On champagne, booze, and consumer pride: facets and drivers of consumption and development

Citation

Orth, U.R. (2009), "On champagne, booze, and consumer pride: facets and drivers of consumption and development", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 21 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijwbr.2009.04321daa.001

On champagne, booze, and consumer pride: facets and drivers of consumption and development

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Wine Business Research, Volume 21, Issue 4.

This year's fourth and final issue holds five quality articles reporting on a variety of research from countries such as Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, and the USA.

The first article, by a consortium of psychology and consumer behavior scholars including marketing research icon Barry J. Babin, shows that valuable insights are not restricted to studies reporting significant effects or relations. Integrating research on consumers' social identity and origin effects, the authors confirm consumers prefer French wine over Texas wine, and are willing to pay higher prices for the former. However, consumer expertise and a strong identification with their home region do not appear to mitigate those effects. These effects occurred in spite of consumers sampling identical wines. Wineries and wine regions are thus advised not to rely on consumer expertise and identification in promoting the wine. Instead, they should emphasize the wine's objective quality (e.g. communicating and displaying awards) and rely more on traditional branding techniques.

The second paper is yet another insightful contribution by wine marketing authority Larry Lockshin and David Knott. Provocatively titled “Boozing or branding? Measuring the effects of free wine tastings at wine shops” the article reports on an extensive field experiment in wine shops, and combines promotional wine tastings with store scanner data and a call back survey. The findings indicate that while sales of the wines tasted increased drastically on the day of the tastings a small but significant effect on sales remained during the subsequent four weeks. Only one-third of the store visitors purchased; however, the other two-thirds were “boozing”. Retailers and wine companies can utilize the results and implications of this research to make more informed decisions about how to schedule and whom to target with free tastings.

The third article, by Martin H. Kunc, shifts the focus from individual consumers to a more aggregate level by attempting to forecast future development of wine tourism in Chile. Findings obtained through application of an established diffusion model which is populated with survey data suggest that low awareness of the local wine industry and low numbers of repeat visits initially present a major obstacle to further developing the national industry. Practical implications focus on policy recommendations and advise wineries to facilitate positive word-of-mouth to overcome the developmental obstacles.

Representative of a rare species, the fourth article presents a conceptual paper rather than “just another” empirical contribution. New Zealand researchers Linda D. Hollebeek and Roderick J. Brodie integrate research on value chains, customer involvement, and brand management to propose a conceptual model aiding our understanding of interrelations and outlining avenues for future research. Particular value lies with the article delineating variation in branding strategies across traditional and emerging wine marketing channels based on consumer involvement. Service orientation and provision to customers are viewed as key factors for success.

The fifth article by Daniel Steichen and Christophe Terrien relies heavily on econometrics to model the dynamic decisions involved in selling and buying Champagne. Mimicking real-world processes, consumers are presented with repeat purchase options while suppliers may adapt their prices to changing demand. As virtual agents both groups compete in the study's multi-agent simulation. Champagne is the object of choice due to its high-quality reputation. Implications focus on the superiority of the paper's longitudinal method over contemporary cross-cutting approaches such as multiple regression, joint analysis, or constrained optimization.

In conclusion, I would like to remind you to not miss the 5th International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research, February 8-10, 2010 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. This meeting presents a unique opportunity keep you current on projects and people, and to network with scholars and practitioners from all over the world. A special issue of IJWBR will be published with a selection of best case studies later next year.

Ulrich R. OrthChristian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Kiel, Germany