Portugal is the world’s no.1 producer and exporter of cork and Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) is its cork industry co-operative. Wine closure is the most important application of cork. A key mandate of APCOR is to promote the benefits of cork, namely Culture, Nature and Future, to major international markets.
As China is arguably one of the largest wine markets in the world, APCOR believes it is essential to further cement the cork advocacy of current but also next generations of wine professionals and consumers there. Since 2010, Paradigm has been undertaking this important assignment for APCOR in China. We have employed a portfolio of marketing and communications initiatives to convey the value propositions of Portuguese cork to its stakeholders in China.
These sustained efforts did bear fruits. According to the findings of a 2017 survey on the consumption behaviors of Chinese wine consumers, natural cork stopper is the “top-of-mind” and most preferred closure in China.
The survey was commissioned by the Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) and carried out by CTR Market Research. Aiming at shedding light on the trends of perceptions and consumption behaviors on wine and closure, this survey interviewed 2,152 respondents aged between 18 and 64 who resided in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu online in July 2017. Key findings of this survey are:
96.8% believe natural cork stopper is beneficial to wine quality
94.3% awareness towards natural cork stopper
85.3% preference on natural cork stopper when buying wines