Influencing consumer choice: Short and medium term effect of country of origin information on wine choice

• Information about a country had a considerable impact on choice.
• The effect was still observed in the medium term (after 10 days).
• Buyers’ reviews were the most important attribute influencing choice of wine.
• Messages about environment and taste of wine were the most effective.
• Low test–retest reliability of choice experiment in an emerging market.

The aim of this study was to verify what factors influence the likelihood of wine choice in a developing wine market (China). Previous studies have shown that country of origin is either the first or second most important choice cue for a product such as wine, with consumers relying on country perception and associations. In this study, the same respondents completed a repeated discrete choice experiment, with simulated wine bottles on a shelf, to test the effectiveness of different messages about Australia, a relatively new supplier of wine to this market. In the first experiment, messages were shown in an advertorial format as a way of building consumer associations. The second experiment assessed messages’ memory decay after approximately ten days. Wine quality ratings were the most important attribute to influence choice, while country of origin messages increased the relative attribute importance for country, which practically doubled for most of the articles. The messages about clean environment and the taste of the wine were the most effective in increasing choice of wine in both the short and medium term. Consumer choices changed overtime and the results provided evidence regarding the retest reliability of repeated choice experiments. Respondents of the control group became considerably more price sensitive in their wine choice in Stage 2. Overall, repeated discrete choice experiment methodology provided useful insights into the decay effect of advertorial messages over a 10 day period and can be applied in any relatively high involvement product type in specific markets.