2010 Volume 119 Issue 1 Pages 69-83
Food producers have increasing concerns about geographical brands as an efficient instrument for gaining market competitiveness. In the case of the Spanish wine industry, denominations of origin (DO) for wine have nearly trebled in number since the mid-1980s.
DO is expected to allow producers to acquire market recognition not merely by specifying the places where products originate (origin appeal), but also by ensuring the unique quality associated with the place identified by a geographical term (quality appeal). These points of appeal, when combined, would generate added value for products and promote their sales in the market. However, the proliferation of DOs in recent years makes us reconsider if all of these DOs, with different features in terms of geographical scale or type of products, might assume equally their function of linking the origin and quality of a product. This article analyzes how DOs in the Spanish wine industry achieve product differentiation through a comparative study on three cases of DOs (DO Penedès, DO Cava, and DO Catalunya) overlaid on the Penedès Region in Catalonia.
After examining the reason justifying the coexistence of the three DOs in the Penedès Region, the author analyzes in some detail how wine producers registered in different DOs make use of those geographical brands in their product strategies. An empirical study reveals that, although none of the three DOs in the Penedès region enjoy a reputation of prestigious geographical brand, they work efficiently for products as a distinctive sign in the market to be differentiated from generic products or other competing products made elsewhere.
