Mapping the influences of consumer choice for wine selection (on and off premise) in key export markets
Abstract
This research used the Best-Worse Choice method to examine, identify and map the influencers on choice for a bottle of wine in the retail and on-premise settings in key markets; domestic (Australia), existing export (UK, USA, NZ), identified potential growth export (China, Taiwan, Germany), developing wine (Brazil, Israel) and traditional old world (Italy, France, Austria). Similarities of key influencers were seen in most markets, although differences emerged in the relative importance of the influencers when segmentation was carried out. Although most markets were quite similar, segments within each market had differences within and across markets.
Summary
This research involved 12 markets, 2 purchase choice scenarios (On and Off-Premise), with up to 6 segments examined, so detailed results are not provided here. The papers published in industry journals are attached to this report as Appendices instead. In a summary of the findings we found that the world market is surprisingly similar and yet different at the same time.
Almost globally the key influencers of choice were ‘tried the wine previously’ and someone recommended it’ (Off-Premise), with the largest difference being in Brazil and China where ‘Brand’ was clearly the biggest influencer of choice in the retail environment. In On-Premise ‘had the wine before and like it’ and ‘matched to my food’ were the highest influencer in most markets. As is detailed in the appendices, the opportunities for marketing emerged in the segmentation process where there were differences in various influencers in various segments – these warrant attention in the strategy formulation process, not just for marketing by also in the production design effort as well as end market positioning efforts. A couple of the examples include the higher influence of ‘grape variety’ amongst male consumers and ‘matching food’ amongst younger consumers in the UK markets, higher influence of origin amongst Chinese males – possibly the opportunity to target Chinese male consumers with positioning Australian regions as ‘premium brands’. There are many other potentially exploitable differences in the various markets and segments, hence the inclusion of the full papers as appendices to this report.