Research

While working on my master’s degree in Wine Business at the University of Adelaide in Australia, I had the opportunity to write on a topic that has fascinated me for years, regional branding. I launched a study to research consumer attitudes on the subject in 2006. The response was tremendous and yielded a very useful data set.

I began publishing the conclusions in a series of papers with Dr. Johan Bruwer. The final paper in that series was published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing.

Nearer to home I continued to write on the subject of regional branding at the invitation of my colleague Dr. Thomas Atkin at Sonoma State’s University’s Wine Business Institute, contributing to several papers based on his more recent research data.  I’ve also had the opportunity to revisit and extend the ideas in this arena in other papers and presentations.

Below are links to some of the articles which have been accessible online and/or available for purchase.

Ray Johnson, ‘What is an AVA and What Does the Wine Market Tell Us About AVAs?, Proceedings of American Intellectual Property Law Association Conference, San Francisco, California, 2011.

Tom Atkin and Ray Johnson, ‘Appellation as an Indicator of Quality’, International Journal of Wine Business Research, 2010 Vol. 22 (1).

Johan Bruwer and Ray Johnson, ‘Place-based Marketing and Regional Branding Strategy Perspectives in the California Wine Industry’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2010 Vol. 27 (1).

Ray Johnson and Johan Bruwer, ‘Balancing Regionality with American Viticultural Areas’, Practical Winery & Vineyard, 2009 January/February PRACTICAL

Tom Atkin, Jane Sutanonpaiboonk and Ray Johnson, ‘Importance of Region in Marketing Wine to US Consumers’, Proceedings of Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, 2008.

Ray Johnson and Johan Bruwer, ‘The Balancing Act Between Regionality and American Viticultural Areas’, Journal of Wine Research, 2008 Vol. 18 (3) JOURNAL OF WINE RESEARCH

Ray Johnson and Johan Bruwer ‘Consumer Impressions of Sonoma and its Appellations’, Vineyard & Winery Management, 2007 November/December VINEYARD & WINERY

Ray Johnson and Johan Bruwer, ‘Perceived Wine Quality and Regional Brand Image – The Consumer Perspective’, International Journal of Wine Business Research, 2007 Vol. 19 (4) IJWBR

Ray Johnson, ‘Sonoma County’s Regional Brand Image’, Proceedings of Bacchus at Brock Conference, St. Catharines, Ontario, top 3 paper selection, Wine Business track, 2007.