Wine Perceptions
Kelly Reineke
Ashley Benick
Rachel Meister
Courtney Brusoe
Bethany VandenLangenberg
Introduction:
Walking into the wine section of a liquor store, there are many different brands, types,
and countries to choose from, so much that it can be overwhelming. Over 47 million Americans
drink wine, so it’s important to have an understanding of what they want when shopping for
wines (Graham, 2010). This leads to the question of what factors play a role when consumers are
choosing a wine. One big aspect that distinguishes wine is the packaging it comes in. There are
different shapes of bottles and different labels that set apart the different brands. Wine is
becoming more and more popular among younger drinkers, so it’s an interesting new target
market for wine companies to go after. The purpose of this research was to gain an
understanding on consumers’ view of wine packaging by answering the question: How does the
packaging of wine affect the perceptions of quality? Three hypotheses were formed and tested:
Overall packaging will have an effect of perception; more traditional packaging will increase
perception of quality; more generic packaging will decrease perception of quality. These were
tested by conducting a focus group along with an online survey and using the results of each to
see how students would respond to questions regarding the wines. Quality was measured by
taste, price and overall quality category that respondents were asked to judge. The following
paper discusses past research that helped form the hypotheses, methodology describing how the
experiment was performed, results of the focus group and survey, and a discussion with
implications and limitations.
Literature Review:
In a previous study by Michael Siegrist, an experiment was conducted that gathered
information about how information about a product may shape a consumers’ taste experience. In
the wine tasting experiment, participants received both positive and negative information about
the wine both prior and after tasting the wine. When the information was given prior to the
tasting, negative information about the wine resulted in lower ratings compared to the group that
received positive information. “No such effect was observed when participants received the
information after the tasting but before they evaluated the wine. Results suggest that the
information about the wine affected the experience itself and not only participants’ overall
assessment of the wine after the tasting” (Siegrist, 2008). This information was used in the
following study and research on perceptions of wine.
Dr. Mueller and Professor Lackshin study the relative importance of indirect visual
attributes versus direct visual attributes of wine packaging. To measure direct visual attributes,
they focused on the consumers direct responds to them. They asked consumers in a survey to
rate attributes from most important to least important. Attributes tested ranged from brand, label
style, shape of the bottle, bottle color, price, and etc. Indirect attributes were measured by
combining attributes on the survey into “bundles”. Consumers were now required to rate which
bottle they would more likely buy off the shelf. They found that brand, price, and origin of wine
were the most important direct attributes while bottle color and shape were least important. The
indirect study showed how sub groups found attributes to rate at different levels of importance.
For example, Class 1 wanted a low price wine, and focused on attributes such as brand name,
and label color, where as Class 4 was not as concerned with price but much more concerned with
label styles and then labels color and brand. The information from this study was used to create
a survey that focused on how much influence attributes may or may not have on a person
depending on their demographics. This experiment separated relative importance between the
consumers rate of consumption. The experiment hoped to find whether or not packaging had a
larger impact on less frequent buyers versus more frequent buyers or vise versa.
The last study that was researched was one was entitled “Regional brand image and
perceived wine quality: The consumer perspective.” What happened in this study was that the
persons of interest wanted to test the consumer perception of wine labels when the label read that
it was from the California wine regions and see if having that on the label would make a
difference in people’s quality perceptions. They did this by collecting data over a time period of
two weeks through an online survey given to male and female wine consumers. These
participants were limited to two groups of wine consumers who were the recipients of monthly
or quarterly wine newsletters. They found that “the perceived quality of a wine region raises the
quality expectation of the of the sub-regions or appellations within the region.” This was
especially true in the case of Sonoma County.
Overall, the research that was found helped the following wine experiment tremendously.
The researchers used aspects from all three past research projects and formed a hypothesis
accordingly. Since the study by Dr. Mueller found that the shape, size, and look of the bottle had
an effect on the perception of the wine, it will be assumed that the wine bottles that the
researchers chose will also affect how the participants viewed the quality of the wine. In this
research project, wine was chosen from Germany, Alabama, and Washington. According to the
research by Stefanie Beninger, people had higher expectations of wine based on where the wine
was from. It was hypothesized that the wine from Washington and Germany would be viewed as
higher quality than the wine from Alabama because of both the packaging and the area from
which they are from.
Methodology:
For this experiment two groups were presented with wine bottles/labels and asked to
judge the taste, price, appearance and quality of the wine. One group consisted of 10 individuals
over 21 years of age, four male and six female. The other group consisted of eleven individuals
over 21, six female and five male. This was the control group. Groups were made up using a
convenience sample. The groups each sampled three different brands of Riesling to make the
wines more comparable. The three brands were Chateau Ste. Michelle, Funf, and FlipFlop
(Appendix B). For one control group, the correct wine was matched with the correct label. For
the second group, the wines had mismatch bottles during the tasting to see how it would affect
their perceptions. Each group answered questions (Appendix D) regarding demographics, as well
as rated their perceptions of each wine. The demographic questions helped get an understanding
of how experienced of wine drinkers respondents were and what kind of wines they usually like
to drink. The groups were asked questions regarding their views of the packaging prior to tasting
each wine. Each wine was then be rated by taste, on a scale of 1-5 with one being the worst, as
well as overall quality and packaging on the same scale. In the end both groups’ responses were
compared from the handouts to see if their perceptions of the packaging affected their
perceptions of the quality of wine.
An online survey was also sent out to have people answer questions that test their
perceptions of wine based on only the labels. The questions were about the same three brands of
Riesling used in the experiment and are similar to those asked of participants before the taste
test. The survey was sent out to a randomly selected group of 509 University of Wisconsin La
Crosse students and 125 students responded. Only students over the age of 21 were able to
answer the questions regarding wine. The survey combined with the experiment helped obtain an
understanding of how the packaging looks affects perceptions of price and willingness to buy.
Results:
Survey
To start out the survey respondents were asked some basic demographic questions and
questions regarding their current wine drinking habits. When asked if the respondents liked
drinking wine, 78% answered yes. Of those 52 were female and 22 were male. A greater number
of males, compared to females, said they did not like drinking wine. Respondents were also
asked how much they would typically pay for a bottle of wine. Almost all who were under the
age of 23 for both male and female said they would spend between $0-$20 with 32 saying they
would pay $0-10 and 44 between $11-20. The highest a respondent said they would pay was
between $31-40 and they were between the ages of 24-26. Overall most respondents regardless
of age and gender said they would spend between $11-20.
For each wine, a question was asked after they saw a picture of the wine: how much
would you pay for this wine? The Chateau Ste Michelle had responses with the highest prices.
51% of respondents said they would pay between $11-20 and 2 people said they would pay
between $31-40. It was the only wine that anyone said they would pay between $31-40. Both
Funf and FlipFlop had the vast majority of respondents say they would pay between $0-10 (66%
of Funf and 84% of FlipFlop). Funf had 29% of respondents who would pay between $11-20,
while FlipFlop had 14% in the $11-20 range. These are the results that were expected based on
the different packaging of the wines and where the wines were from (Appendix A). The actual
cost of the Chateau Ste Michelle was $7.99. Funf was also $7.99 and FlipFlop was $4.99.
A survey question asked participants to describe the appearance of the three wine bottles:
Chateau, Funf, and FlipFlop. The options were fancy, fun, elegant, timeless, plain, traditional,
and boring. When the Chateau was selected as a wine option, the researchers thought it was
timeless and elegant. However, survey participants thought otherwise. Of the 61 female
participants, an overwhelming 44 of them said Chateau looked traditional. The majority of the 34
men that answered also thought that traditional was an accurate description, with 18 responses.
Another interesting finding was that 20 females thought the bottle was elegant, but only 7 men
did. Women also found the bottle more boring, with 11 responses, while only 4 men found the
label boring. Predictions were correct when hypothesizing respondents would call Chateau
elegant with 20 women and 7 men answered that way.
When the researchers purchased Funf, fun and fancy were words picked to describe the
wine bottle. According to the survey, 54 men and 24 women also found it fun. This means that
only 6 females didn’t find the bottle fun. No females or males found the bottle timeless, and only
one female found the bottle traditional. Only 4 females and two males found the bottle boring.
What did not coincide with our hypothesis was the word fancy. Only 4 males and 5 females
described it as fancy.
When the FlipFlop wine was purchased, words such as fun and plain were thought to
describe the bottle by the researchers. Fun had an overwhelming response of 52 females and 25
males. Only one male and one female thought it was timeless. 6 males and 8 females found the
bottle plain.
One last cross tabulation that we observed was the association between the person’s
knowledge of wine and which wine based on the packaging they would prefer to buy. The
majority of participants who responded saying they had no knowledge at all said that they would
first purchase the Chateau, then the Funf, and said they would never buy the FlipFlop (based on
packaging). Similarly, the majority of participants with the most knowledge had the same results:
Chateau first, then Funf, and would never buy the FlipFlop. Using this information it can be
assumed that a consumer’s knowledge of wine does not influence the purchase decision as much
as the wine packaging.
Focus Groups
Between the two focus groups there were 21 participants. Of these students 9 were male
and 12 were female. All were between the ages 21 to 23. The groups were asked if they normally
drink wine. Of those, 62% said yes. Of the 62%, 10 were female and 3 were male. When
respondents were asked what they would normally pay for a bottle of wine, 12 out of the 21
respondents were willing to pay between $1-10. Of these 12, 10 were female and 2 were male.
Only 5 respondents were willing to pay between $11-20. Of these, 2 were female and 3 were
male (Appendix C). One male respondent said he would pay between $21-30 for wine and made
the comment, “If I’m going to drink wine, I want it to be good.” According to the focus group
results it could be concluded that men are more likely to pay a higher price for a bottle of wine
than women.
Respondents were also asked how they would rank their knowledge of wine on a scale of
1 to 5, 5 being they are very knowledgeable about wine 1 being they know nothing about wine.
Most respondents rated themselves as having less than average knowledge, and females appear
to view themselves as more educated about wine than men. Only 8 respondents said that they
had no knowledge of wine (5 males and 2 females). However, 9 respondents said they had little
knowledge of wine (4 males and 5 females). Only 4 females rated themselves as having an
average knowledge of wine, and one female rated herself as having a greater than average
knowledge of wine (Appendix C).
When asked to describe wine labels, most respondents described FlipFlop as being “fun,
cheap and simple.” They perceived it as having the lowest quality of the three wines, most
respondents guessing the price range between $1-10. The Chateau was described most often as
“traditional, elegant and fancy,” and was most often perceived as having a price range from $1120. The Funf was most often described as “modern, simple and sophisticated,” and was
perceived as the most expensive with the estimated price range being $21-30. Respondents were
also asked to rank the wines in order of which one they would want to buy 1st, 2nd, and last. Flip
Flop was rated 3rd more often than Chateau or Funf, having 9 votes verses 7 and 4, respectively.
Funf was most often rated as the 2nd choice with 10 votes, versus 5 for Chateau and 5 for
FlipFlop. The rating for which they would buy 1st was very close, Chateau with 8 votes, Funf
with 6 votes and FlipFlop with 7 votes.
For both groups, control and experimental, most respondents did not suspect a change in
pricing after tasting the wine (43% made no change in their price, 33% respondents made a
negative change, and only 19% respondents made a positive change).
Interestingly the results from the focus group were in favor of the hypothesis; the
perception of packaging does influence perceptions of taste. By taking the average taste and
quality from the tasting portion data, it was easy to see the relationships and differences between
the two groups.
When looking specifically at the packaging, the data describes that taste and quality were
actually relatively the same despite the wine given in the sample. This can conclude that
packaging does influence the buyer, as we saw in earlier data by the buying process and now
seen in this data through taste and quality. All three packaging types influenced the focus groups
in the same way. The FlipFlop packaging described as “fun, cheap and simple” influenced
respondents perception of taste as an average 2.8 on a five-point scale for both groups, and a 2.65
(control group) and 3.2 (experimental group) for quality. The Funf packaging, described as
”modern, simple and sophisticated”, had similar effects on the respondents, with an average taste
rating of 3.0 consistently between the groups. The quality rating did differ again from a 2.9
(control group) to a 2.6 (experimental group). This is still only a 0.3 difference, so not significant
enough. The Chateau, described as “traditional, elegant, and fancy” is the most interesting
because the sample given to the experimental group was actually the cheapest wine, FlipFlop,
but respondents were shown the most expensive wine label, Chateau. The two test groups scored
taste with an average of 2.9 (control group) and 3.1 (experimental group). The quality was rated
as 2.9 (control group) and 3.0 (experimental group). It was interesting to see that the group who
thought they were drinking Chateau, but were actually drinking FlipFlop, rated the wine with a
higher quality than those who were given the actual Chateau wine and shown the actual Chateau
bottle.
The graph (Appendix C) shows how dependent taste is on packaging. For example the
taste of FlipFlop increased when tasters thought they were drinking Chateau. Ironically the taste
rating of Funf decreased when tasters thought they were drinking FlipFlop. Packaging influence
on taste can be confirmed when we just look at the wine samples and their ratings in taste. It may
not be a huge influencer but it does play a roll.
Discussion:
The hypothesis stated was, packaging influences buyers’ perception on quality and taste
and the results did support this to some degree. Buyers subconsciously associate higher quality
with traditional packaging with soft, curvy lines or modern packaging with hard, defined lines.
When packaging was represented somewhere in the middle with a fun, almost generic design
buyers associated this with low quality and poor taste. So can packaging help boost sales for
marketers and keep consumers coming pack for more? The findings in this study were not a
dramatic difference but there was a difference never the less, concluding packaging does play a
roll in purchase intent.
This study could be expanded in the future in many ways. Researchers may want to look
at specific details of graphics, such as color, font, pictures associated with the wine, and so on.
As college students we were limited to what was sold at the Festival Foods, our wallets, and
time. When selecting a focus group, researchers may want to have a random sample made up of
more than Junior to Senior year college students. This limited our research to a specific
demographic, wine knowledge, and age. Increase finding would benefit with a spread of
demographics from stay at home parents to sophisticated businessmen and women and
everywhere in between.
Marketers could use this study or similar studies to increase their wine sales. From the
study it was clear that all wine drinkers, whether they never drink wine or drink wine all the
time, look at packaging first when purchasing wine. By studying what graphics catch consumers
eyes compared to that graphics that scream, “I’m a cheap bottle”, marketers could change
designs to the more favored, which would theatrically increase sales.
Appendix A
How much would you pay for Chateau Ste Michelle?
#
Answer
1
$0-$10
2
$11-$20
3
$21-$30
4
$31-$40
5
$41+
Total
Response
39
50
7
2
0
98
%
40%
51%
7%
2%
0%
100%
How much would you pay for Funf?
#
Answer
1
$0-$10
2
$11-$20
3
$21-$30
4
$31-$40
5
$41+
Total
Response
63
28
5
0
0
96
%
66%
29%
5%
0%
0%
100%
How much would you pay for Flip Flop?
#
Answer
1
$0-$10
2
$11-$20
3
$21-$30
4
$31-$40
5
$41+
Total
Response
80
13
2
0
0
95
%
84%
14%
2%
0%
0%
100%
Appendix B
$11.99
$4.99
$10.59
Appendix C
Flip Flop Taste Change
5
4.5
Taste Rating
4
3.5
3
2.8
3.1
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Origninal packaging
Chateau packaging
German Taste Change
5
4.5
Taste Rating
4
3.5
3
3
2.8
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
origninal packaging
Flip packaging
Chateau Taste Change
5
4.5
Taste Rating
4
3.5
2.9
3
origninal packaging
German packaging
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Influence of Flip Flop Packaging
5
4.5
Taste Rating
4
3.5
3
3.2
2.8
2.8
2.65
Given FlipFlop
2.5
2
Given Funf
1.5
1
0.5
0
taste
quality
Influence of German Packaging
5
4.5
Taste Rating
4
3.5
3
3
3
2.9
2.6
2.5
2
Given Funf
Given Chateau
1.5
1
0.5
0
taste
quality
Influence of Chateau Packaging
5
4.5
Taste Rating
4
3.5
3
2.9
3.1
2.9
3
2.5
Given Chateau
2
Given FlipFlop
1.5
1
0.5
0
taste
quality
Focus Group
How Much are you Willing to Pay
for Wine?
Number of people
12
10
8
6
Male
4
Female
2
0
$1-$10
$11-$20
Price Range
Number of People
Wine Knowledge
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Male
Female
Wine Knowledge
Appendix D
Wine Perceptions Handout
Group Number (A=mistmatch or B=controlled)
Answer the following questions before the taste test:
1. What is your age?
21-23
24-26
27-29
30-31
32+
2. What gender do you identify with?
Male
Female
3. Do you like drinking wine?
Yes
No
4. How often do you drink wine?
Never
Less than once a month
Once a month
`
Once a week
2-3 times a week
Daily
5. Thinking of wines you consume, what percent is white and what percent is red?
6. How would describe your knowledge of wine?
1 I know nothing about wine
2
3
4
5 I am very knowledgeable about wine
7. What type of white wine would you prefer to drink?
Moscato
Riesling
Sauvignon Blanc
Pinto Grigio
Chardonnay
White Zinfandel
8. How much are you normally willing to pay for a bottle of wine?
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41+
9. How would you describe the label of each wine? (Fun, elegant, timeless, traditional,
humorous, fancy, plain, etc)
Wine A:
Wine B:
Wine C:
10. Rank order the wines.
11. How much do you think Wine A costs?
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41+
12. How much do you think Wine B costs?
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41+
13. How much do you think Wine C costs?
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41+
14. Taste Wine A.
How would you rate the taste of this wine?
1
2
3
4
5
Bad
Ok
Excellent
How would you rate the overall quality of this wine?
1
2
3
4
5
Bad
Ok
Excellent
How much do you think this wine costs?
$5-10
$11-16
$17-23
$23+
15. Taste Wine B.
How would you rate the taste of this wine?
1
2
3
4
5
Bad
Ok
Excellent
How would you rate the overall quality of this wine?
1
2
3
4
5
Bad
Ok
Excellent
How much do you think this wine costs?
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41+
16. Taste Wine C.
How would you rate the taste of this wine?
1
2
3
4
5
Bad
Ok
Excellent
How would you rate the overall quality of this wine?
1
2
3
4
5
Bad
Ok
Excellent
How much do you think this wine costs?
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41+
References:
Beninger, Stefanie (2011, January). Regional brand image and perceived wine quality: The
consumer perspective. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/ijwbr
Holter, Graham (2010, May). The Market for wine in the United States. Retrieved from
http://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataid=73903
Mueller, Simone. (2008, July). How Important is wine packaging for customers? Retrieved from
http://academyofwinebusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/How-important-is-winepackaging-for-consumers_paper.pdf
Siegrist, Michael & Cousin, Marie-Eve. (2009, June). Expectations influence sensory experience
in wine tasting. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
S0195666309000166