D. Christopher Taylor

Wine Tourism, Environmental Concerns, and Purchase Intention

ABSTRACT Sustainable development and marketing are applied across the tourism spectrum, yet a need exists to make them relevant to specific forms of tourism, such as wine tourism. In this consumer-driven economy, tourism marketers often seek effective ways to market destinations. This study attempts to identify the environmental wine tourist by examining environmental personality characteristics and certain demographics on purchase intention, thus making it possible to better understand their concerns and motivations, which should aid marketing and advertising efforts. The results suggest wine tourists may be willing to pay for environmentally friendly wines with females possessing stronger environmental attitudes about protecting wine region destinations, thus influencing stronger behaviors toward purchase intention.

Selective marketing to environmentally concerned wine consumers: a case for location, gender and age

– The purpose of this study is to segment the respondents using their location, gender and age as well as their statements about environmental involvement, knowledge and attitudes as the basis for selective marketing classification., – A URL link was sent to the 2,000 members of the Society of Wine Educators. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the main and interaction effects of the independent categorical variables on multiple dependent interval variables., – The results offer insights when considering selective marketing. First, a distinct, measurable, substantial market segment for ecological products was identified, namely: the Millennial male with strong environmental attitudes. Second, residence has an influence on the strength of respondents environmental attitudes., – Although the sample represents most of the states, members of the Society of Wine Educators are individuals that are highly involved with wine as a product and thus may not represent the entire population of the USA., – Consumers bring to the purchasing decision varying types of attitudes and beliefs. Understanding how environmental knowledge and attitude, when consumers are segmented by location, gender and age, can be used in selective marketing in the service industry to aid in designing promotional plans; whether the product of choice is a vacation resort, hotel or tourism destination such as a winery., – The contribution of the research is to broaden the understanding of environmental concerns and the role location, gender, and age play for marketers when considering the selective marketing concepts discussed by Inskeep and Dolnicar and Leisch.

Label Fluency and Consumer Self-Confidence

Abstract The decision to purchase a bottle of wine is often difficult for consumers. Influenced by levels of self-confidence, the decision conflict between competing characteristics of the wine products offered can affect the consumers decision behaviour. Research has suggested that the front label conveys key information to consumers relating the benefits of purchasing a wine product. Using a self-administered questionnaire, this study examined information, label fluency, consumer self-confidence and the impact on consumers purchase decisions. The results indicated that overall, respondents preferred the label information provided and those with low self-confidence preferred the modern label color and classic label information.

Impact of Wine Education on Developing Knowledge and Preferences: An Exploratory Study

Wine is challenging and, at times, intimidating for consumers. Their lack of knowledge in making wine choices may result in less wine consumption and very little experimentation. This study explores wine education courses and whether these courses change consumers knowledge and preferences about wine. The results showed that what participants actually knew about wine increased after completing a wine education course, but what participants believe they knew, or self-assessed, did not. Furthermore, the anticipated change in participants preferences for particular wine styles after completion of the course did not occur. The consumers rankings of the wines did, however, decrease after their completion of the wine education course.

The Importance of Wine Bottle Closures in Retail Purchase Decisions of Consumers

This study examines the importance of different wine bottle closures, such as natural cork, synthetic cork, and screw tops, in the retail purchase decision of wine by millennials and baby boomers. By segmenting consumers in this manner, it is possible to better understand their preferences and aid wine producers and retailers in directing their marketing and advertising efforts. The results of this study indicate that the type of bottle closure impacts the consumers purchase decision differently, depending on the type of purchase—whether for personal consumption, gift giving, or special occasion. Wineries and retailers of wine will find that closure type does impact consumer perceptions and its relevancy to market segmentation.

Use of persuasion knowledge by the millennial generation

Purpose – This paper seeks to empirically test the use of persuasion knowledge among the millennial generation.Design/methodology/approach – College aged students were randomly assigned into two groups and given scenarios where one was designed for persuasion knowledge to be more likely utilized by consumers, and a second where is was less likely to use it. The respondents were exposed to a scripted sales scenario and their perceptions of the salesperson were measured. It was hypothesized that millennial consumers using persuasion knowledge were more likely to develop negative affective and cognitive attitudes toward the salesperson, and were less likely to develop purchase intentions than those not using persuasion knowledge. Factor analysis was used to confirm that three dimensions existed, and a follow‐up MANOVA/t‐test was used to measure the differences between the two treatment groups.Findings – All three hypotheses were supported. Millennial consumers that feel compelled to cope with the salesperson...

Experimental approach to assessing actual wine purchase behavior

Purpose – The use of intentions to forecast behavior follows from the assumption that intentions are a strong indicator of an individuals actual purchase behavior. Yet most studies found the relationship between intent and actual behavior varies considerably. The purpose of this study was to explore how marketers should combine expressed measures of intention with other available data to forecast the probability of purchase and thus to set pricing decisions.Design/methodology/approach – Through a two‐stage approach, this study measured consumer psychographics and expressed purchase intention to predict actual purchase behavior using an online survey, the Vickrey auction method, and logistic regression.Findings – The results found that individuals attitudes and intentions are strong predictors of actual behavior. However, of particular interest are lower‐purchase‐intention individuals, who acted in line with their expressed willingness to pay more than individuals with higher purchase intentions.Research...

Wine packaging: marketing towards consumer lifestyle to build brand equity and increase revenue

The wine industry considered product quality as key to increasing competitiveness. However, when wines are perceived quality neutral, regardless of other existing differences, consumers will substitute one wine for another exposing producer to intense price competition. To differentiate wines, a determination of what values consumers place on wine packaging may be established in other dimensions such as environmental or functional benefits with current research suggesting these values go further than quality and price. Linking the techniques of revenue and brand management may provide a winery with revenue growth and customer loyalty. This study examined dimensions of wine packaging equity, benefits wine consumers seek and the motivational preferences and relationships between consumer lifestyles. Results indicated that wine packaging equity originates in four motivational factors that are strong predictors of preferences. Linking dimensions of packaging equity to consumer lifestyle, demographic and behavioural variables allow marketers to tailor communication strategies closely to markets for potential revenue enhancement.

Measuring the Influence of Persuasion Marketing on Young Wine Consumers

The development of trust between sales personnel and their customers has traditionally been considered a critical element in developing and maintaining a successful sales relationship. The use of persuasion in sales settings is a method that organizations utilize in training sales personnel, developing advertising campaigns within the promotional mix. However, little consideration is given to the consequences that occur when consumers recognize the sales persons persuasion attempts, or persuasion knowledge. This study addresses the use of persuasion in the marketing of wine to the growing market segment of the Millennial generation, utilizing sales scenarios as the research method.

Identifying the Motivation to Attend Wine Education Courses

Abstract Wine can be an intimidating and confusing product for consumers. To dispel this confusion and to develop knowledge about wine, wine education courses are conducted across the globe. For this study, 131 participants in a wine appreciation course were surveyed to understand what motivated them to attend the course. The findings were different than what has been found in other studies of what motivated people to take other continuing education courses and were different than the motivations to go to a wine festival. The main motivation for the participants was that they were motivated to become better wine consumers.