June/July 2007
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RESEARCH IN CONSUMER CHOICE
What makes a consumer decide to buy a particular wine?
HortResearch scientist Dr. Sara Jaeger believes that we do not know enough about what makes consumers decide to buy wine. Until recently a senior lecturer for the Department of Marketing at the University of Auckland, Jaeger is now leading a new, science-based approach to understanding the different factors that affect consumer choice and behaviour.
It is an approach that could bring significant benefi ts to New Zealand's wine industry. "I think it's important to understand that the research of consumer choice is not the same thing as market research as it is traditionally understood" explains Dr. Jaeger, who brings an extensive academic background in marketing and economics as well as biotechnology to her work. "Instead, what we are focussing on is linking aspects of the consumer experience to aspects of use and behaviour in a properly scientific way." For Dr. Jaeger, much of our knowledge about what drives consumer decision making is based either on market studies or on what she calls the 'sensory factors' of different individual products.
Science-based approach
While both of these approaches
are critical, her research has led her
to the conclusion that a science-based
approach can go beyond the limits of
these strategies and unlock the dynamic
and complex reality that drives
consumer choice and behaviour in the
real world.
But what might be the limitations of market studies and studies that show which sensory characteristics of a food product consumers prefer?
"Market research gives us information about how a product performs in the market place, and even though this is important, it often doesn't tell us what we need to know about the world of the consumer," says Dr Jaeger.
"On the other hand, studies that focus on the sensory factors of a certain food product – such as taste, colour and odour – do not tell us how important these factors are relative to other infl uences such as price, brand, or the occasion in which the wine is to be consumed."
Dr. Jaeger points out that regardless of the taste or other sensory properties of a wine, consumers are often forced to make a decision about the purchase of wine without having had the opportunity to taste it.
"If that is the case, we need to develop a way of understanding what the factors are that lead consumers to decide to buy something when they are not able to experience what the product tastes like at the point of purchase."
Clearly, this is an approach that demands familiarity with a number of different scientifi c disciplines.
And it also requires a sense of how best to combine such disciplines. With her special academic training, Dr Jaeger is well placed on both counts. She began her training in Denmark where she received a Master of Science in Engineering and Biotechnology, moving on the United Kingdom with a degree in Food Biotechnology. Her PhD has seen her work with the pipfruit industry in the fi eld of food marketing and economics.
Throughout her career, her work has been focused on method development.
Says Dr Jaeger: "There is a sense out there that some of this research is easy but really, it requires good, scientifi cally based research. Food choices are complex and there are a range of factors that must be considered and there is a dynamic interplay between these different factors."
How do consumers use wine?
It doesn't take too much imagination
to see that this kind of work is
directly relevant to the New Zealand
wine industry, because fundamentally
the question that Dr. Jaeger is asking
is: how do consumers use wine?
She maintains that consumers do not really decide to buy and eat individual food products.
"Rather than thinking of eating a bowl of cereal, we think of having breakfast.
"What you need to do is understand people's food choice decisions in terms of their diets, and in that sense, where does the choice to drink a bottle of wine fit? "So how do we make a decision about which wine we are going to buy?
"What is the context for the consumer?"
Again, Dr. Jaeger stresses that there are a range of other factors aside from the grape variety and other traditional sensory properties.
"For example, the same consumer can make different decisions about wine depending on the particular context. "I could be having a really terrible day and decide that I need an unspectacular bottle of wine. On the other hand, I might be motivated by the fact that I have been snappy to my husband all week, and tonight I'll buy a special bottle of wine to make up for that."
She believes that scientists and the industry need to acknowledge more fully that this is a very complex area and warns that if we do not tackle this challenge we risk making very basic assumptions about our consumers that could quite simply be wrong.
It is this awareness of the gap between the kind of research that is traditionally conducted by the industry and what we need to know that led Dr. Jaeger back into the University.
Focus on consumer behaviour
"I decided to join the Marketing
Department at the University of
Auckland for the specific purpose of
focussing my research on consumer
behaviour and developing a multidisciplinary
approach to help understand
that consumer behaviour."
Now that she is back with HortResearch, Dr. Jaeger is keen to apply the insights that she has developed to the way that the organisation does business.
"In any organisation that represents the producer, there can be a tendency to focus on the product, but we need to make sure that we don't lose sight of those overall factors that affect the consumer."
Beyond the refinement of theories and the detailed study of the life of the consumer, what excites Dr. Jaeger most about her recent work is the opportunity it presents both to science and the industry.
"There can be a win-win situation, or a synergy, for researchers who get to do this kind of research, but also for the wine industry. We can help them with method development but they can be involved in this kind of research, and they can really help to make it relevant.
"There is research that could be taking place at wineries where consumers are tasting and buying wines, because as winegrowers and makers know, these are consumption situations where consumers are making choices.
"We can bring the research and the research approaches out in to the industry.
"And making these kinds of links is really important for all of us."
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