Proceedings of 31st International Business Research Conference
27 - 29 July 2015, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
ISBN: 978-1-922069-80-1
Newly Launched Wineries and Their Use of Web Sites in
Order to Improve Their Customer Service
Jocelyn D. Perreault and Leonard Dumas
An exploratory study is being conducted in order to better understand how newly
launched wineries use their web sites within their marketing strategy, namely at the
customer service level. Perceived quality level has been measured as well as their
effectiveness degree evaluated. Results will suggest improvements needed to the
different web sites.
Objective of the Research
The present research aims at measuring to what extend the web sites conceived and
used by small wineries were contributing to their marketing strategy and, by the same
time, to a better customer service.
The Theorical Framework
Our research is based on fundamentals of marketing related to strategies and tactics
(Kotler, 2014) as well as on small business marketing strategies and approaches (Julien,
2013). According to Fabien (2014), in relation with the customer service, pre-transactional
service is becoming more important than both the offered service at the transaction and
the post-transactional service.
Netqual has been recognized for its contribution to measuring the perceived quality of
online services (Nantel, 2005) and useful in various situations. A recent study (Cefrio,
2013) suggests that 85% of Quebec consumers usually make research on the web before
buying products or services.
A more exhaustive theorical framework will be presented at the conference, as well as the
research model.
The Methodology
Our research has started, in a first step, in the region «Centre du Québec», which is
actually the most active at the creation of Small and Medium-size Businesses, in the
industrial and services sectors. We have identified five newly launched wineries , being in
operation for five years or less.
We have followed three steps in order to achieve our research objectives:
1° Positioning the five wineries according to their main characteristics (Kotler and al.,
2014)
2° Using Netqual to better understand the perceived quality of their web sites
3°Using a website assessment tool developed by BDC to better understand the
usefulness of the web sites for the wineries marketing directors.
The Preliminary Results
The five wineries have different positioning according to their agritouristic or agrifood
orientations.
The perceived quality, as measured by Netqual, varies considerably amongst the five
wineries.
The BDC assessment tool allows to identify weaknesses of the web sites but all were
classified as acceptables.
Complete results will be included in the presentation as well as the bibliography.
Name of the track: Marketing
_________________________________________________________
Dr Jocelyn D. Perreault, Dr Leonard Dumas, Professors of Marketing, Department of Marketing and
Information systems, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada, G9A5H7,
Email: Jocelyn.perreault@uqtr.ca