Tasting fees and the youth market

Abstract

Many wineries in Australia and New Zealand are seeking strategies to continue to develop in a highly competitive marketplace. One such strategy is via the development of wine tourism. Although there is a significant amount of literature of the relative advantages and disadvantages of wine tourism for small wineries, particularly with respect to its educational and market development function, there is very little research available on how wine tourism is perceived by the next generation of wine drinkers -the youth market. The purpose of this study is therefore to gain a better understanding of how the youth market perceives tasting fees at wineries and influences on purchasing and other wine behaviours. In late 2003, 599 surveys were distributed to ten universities throughout Australia and New Zealand, of which 448 were returned, representing a valid response rate of 74.8 percent. The results of the survey indicated that the majority of respondents who thought of wine tourism as an appealing activity, who had visited wineries previously, who normally consumed and purchased wine and who had some knowledge of wine all thought that a fee at the cellar door would impact on their decision to visit. Wineries need to maximise the return on their wine, however there also needs to be recognition of the potential trade-off between immediate returns from charging for tastings and cellar-door sales versus longer-term returns from direct and indirect sales. In some markets, and particularly the 'Generation Y' market, seeking short-term returns through charging may affect longer-term custom and loyalty. However, regardless of the strategy, it is important that it is effectively communicated to the market, particularly if individual wineries are interested in growing the market for the future.

Generation Y as young wine consumers in New Zealand: how do they differ from Generation X?

“…Wine Intelligence (2010) found considerable difference in the wine consumption patterns of Gen Y in the US compared to Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, with Gen Y wine consumers in the US more engaged with wine than their counterparts in other countries. Other research supports this finding (Kevany, 2008;Mintel, 2009;Phillips, 2008;Teagle et al, 2010;Treloar and Hall, 2008).…”

“…No research to date has focused exclusively on Gen Y"s wine consumption in a New Zealand context, which is a growing market for wine. Research on generational differences in wine behaviour in this market has focused on the Gen X cohort (see Beverland, 2001;Mitchell, 2002;Thomas and Pickering, 2005) or has incorporated New Zealand Gen Y data with Australian data to present an Australasian analysis (Charters and Fountain, 2006;Fountain and Charters, 2010;Treloar et al, 2004;Treloar and Hall, 2008).…”

How do wineries price their wine experiences?

“…Taylor et al (2004) identify that wine preference and consumption are the primary reasons driving the demand for winery visits and show that it is price inelastic in regions where there are few recreational substitutes. Treloar and Hall (2008) analyze how young wine drinkers perceive tasting fees and show that charging discourages visits, and can, therefore, be counterproductive when wine tours are conceived as a marketing and public relations tool aimed at building brand awareness and loyalty. According to Jalili et al (2024), wineries might offer free wine tastings if they view them as an educational tool for consumers.…”

Modeling hedonic motive–based segments of wine festival visitors using decision tree approach

“…Such events are seen as a win-win situation as both participating factions tend to benefit. Benefits such as reducing distribution cost, increasing marketing opportunities and building a positive customer relationship to build loyalty and long-term sales drive the wineries to participate in such events (Treloar and Hall, 2008). On the other hand, the consumers are driven by different motivations varying from tasting different offerings to getting an opportunity to interact and enhance their knowledge in the field.…”