Defining and targeting consumer preferences

Transcription

1 Defining and targeting consumer preferences High quality, defect free, reasonably priced wines from around the world are becoming increasingly available to consumers through popular distribution channels. With the increased accessibility comes the introduction of wines with sensory attributes that differ from domestic wines and longstanding favourites. Exposure to wines from novel varieties and to different wine styles can impact consumer preference and consumer purchase behaviour. The question becomes: how can we capture the consumer preference and influence the creation of wines (from label to product) to position brands effectively in the market place? Traditional consumer preference techniques are not fully efficient to provide guidance to winemakers and marketing. New techniques combining sensory science and marketing research, first pioneered by the food industry, are available to the wine industry. Once the preferences of various consumer segments are understood, wines, labels and advertising can be created and targeted directly to that consumer segment. This paper describes the application of preference mapping to define and target consumer preference for Chardonnay wines in the US market. Advantages and disadvantages of the technique are discussed. I. Lesschaeve 1, T.H. Lee 2 and L.N. Norris 3 1 Creascience, Suite 430, 533 Ontario East Street, Montréal, PQ H2L 1N8 Canada; 2 E.&J. Gallo Winery, PO Box 1130, Modesto, CA 95353, USA; 3 FlavorSense, 139 Nantucket Cove, San Rafael, CA 94901, USA. Corresponding author s terry.lee@ejgallo.com DEFINING and targeting consumer preferences has traditionally been a marketing function. Therefore, marketing must identify product opportunities and develop selling strategies for such opportunities that include consumer purchase and re-purchase intent. For successful new product introductions, marketing must understand current and potential consumers, i.e. their needs, lifestyles and attitudes towards the product category. By understanding consumers, the organisation can anticipate consumers needs and formulate these needs into innovative products or product improvement opportunities. Knowing your consumer can facilitate strategies to grow the business. Knowledge of the consumer also allows researchers, developers and engineers to foresee ways that the product might grow or change. They, therefore, can plan production so that they can create or modify the product characteristics according to marketing directions. Traditionally, in the wine industry, the winemakers, production and marketing interact to decide on blends. Indeed, directions to make a new wine style or to improve a current wine are often made by the winemakers themselves, according to the grapes, their perception of quality and preferences of the wine category. This approach is very successful in small wineries, where the winemaker can meet consumers at the cellar or the tasting room, talk about their work, their wines and listen to consumer needs and expectations. Reproduced with permission from Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference Inc. Published in Proceedings of the Eleventh Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference. Blair, R.J.; Williams, P.J.; Hoy, P.B. (eds.) 2002, Adelaide, South Australia. ISBN /ISSN However, for larger wineries desiring to reach consumers in domestic and international markets, this approach is not feasible, as the winemakers do not have the chance to interact as easily with consumers and receive feedback. Moreover, marketing wine in a global market is a challenge, since globally there is a broad range of consumer lifestyles, attitudes and likes/dislikes, which the product must meet. The development of preference, and especially food preferences, has interested many scientists involved in food science, psychology, physiology, sociology, anthropology and even statistics. Their research shows that few taste preferences are innate, e.g. sweet; and most of the taste and flavour preferences are developed along with the growth of the child (see for example Chiva 1985, MacFie and Thomson 1994). Many factors influence the development of preference patterns, including the cultural, social and religious environment in which the child is raised. For example, the taste of beer, especially its bitterness, is objectionable to most young adults, however, peer pressure leads many of them to drink beer, even if they do not like it, so that they are acknowledged by their peers (Köster, pers. comm.). Familiarity with a food or flavour has been shown to correlate with consumer preferences; highly liked foods in the USA are hamburgers, cheese, etc. Flavours such as mango and kiwi were initially rejected, but as they became increasingly available, more consumers tried them, and the growth of kiwi and mango flavoured products grew. Thus, consumers tend to reject new flavours at the first exposure (neophobia phenomenon) but can develop a preference for this new flavour over repeated exposures (theory of mere exposure, Pliner 1982). In addition, food flavour complexity has an impact on preference development, since some consumers like what they perceive to be a simple flavour while others like the intrigue of a complex flavour containing what they perceive as the smell and taste of several flavours in their food. Their preference is related to their ability to identify different 40

2 flavours and/or to their gender; women tend to like more complex stimuli (Jellinek and Köster 1979, 1983, Jaubert et al. 1987). There are tasters who like to analyse flavours and there are tasters who like to synergise flavours (Prescott 1999). The development of preference for wine is certainly influenced by the same factors, but also by the sociology in which wine was first introduced. Many consumers grow up in wine producing areas, such as in France, Italy or Spain, and become familiar with wine and wine culture since it is part of the family lifestyle: like many foods, wine was a part of their everyday lives. In non-wine producing areas, consumers tend to discover wine and wine culture in their young adulthood. They have to learn by themselves about wines and wine tasting by reading specialised magazines or attending wine education courses, which are now popular in Europe and North America. As a result, knowing the consumers for whom winemakers make wines goes beyond simple demographic statistics! The goal of this article is to briefly review current practices in market research to define and target preferences of wine consumers. We will describe in some detail preference mapping, an innovative alternative to qualitative market research techniques that combines marketing and scientific/technical expertise. The techniques of preference mapping are now widely used in the food and beverage industries to identify product opportunities and to explore the optimisation of current products. We will demonstrate how these techniques can be beneficial to understanding wine consumers with the outcome of creating wines to meet consumer preferences. An example of utilising preference mapping of American consumers to create Chardonnay wines will be discussed. Overview of current practices Qualitative tests Traditionally, market researchers survey volume sales to track market trends for a given product category. In addition, they characterise the demographics, such as age, gender and lifestyle of purchasers and non-purchasers. Such data can reveal product winners and losers in terms of market share. To understand why the sales of some products decline, market researchers usually conduct qualitative tests, such as focus groups, with the consumers who purchase the products in the particular category under question. During a 90- minute session on average, consumers discuss with a neutral moderator the reasons why they do not purchase a product or why they do not like a product. In addition, a setting including product tasting (blind or labelled) can be organised to elicit consumer answers. The information retrieved is qualitative, i.e. there are no hard data to give back to the winemakers about changes that could be made to a wine style. The data collected are supposed to be objectively summarised; however, the limit of the technique is often fuzzy between the summary of a discussion and the interpretation of what it means. In many industries, decisions are made often upon the managers intuition while observing the consumer speak from the backroom of the focus group (Lawless and Heymann 1998). Quantitative tests Quantitative data are critical to guide product development or winemaking processes. Therefore, market researchers usually organise hedonic tests in three cities that represent the range of consumers intended for study. These are often known as central location tests. Consumers taste the products, side by side or one by one, and either indicate their liking on a hedonic scale or rank products according to their preference. Diagnostic questions usually follow to determine if the level of certain characteristics, e.g. sweetness, acidity and fruitiness, is just about right, or too weak, or too strong. The choice of the diagnostic questions is made by technical staff, based on preliminary tasting and on the differences they expect consumers will perceive. These diagnostic questions are often taken literally, so that products can be erroneously altered. Product developers/winemakers must be aware that the consumer s response is reflective of their interpretation of sweetness, and not the interpretation of sweetness of the product WINE INDUSTRY JOURNAL > VOL 17 NO 5 > SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

3 developers or the winemakers. This latter assumption is the major issue with this technique, since it has been demonstrated many times that consumer language is different from technical language (Lawless 1984). Consumers may perceive the same differences as the technical staff, but they will describe them differently. Therefore, the directional measurements can misguide product developers. For example, if a wine is rated not sweet enough by consumers, winemakers will probably adjust the residual sugar level. The consumers may not actually be rejecting sweetness, but they use the word sweetness to describe the lack of character in a wine. For example, lack of fruit character in a wine may be described by consumers as not sweet enough. If the winemaker increases the residual sugar, it may or may not have an effect on fruit flavour. Thus consumer feedback, if not interpreted and tested, may not assist winemakers in positively altering the profile of the wine. Sensory techniques, such as the Repertory Grid (McEwan and Thomson 1988) or the Product Attribute Elicitation Method developed by Arthur D. Little Inc. (Cambridge, MA), have been developed to elicit consumer language prior to a quantitative task. The product attributes generated by these techniques belong to the individual or the group interviewed, which facilitates the quantitative task that these consumers are being asked to perform. Difficulties arise because each individual or group has their own vocabulary that does not necessarily transfer to other individuals or groups. Introducing sensory techniques to support market research and give guidance for product development The main issue with the techniques just described is that researchers, product developers, winemakers or managers assume that they know what consumers expect, what consumers mean, and what magnitude of difference consumers can detect between two products. These assumptions are made honestly upon the data they have collected through qualitative tests or through feedback from sales staff or from other gatekeepers, such as distributors and wine writers. Therefore, product development is driven by what they think is good for consumers: technical and marketing staff screen prototypes before making a recommendation to management. Once the prototypes are quasi-optimised and quasi-ready for the test market, consumer input is collected through a hedonic test or a home-use test. Thus consumers have no initial input into the direction and qualities of the developed product. They merely are able to say that they liked it or did not like it. While this approach can be successful, there is a staggering proportion (90%) of new products that fail in the market place (Watzke and Saguy 2001). Anew approach for product development has received increasing attention in the food industry and is truly consumer-driven (Saguy and Moskowitz 1999). This means that consumer input is collected from concept ideation through product optimisation to screen prototypes according to consumer liking. These techniques use quantitative methods based on psychophysics principles; the motto is that consumers cannot verbalise why they like or do not like a product, however, they can react to sensory stimuli, such as colour, flavour, texture and appearance. Techniques have now been developed to facilitate an understanding of consumer hedonic responses in terms of objective measurements. These techniques avoid having to interpret consumer language. In practice, products are analysed for their chemical, flavour and sensory profiles in addition to collecting consumer hedonic responses. By correlating these sets of objective measurements with consumer liking scores, the objective parameters (alone or in combination) that drive consumer likes and/or dislikes can be identified; furthermore, the optimal product formulation for a particular consumer segment can be determined. Preference mapping is one of these techniques (Greenhoff and MacFie 1994), which can be used to explore relationships between competitive products in a given category and to group consumers who have similar liking patterns. This technique has been utilised to study consumer preferences, to identify opportunities where no products exist, and to optimise existing products. A case study defining and targeting US consumer preferences for Chardonnay wines Background Chardonnay is the leading varietal in the white wine category sold in the USA. Many styles of Chardonnay are available on the market, ranging from a simple, slightly sweet, lightly fruity style to a more complex style based on winemaking techniques, such as barrel fermentation, lees contact, malolactic fermentation and further oak contact. The study was designed to: Explore the range of international Chardonnay wines sold in the USA at US$15 a bottle or less; Determine the sensory attributes that drive consumer preference; and Position and create Chardonnay wines to take advantage of identified opportunities. A similar study with California Chardonnays has recently been reported by Yegge and Noble (2000). Wine screening and selection A cross-functional team was formed that included representatives from the Departments of Winemaking, Marketing, and Research and Technical Services. Team members were first asked to provide names of wines that could be good candidates for the study. A list of 100 wines was then established and sorted based on the availability of the brand in the USA, market share and the expected style of the wine. Fifty-six candidate Chardonnays were selected and tasted in two three-hour sessions by the team members. Wines were presented in flights of six wines, according to their price points (flight one contained the least expensive wines and flight ten the most expensive). Team members were asked to 42

4 assign each wine to one of the following Chardonnay style categories as defined by the Winemaking Department: Neutral with natural flavours; Neutral, easy to drink, unoaked; Neutral, easy to drink, with some oak; Not fruity, some oxidation, European style ; Extra fruity; Simple fruit with spicy oak; Oak dominated; Integrated fruit and oak, slightly sweet; Barrel fermented, Burgundian style; Oaky, buttery, full blown ; Elegant, cold climate fruit, subdued fruit; Fruit driven; Burgundian with balanced fruit and oak; and Burgundian with nutty-toasty, sulfide derived complexity. Twenty-three wines were selected as the best representatives of the style categories listed above. The selection of the wines for the study is a critical step in the process, as essentially the wines chosen define the sensory space to be tested. Methods Consumers who had consumed a Chardonnay wine at least once during the previous month evaluated the selected wines. A chemical profile of each wine was prepared at the winery (data are not presented here), and the wines were subjected to quantitative sensory analysis by a trained panel. Consumer tests A group of 361 consumers was recruited according to demographic and wine consumption criteria. Tasting sessions were conducted in four cities across the USA. Consumers participated in two tasting sessions, one day apart, and tasted 12 wines out of the 23 selected (six wines per session). An incomplete block design was applied to balance the order of presentation of the wines among the consumers and to ensure that each wine was tasted by 200 consumers. Consumers recorded their liking of each wine on 9-point hedonic scale. Water and crackers were available for cleansing their palates. Sensory analysis Twelve panellists were selected and trained to perform the descriptive analysis of the 23 wines. The panel was provided with 16 hours of training to develop, learn and use the descriptive language appropriate to describe the set of wines. Moreover, the training aimed at calibrating the measurement technique among the panellists, i.e. scoring the intensity of each descriptor perceived on a 15 cm line scale. Panellists developed a list of 54 descriptors to describe the perceptions by smell (16) and by mouth (38). Two replicates of the sensory measurements were performed for each wine. Standards for each attribute were created by the Flavour Science group. The standards ranged from combinations of two flavour chemicals to mixtures of 50 (i.e. oak). The wines were spiked with the standards in order to ensure that panellists were consistent in their recognition and intensity measurements. Data analysis The sensory attributes differentiating the wines were determined by means of a two-way analysis of variance (wine, panellist, mixed model, p 0.10). An external preference mapping technique (similar to the one described by Kälviäinen et al. [2000]) was applied to correlate consumer preference with the sensory attributes of each wine. The analysis enables the determination of the sensory profile of a Chardonnay wine that is optimal for each consumer, i.e. that he/she would like the best. Results of the analysis are displayed on a map (preference map). The position of the ideal wine for each consumer is displayed according to their sensory profiles. There are as many ideal wines as consumers. The actual wines tasted by the consumers are displayed as well on the map according to the same principle. The sensory attributes are then projected on the map to label the main characteristics differentiating the wines from each other. Since we have seen previously that consumers are unlikely to have the same wine preferences, the next step is to look for groups of consumers who may have similar preferences. On one hand, the characterisation of the consumers belonging to a group (demographics, attitudes toward wine, etc.) enables the marketing department to define which group is a potential target in their strategy. On the other hand, the sensory profiles of the ideal wines of the consumers are valuable information for winemakers to refine their wine styles. Results A road map for guiding winemakers The results are displayed on a two-dimensional map as shown in Figure 1. The optimal Chardonnay wine for each consumer is displayed by a solid circle; the 23 wines tested both by the consumer and the sensory panel are displayed as solid squares and labelled A to W. The left side of the map has a high density of consumers relative to the other parts of the map. The first preference dimension (horizontal axis) splits the consumers who like sweet and smooth Chardonnay wines (on the left) and the consumers who like wines that are more complex in sensory attributes with a high intensity of alcohol aroma, a lingering after-taste and an intense oak aroma (toasted oak to smoky-bacon) (on the right). The second preference dimension (vertical axis) splits the consumers who like moderately sweet to sour wines, with low flavour intensity (bottom) from consumers who like wines with a high flavour intensity (but not lingering) and an intense flavour of vanilla-oak and of apple and stone fruit. Through a segmentation study, it was possible to identify four groups or segments of consumers of unequal size. 44

5 Figure 1. Preference map describing the optimal sensory profiles of Chardonnay wine for the 361 surveyed consumers. The ellipses are established at 80% confidence level and they cluster the consumers in four segments. The sensory descriptors are overlapped which enables description of the sensory properties driving the consumers preference. The preference drivers of each consumer segment are written in bigger letters. How to use this information in winemaking? Wine is not a formulated product such as mayonnaise or a cola beverage. Therefore, it is not obvious how the intensity of the sensory attributes is related to either the ingredient (grapes) that wine is made from or to the winemaking practices applied during production. The optimal sensory profile for each segment, however, can be valuable for guiding winemaking or the blending processes during preparation of the wine for bottling. If the objective is to reposition the sensory profile of an existing wine with the optimal profile as determined for a given consumer segment, the sensory scientist can provide a differential profile of the two wines showing the sensory attributes that need to be softened and those that need to be reinforced. The science of winemaking and the skill of the winemaker make these adjustments feasible by blending wine legs (component wines that are blended together), by treating the wine appropriately, or by adjusting winemaking practices during the next vintage. One significant challenge in the application of preference maps is to make the sensory vocabulary understandable to the winemakers, who tend to use their own vocabulary (jargon) to describe the sensory attributes of wines. To overcome this difficulty at the winery, the sensory and flavour science staff have worked closely to produce flavour standards that illustrated the sensory attributes used in this particular project. By smelling or tasting these standards in a wine, most of the winemakers were able to understand what the consumers liked or did not like in Chardonnay wines. However, identifying winemaking practices that can be manipulated to change the attributes of the wine are not identified by the preference map, unless process data are collected on each wine. Main outcomes for the winery The results of this study were reported to management just before the commencement of the 1999 vintage. Modifications to wine styles were made in accordance with consumer likes and dislikes within the segments being targeted by the marketing department. Recently, we were able to profile the wines made during the 1999 vintage and show that they had moved in the expected preference direction (results are not shown here). Misconceptions about preference mapping Preference mapping is not the magic tool that will answer all questions in one study. It is, however, a valuable technique that can provide a snapshot of the inter-relationships of sensory attributes for wines within a specific category and a picture of how new blends of the particular variety or style will be liked by targeted consumers. The next step generally leads to the repositioning of a current wine or the development of a new blend. An additional study is often necessary to optimise the sensory attributes to the optimal level of the consumers. The appli- WINE INDUSTRY JOURNAL > VOL 17 NO 5 > SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

6 cation of rigorous experimental design is strongly recommended to select wine legs and to minimise the production of blends to be tasted. Preference mapping does not predict long-term preference. Results are valid as long as the wines tasted still represent the market. As soon as a new style appears, the relative position of the wines can change on the map and thus the sensory attributes driving consumer preferences. In the food industry, it is claimed that preference maps are obsolete after 18 to 24 months (MacFie pers. comm.). A similar life is expected for wine preference maps, however, this expectation has yet to be proven. Preference mapping does not provide wine specifications. It is tempting to think that the sensory attributes driving consumer preferences should be used to define wine specifications and track wine quality over time, vintage after vintage. This is partly true; however, other sensory attributes may not vary significantly between wines but remain important for consumer acceptance, e.g. acidity/sweetness, flavour balance and appearance. It is, therefore, critical to define wine specifications in terms of the complete sensory profile and not only in terms of the attributes differentiating the wines in the market. Preference mapping does not reflect the changes that occur during wine aging. The relative position of the wines on the map can change with bottle ageing, by reinforcing desirable attributes or by developing off-notes. It is, therefore, critical to consider the age of the wines tasted in such a study when screening wine candidates. Preference mapping does not take creativity away from winemaking. A good winemaker probably does not need a preference map to have a good understanding of the wine style that he/she should make for his/her customers. This is more likely to be true for a portfolio of five blends, but is probably inaccurate for a large portfolio of labels. Preference mapping is a guidance tool for winemakers; it certainly does not dictate how wines should be made. It provides sensory directions for the winemakers to play with and to come up with a unique blend that is fitted to consumer needs. A strong collaboration between the winemakers and the flavour and sensory staff is, however, recommended for success (Lesschaeve 2001). Preference does not predict sales. Consumers experience wine through its sensory attributes but also through its image components, such as the bottle shape, the label, the renown of the winemaker or the Wine Spectator score. To maximise chances of success, it is recommended (Moskowitz 1994, Saguy and Moskowitz 1999) to co-develop marketing concept elements with the sensory profile. It has been shown repeatedly that product image triggers flavour and sensory expectations for the consumer. If the flavour and sensory expectations are not confirmed, then the likelihood of product success in the targeted market is poor. Conclusions This paper discussed the increasing need to consider consumer inputs when marketing and distributing wines on a large scale. Consumer preference toward food and beverages is largely influenced by many factors, such as educational, social or cultural ones during the consumer s life. These interindividualities are rarely considered in the traditional market research methodologies. New approaches, such as preference mapping techniques, have been recently developed by sensory and consumer scientists to overcome this issue. The application of these techniques in the wine industry is discussed in this paper and the emphasis is made on the value of the information collected to guide winemakers in the development of new styles of wine. A case study on Chardonnay wines illustrated how we gained insights on the diversity of US consumer preference for this varietal wine. Indeed, we were able to interpret the different liking patterns in terms of difference in sensory profiles and to segment consumers based on similar preference for Chardonnay wines. Moreover, it was also possible to extract the sensory information to make optimal wines for each consumer segment. The use of preference mapping techniques to explore new wine style opportunities was successful at Gallo winery. We realised, however, that these techniques are primarily a product guidance tool and not a formulation tool. This should be a new source of inspiration for creative winemakers to make wines desirable by their customers and to keep their competitive edge in the global market. References Chiva, M. (1985) Le doux et l amer. Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN Greenhoff, K. and MacFie, H.J.H. (1994) Preference mapping in practice. 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