Browsing by Author "Guse Janse van Vuuren, Carla"

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    Wine purchase behaviour : product attributes, product knowledge, perceived risk and involvement
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Guse Janse van Vuuren, Carla; Pentz, C. D.; Du Preez, R.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Historically, Old World wine countries such as Italy, France, Germany and Spain had a reputation of producing superior wine in terms of quality and taste. However, since the early 1990’s, New World wine countries such as South Africa, the United States, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Chile have shown affluence in the global wine market. In particular, a significant growth in sales (both domestic and international) has been evident for South African wines between 2009 and 2013. Even though this growth extended to both commercial and academic interest of the South African wine market, it has been suggested that the market may expand at a slower rate between 2014 and 2018. To some extent the slower expansion rate has been evident since the major global and local social, political and environmental changes that took place from the early 2000’s that in turn brought about changes in consumers’ wine purchase behaviour. These changes cannot however be viewed in isolation as the one has a knock-on effect on the other. For instance, within the South African context some historical social and political issues had to be addressed since 1994 to re-establish and strengthen the South African wine industry, both locally and internationally. Initiatives in the early 2000’s such as introducing and encouraging Fairtrade (since 2008), the establishment of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative as well as Wieta (the wine and agri-industry ethical trade initiative) have aimed to build the reputation of the South African wine industry toward a fair and representative industry (Bek, McEwan & Binns, 2011). In addition, globally consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious and consequently retailers had to change product offerings. A noticeable change has been within the United States’ wine industry where a number of retailers (such as Walmart & Tesco) are offering wines advocating sustainable, organic and biological practices (Taylor, 2018). These product offerings does not only influence and change local, but also international demand and trends. In 1998 sustainability guidelines were introduced to the South African wine industry and ever since the initiatives had increased to ensure greater sustainability within the sector. For instance, since 2010 all bottles had to be labelled with an Integrity and Sustainability seal indicating that the wines were produced using such practices (WOSA, 2017). Such initiatives, among other, have changed the competitive and consumer landscape globally and as a result could have a slower growth effect on global consumption patterns. A somewhat noticeable slower growth rate has been reported for the South African wine industry (compared to sales from 2009 – 2013) at the end of 2016 indicating shifts in consumer purchasing patterns (SAWIS, 2016:19). This change in purchasing patterns may create a need for realigning wine marketing strategies to grow market share. Noticeable areas of interest within global wine research pertain to purchasing and consumption situations. In an attempt to better understand the complex nature of wine purchasing, it has been suggested that researchers focus on more sophisticated variables, rather than only for example demographics that influence wine purchase decision making. As such, previous research investigated the influence of subjective product knowledge, the role of perceived risk, and the effect of level of product involvement on choice attributes. In this context, a void is apparent in literature in that no published scientific literature could be identified that measures the combined influence of these variables on wine purchase behaviour. In addition, industry leaders noted the need for a better understanding of the purchase behaviour of South African wine consumers. Thus, the research problem of this study was formulated as: Does different levels of subjective product knowledge, perceived risk and product involvement contribute to differences in volume of South African (New World) wine purchased per month for consumers’ own consumption? This problem statement gave way to the primary objective of the study, namely to determine if different levels of subjective product knowledge, perceived risk and product involvement contribute to differences in wine purchase for own consumption in South Africa. During purchase decision making, wine consumers rely heavily on product attributes as quality indicators that may guide decision making, as the wine cannot always be tasted prior to purchase. Nevertheless, no academic literature could be identified that determines the importance of unique combinations of choice attributes and how they vary for levels of knowledge, perceived risk and product involvement. The secondary objective of this study is therefore to determine whether the unique combinations of product attributes vary for different levels (low, moderate and high) of subjective product knowledge, perceived risk and product involvement. The study is based on a review of literature covering aspects of wine marketing, consumer behaviour, consumer decision making, especially subjective product knowledge, perceived risk, level of product involvement and product attributes. This review of literature was followed by an empirical, survey-based study to investigate wine purchase behaviour pertaining to subjective product knowledge, perceived risk, level of product involvement, and product attributes within a South African context. To provide the necessary context and theoretical point of departure for this study, it was deemed important to propose a conceptual theoretical framework of wine consumer decision making. An online questionnaire was subsequently developed to gather data from a non-probability convenience sample of South African wine consumers. From the results of an exploratory factor analysis the reliability of the perceived risk scale was questionable, thus none of the objectives pertaining of this construct could be reported. With respect to subjective product knowledge and level of product involvement, the findings indicated that different levels (low, moderate and high) of subjective product knowledge and product involvement do in fact influence the volume of wine purchased for own consumption. In addition, the most and least important product attributes were identified for each level of subjective product knowledge and product involvement and the significant differences between groups were highlighted. To summarise, grape variety was identified as the most important product attribute for all three levels of subjective product knowledge, while alcohol content and opinion of sales representative were the least important product attributes. However, grape variety was significantly more important (compared to the other attributes) to moderate and high subjective product knowledge respondents. Relatively similar results were reported for level of product involvement, aside from friends/family recommendations being the most important product attribute for low product involvement respondents. Even so, friends/family recommendations and grape variety were still significantly more important than the other product attributes for low product involvement respondents. It is therefore strongly recommended that South African wine marketers take note of the importance of grape variety when developing marketing strategies.