NEWS RELEASE
April 19 2002
UniSA
- a key destination for
international wine professionals
Around
the world when people think Bordeaux, they think wine and indeed some of
the finest wines in the world.
So
it may be a little surprising that the Bordeaux
Business School would send their Wine MBA students way down south to
the University of South Australia for some specialist education in wine
marketing.
The students arrive in Adelaide on April 22 for a
weeklong educational visit.
Director
of UniSA’s Wine Marketing
Research Group, Associate
Professor Larry Lockshin says it is no coincidence that SA is on the
international education map for the students.
“Australia
has proven itself to be an aggressive player in wine marketing but also
clever and strategic, and the whole Australian approach to wine marketing
is quite a revelation in the context of traditional European production
and sale of wines,” Dr Lockshin said.
“Within
that industry context, UniSA has been gathering a real strength in wine
marketing education and research and this venture is a part of our
educational engagement with other countries.
“UniSA’s
Wine Marketing Research Group is now the most active wine marketing
research team in the world, with five full time staff and six full time
research students. We have also been endorsed as the OIV International
Centre of Excellence in Wine Consumer Behaviour so we have a significant
role to play in building industry knowledge internationally and in
enhancing the expertise of industry professionals both here in Australia
and through the educational and research partnerships we continue to
develop across the globe.”
The
Bordeaux Business School’s MBA program has been developed in conjunction
with UniSA, the University of California at Davis, the Catholic University
of Chile and Japan’s Keio Business School in Tokyo.
The
study program developed for the Bordeaux Business School students while
they are in South Australia includes a wide range of wine marketing
materials covering finance and organisational behaviour, Australian
viticulture and oenology, export marketing in Australia, consumer
behaviour, branding and wine tourism.
The
students have already spent four weeks in Bordeaux completing intensive
language classes, basic MBA classes in marketing, finance, organisational
behaviour, economics and wine. From there they travelled to California
adding more MBA training with a special focus on the US wine industry. The
next stages of the program include the Chilean and Australian legs, and
then back to Bordeaux for three weeks more study and work on a major
project.
The
students’ South Australian leg will include education and information
sessions presented by UniSA’s International Graduate School of
Management, the Australian Wine Exports Committee and independent wine
industry valuer Colin Gaetjens.
Dr
Lockshin says the 13-member cohort includes experienced industry
professionals from the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Austria, Germany and Korea.
Program
Manager from Bordeaux Business School, Isabelle Dartigues, says the course
is unique in its diversity.
“The
program gives professionals in the industry just what they need –
exposure to a wide range of business practice, the latest marketing
research, and information that has international breadth so that they get
a world view,” she said.
“We
are especially pleased that the leading academics in wine marketing from
UniSA’s Wine Marketing Research Group are providing the bulk of the
Australian program because I believe our students are particularly keen to
understand the factors that have made Australia so successful in marketing
its wines.”
Dr
Lockshin says the significance of the Bordeaux Schools engagement with
UniSA should not be underestimated.
“Our
wine marketing research group has only recently been consolidated and the
Masters program we deliver in wine marketing is just three years old,”
he said. To have gained this standing internationally so quickly is a
credit to the excellence and enthusiasm of the team which includes
experienced academics but also many young PhD students keen to contribute
to the industry.”
Media contact: Associate Professor Larry
Lockshin (08) 8302 0261
NEWS
EDITORS please note: The students from the Bordeaux Business School will
be touring the Barossa Valley and visit the National Wine Centre while in
SA.
Photo opportunities and opportunities to
interview the students can be arranged by contacting Michèle Nardelli on
(08) 8302 0966 or 041 8823673
email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
