Collective strategies and positioning: The case of the Loire Volcanique Initiative

Several collective initiatives are emerging in the French wine industry to highlight common characteristics and consolidate often limited resource. This chapter illustrates the steps, strengths and challenges in constructing a collective strategy through the presentation of a research action approach, conducted between 2016 and 2018, with small vineyards in the Massif Central region of France. These small vineyards are characterized by unique identities, different and sometimes conflicting expectations, and distinct project management approaches. Using a methodological research-accompaniment approach, the chapter demonstrates how the process of establishing a positioning for these vineyards reconciled the specificities of individual structures with the requirements of a constructed collective strategy. The study of these vineyards provided the necessary foundation for the marketing initiatives initiated in 2019: the establishment of an association and a "brand", Loire Volcanique . Finally, the chapter outlines the current developments and prospects arising from the new collective positioning of these vineyards.