Consumers often judge products by labels
By BRENT HUNSBERGER

Do we judge a wine by its label?

Yes, and new research counts the ways.

The results shed light not only on consumers’ snap shopping judgments but also on marketing opportunities for other consumer products, including fragrances, footwear and MP3 players.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in helping consumers make a good choice,” said Keven Malkewitz, an assistant marketing professor at Oregon State University who co-authored the study. “The package helps people make a decision.”

The study, “Holistic Package Design and Consumer Brand Impressions,” appeared this month in the Journal of Marketing, co-written by Ulrich Orth, a marketing professor at the University of Kiel in Germany. It was funded in part by Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner, Ore.

To figure that out, Malkewitz and Orth photographed 160 wine bottles, mostly of less-recognized brands. They asked 125 experts — graphic or industrial designers — to analyze the aesthetic attributes of each bottle. Then, they sorted responses into five primary design types: massive (or bold), contrasting, natural, delicate and nondescript.
Next, researchers showed photos of the bottles to 268 consumers in Oregon. They asked 15 questions about each bottle’s “brand personality,” including whether the brands seemed sincere, exciting, competent, sophisticated or even rugged.

The results? Consumers found “massive” packaging (Wine by Joe was an example) and contrasting designs (the label on Australia’s Yellow Tail) to be exciting and eye-catching. But they also expected them to be low in competence and sophistication, of lower quality and less expensive, the study found. Additionally, wines with highly contrasting designs were thought to be rugged.

Natural designs — like Washington state's Chateau Ste. Michelle — were thought to be sincere, competent and sophisticated wines, but not especially exciting. Consumers also expected these wines to be expensive but of high quality and a good value.

Delicate designs — Italy's Travaglini, for example — also scored high on competence and sophistication and were expected to be of high quality, classy and expensive. Consumers found nondescript designs — California's Fusee — insincere, and believed they were corporate and of little value for the money.

...."We fully expect there to be differences in product categories," Malkewitz said. But he said the research should provide marketers and managers guidance for how to talk to designers and how to evoke consumer responses to their products. Appealing package designs might prompt consumers to pay higher prices for that product, he said.