Research Note: Targeting the Un‐Experienced and the Convenience Shopper Available to Purchase

More and more wine producers realise the opportunities that lie within designing extrinsic product attributes for promoting their wine. Unique packaging (e.g. special bottles) or labelling is supposedly more efficient in differentiating the (augmented) wine product than changing the core product (fluid) itself. Wine exhibition awards (medals or diplomas, usually at the gold or silver level) have become particularly popular for the purpose of signalling an outstanding quality to the buyer. This can be observed in grocery store assortments as well as in special wine stores. The potential relevance of this strategy draws from the fact that only a fraction of worldwide sales of bottled wine goes to educated wine connoisseurs who evaluate the real value of a wine by attributes like varietal, producer, vintage, vineyard, etc. The average wine consumer's choice is likely to be influenced to a greater extent by product attributes that require less of an insiders' knowledge. Exhibition medals could be of special interest to wine suppliers by quickly conveying a summary of expert opinions. Interested buyers would not be required to read the sometimes extensive information written in usually small letters on the labels. Instead, medals etc. enable them to quickly and reliably evaluate the quality.