Wine marketing: don’t mistake choice for preference
A frequent error made by marketeers is mistaking choice for preference.
What do I mean by this? As a consumer, the purchase choice you make isn’t always your preferred purchase choice. Other factors come into play, and the key one is affordability.
Let’s give an example. I like guitars. I decide to buy a new guitar. So I walk into a guitar shop and start playing a bunch of guitars. There’s one that really speaks to me: the sound is clear, nuanced and precise. And the neck is really playable, and the set up just perfect. But I don’t walk out of the store with my preferred guitar because it costs £7999. I end up choosing one almost as good but at one-third of the price.
Let’s bring it back to wine. I like Champagne, and drink it frequently. But I end up buying a lot more Pierre Gimonnet Cuis (which is excellent, and excellent value) than I do Ulysse Colin Les Enfers (which is insanely good and insanely expensive) simply because of the price.
Let’s take this to the supermarket. Most people have a budget when they shop for wine, and a bottle of wine is one of the most expensive things they put in their shopping basket. Supermarkets sell a lot of cheap wine, and commentators looking at sales data often wrongly assume that the best selling wines are the wines that the customers prefer.
They aren’t, necessarily. They are the wines that customers choose, and I know from my own experience back in the day of raising two kids on one not particularly high salary as a science editor in one of the most expensive cities in the world that there is no question of spending the sort of money you’d need to, to get the wine you prefer, on your weekly shop. You end up choosing one that’s as nice as possible for the money you have available.
The second factor affecting the choice/preference relationship is availability. If I am shopping in a supermarket I can only buy what is in front of me. My preferred options likely won’t be there. That’s another story.
And a third factor to add to the mix: how do I make my choice? What information do I have to help me align my choice with my preference more clearly? For something like wine, my preferences are likely to be marked, while for something like toothpaste or washing up liquid they are much less strong (they all seem to do the same job so I don’t really care). And for wine, the investment in purchasing decision is quite high, while for other product categories taking a punt comes with much less financial risk. This is especially true in the restaurant setting with its high mark-up.
So stop confusing choice with preference.
