Social Web Communication and CRM in the marketing strategies of wine enterprises

The aim of the paper is to observe and analyse the contributions made by social media in redefining firm-client relations in the wine sector as a support for CRM systems. After a literature review, in order to define the theoretical framework, the research will provide two stages of analysis: - the first step concerns an investigation of buyers aimed at gathering information about their degree of usage of social media for interacting with customers as well as the spread of content and critical issues; - the second step investigates the content and characteristics of Web 2.0 communication for detecting social media best practices in the use of wine blogs and the social networking site Facebook. The originality and managerial usefulness of this paper consists of studying the emerging trends in the use of Web 2.0 tools in the wine sector, identifying the main purchase determinants that lead the choice process of consumers and developing new guidelines for the effective implementation of the instruments observed. This will help companies to better manage the social media communication tools called sCRM applications as well as their related marketing strategies, according to the companies’ mission and goals.