Country‐of‐origin effects on Chinese wine consumers

Abstract

PurposeThe paper seeks to examine Chinese consumers' wine‐purchasing behaviour and, more especially, the importance of country of origin (COO) effects in the evaluation and assessment of wine quality and as it relates to decision making for wine purchases.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study were collected in 2004 through an interviewer‐administered, structured questionnaire targeted at randomly selected wine buyers in the ChangNing district of Shanghai (China). Chinese consumers tend to purchase wine primarily for sensorial reasons, consuming it on social occasions. Wine has never acquired the connotations of being merely a thirst‐quenching drink as it did in some European countries. They are also attracted to wine for its health benefits.FindingsIt was found that Chinese consumers are more likely to use extrinsic cues than intrinsic cues to evaluate wine quality. Thus, COO information is a significantly more important cue than price for Chinese consumers as a quality cue. However, there appears to be no significant difference in the importance of COO and brand in this regard. Wine is a complex product – small differences in any one of a huge range of variables, from the weather, through the grape, the production method, the storage and even the bottling can affect quality. As might be expected in a market that is relatively under‐developed and which has a smaller experience of wine drinking than some other parts of the world, Chinese consumers pay much more attention to COO when they purchase wine for special occasions, where their choice is exposed to the judgment of others. By contrast, when purchasing wine for their own private consumption, COO assumes a lesser importance.Originality/valueThis research can significantly help wine marketers to develop more effective positioning strategies in China. It will also help in the development of pricing and promotional decisions.

Innovations in the agro-food system

“…Food and wine are complimentary and wine buyers are likely to be green food buyers. Studies on wine consumption report that Chinese red wine consumers are in the higher income and education categorisations (Gong et al, 2004;Balestrini and Gamble, 2006) and these findings mirror studies on green food consumption. A total of 402 consumers responded to the survey.…”

Customer value perception: cross-generational preferences for wine

“…As wine addresses prestigious values and social status, individuals generally consume wine that is positively recognized within their own social groups (Terrien and Steichen, 2008;Balestrini and Gamble, 2006). Consequently, we suggest that the perceived social value of a wine makes the customer more likely to buy it:…”

“…Wine market segmentation Although the factors that might influence consumer purchase behaviour have not been fully exploited yet, the literature on wine perceptions provides a wide range of studies which emphasize that the implementation of effective wine marketing strategies assumes information about customers' characteristics and needs (Lee et al, 2005;Balestrini and Gamble, 2006). To address these different needs, market segmentation, described as the process of dividing consumers into meaningful, internal homogenous and identifiable groups (Zikmund, 2003), is of crucial interest in the wine industry (Barber et al, 2008b).…”

“…Loosely translated, terroir refers to a relatively small geographical region whose soil and microclimate influences a wine's characteristics in a way that, even within the same area, wines of different types might be produced (Barham, 2003;Balestrini and Gamble, 2006). Amongst other factors, the grape variety, the weather during the year of production, the production process or the storage and bottling method affect the wine quality, and therefore wine is widely recognized as a confusing product (Balestrini and Gamble, 2006;Lockshin et al, 2006). Given this situation, it continues to be a challenging task to understand which dimensions of the individual perceived value lead the customer to choose a certain wine.…”

Tasting green: an experimental design for investigating consumer perception of organic wine

“…While typical marketing mix variables such as price or product quality are still of crucial interest, there has been little research on the impact of organic production although that aspect gains in importance for scientists as well as for practitioners (Balestrini and Gamble, 2006;Forbes et al, 2009).…”