Branding consistency in the Australian wine industry

The Australian wine industry consists of over 20,000 brands, providing a myriad of choices across and within brands. Various extrinsic cues i.e., brand, region, variety, country of origin, awards, and winemaker influence consumers’ purchases. While there is extensive research exploring the value of these extrinsic cues to consumers, there has yet to be exploration of how wineries are utilising one of the most valuable assets an organisation can own — its brand. Consumers use brands and their associated brand elements as a cognitive shortcut to filter out the clutter. Effective branding is mediated by its ability to cut through this clutter and build an individual brand identity via branding consistency. This study explores the extent to which wineries present consistent branding across its product portfolio, building a descriptive analysis of branding in the Australian wine industry and a method to measure brand consistency.