A Hedonic Analysis of Retail Italian Vinegars. Summary. The Model. Vinegar. Methodology. Survey. Results. Concluding remarks.

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1 Vineyard Data Quantification Society "Economists at the service of Wine & Vine" Enometrics XX A Hedonic Analysis of Retail Italian Vinegars Luigi Galletto, Luca Rossetto Research Center for Viticulture and Oenology (Cirve), University of Padova, Italy Vinegar grape 2 nd transformation not a beverage, but a condiment Italy, 1 st Exporter Very limited market research (Mattia, 2004; Radman et al., 2005) No hedonic price estimation Methodology Survey Concluding remarks Summary The Model P j (X) = P(x 1, x 2,, x i,, z n ) where P j is the price of product j and X = x 1, x 2,, x i,, x n is a vector of n observable attributes that completely describe product quality. The partial derivative, P(X)/ x i, of the hedonic price function with respect to the attribute i, can be viewed as the implicit or shadow price of the specific attribute i. Functional forms: linear, log-lin, double log, etc.

2 The survey Survey area: Verona Province (Veneto) Time: Summer-Fall 2012 Information collected on point of sales Questionnaires: Intrinsic attributes: acidity, row material, aging, production methods, producer s and collective brands Extrinsic attributes: bottle size, bottle closure, back label, bottle color, bottle material Type of point of sale, location visual merchandising (shelf position, facings), Price The survey 46 sale points of different size 21 towns 27 large scale retail LSR labels: local, regional, national or international chain labels beside some no chain stores >> > Famila Group 1036 vinegar bottles: from 4 (discount) to 137 (hypermarket) Modena Balsamic PGI, but no Modena or Reggio Traditional Balsamic PDO Degree of acidity very skew distribution: 5.1%-6.0% range (72%) A quite fragmented vinegar market: 113 different vinegar brands few big producers (>>>Ponti) plus many other small or very small. The survey Two merchandising characteristics: o a) Position (tier) on the shelf o b) Facings: 2 5 (71%) Service quality attributes, which impact the product when is purchased A product has more probability to be chosen if it receive more space or is set on more detectable shelf, since it is more likely to be noticed or attract consumers attention first Eye or hand levels should have a considerably greater probability of being selected Seldom included separately in hedonic price models for food The survey: descriptives (1) Sample composition of categorical variables in percent Outlet location Urban area 47.7 Rural area 52.3 Retail chain Famila Group 35.6 Others 64.4 Outlet type Hypermarket 36.2 Supermarket 43.1 Minimarket 13.6 Discount 7.1 Intrinsic features Geographic indication 48.3 Aged vin. 3.0 Organic vin. 6.6 Apple vin White wine vin Red wine vin Discolored vin. 2.2 : Level zero or baseline in the hedonic regressions Producer's brand Ponti 22.1 Cirio 3.7 Fini 3.5 Monari Federzoni 7.9 Ortalli 8.3 Sasso 3.9 Others 50.6 Extrinsic features Spray cap 3.9 Cork type cap 18.5 Screw cap 77.6 Plastic bottle 4.1 Glass bottle 95.9 Dark bottle 39.9 Transparent bottle 60.1 Back label 54.9 Front label only 45.1

3 The survey: descriptives (2) Sample composition of categorical variables in percent (2) Shelf position High shelf (uppermost) 21.4 High shelf (eye level) 22.3 Middle shelf (hand level) 40.3 Low shelf (leg level) 6.8 Low shelf (bottom level) 9.2 : Level zero or baseline in the hedonic regressions Descriptive summary of continuous variables Median Mean Stdev Min Max Price per bottle ( ) Price per liter ( ) Bottle size (liters) Acidity (% acetic acid) Facings (no. of bottles) (10**) indip. var. hedonic price model Variables Coeff. Constant Urban area Famila Group Hypermarket Discount Minimarket Aged vin Organic vin Apple vin White wine vin Red wine vin Discolored vin Logn-Acidity R F Dependent var.: Natural Logarithm of vinegar price per liter Variables Coeff. Ponti Cirio Fini Monari Federzoni Ortalli Sasso Cork type cap Spray cap Plastic bottle Dark bottle Back label Logn-Size High shelf (uppermost) High shelf (eye level) Low shelf (leg level) Low shelf (bottom) Logn-Facings No variable indicating the type of vinegar shows significant effect on price The bottle size shows not only a strongest effect on price, but also the highest VIF (3.346). Regressing logn-size on the other independent variables yields an adjusted R 2 (0.693) The bottle size shows a significant negative correlation with both the bottle caps, the back label and the Sasso and Cirio brands, and a significant positive correlation with the plastic material, the Ortalli brand, the white wine, the red wine and the discolored types, the Famila Group and the discount outlet. 25 (13**) indip. var. hedonic price model Variables Coeff. Constant Urban area Famila Group Hypermarket Discount Minimarket Aged vin Organic vin Apple vin White wine vin Red wine vin Discolored vin Logn-Acidity R F Dependent var.: Natural Logarithm of vinegar price per liter Variables Coeff. Ponti Cirio Fini Monari Federzoni Ortalli Sasso Cork type cap Spray cap Plastic bottle Dark bottle Back label Logn-Size High shelf (uppermost) High shelf (eye level) Low shelf (leg level) Low shelf (bottom) Logn-Facings

4 Still some remarkable collinearity. Notable VIF for back label and the dark color. The bottle dark color exhibits important negative correlation with vinegars from apple, white wine, red wine, the discolored one, the two caps and the Ponti brand and positive with back label and the Fini, Monari Federzoni and Ortalli brands. The back label is significantly correlated with almost all the previous variables and also (negatively) with the sale in the discount outlets, the Sasso brand and the plastic bottle. Vinegar hedonic price estimates (1) 16** Variables B Percent Price Impact Constant Urban area Famila Group Hypermarket Discount Minimarket Aged vin Organic vin Apple vin White wine vin Red wine vin Discolored vin Logn-Acidity R F Dependent variable: Natural Logarithm of vinegar price per liter : Vinegar hedonic price estimates (2) Variables B Percent Price Impact Ponti Cirio Fini Monari Federzoni Ortalli Sasso Cork type cap Spray cap Plastic bottle High shelf (uppermost) High shelf (eye level) Low shelf (leg level) Low shelf (bottom) Logn-Facings Low impact of service attributes linked to the point of sale o Only Famila chain 11% reduction on the average price o No rural/urban differences o No differences among point of sale types. But discount Intrinsic features o No effects of the aged and the organic attributes o Apple: the lowest reduction ( 20%) o Discolored: the highest reduction ( 35%) in comparison with the Modena PGI o Noticeable role of acetic acid: (9% price decrease for a 10% increase in its degree) shadow effect.

5 Brand 1 st Sasso 127% premium. An example of unquestionably strong (olive oil related) brand 2 nd Fini (vinegar specialized) 46% premium Ponti (vinegar specialized) and Cirio (multi-food) about 30% premium Bottle features still important Cork type cap prestige vinegar Spray cap innovative, simplifying the pouring quite high premium (170%) Plastic ( 41%) Merchandising attributes o Bottom and eye tiers: significant effects ( 23%, +24%) o Facings: 100% increase in the number of vinegar bottles 62.6% decrease in the price per liter o Both the facings and the shelf position choices obey to merchandising rules and the promotional strategy of the point of sale o Very low degree of correlation with the other independent variables o Noticeable contribution to the hedonic price model: they account for 186% of the total vinegar price variance. Concluding Remarks (2) Concluding Remarks (2) Similarities and differences relatively to other hedonic price models on food products Goodness of fit does not seem too high. Possible reasons: o Brand price strategies (107 brands) o Point of sale price strategies o Intra-brand price variability not fully explained by the intrinsic and extrinsic features Disproportion between intrinsic and extrinsic features in determining the vinegar price ( wine & olive oil) High contribution of the service-merchandising attributes to vinegar price (consumers scarcely aware of intrinsic quality attributes?)