Young adults' taste perception, consumption habits, and how this influences their willingness to pay for wine: Evidence from an experimental auction

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate whether consumers' taste perception and wine consumption habits lead to different buying behaviors regarding consumers' willingness to pay for a bottle of wine. For this purpose, this research employs an empirical evaluation using an experimental auction, along with the self-administration of a questionnaire, involving a sample of young adult students (n = 80) from a Spanish public university. In the experiment, we test four wines of the same region with different characteristics. A standard confirmatory partial least square-structural equation modeling was used for measurement and validation. The findings show that although consumers' buying behavior could be driven by either intrinsic (i.e., sensory perceptions) or visual (i.e., certifications) cues, consumers' taste perception or wine consumption habits lead them to react differently to these cues. By considering possible on-trade and off-trade scenarios in the same study, this study takes a fresh and more comprehensive look at young adults' willingness to pay for a bottle of wine. Overall, the study attests to the importance of a previous sensory experience for these consumers, identified as having a low degree of involvement with wine, and concludes that some extrinsic cues can be overestimated concerning taste expectations. The evidence obtained by using quantitative methods found a reliable insight that practitioners and administrators can implement to develop and adopt effective policy interventions.Practical ApplicationsConsumers' willingness to pay for wine is based on sensorial aspects or having information to support the decision. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate whether consumers' taste perception and wine consumption habits lead to different buying behaviors regarding consumers' willingness to pay for a bottle of wine.