Variety seeking by wine consumers in the southern states of the US

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to investigate variety-seeking behavior among US wine consumers to determine if there are differences in their personal characteristics, values and relationship with wine. Design/methodology/approach -The research design uses a quantitative research study using data from an online survey of 401 US wine consumers. The Schwartz Value Inventory and the VARSEEK scale are used as measurement instruments. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, ANOVA and discriminate analysis. Findings -The results illustrate strong differences between high variety-seeking consumers compared to moderate variety-seeking and variety avoiders. High variety seekers are younger, hold values favoring stimulation and tolerance of risk, pay more for wine, purchase wine in more locations, prefer more varietals and consider themselves more wine knowledgeable and involved than the other two segments. Practical implications -The results provide implications for wine marketers targeting high variety-seeking consumers, including offering wine brands with a wider array of varietals, wines from different countries, various price tiers and include creative packaging and sustainable messages in their presentation. Originality/value -This paper presents research addressing an important construct for wine marketers attempting to introduce new products and build brand loyalty.

Exploring Consumer Insights in Wine Marketing: An Ethnographic Research on #Winelovers

“…In business literature recent examples of market segmentation in wine business can be traced, but they are especially applied to different areas: the wine tourist (Alebaki & Lakovidou, ; Molina, Gómez, González‐Díazc, & Águdea, ), the use of a price segmentation (Thach & Olsen, ), the investigation of variety‐seeking behaviors in wine consumers (Olsen, Atkin, Thach, & Cuellar, ), the application of particular instruments or scales (Johnson & Bastian, ; Ristic, Johnson, Meiselman, Hoekc, & Bastian, ), the analysis of the effects of social influence and perceived usefulness on wine purchasing (Bonn, Kim, Kang, & Cho, ), and so on. As concerns data collecting, many studies use surveys online, but rarely they use conversations in social media as a platform for the analysis of the wine consumer.…”

Relationship among big five personality traits, compulsive buying and variety seeking

“…The last seven decades, variety seeking behavior is in academic literature (Olsen et al 2015). The marketing researchers have studied this topic because of a large number of choices for consumers with many areas (Olsen et al 2015).…”

“…The marketing researchers have studied this topic because of a large number of choices for consumers with many areas (Olsen et al 2015). Variety seeking is "the tendency of individuals to seek diversity in their choices of services and goods" (Kahn 1995, 139).…”

Defecting wine club members: an exploratory study

“…In the case of apparel, variety seeking and product characteristics interact with each other, but do not conclusively explain why consumers switch brands (Michaelidou and Dibb, 2006). Olsen et al (2015) investigated variety-seeking behavior among US wine consumers. Their research found that there were significant differences between high variety-seeking consumers compared to moderate variety-seeking consumers and variety avoiders.…”

“…And, while generalizability to the population is not possible, the wine consumer diversity of geographic coverage across states may help mitigate some limitations within the convenience sample (Pedhazur and Schmelkin, 1991). We analyzed two segments of our respondent's variety-seeking behavior, high and low, whereas other research has measured three segments (Olsen et al (2015); future research might investigate three segments. Van Tripj et al's (1996) results found understanding product characteristics helpful in mitigating brand switching by consumers.…”