirely possible that we will produce syndicated research with Geisenheim."
Combined brain power
Another potential benefit of the partnership is the synergy the two organizations hope to create when generating market insights.
“We have good brains trust when we put our heads together, so we will be much better placed to make predictions about the wine world,” said Halstead.
The agreement is open ended and in the early stages, although they have worked together on an ad hoc “project by project” basis in the past.
“For us this is new territory so it’s a bit of a ‘watch this space’,” said Halstead.
“We are at the beginning of what we hope will be an exciting journey. We can see there is a complimentary skill set, and now, if an opportunity comes along, we know we've got a good team to run with it.”