Wine marketers are more likely to get people who don’t have a lot of wine education to buy their higher-priced wine if the label looks sophisticated.  

Keven Malkewitz: “There’s certain things that signal to customers that a wine would be lower priced versus higher priced.”

O-S-U Assistant Professor of Marketing Keven Malkewitz co-authored the study which will be published in the next issue of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. He says people often have expectations about the quality and value of a wine based on the bottle’s appearance. He says a lower contrast between the design and background on the label can influence a purchase.

Keven Malkewitz: “A lot of times a relatively plain looking label can be seen as relatively high priced because sometimes that what’s almost a tone on tone sort of label can be seen as a relatively sophisticated, which usually translates to an expensive or high-quality kind of wine.”

Malkewitz says U.S. wineries tend to do a better job than Europeans with wine packaging. He says labeling laws in France have recently changed, which could help winemakers there compete in the global market.

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2009/sep/consumers-set-price-expectations-based-design-wine-bottles

Photo courtesy of OSU.