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With global wine production and consumption increasing, producers from every region must find creative ways to compete for consumers' attention and wallet. With an estimated 100,000 labels on shelves around the world, savvicr producers have turned to strategic branding as a way to distinguish themselves from competing offers (Peay, 2001). Such an approach requires marketers to design impactful communications that convey the different pleasures that reside in a whole bottle and that resonate with targeted consumers. On the issue of how best to communicate a wine's qualities and the hcdonic experience it produces, two opposing camps face off. On one side are those who defend the use of human personality traits borrowed from brand personality research (e.g. Aaker, 1997). Proponents of this approach use terms like "elegant," "voluptuous," and "sophisticated," to give human-like qualities to a wine. Although more poetic, such terms are also more vague and, when used too liberally, are often associated with wine snobbery (Cohen, n.d.) On the other side are those who advocate using objective descriptors that are free of subjective connotations and are as close as possible to the actual sensory experience produced by a wine. These different approaches translate in vastly different communication strategics. How should producers advertise their wines? Is using a poetic description more effective than a straight sell with objective descriptors? Evidence suggests that male and female consumers may react differently to these appeals. In this article. 1 compare men's and women's responses to advertisements for familiar and novel wines using cither objective sensory terms, subjective personality traits, or sex appeal.
Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses
The selection and enjoyment of a wine is a complex experience shaped by many factors. Consumers rely on label, point-of-purchase displays, expert rating or opinion and other word of mouth to form an overall impression of the wine that may guide them in their selection process. Beyond marketing communications, other factors can also have a significant influence in shaping consumers' purchase decisions. Consider, for instance, consumers' wine appreciation knowledge. Knowledge of and the ability to recognise a wine's sensory properties are the key to wine appreciation (MacNeil, 2001). It is here that views and opinions diverge. On the one hand, ocnologists and chemists argue that wine discourse should be free...