Consumer research for wine

Wine is complex alcoholic beverage composed of a wide array of sensory and product attributes. Therefore, while wine is an interesting product to research consumer preferences for, there are a series of academic and practical challenges one needs to take into account. The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, the chapter explains the reasons why wine is considered a complex product. Second, the chapter illustrates the various quantitative techniques one can use to investigate consumer preferences toward different wines, showing the main advantages and disadvantages of each technique and some notable examples of research conducted with each of these techniques. Third, the chapter provides some practical advice in order to conduct research for wine in an appropriate manner. In particular, the chapter explains what the researcher should keep in mind to set up the objectives of the research and how to apply these to the research approach. The chapter then continues by providing some indications of the costs one should keep in mind based on the approach one intends to use and the advantages and disadvantages of conducting research in-house versus outsourcing it to a research firm.