business & marketing
wi n e & t h e se n ses
The influence of the senses on the consumption and purchase of wine By Charles Spence, Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Oxford University. Email: charles.spence@psy.ox.ac.uk
Drawing on his intriguing presentation at the recent Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in Sydney, Charles Spence explores how drinking wine involves not only the senses of smell and taste, but also visual, oral-somatosensory, and possibly even auditory cues as well, which not only influence the multisensory interactions taking place in the mouth but also the environments in which wine is purchased and consumed.
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hen thinking about wine, it is tempting to focus solely on the sensory properties of the drink itself, and how they are integrated in the mind of the consumer. However, the senses also influence which wine we end up drinking in the first place. What is more, once we are happily drinking a glass of wine, the multisensory attributes of the atmosphere in which we drink can also exert a dramatic effect on the overall experience. First, though, let’s look at the role of the senses at the point of sale. The majority of the research here has been conducted on the effect of environmental music on people’s wine-purchasing behaviours. Areni and Kim (1993), for example, reported that consumers purchase more expensive wine from wine stores playing classical music than when ‘Top-40’ tunes are played instead. Meanwhile, North et al. (1997) found that consumers in the alcohol section of a British supermarket were far more likely to purchase French (rather than German) wine when French accordion music was played. The pattern of sales was, however, reversed when German music was played instead (see Figure 1). Given such results, it is shocking to see just how many wine stores happily let their store manager blast their own musical selection out across the aisles. Interestingly, shoppers typically do not realise what a profound effect the background music has on their selection of wine. If you don’t believe me, just consider the following: When the shoppers came away from the tills in North’s study, they were asked whether the background music had influenced their purchasing decisions. Only six out of 44 said that the music might have influenced their choice of wine. This was despite the fact that the evidence clearly demonstrated that
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the background music had profoundly affected their purchasing behaviour (see Figure 1). So, in other words, if you want to know what the key drivers underlying wine purchasing behaviour are, the last person you should ask is probably the shopper. And putting two and two together, the astute Australian wine marketer will have realised that the thing to do may be to start sending out free CDs of classical Australian music if they want to promote sale of their wines abroad… There is also some evidence to suggest that the visual attributes of the store atmosphere can influence a consumer’s behaviour, be that in a wine cave or when tasting at a winery (Areni & Kim 1994, Oberfeld et al. 2009). Indeed, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the liberal sprinkling of the Australian flag in the wine section of a supermarket or wine store were not to bias sales in a manner similar to that demonstrated following the presentation of French or German music. Wine marketers can also utilise the consumer’s sense of touch. Shoppers can sometimes be seen picking up a couple of bottles from the shelf and weighing them up in their hands, as if unsure of which one to take. Now while such behaviour obviously doesn’t provide any direct information about the quality of a wine, the weight of the bottle may nevertheless still provide a subtle cue that the shopper may use when deciding which of the bottles represents better value for money. Relevant here in terms of interpreting such consumer behaviour is Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence’s (2012) recent demonstration of a significant correlation between weight and price in the wine aisles. Put simply, for every pound sterling extra that the shopper pays, they are typically rewarded with an extra 8g of wine bottle! W i n e & V i t i c ult ur e Jo ur na l SEPTEMBER/O C TO BER 2013
Figure 1. Number (and % in brackets) of bottles of French vs. German wine sold as a function of the type of background music played in a supermarket. Source: North et al. (1997) Knowing this, the New World producer may want to think about increasing the perceived value of their product offerings simply by packaging it in a bottle that is noticeably heavier. While many Argentinean producers have already jumped on this bandwagon (just try lifting a bottle of Caetana Zapata, for example – it comes in at just over 1.5kg when empty, when many budget wines weigh just under 1kg when full), I have seen far less evidence of weight being used as a strategic marketing cue in the premium Australian wine market. I am not aware of any studies having been conducted on the influence of fragrance in a wine store on wine sales. However, I would imagine that such a study cannot be far off, given that many other retailers are already thinking about how to boost their sales through the intelligent use of scent (Spence 2002). Taken together, then, stimulating the shoppers’ senses is clearly important when it comes to biasing their in-store wine selection. Presumably many of the same factors will also influence customer behaviour in other settings, such as that of the restaurant. V28N5