Predicting consumers’ organic wine consumption behaviour

Abstract

Organic wine production and consumption is one of the sustainable practices contributing to a number of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Effective message framing and promotional strategies can substantially enhance sustainable wine consumption behaviour. The present study attempted to demonstrate how marketers might effectively match different advertising appeals and construal mindset to boost organic wine consumption. Expanding upon benefit association and construal level theory (CLT) research streams, this study investigated the interaction of benefit type and construal level in determining consumers’ organic wine purchase behaviour in North America. The study tested the overarching hypothesis that the self-benefit appeal is more effective in eliciting positive consumer response when a low-level or concrete construal message is paired. Conversely, the other-benefit appeal leads to more favourable consumer response when abstract or high-level construal message is matched. Two hundred and one participants were recruited through online platform Prolific. A 2 × 2 between-subjects design was employed and respondents viewed one of the four randomly assigned labels of organic wine to indicate their purchase intention, willingness to pay, attitude toward the label and attitude toward the brand. As hypothesized, the statistical findings of this research demonstrated a greater amount of interplay between benefit appeal and construal level in eliciting consumers’ favourable responses toward organically grown wine. The outcome of the study suggested that wineries, producers, and marketers should efficiently communicate and design promotional messages of the organic wine, and winemaking process to encourage the consumption of organically grown wine. The findings revealed that wine marketers who wish to promote self-benefits of the organic wine may write the promotional messages at a concrete level with more specific and detailed information. On the other hand, practitioners who attempt to highlight the other-benefit features of organic wine may focus on designing the advertisements at a more abstract level, instead of using the concrete and detailed information. Theoretically, this research contributes to the existing literature of CLT by reconciling the congruency effect of benefit types and construal mindset within the context of organic wine consumption. The study also provides actionable suggestions for wine marketers and producers to develop promotional strategies to effectively communicate with consumers and to contribute to the healthy vineyard ecosystem. Most importantly, the study’s findings put forward several compelling insights and recommendations that will assist decision-makers, organizations, and legislative bodies seeking to achieve certain SDGs within the boundary of food safety, sustainable food production, and consumption processes.