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This study aims to provide insights into wine consumers in Hong Kong and Mainland China, and the diversity of their behavior, by investigating their motivations, consumption and purchasing behavior and segmenting the sample based on wine knowledge and frequency of consumption to identify three distinct clusters that are then profiled.

Data was collected through an online survey of wine consumers of ethnic Chinese origin residing in Mainland China and Hong Kong, using two methods of recruitment (a convenience sample from wine-related databases, a panel survey undertaken by an international market research firm). The final sample comprised 477 respondents, about equally divided among Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong wine consumers. Analysis of the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows (SPSS) 29 included a series of descriptive analyses, followed by a two-step cluster analysis using an Euclidean distance method.

Wine knowledge and frequency of wine consumption were relatively higher within the sample as a whole than previous studies, but three distinct consumer segments are evident. There is evidence of a democratization of wine consumption, and a greater focus on wine consumption for enjoyment in relaxed and informal settings. rather than consumption driven by health and status, occurring primarily in commercial or business settings. The dominance of red wine in this market is also declining, and intrinsic cues – specifically, prior experience of the wine – are becoming important in wine purchase decisions.

This study uses a broad sample of wine consumers to identify trends in wine consumption patterns and motivations, and purchase decision-making behavior, of Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong wine consumers. The identification of three clusters of wine consumers offers both points of comparison with previous segmentation research globally and within China, whilst also identifying scope for further research.

This study aims to explore the nature of Chinese young adults' (CYAs) wine drinking behaviour. It also aims to examine CYAs' wine knowledge and establish whether there are positive relationships between wine knowledge and wine drinking behaviour variables.

Information was obtained from a convenience sample of 414 university students in China using the self‐administration data collection method. The nature of CYAs' basic wine knowledge and wine drinking behaviour including wine drinking frequency, venue, and purpose of wine drinking were examined in the survey.

The majority of CYAs lack even the most basic wine knowledge. Generally, they drink wine infrequently. A large proportion of CYAs prefer red wine (92 per cent) to white wine (7 per cent). Most (60 per cent) CYAs like to drink wine at home, followed by hotels (21 per cent) and restaurants (15 per cent). About 60 per cent of CYAs drink wine for social communication while 27 per cent drink for body health reasons. A high 96 per cent of CYAs consider themselves likely to drink wine in the future. Significant differences exist between the genders in wine knowledge and likelihood of future wine drinking. Strong correlations were found between consumer wine knowledge and frequency and likelihood of future wine drinking.

The paper provides an overview of CYAs' wine drinking behaviour by a convenience sample investigation, which could not elude generalization and simplification. Considerable regional diversity in China compels differentiated regional studies in terms of wine purchasing, wine culture and wine marketing.

The paper contributes a baseline study on CYAs' wine knowledge and wine drinking behaviour. It also gives some managerial implications for wineries and wine marketers that will be helpful to wine companies in understanding the emerging Chinese wine market and in enacting wine marketing strategies more effectively.

This paper aims to discuss methodological issues with the measurement of subjective wine knowledge (SWK). The current study offers deeper insights into the relationship between SWK and consumer perceptions of benefits and purchase/consumption habits.

An empirical study of US winery visitors was conducted, comprising surveys using a structured self-administered written questionnaire and trained field researchers. A sample of 734 surveys was used in subsequent exploratory and confirmatory analysis of the relationships between SWK and an array of consumer perceptions and wine consumption behaviors.

The majority of respondents were older, female, more highly educated, of the professional or executive class and possessing higher incomes. Slightly over half of the sample professed no or basic knowledge of wine and grape types or wine regions and geography. In general, respondents rated personal benefits of wine consumption higher than they did symbolic or social benefits. The level of SWK, from novice to advanced, was significantly and positively associated with the frequency of visits to wineries (experience), with wine-focused published external information sources and with a majority of perceived benefits.

The primary value of the study is to support marketing strategy by addressing the measurement of SWK. Knowledgeable consumers recognize more types of benefits, i.e. personal, symbolic and social and, thus, can more readily attest to value in a wine offering.

What consumers know about a product affects many aspects of their behaviour and is particularly important for marketers to understand when it comes to developing marketing strategy. The purpose of this paper is to understand the components of consumer knowledge of wine and to investigate these as a potential basis for wine market segmentation and targeting.

A quantitative, descriptive research design is adopted. An online survey consisting of three sections, measuring objective knowledge, subjective knowledge and classificatory variables, was developed and fielded, and data were collected from US wine consumers via Amazon.com’s MTurk platform. The psychometric properties of the measures used were determined, and a two-dimensional segmentation typology was developed.

The study supported the positive relationship between objective and subjective wine knowledge, while the combination of the two components led to the identification of four groups of consumers titled: neophytes, snobs, modest and experts.

In a market that is highly fragmented, consumer knowledge about wine has been shown to provide a useful basis for wine market segmentation allowing for different marketing activities to target the four groups identified.

While other research has considered either objective or subjective knowledge on its own, this study’s major contribution is the investigation of the wine consumer segments on the basis of the combination of objective and subjective consumer knowledge. A consumer knowledge type grid is developed that has implications for marketing segmentation and targeting. Implications of this new typology for future research are identified.

There has been no significant research undertaken in the Japanese market on wine knowledge level and its relationship with brand loyalty and preference for specific country‐of‐origin (COO) wine brands. This exploratory study seeks to investigate these aspects and how wine knowledge is acquired and used in buying decisions.

A highly structured, self‐administered questionnaire in the Japanese language was used to collect data over a three‐week period. Data include consumers from six of the eight major regional divisions across Japan. The sample population was female‐weighted with moderate levels of education and medium income. A ten‐item objective wine knowledge scale was developed to measure consumers' knowledge levels and to form the basis for segmentation.

Japanese wine consumers with higher levels of objective knowledge were shown to use more intrinsic cues than extrinsic cues in their purchase decisions, with the importance attributed to intrinsic cues increasing as objective knowledge increases. The study showed consumers with higher levels of objective knowledge do not use the COO cue more than consumers with lower knowledge. Wine consumers view taste, variety and price as the most important buying cues and are influenced by the recommendations of people around them.

This research provided insights into the Japanese wine market and the nature of the Japanese wine consumer. It is recommended that wine exporters focus greater marketing efforts on Japanese women, including greater wine education.

This study is of value to academic researchers, wine educators, industry practitioners such as restaurant owners/sommeliers and wine exporters alike, as it provides insights into the direction and extent of COO preferences and hence wine (country) brand loyalty. It has a specific focus on wine knowledge and the educational aspect thereof highlighting how this can be used for the benefit of stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the utilisation of product choice cues in a retail environment and the impact of consumer involvement on this utilisation. It further investigates the impact of product knowledge on product choice cue utilisation and its moderating role on the impact of consumer involvement.

The case of wine as an exemplary product category is considered, given the importance and variability of choice cues that have been found to affect product choice. Analysis is conducted on survey data from a sample of wine consumers in Ontario, Canada. Product choice cues are grouped into extrinsic, intrinsic and marketing mix. The importance of how these cues are influenced from different dimensions of consumer involvement is illustrated.

The results show that product knowledge has a positive impact on intrinsic product cue utilisation and further moderates this relationship improving the predictability of the hypothesised model. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

From an industry viewpoint, the focus in the past has mostly been on using packaging to attract attention/create awareness, create an image of desirability, etc., but not nearly as much on the functionality aspects thereof; for example alternative smaller packaging sizes to the standard 750 ml wine bottle.

The study uses a multi-dimensional approach to measure the impact of enduring involvement on utilisation of product choice cues.

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of objective knowledge operationalisation with specific focus on varying levels of scale items’ difficulty. The ultimate goal of the study was to develop a scale to measure objective wine knowledge, which would address the domain of wine knowledge and differentiate varying levels of consumer wine knowledge.

The process of items’ development was guided by recommendations suggested by DeVellis (2003) in his influential work on theory and application of scale development. Examination of items’ performance was conducted through a series of field tests with consumer samples (N = 756) in a US wine region. Item response theory (IRT) approach was applied for items’ testing. The developed items were analysed using the two-parameter logistic model in Mplus Version 5.

The study offers a 44-item test suitable for assessing wine knowledge across a broad spectrum of expertise. For example, if the goal is to assess wine knowledge differences among relatively knowledgeable respondents, a subset of more difficult items could be chosen. Alternatively, a test for novices could be constructed from easier scale’s items.

For researchers, the study offers conceptualisation of the wine knowledge domain, suggests a parsimonious instrument to measure the construct, offers a valid and reliable measure for use in testing theories of consumer knowledge and provides empirical evidence of the value and usefulness of the developed scale.

For professionals, the proposed test may be used to test consumer knowledge and to help assess a prospective employee’s general knowledge of wine. The test can also be given at hospitality programs, outreach and continuing education programs.

The current paper takes an alternative approach to classical test theory and offers an objective wine knowledge scale tested through IRT. This approach avoids shortcomings associated with classical measurement and offers an original scale that can discriminate among respondents with different levels of wine knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree to which wine consumers in South Australia have different liking for white wine styles, and to relate reported liking to wine knowledge and demographic differences.

A group of 150 regular white wine drinking consumers from the Adelaide metropolitan area responded to a wine habits and attitudes questionnaire. Consumers were segmented based on self‐reported liking of white wine styles, with three distinct segments identified.

Sauvignon Blanc wine likers were mainly younger females with low wine knowledge who reported not drinking Chardonnay wines. Conversely, “Riesling wine likers” were generally older with higher wine knowledge. These consumers were interested in the region, vintage and alcohol level when purchasing white wine. The final group (40 percent of the total sample) had a lower liking for Riesling wines, but liked all types relatively highly, had low to moderate wine knowledge and took more note of expert opinion than the other clusters.

The findings of this study can be extrapolated to the South Australian population, however, the sample size may restrict the generalisation of the results to the broader Australian population.

The results of this study provide initial insights into the behaviour of white wine consumers and highlight the importance of wine knowledge in differentiating consumer liking. Some strategies for influencing consumers' preference are suggested.

This paper investigates how giving additional information to consumers changes their appreciation of wine, and how this effect changes with their knowledge of wine and their characteristics.

A survey of 415 French consumers was carried-out in 2014, focusing on the sensory evaluation of 37 red Bourgogne wines. Two sensorial evaluations (visual, and smell & taste) are investigated, first without any information about the wine and then with the presentation of the wine bottle with its labels.

The majority of participants are significantly influenced by the information displayed. The influence of information depends on their initial knowledge and individual characteristics (gender, age, and home area). This influence is robust, whatever be the means of evaluation.

The study was carried out with red Bourgogne wines and focused on the village and regional appellations, with a low and medium price range. The results need a broader investigation to be generalizable.

Information does not have the same influence depending on individual characteristics and on knowledge of wine. Promoting different wines to different consumers who do not have the same knowledge and do not use the same distribution channels is challenging as consumers do not all have the same expectations of red Bourgogne wines. The results provide directions for better targeting consumers through the information on the bottle labels.

By cross-tabulating sensory tastings and knowledge tests, this research contributes to measuring the holistic effect of information on the hedonic appreciation of wine across a significant range of consumers issued from two big cities.

The purpose of this paper is to verify if the gender effects described in the wine consumer behaviour literature, namely, concerning information search and the motivations to buy, may be explained by the mediating effect of subjective knowledge, taking into consideration that the importance of knowledge in the decision process is gender specific.

A path analysis was modelled with an exogenous variable (gender), a mediating variable (subjective knowledge) and four dependent variables (need for information and three motivational dimensions). The model was assessed with empirical data obtained from a sample of 523 shoppers in large supermarkets in the areas of Lisbon and Oporto, Portugal. Structured interviews were conducted at checkout, collecting information on the relevant variables. Scales measuring the latent variables (knowledge, information and motivation) were previously validated through confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of 217 wine consumers.

Subjective knowledge fully mediates the effects of gender on motivation and information needs. Men think of themselves as more knowledgeable in wines and the mediation effect explains why, compared to women, they use less personal information sources and are more motivated to purchase wine.

The authors suggest promotion programmes in large supermarkets focussing on opportunities for wine knowledge development.

The study contributes to the literature by introducing and validating an alternative formulation of gender effects on wine shopping, emphasising the role of the purchaser’s perceived or subjective knowledge.