Kwaliteit en beschikbaar aanbod beïnvloeden ook bij wijnconsumenten het koopgedrag. Dat heeft een onderzoek van de American Marketing Association uitgewezen. Drie hoogleraren hebben daarover gepubliceerd in het recente nummer Journal of Marketing Research. Conclusie: hoe ruimer de keuze aan wijn, hoe meer het kwaliteitsbewustzijn toeneemt. Ook het omgekeerde blijft waar te zijn. Wij citeren uit de samenvatting van de studie:

‘The researchers conducted an experiment with wine to rule out the possibility that the relationship between density and willingness to pay was caused by different perceptions of the range of qualities offered or by a simple demand effect. Consistent with the outcome of the first study, participants presented with 27 alternatives were prepared to spend significantly less on a Sauvignon Blanc picked from the cheapest price tier than their counterparts presented with 9 alternatives. The same group of participants, however, were prepared to spend significantly more on a Sauvignon Blanc picked from the average price tier.

Sheena Iyengar, one of the researchers, explains the significance of the study’s findings. “When the product is desirable instead of functional, consumers flooded with a range of choices will focus on quality, and not price. The choice set size should not be dictating what you are willing to pay, and yet it does. To avoid paying more just because the assortment is large, think about what it is you're going to be using the product for, and then decide what is more important – quality or price – in that specific case.”

The researchers found supporting evidence of this conclusion in the field through the auction market. They examined 63 wine auctions conducted by a leading global auctioneer in London between January 2006 and June 2009. Multiple wine bottles were auctioned off at each event, although the exact number varied from event to event. The researchers found that at events with a denser assortment of wine, people paid more for the bottles with high appraisals and less for the ones with lower appraisals. Furthermore, participants started bidding more for the high-end wines and offering lower prices for lesser vintages when a catalog contained 40 or more different price categories’.