Consumer responses to wine bottle back labels

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Lockshin, Larry

Unwin, Tim

Source:        Journal of Wine Research; Dec99, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p183, 13p, 5

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Document Type:        Article        

Subject Terms:        *CONSUMER behavior

*CONSUMERS -- Attitudes

*WINE industry

WINE labels

NAICS/Industry Codes

42282 Wine and Distilled Alcoholic Beverage Wholesalers

Abstract:        Abstract This paper reports on an exploratory study of

consumer responses to the information contained on wine bottle back labels. It was based on research conducted with respondents in Australia in early 1999. Its central findings were: (1) that experienced consumers have difficulty in matching the tastes of wines with their back label descriptions; (2) that 57% of the respondents claim regularly to read back labels in making their purchasing decisions; (3) that the information they found most useful in helping them to identify the wines was simple descriptions of the tastes or smells of the wines; and (4) that it is difficult to draw general conclusions about the effects of gender, age, income or occupation on such responses. [ABSTRACT FROM

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Full Text Word Count:        6158        

ISSN:        0957-1264        

Accession Number:        2791811        

         

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CONSUMER RESPONSES TO WINE BOTTLE BACK LABELS

Abstract This paper reports on an exploratory study of consumer responses to the information contained on wine bottle back labels. It was based on research conducted with respondents in Australia in early 1999. Its central findings were: (1) that experienced consumers have difficulty in matching the tastes of wines with their back label descriptions; (2) that 57% of the respondents claim regularly to read back labels in making their purchasing decisions; (3) that the information they found most useful in helping them to identify the wines was simple descriptions of the tastes or smells of the wines; and (4) that it is difficult to draw general conclusions about the effects of gender, age, income or occupation on such responses.

Original manuscript received 20/9/99

Revised manuscript received 5/10/99

Product packaging is a crucial factor influencing first time consumer purchasing patterns. This is increasingly being recognised in the wine industry, with a wide diversity of new styles of bottles, labels and associated packaging being introduced to encourage consumers to make a specific purchasing decision (see, for example, Tucker, 1998). Moreover, as Kidd (1999,p. 82) has recently argued "Being able to position labels of different shapes and sizes anywhere on the bottle, particularly a beautiful bottle, opens up many opportunities to make a statement irrespective of what is on the label". New technologies are therefore providing wine producers with a range of innovative possibilities to influence the market. Furthermore, research by Combris et al. (1997) suggests that the objective characteristics of a bottle, particularly label characteristics, are highly significant in influencing the prices at which wines can be sold for a critique of this argument, see Unwin, 1999. Increasing numbers of wine producers are thus experimenting with novel label designs, and over the last decade there has in particular been a considerable increase in the use of detailed wine descriptions on back labels to entice consumers to purchase wines.

Remarkably little academic research, however, has been undertaken on the precise ways in which consumers read and interpret wine labels. One of the few studies to begin to explore this field has been Shaw et al.'s

(1999) use of Crawford's (1985) positioning typology to examine the ways in which people perceive wine quality and value based on label information. In this, 70 of the top 100 selling Australian Chardonnays were classified according to seven types of label positioning statement (product attributes, nonpareil, parentage, manufacture, target end use, target end user, and endorsement). Parentage (cited in 68.6% of the

sample) was the most widely used type of positioning statement, followed by target end use and product attribute statements, each cited in 41.7% of the sample. The most common type of back label statement thus included comments referring to the winemaker or company that made the wine, the sorts of food or occasion with which the wine might be associated, and attributes of the wine such as its bouquet or flavour.

In examining how consumers actually value wines, they found that positioning statements based on manufacture and attributes tend to lead to respondents rating wines more highly than positioning statements based on parentage and endorsement (Shaw et al., 1999).

The present research was intended to explore further the complex ways in which people respond to information on wine labels, and how this information influences their self-declared purchasing patterns. Our study had four main aims:

*        to see how accurately consumers can match the taste of wines

with the descriptions of them on back labels;

*        to explore what attributes of back labels are seen as being

helpful and unhelpful to consumers;

*        to examine how gender, occupation, income and wine consumption

behaviour influence such opinions; and

*        to evaluate the significance that consumers attribute to back

labels in influencing their purchasing behaviours.

Research Design and Methodology

Research was conducted among 56 students attending courses on wine and society in both South Australia and Western Australia in January and February 1999. Key attributes of the sample are given in Table 1, which indicates that there was an approximately even balance between men (53%) and women (47%), that 66% of the sample were under 35 years, that a wide range of household income levels was represented, that almost two-thirds of the sample bought more than 10 bottles of wine a month, and that 44.6% of the sample spent an average amount of between $10 and $15[sup1] when they purchased a bottle of wine for home consumption. A substantial majority (82%) of the respondents had received some formal wine tasting training, ranging from Wine and Spirit Education Trust courses to formal university wine tasting courses. Just under half (42%) of the respondents were employed in some way in the wine industry, and were therefore more informed than the average wine drinker. The sample thus included people involved in wine production, retail and management, but also others from a diversity of backgrounds who were nevertheless interested in gaining further knowledge relating to wine.

The research design involved giving each participant six wines to taste, as well as the description of these wines as written on the back labels of the bottles.[sup2] They were told that their task was to try and match the wines with the descriptions, that they could smell and taste the wines, but that they were not permitted to talk to anyone while completing the task. All wines were presented at the same time, in the same shaped glasses, and as far as possible in similar tasting conditions. Following the matching exercise, they were then invited to complete a questionnaire, which asked them to respond to four sets of questions. First, they were asked questions concerning the matching exercise itself. These included both an open-ended question about the use of the label descriptions, as well as a series of questions to which they were invited to score their responses on a seven point scale.

Second, they were invited to indicate for each wine description the words that they found most helpful Coy underlining) and least helpful Coy circling) in influencing their matching decisions. Third, they were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with a set of comments about back labels in general, and fourth they were asked questions about their wine purchasing behaviour, with responses to both sets of questions again being invited on seven points scales. Finally, they were asked to indicate some information about themselves (Table 1) so that the responses could be analysed in terms of the sample characteristics.

The choice of wines for the research proved to be less straightforward than might be anticipated. In order to simplify the exercise for the participants, it was decided that three white wines made from the same grape variety (Chardonnay), and three red wines, likewise each made from the same grape variety (Shiraz), would be used.[sup3] If wines made from a range of grape varieties had been chosen, participants might have been able to differentiate them largely by the taste profiles of their particular grape varieties. The choice of three Chardonnays and three Shiraz wines meant that the participants had to differentiate similar wines essentially from their descriptions and taste. As it was, one participant failed even to match the three white descriptions with the three white wines, and the red wines likewise with the red descriptions.

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Two obstacles complicated the choice of the wines. First, it was important that the back labels actually said something specific about the individual wines under consideration. In some cases, for example, back labels only include simple generic comments about the company and the winemaking ethos. For this research, it was essential that the back labels actually made an attempt to describe the wines. A second consideration was that the wines should be readily available in local retail outlets. While it was relatively easy to find the same three white wines in both Perth and Adelaide, this proved to be much ...

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