Perception of wine labels by generation Z: eye-tracking experiment

Abstract

Product quality is the result of an involved technological process. For the customer, product quality is not easy to grasp and the decision to buy the product is more influenced by the customer's perception of quality than by quality itself. It is therefore the result of many factors making an impression on the customer, their personal taste and the mood of the moment. The role of marketing is to understand the factors that have a customer impact. We need to identify the factors the customer is aware of and is able to communicate. Yet there are also a number of factors at play that affect the customer without their being aware of it. The aim of the paper is to get to know customer behaviour not just through the factors the customer communicates (answering questions) but to seek new methods that allow an objective examination of the customer's stimulus response, in our research case, using eye-tracking technology. The research study was conducted by way of an experiment with concurrent questioning in June 2016. There were 44 respondents taking part in the experiment, aged from 19 to 25 (Generation Z). The experiment set out to identify the importance of various visual attributes of a bottle of white wine, using a total of 7 stimuli.  The experiment was carried out using the method called A/B testing, whereby one half of the respondents (A) was shown the original version of the stimulus and the second half (B) the modified stimulus. The eye-tracking research was carried out using remote eye-tracker SMI RED 250 at a sampling frequency of 125 Hz. In answering questions, the respondents evaluated the importance of the factors of price, type, awards, the shape and colour of the bottle and information on the label, i.e. information about the producer (maker) of the wine, wine variety, wine-growing region, country of origin, year of vintage and the sugar content indication. The paper concludes with a summary of the respective importance of the individual visual attributes that Generation Z consumers are most influenced by, when purchasing bottled white wine. 

Keywords

• customer
• factor
• quality
• wine
• eye-tracking