1. Thomas Brunner, Food Science & Management
Should I stick a label on organic wine or not? Results from a Swiss experiment.
Thomas Brunner, Food Science & Management
Bern University of Applied Sciences | School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL

2. Extrinsic information
Sensation transfer
Consumers are highly influenced in their hedonic evaluation of foods and beverages by the information provided (Skaczkowski et al., 2016)
Packaging (e.g. Lapierre et al., 2011)
Branding (e.g. Cavanagh et al., 2014)
Labeling (e.g. Ebneter et al., 2013)
Sensation transfer (Cheskin, 1954, 1957)
Extrinsic information
Expectation of taste
Sensory perception

3. Sensation transfer and organic
Organic foods generally perceived to be healthier but less tasty, particularly for those who expressed less concern about the environment (Schuldt & Hannahan, 2013)
Organic bread significantly more liked when it was labelled as such than when tasted blind (Annette et al., 2008)
Those who were interested in issues of sustainability liked organic products more (Laureati et al., 2013)
Depends on the product being evaluated and on the interest of the consumer in sustainability/health

4. Virtue and vice (van Doorn & Verhoef, 2011)
Primed participants with a vice versus virtue mindset
Found that an organic claim had a negative impact on quality perceptions in the vice manipulation
Quality perceptions had a positive impact on WTP
In vice food categories, organic claims are associated with lower quality, which seems to be only partly compensated by higher prosocial benefits

5. Sensation transfer and wine
Parker points (72 vs. 92) influenced liking of the wine when given prior to the tasting (Siegrist & Cousin, 2009)
Disclosing a high price before the tasting yieled higher ratings (only for women) whereas disclosing a low price did not influence the ratings (Almenberg & Dreber, 2009)

6. Methods Blind tasting with 38 participants
Age M = years (SD = 11.15), 22 female
Two “comparable” white and two “comparable” red wines
Vieux Murets, Johannisberg du Valais, AOC 2013, CHF 9.45
Pasas Monastrell, Viñas Viejas, Jumilla, DO 2011, CHF 11.50
Told that one was conventionally the other organically produced, actually the same wine for each color
Hedonic rating on a 10 cm line “I don’t like it at all” and “I like it very much”

7. Results Color: F(1,36) = 15.33, p < .001
Viticulture: F(1,36) = 6.41, p < .05
Interaction: F(1,36) < 1

8. Discussion
Another example of how consumers are influenced by extrinsic information
The organic label did not help to improve the perceived quality of wine
Usually, people equate organic with more healthy and healthy with less tasty (Raghunathan et al., 2006).
An organic label might work well with foods that are supposed to be healthy
Wine is primarily a luxury beverage that is consumed to enjoy and socialize, and thus does not have to be, or perhaps should not be, healthy
Participants’ prior experience with drinking organic wine did not change this pattern

9. Contact Dr. Thomas Brunner Professor of Consumer Behavior
Bern University of Applied Sciences
Food Science & Management
Länggasse 85
CH-3052 Zollikofen
+41 (0)