Wine purchase decisions and consumption behaviours: Insights from a probability sample drawn in Auckland, New Zealand

At the point of purchase in retail locations, multiple factors exert an influence on consumers’ decisions of which wine to buy. Among wine drinking New Zealand consumers living in Auckland, the rank ordered importance (most to least important) of 13 such factors was: ‘Tasted the wine previously’, ‘Grape variety’, ‘Brand name’, ‘Medal/award’, ‘Someone recommended it’, ‘Origin of the wine’, ‘I read about it’, ‘Matching to food’, ‘Promotional display in-store’, ‘Information on the shelf’, ‘Information on the back label’, ‘Attractive front label’, ‘Alcohol level below 13%’. Participants’ level of involvement with wine moderated the importance attached to the 13 factors and consumers with higher levels of involvement with wine recalled in greater detail the last bottle of wine they had purchased. Methodologically, two aspects distinguish this research from other similar consumer surveys. Best–worst scaling, as opposed to direct rating of factor importance was used. Further, probability sampling, which is infrequently used in the field of sensory and consumer science was implemented. Through a postal survey, the data was collected from a systematic random sample (n = 554) drawn from the 2006 Auckland phone book. Full details are given of how this probability sampling approach was executed.