The weight of the bottle as a possible extrinsic cue with which to estimate the price (and quality) of the wine? Observed correlations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.01.001Get rights and content

Abstract

We report a study designed to assess whether there is any ‘weight’ to the claim that better (or, at the very least, more expensive) wines come in heavier bottles. A field study was conducted in an independent wine retailer in which we looked for correlations between weight, price, and a range of other explanatory variables. The data concerning 275 wine bottles from five countries were analyzed. An internet-based questionnaire was also conducted in order to assess the belief that 150 Spanish consumers held concerning the relationship between the weight of the bottle and the quality (and price) of the wine. The results revealed that the weight of the wine bottles correlated positively and significantly with the price of the wines; the significance level of this correlation varied by country. In addition, the weight of the bottle was also correlated with a number of other properties of the wine, including its vintage, color, and alcohol content. These findings suggest that consumers can extract potentially useful information by simply ‘feeling’ the price of the wine (i.e., by holding the bottle in their hands). The results of the questionnaire revealed a consumer trend toward associating the weight of the bottle, the price of the wine, and its quality.

Highlights

► The weight of wine bottles correlated positively with the price of wine. ► The weight of the bottle was also correlated with the wine’s vintage, color, and alcohol content. ► The significance level of these correlations varied by country. ► Significant effects were found in consumers’ ratings relating the weight, price, and quality of the wine.

Introduction

When shopping for wine, consumers often have a very wide range of different products to choose from (Britton, 1992, Rocchi and Stefani, 2005). Since consumers usually cannot taste wine at the point of purchase, their assessment of its quality, and hence their ultimate purchase decision, is typically based on the product extrinsic quality cues (such as brand name, price, advertisement, labeling, etc. (Lockshin et al., 2006, Olson, 1977), rather than on the product intrinsic quality cues (i.e., the sensory characteristics of the wine itself; Grunert, Hartvig Larsen, Madsen, & Baadsgaard, 1996).

According to Rocchi and Stefani (2005), consumers consider two main attributes of wine bottles when making their purchasing decisions. The first relates to the bottle’s shape, size, and color; whereas the second dimension concerns the type of closure and label. However, most published studies dealing with the influence of these product extrinsic parameters on the perception of wine by consumers have focused on the influence of the labeling (i.e., label information, imagery, layout, and color). Though the label of the wine bottle has been shown to provide information about the sensory attributes and quality of the wine contained within (Puyares et al., 2010, Verdú Jover et al., 2004), there are not so many studies concerning the influence of the characteristics of the bottle (as opposed to those of the label or closure) on consumers’ expectations of wine quality.

It is well-known that in many product categories consumers associate heavier products with better quality (e.g., Jostmann et al., 2009, Lindstrom, 2005, Piqueras-Fiszman et al., 2011, Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence, 2011, Spence and Gallace, 2011, Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2011). Wine bottles constitute one such class of product where this relation is believed to hold true. The first ‘modern’ wine bottle patented was dark, strong, and heavy (according to Estreicher, 2006). The technological innovation that enabled the production of such bottles soon extended throughout many wine-growing regions, supplanting the crafted delicate bottles that had previously been considered as a luxury. However, the symbolic qualities (e.g., the expression of luxury) associated with the glass bottles still remain, despite the fact that they are now widely available.

The popular wine press sometimes likes to suggest that certain wine producers are ‘tricking’ wine consumers into thinking that the wine is of a higher price (and better quality) simply by packaging it in a heavier bottle. For instance, take Goldstein and Hershowitz’s (2010, p. 80) claim that: “These Bogle bottles are hefty, and their weight is a nice featureone that often tricks people into thinking the wine is more expensive than it really is.”

Nowadays, wine bottles display a wide variation in weight. According to research from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme, 2006, www.wrap.org.uk), the weight of an empty 75 cl (approx. 750 g) wine bottle varies between 300 and 900 g (though the authors have come across a bottle of Catena Zapata red wine from Argentina of 1180 g), with the average weight falling in the region of 500 g. The reason behind such variability in the marketplace is not altogether clear from a consumer perspective. In 2006, Faraday Packaging and Glass Technologies investigated the specific associations that consumers had with the weight of glass bottles (including wine bottles). They also investigated whether light-weighting was perceptible to consumers, and for which classes of product this might be regarded as an acceptable marketing strategy. Their results revealed, as expected, that in the case of wine, consumers associated the weight of the glass bottle with the quality of the product within, the heavier the better. This was most apparent for premium goods. By contrast, the pattern was nothing like as strong for ‘value’ products where the weight of the packaging was not considered by consumers (at least not on a conscious level) to any great extent.

What is more, in a psychophysical study (http://www.glass-ts.com/Consultancy/ConsultancyPDFs/ContainerLite_Lightweight__WRAP_TZ969_-_2006_.pdf), 32 participants were asked to pick up two bottles of vodka from a shelf, one of 300 g and a heavier one of 500 g, both filled with 70 cl of vodka, one after the other. Of the 14 participants who noticed the weight difference, nine preferred the heavier bottle, which was perceived as being stronger, more expensive, of better quality and elegance, and being more ‘up market’. Note, though, that no statistical analyses were performed on the results in order to determine whether or not these differences were significant. Generally-speaking, when the weight difference was noticed, more attention was given to the characteristics of the container, and the heavier bottle was viewed more favorably.

But is the claim really true? That is, does the weight of the bottle actually provide a good indicator of the price (and hence, perhaps, also the quality) of the wine contained within? There is as yet no scientific evidence on this question as far as wine bottles are concerned. Of course, there is certainly a cost associated with lightweighting: Lighter bottles tend to be weaker and more likely to break during their transportation, so stronger bottles are usually preferred to protect the product, especially in the case of expensive wines. On the other hand, the heavier the bottle, the greater the cost of the raw packaging materials. Even when it comes to comparing a £15 wine with a wine costing no more than £5, some people still rely on the heaviness of the bottle as an indicator of quality (see www.thirtyfifty.co.uk/spotlight-environment-and-wine.asp). This may be because consumers believe that the increment in the cost of the glass is small when compared to the wine’s value and the risk of breakage. But, for wines selling below the £5 mark, this is a less significant factor. According to WRAP, there is no relationship between the purchase price of a wine below £5 and the weight of the bottle. Therefore, WRAP advocated a shift to 300 g bottles for wines selling for under £5 (some are 750 g) in order to reduce the amount of waste produced by wine bottles in the household waste stream (this issue is especially important given current global environmental concerns).

There are a number of different hypotheses as to the key factors that may ultimately contribute to the weight of a wine bottle. It is possible, for example, that people expect red wines to be sold in heavier bottles than white wines. It has also been suggested that the weight of the bottle may vary as a function of the vintage, and as a function of whether the wine comes from the Old World (e.g., those produced in the traditional European wine-growing countries, i.e., France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) or the New World (including Argentina, Australia, Chile, South Africa, and the USA). However, the weight of the wine bottle can be manipulated by varying the thickness of the glass and/or altering the depth of the punt (in the wines measured in this study the depth of the punt varied from bottles where it was virtually non-existent through to bottles where it reached in excess of 5 cm).

Given the lack of certainty surrounding the actual relationship between the weight of the wine bottles and the characteristics of the wine that they contain, the goals of the present study were: (1) To determine whether there is a correlation between the weight of the wine bottle and its standard retail price; (2) To look for any correlations between the weight of the wine bottle and its vintage, color, and country of origin; (3) To assess how much variation there actually is in the marketplace in terms of the weight of a 75-cl wine bottle; (4) To check for any correlations between the weight of the bottle and whether the wines come from the New World versus Old; and (5) To investigate (by means of an online questionnaire) the beliefs that wine consumers have concerning the weight of wine bottles and its relationship with the quality and price of the product within.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

The study was conducted in a wine store in Oxford (www.oxfordwine.co.uk). In excess of 500 wine bottles (over 90% of the stock in store) were weighed with a common calibrated digital kitchen scale and the main characteristics of the wines noted. Table 1 provides a summary of the variety of wines taken into account in the analysis of this study (n = 275). In addition, to gain insights on people’s general opinion about the relationship between the price and quality of wine and the weight of the

Wine consumers’ beliefs

All of the consumers responded using the scales (i.e., no one ticked the “I don’t know” checkbox). It can be seen that in general, people thought that the weight had to do more with the price than with the actual quality of the wine. As shown in Table 3, significant differences were found among the consumers groups’ ratings of their beliefs regarding the relationship between the weight of the bottle and the price or quality (p < .001); hence naïve consumers had significantly different opinions

Discussion

In summary, the results of the present study demonstrate that, generally-speaking, the weight of the wine bottles were correlated with the price of the bottle, though the extent to which this was true varied by country and type of wine. It should, however, be noted that just because positive correlations between weight and price were documented, one should not immediately jump to the conclusion that there is necessarily a correlation between price and perceived quality, given the fact that, in

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) and to the Universitat Politècnica de València for the Grants awarded to author B. Piqueras-Fiszman, and to Lee Isaacs, from The Oxford Wine Company for his collaboration.

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