Assignment Scenario – ‘Hill’s Vineyard’
Jamie and Megan Hill own a small, family run vineyard in Hampshire, England.
The vineyards of the Hill’s Estate are situated on the North Downs with its famous
chalky soil, and approx. 20 acres of land have been planted which are producing
sparkling and table wines which have been well received locally – their clients consist of
local consumers, and small retailers in the UK. Recently a reporter from a large
national UK newspaper came to visit the vineyard whilst he was staying with friends
nearby and he has included a very favourable article on the vineyard and its wines in a
well-known national UK newspaper.
Instead of just selling the wines in the UK Jamie and Megan believe that their sparkling
wines can rival the champagne produced in France and would like to capitalise on the
exposure that the article in the national newspaper has given them and expand their
business to supply their quality English wines to overseas customers. In their
discussions the reporter suggested that one way to do this would be to develop an
online retail arm of the business but the couple have no idea how to go about setting
up a website etc. They would also like to start offering ‘vineyard tours’ to both UK
based visitors and tourists and realise that in order to make these changes to the
business they would need to seek some outside help.
You and Megan have been friends since school and as she and Jamie have no real
understanding of marketing Megan has asked if you will meet with her and Jamie to
discuss / explain what marketing is and what the key marketing issues that they need
to consider for the business are.