Trends in the British wine market and consumer confusion

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to give a descriptive outlook of the competitive environment in the UK wine market, and then to show the presence of “consumer confusion” elements in it.

Design/methodology/approach

The consumer confusion concept has been considered as a framework in order to test the existence of the principal elements of consumer misunderstanding in the buying process. Data have been collected from secondary sources and through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews among a sample of 40 stakeholders of the wine supply chain in the UK.

Findings

The main findings prove the existence of the essential characteristics that can generate a certain degree of consumer confusion, and the relative consciousness of key informants that some strategies need to be adopted to reduce it, although only a few have already been performed.

Originality/value

This paper is probably the first work that tests the consumer confusion conditions through a qualitative analysis following the expectations of previous research conducted by Drummond and Rule.

Citation

Casini, L., Cavicchi, A. and Corsi, A.M. (2008), "Trends in the British wine market and consumer confusion", British Food Journal, Vol. 110 No. 6, pp. 545-558. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700810877870