Purchasing Wine in the Information Age:The Role of Quick Response (QR) Codes. If you would like to read an article that goes along with this presentation, follow this link (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wep.2014.01.002) to Science Direct to find out more about the research! A selected paper prepared for the 2013 American Association of Wine Economists conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa Composed by Lindsey Higgins, Mitch Wolf, and Marianne McGarry Wolf. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

1. Purchasing Wine in the Information Age:
The Role of Quick Response (QR) Codes
Lindsey Higgins
Mitch Wolf
Marianne McGarry Wolf
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA
Selected paper prepared for the 2013 AAWE conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa

2. Motivation
 Wine as an experiential good
 Wine as information laden
 Implications for purchase decisions
Cooper-Martin (1991)
Thach (2008)
Top purchase decision criteria:
Prior tasting experience

3. Motivation
 Technology empowers consumers

4. Motivation

5. Motivation
 Quick Response (QR) Codes
 Developed as supply chain strategy tool

6. Motivation
 Comscore (2012)
 QR code use in Europe increased 96% from 2011 to 2012
 17.4 million users in July of 2012
 3 out of 4 users scanned the QR code for product information
 October of 2011, 20.4 million Americans used their smart
phone to scan a QR code for product information
 Okazaki and Barwise (2011)
 QR codes as an area of emerging research and growth in
retailing

7. QR Codes Information
Purchase
Decision
• Product knowledge is key in consumer
decision-making (Raju, Lonial, and Mangold,
1993)
• Information search as the primary method
of risk reduction in the wine purchase
decision (Mitchell and Greatorex, 1989)
• One step closer to interactive marketing
(Shin, Jung, and Chang, 2012)
• Younger wine consumers?
• purchase out of convenience
• little wine knowledge
• more likely to be engaged
electronically
(Lecat and Pelet, 2011)

9. Objectives
 Explore the role of QR codes in the wine purchase decision
 desirability of QR codes on wine labels
 Determine the segment of consumers most likely to respond to
QR codes
 wine consumption behavior
 demographics
 wine knowledge
 other sources of wine information

10. Methods
 25 question survey designed
 demographics, reported behavior
 QR code concept exposure
 Administered during the fall of 2012 to wine consumers
 nationally recognized test market location
 intercept approach

11. The hands that tend our vineyards are the same
that craft our wine, a rare tradition in today’s
wine industry. For three generations our family’s
vineyard-to-bottle ideology has allowed us to
create lively, approachable wines with plenty of
character.
$11.99 $9.99
Our back label
has a QR code.

13. Methods
 11 point purchase intent scale (Juster, 1966)
 Verbal anchors and probability estimates

14. Results: Demographics
 631 usable responses
 52% Male

15. Results: Features
 11 features
 5 point scale
 Extremely desirable (5) to Not desirable at all (1)
The following is a list of features people may look
for when purchasing wines. Please indicate the
desirability of each feature to you when you
purchase wine.

16. Results: Features
Feature
% Extremely /
Very Desirable
Feature
% Extremely/
Very Desirable
Good value for the money 85.3% Screwcap closure 11.4%
Locally produced 52.2% Organically grown 31.9%
Grown in an enviro.
friendly way
47.1% Sustainably grown 33.9%
Recommended by friends 73%
Grown using
biotechnology
11.9%
Varietal I like 79.3%
From a family
owned winery
46.9%
Feature
% Extremely / Very
Desirable
% Not Desirable at all
QR Code 7.4% 43.9%

17. Results: Concept Exposure
 50% of respondents said there was at least 60 chances in 100
they would buy the new wine

18. Results: Concept Exposure
 Respondents indicated they were likely to purchase 11.33
bottles of wine in the next 3 months
 If available, respondents likely to purchase 3.44bottles of the
concept wine in the next 3 months

19. Results: Concept QR
 Increase purchase interest?
 38% reported that it definitely
did not increase their purchase
interest
 31.2% reported that it
probably did not increase their
purchase interest

20. Results: QR Increase Segment
 Reported influence of QR code
 Few demographic differences
 No difference in:
 Age
 Beer consumption
 Wine consumption or spending
 Gender
 Relationship status
 Education
 Employment
 Income
QR increased
purchase interest
11.6%
QR did not increase
purchase interest
88.4%
VS.

21. Results: QR Increase Segment
 Reported influence of QR code
 Few demographic differences
 No differences in closure preferences
 More likely to regularly use apps
QR Increased
purchase interest
11.6%
QR did not increase
purchase interest
88.4%
VS.

22. Results: QR Segments and Features
Feature
QR likely to
Increase
QR not likely to
increase
P-value
QR Code 3.08 1.8 .000
Locally produced 3.88 3.51 .004
Produced in an enviro.
friendly way
3.75 3.31 .001
Organically grown 3.45 2.96 .000
Certified Sustainable 3.38 3.00 .005
Biotech used 2.62 2.37 .042
Family owned 3.71 3.34 .006
5= Extremely desirable, 4=Very desirable, 3=Somewhat desirable, 2=Not very desirable, 1= Not desirable at all

23. Results: QR Segments and Info
Info Source
QR likely to
Increase
QR not likely to
increase
P-value
Google 56% 35% .000
Facebook 33% 21% .024
Youtube 14% 5% .006
Facebook ads 8% 2% .002
Blogs 16% 7% .003
Which of the following do you regularly use to
get news or find information about wine?

24. Results: QR Segments and Descriptors
Descriptor
QR likely to
Increase
QR not likely to
increase
P-value
Wine enthusiast 2.96 2.67 .006
Talk wine 3.00 2.65 .000
Wine Connoisseur 2.42 2.16 .008
Would use an app that
allows me to instantly
purchase wine
2.71 2.24 .005
4=Strongly agree, 3=Agree, 2=Disagree, 1=Strongly disagree
How strongly do you agree or disagree with
the following statements?

25. Conclusions
 Little importance to most
 No differences by age
 Marketers may be more fond of QR codes than consumers
 Some differences related to information
 Interested in production characteristics
 Interested in learning more
 Interested in talking about wine
QR code
becomes very
useful tool

26. Conclusions
Targeted
Group Learn More About
Wine
Production
Characteristics
Talk About
Wine
2%
13%
9%
.6%
.6%
2% 2
%
.6% of 631
consumers
=
4 consumers

27. Concluding Remarks
 Questions
 Contact information:
Lindsey Higgins
lhiggins@calpoly.edu
Marianne McGarry Wolf
mwolf@calpoly.edu