This article analyzes consumer loyalty in the Italian market for Prosecco sparkling wines. In particular, we examine the relationship among wine appellation, price, and consumer loyalty. To that effect, we run a Dirichlet model on Nielsen scan data to estimate brand performance measures and study purchase patterns in the sparkling wine market. We find that Prosecco wines benefit from high-consumer loyalty, and that this loyalty can be explained by both the appeal of the Prosecco appellation and its upper-tier price point. We conclude that promotion strategies with deep discounts, as they affect the appellation's image, might hurt consumer loyalty in the long run. (JEL Classifications: D12, L11, L66, M31)

This article documents how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the drinking behavior of Latin European wine consumers. Using a large online survey conducted during the first lockdown in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain (n = 7,324 individuals), we reconstruct the purchasing and consumption patterns of the respondents. The number of people who maintained their wine consumption frequency is significantly higher than those who increased or decreased their consumption. Wine consumption frequency held up better than other types of alcohol (beer and spirits). We analyze heterogeneities among countries and individuals by employing the Marascuilo procedure and an ordered logit model. The latter identifies the impact of demographic, commercial, and psychosocial factors on wine consumption frequency. The results shed light on changes in wine consumer behavior during the first lockdown and consider possible post-lockdown trends that could be useful to industry players. (JEL Classifications: D5, L66, Q1)

The Italian market of sparkling wines has undergone a strong expansion driven by what can be defined as the "Prosecco phenomenon." It has extended consumption reaching new and more complex segments with a wide offer of appellations, brands, and prices. We aim to evaluate the Italian market of sparkling wines to figure out the competitive associations among the major brands. We propose two different analyses to disentangle distinctive groups of brands. First, using the information on scanner purchases of sparkling wines recorded by a consumer panel over a 2-year period, and appropriate specifications of the latent class model, we cluster homogeneous groups of winery brands for the product attributes they propose to the market. Then, we analyze consumers' brand preferences from a dynamic perspective by employing a hidden Markov model to identify segments of brands perceived as similar. These results shed light on loyalty behavior and its evolution over time in the market.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the market of rosé wines in Italy, to outline retail strategies and to investigate to what extent the price is affected by branding these wines. Design/methodology/approach A survey has been carried out on retailers by collecting data about wines as intrinsic attributes (grape variety, blending, origin, alcohol content, etc.) and extrinsic attributes (brand, price, packaging, etc.) and about outlet and retail environment. The hedonic analysis required a rearrangement of data survey, while a Box-Cox transformation allowed to control the strong heteroskedasticity detected of the data. Findings Results provide strategies for still, semi-sparkling and sparkling rosé market segments. Still rosé wines are strongly differentiated, while the price is affected by the appellation, grape variety, blending, brand and outlet features. Two main strategies are suggested: the first focuses on appellations endorsing consumer’s brand loyalty; the second is driven by retailers while involving weaker brands. Different pictures emerged for semi-sparkling and sparkling wines, as producers and retailers tend to follow consumer’s preferences for fresh and easy drinking wines as well as to extend the product assortment. Research limitations/implications Results for sparkling rosé wines cannot be generalized. The high fragmentation hinders the hedonic model performance in capturing the price effects of brands, appellations, grape variety and wine blend. Practical implications The hedonic analysis provides suggestions for rosé wine producers that should reinforce their brand through associations among intrinsic attributes, such as appellation, and extrinsic ones, such as price, while satisfying retailer requirements. Originality/value The paper contributes to the knowledge base about the Italian rosé wine market, which is mostly export-oriented. Model results help to understand why the domestic consumption is stagnant with respect to other countries such as France or the USA.

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