Luxury wine brands as gifts: ontological and aesthetic perspectives

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address the issues of luxury gift giving and the giving of luxury wines as gifts from a conceptual perspective. Design/methodology/approach - The article considers the OA (aesthetic and ontology) model as proposed by Berthon et al. that permits the integration of various conceptualisations of different authors in the area of luxury branding. The model offers a typology of luxury brands that draws on Heidegger's theory of arts and Whitehead's process philosophy. This means that one can differentiate luxury brands along two dimensions: aesthetics and ontology. Findings - The paper contends that the four modes as set out in the AO model of Berthon et al. can be used as a typology of luxury wines, from both gift giving, and gift receiving, perspectives. Practical implications - Luxury wine marketers can make use of the proposed typology to target wine gift givers effectively, by understanding where on the proposed matrix both the giver and the receiver are positioned. The four modes that emerge can be seen as different target markets, with different motivations and different behaviors with regard to luxury wines as gifts. Originality/value - By applying the OA model to luxury wines and specifically to the giving and receiving of luxury wines, this paper offers wine marketers the insight to formulate different marketing mix strategies based on the different target markets that emerge from the proposed model.