Melo L 1, Cox DN 1, Evans G 1 , Harrison A 1,2, Chrea C 2, Smyth S 2, Delahunty C 2, Forde C 2

1) CSIRO Food Futures National Research Flagship Human Nutrition, PO Box 10041, Adelaide BC, SA 5000,

2) CSIRO Food Futures National Research Flagship Food Science Australia, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia

This study is part of an investigation (1) on the importance of non-sensory product attributes on consumer appreciation for Australian wines involving an assessment of the perceived quality of wine concepts varying in their attributes and levels (grape variety, award, region, vintage, and typical cost), using conjoint analysis.

Comparison of the relative importance of these attributes demonstrated that price and region were the two most important attributes for wine consumers in general (31.5% and 25.3%, respectively), suggesting that in the absence of other information, price was used by consumers as an indicator of perceived product quality. The consumer population was subsequently segmented into 3 clusters based on their relative importance of attributes.

Clusters demonstrated differential sensitivity to the various product attributes and, other than grape variety, the three clusters demonstrated the same global response to attributes levels. Cluster 2 gave greater utility to the Shiraz grape variety contrasting with general findings hence there is a group of consumers with preferences for Shiraz grape variety. The presence of an award, Barossa Valley, 04 vintage year and higher price had the highest relative utility for all three clusters. Typical cost was the most important attribute for cluster 1 and region of origin, for cluster 2. Participants in Cluster 3 tended to rate all attributes as equally important. The only difference in terms of demographics or psychometric variables, including wine involvement, was for the Behavioural Inhibition System2 (BIS) in which cluster 1 was found more inhibited than cluster 2. The high BIS and the greatest importance given to price for Cluster 1 suggests that using price as a quality cue is a simple risk reduction strategy.

References

1)  Wine and the Consumer

2) Carver, C. S., & White, T. L. (1994). Behavioral-inhibition, behavioural activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment – the bias scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(2), 319-333.

Keywords:  Wine, conjoint, perceived quality, price, region