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Just how gullible are wine drinkers, anyway?
I was browsing through my Sunday paper yesterday (1-4-09) when a few sentences in a Parade magazine article entitled “How Subliminal Advertising Works” stopped me in my tracks:
Music also can direct us to certain products. For example, it can determine what kind of wine we pick up from the shelves. In one experiment over a two-week period, British researchers played either accordion-heavy French music or a German brass band over the speakers of the wine section inside a large supermarket. On French music days, 77% of consumers bought French wine, whereas on German music days, the vast majority of consumers picked up a German selection. Intriguingly, only one out of the 44 customers who agreed to answer a few questions at the checkout counter mentioned the music as among the reasons they bought the wine they did.
Are we really that stupid? Or is it just … you know … the British who would fall for such a ploy? I don’t equate oom-pah music with German wine, and when I hear an accordion, hell, I still think of Lawrence Welk, not French wine. But how would an Americanized version of such a study be devised? A Dayton wine shop would sell more Ohio wines if they continuously piped in the Buckeye fight song? “California Dreamin’ ‘” would make wines from that state fly off the shelves?
The research cited in Parade apparently dates to 1999 and appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology under the headline “The influence of in-store music on wine selections”. I couldn’t find a no-cost, full-text version of the research article on the web, but perhaps I just didn’t look hard enough.
Still, I find these shoppers’ purchasing decisions hard to believe, don’t you? Are we wine consumers that gullible?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: wine marketing
Comments
By Mark Fisher
January 6, 2009 7:08 AM | Link to this
DanD: Yes, I’d love to borrow the full text of the study. My snail mail address is: Mark Fisher, Dayton Daily News, 1611 S. Main St., Dayton, OH 45409. Thanks, and thanks also for the analysis of the study’s shortcomings.By DanD
January 5, 2009 4:56 PM | Link to this
I have looked at the study and would not find the results persuasive. The major flaws in the study are a very small sample size and the absence of a control group. While the store sold over 100 different kinds of French and German wines, the study focused on only four of each type located on a specific set of shelves. The study did not specify the ratio of red wine to white wine. The only control on the wine was to try a balance the sweetness of the wine. Over the two week time period, 82 bottles of these eight wines were sold. Independent of what music was played, 63% of the participants (52 vs. 30) selected the French wine. The effect of French music was stronger than that of the German music. When French music was playing, consumers purchased 40 bottles of French wine vs. 8 bottles of German wine. When German music was playing, consumers still purchased 12 bottles of French wine vs. 22 bottles of German wine. The Chi-square test they used to claim a significant difference is not reliable with such low numbers—especially the 8 bottles of German wine purchased under the condition of French music. Even though the study used Yates’s correction to statistically account for the small number of total bottles in the study, the low number of bottles in general and the 8 bottles of German wine in the French music condition means that the significance test would not of had the power to avoid a type one error—finding a statistical difference when in fact there is no actual difference. Equally important is the lack of a control group-a group that did not hear any music or purchased wine not included in the study. Without a control group, the experiment cannot rule out a host of alternative explanations. Without any music, for example, did people still purchase French and German wine in the same ratio? Were the sales of the wines used in the study during the two weeks of the study different than any other two week time period? Assuming that the music could be heard throughout the story, did the sale of other French and German wines (or any other type of wine) throughout the store change? It may very well be that the playing of French music actually increased the purchase of Italian wine storewide compared to previous weeks!By DanD
January 5, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this
I have a copy of the full article. Do you want me to send it to you?By UrbanDweller
January 5, 2009 3:02 PM | Link to this
That’s the reason it’s called ‘subliminal’ advertising! Otherwise, it would be called consciously aware advertising.By sigh
January 5, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this
chiefwino, you are so right. I buy items when it looks like a lot of other people have bought sometimes. But only when I am in a hurry and haven’t paid attention to what is on sale. I know at sometime over the last 30 years I have fallen for the other ploys you’ve mentioned. But not so much the last five years because I plan what to buy and I pay attention to prices.By chiefwino
January 5, 2009 7:50 AM | Link to this
I don’t know about the music influencing purchases, but other techniques certainly work. Put a sign on a slow moving product that says “LIMIT 2” and it will fly out the door. Also don’t fill the display case stacks completely full. If it looks like someone else has already bought a bottle or two then people will be more likely to select that item as compared to a similar wine at the same price with the display full. Also stacking the wine up on the end of the aisle, even without changing the price, and people assume it is on special. Using bright colored “Sale” stickers without changing the price will help jump start sales. Some people like to dig through the “closeout” bin looking for the golden egg hidden at the bottom even if the same wines are on the shelf at the same price.By Jim T
January 5, 2009 7:04 AM | Link to this
So does this mean if a Dayton store played accordion music while you were shopping you would buy Champagne and go home and watch public television at 7PM on Saturdays when they replay old Lawrence Welk shows? He was all about the bubbles anyway.