Consumer Attitude and Behavior toward Wine Purchases: Introduction to the Research

- [Narrator] Consumer attitudes and behaviors towards wine purchases.

An introduction to the research.

This research is presented by Abigail Miller and Dr. Kathy Kelley of the Plant Science Department at Penn State University.

Wineries are continuing to spring up in the mid Atlantic region which includes Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

With more wineries entering the industry, it is essential to understand consumer preferences regarding wine produced within this region and others.

An internet survey conducted September 20th to 25th, 2013, was administered to 1,183 participants.

Participants were randomly selected from a panel managed by Survey Sampling International, LLC, which is a provider of sampling solutions for survey research.

Prior to taking the survey, panelists received an electronic consent statement along with a link to the survey developed by researchers and approved by the office of research protections at Penn State University.

Panelists were screened for being at least 21 years old, resided in one of the targeted states, purchased and drank wine at least once within the previous year, and not a member of the wine industry.

Participants answered questions concerning their wine purchasing and consumption behaviors, their attitudes about wines and wine regions, as well as their personal social media usage and demographic and socio-economic status.

This figure shows the percentage of participants from each of the three states of interest.

The greatest percent of participants were New York residents, followed by Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which coincides with the population distribution among the three states.

This figure shows the age ranges of participants based on their gender.

63% of the 1,246 survey respondents were female.

Survey responses from our female participants will provide great insight as other researchers suggest women make a majority of wine purchases in the United States.

Also, the majority of participants 58.5% were married or in a partnership followed by 33% who were single.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2012, 24.3% of household incomes were between $25,000 and $49,999, which is similar to our data as 26.8% of participants indicated that their household income fell within this range.

While the Census Bureau states that 29.2% of U.S. households reported an income between $50,000 and $74,999, slightly fewer of our participants, 22.6% reported having an income in this range.

These data help us understand if income, age range, et cetera, have an impact on purchases.

The category with the greatest percentage of participants, based on these demographic variables were those between ages 21 and 24 years and with income levels of $25,000 to $49,999.

Pertaining to employment, the majority of participants responded that they were employed by someone else followed by a much lower percentage of participants who were full-time homemakers.

Other demographic variables were investigated including the number of household members, both adults and children, who reside with survey participants, as they may have an influence on frequency and quantity of wine purchased and consumed.

For example, it has hypothesized that alcohol availability and easy access to alcohol are related to a greater consumption of alcohol and alcohol related problems amongst adolescents.

Consumers living in households with children, may want to limit their children's access to alcoholic beverages if they are concerned about this potential behavior.

For our participants, 48.4% resided in a household with at least one child age 17 and younger.

You may also be wondering if demographics are really something that tasting room operators need to be concerned about.

Understanding a few of these key demographic and socio-economic factors will provide insight into mid Atlantic wine consumers' consumption and purchasing habits.

By understanding who your tasting room customers are, one can determine if certain attributes and behaviors are linked to specific genders, generations or other demographic categories, which helps in marketing wines or other products that appeal to consumers, rather than rely on tasting room staff preferences only.