Abstract
Prof Orth is an internationally successful researcher in the areas of ethics and retail design. Prof Orth conducted a series of regional (SA) industry and academic workshops focused on effectively managing Customer touch-points from wine packaging and label styles to cellar door atmospherics. Importantly he also participated in a number of ‘short’ interviews providing brief insights into these areas (see Wine Australia website). He also engaged with research colleagues at the UoA Business School, the Waite campus and UniSA, where he is also collaborating on Wine Australia funded projects in addition to mentoring PhD and other higher research degree students.
Summary
The main objectives of Prof Orth’s travel to Australia were achieved with the successful presentation of four industry workshops (Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills wine regions). These workshops were well attended with considerable interest shown by attendees in the topic presented that focussed on design aesthetics related to wine marketing. Specifically, Prof Orth presented the results of his own research (conducted with a number of collaborators from Australia, France and the USA to name a few) that illustrated successfully marketing wine involves making the right decisions in a number of key areas. Most critical decisions include what to emphasize in a communication, how to convey the message, to whom, and – ultimately – understanding why actual and potential buyers respond in the way they do. Focusing on practical value, Professor Orth will introduce some of his own studies to show how managers in the wine industry can benefit from recent insights into consumer processing of wine package design, visitor evaluation of and behaviour in tasting rooms, and the effects of visiting a region on buying wines from that region later on. Examples discussed in the seminars included a wide range of (Australian and international) wines, wine brands, wine outlets, and wine regions, and are based on a variety of state-of-the-art methods including quantitative surveys, psychometric experiments, and eye tracking. The outcomes of the research shared with participants from the South Australian wine industry show conclusively that the intrinsic attributes of our wines, such as taste, colour, alcohol levels etc can be substantially ‘enhanced’ or seriously ‘diminished’ in terms of consumer perceptions of quality by presenting the wines in unattractive packaging, or in the broader context, of unattractive cellar door environments. Moreover, the research also illustrated the need to understand specific consumer segments in order to present wine products in contexts and packaging they are likely to find congruent with their own personality styles and tastes.