AN INVESTIGATION USING THREE APPROACHES TO UNDERSTAND THE INFLUENCE OF EXTRINSIC PRODUCT CUES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: AN EXAMPLE OF AUSTRALIAN WINES C. CHREA 1 , L. MELO 2 , G. EVANS 2 , C. FORDE 1 , C. DELAHUNTY 1 and D.N. COX 2,3 1 CSIRO Food Futures Flagship and CSIRO Division of Food and Nutritional Sciences, North Ryde, Sydney, Australia 2 CSIRO Food Futures Flagship and CSIRO Division of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Gate 13, Kintore Avenue, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia 3 Corresponding author. TEL: +61-8-8303-8811; FAX; 61-8-8303-8899; EMAIL: david.cox@csiro.au Accepted for Publication September 23, 2010 doi:10.1111/j.1745-459X.2010.00316.x ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to demonstrate the value of and differences between three approaches to measuring extrinsic product attribute influences on consumer accep- tance of Australian wines. The approaches included three complimentary tasks: con- joint assessment of wine product concepts (derived from a free sorting task), liking ratings for commercial wine labels and a real-choice study where the same wine bottles were presented to the consumer to choose their preferred wine based on the label. Results from the conjoint assessment indicated that price and wine region were of greatest utility. Findings from the real choice task mirrored the rating of wine labels, indicating that respondents were consistent in their liking and choice behavior across the two tasks. The choice study facilitated the validation of the experimental findings and suggested that label liking is a strong predictor of choice behavior. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The study provides methodological guidelines for studying consumer responses to extrinsic product attributes. The labeling study provides important information for wine marketers and label designers that could be used to optimize the presentation of product information to meet consumers’ acceptance. INTRODUCTION The unique yet highly complex nature of wine as a product category means there is a distinctive choice process for wine compared to other fast-moving consumer goods. At the point of purchase, consumers are presented with overwhelming varieties and brands of domestic and imported wine. Although, opportunities exist for wine tasting prior to pur- chase (e.g., on-site tastings at wineries and retail stores or con- sumption at a restaurant), such experiential knowledge is more likely to be the exception rather than the norm. Thus, when making purchase decisions for untasted products, con- sumers primarily have to rely on available quality cues offered by the wine label and bottle. These “extrinsic cues” are usually classified in two categories: (1) cues related to the product itself such as grape variety, oak maturation and region of origin; and (2) cues that can be altered without changing the product such as price, packaging and brand name (Quester and Smart 1998). Different methods have been used to investigate the relative importance of extrinsic cues on consumer wine choice and purchase behavior with inconsistent results (Mueller and Lockshin 2008). Surveys have suggested that price and grape variety are often the most influential variables when choosing a wine off the shelf, whereas, packaging and label design have been reported to be of lesser importance (Chaney 2000; Hall et al. 2001; Thomas and Pickering 2003; Lockshin et al. 2009). Promotional display or previous experience and knowledge with wine also are prominent in survey results. However, surveys may lack ecological validity as interpretations are Journal of Sensory Studies ISSN 0887-8250 13 Journal of Sensory Studies 26 (2011) 13–24 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.