Connecting Product Attributes with Emotional Benefits. Analysis of a Mediterranean product across consumer age segments

Due to a high level of product substitution in the food market, it often proves difficult tostrike a balance between supply and demand. This is especially true in sectors with asuch high level of competition and product differentiation as the wine producing sector.Faced with the difficulty of differentiating the product in terms of its technicalcharacteristics, quality and price, therefore, a useful alternative is to explore whatconsumers perceive to be its “emotional benefits”, since these have been shown to havea decisive effect on consumer purchasing decisions. For marketing purposes, anunderstanding of how consumers’ personality traits condition their choice of productscan help manufacturers to improve their strategic positioning in the market. The aim ofthis study is to check for the presence of emotional factors in the consumption of wine,a traditional component of the Mediterranean diet, and, if such factors are found, testthem for variation across consumer age segments. An understanding of this issue mayhelp the various agents in the distribution chain to differentiate their products, andenable them to set up more effective communication policies to improve their strategicpositioning in the market. The study uses the laddering technique to interview wineconsumers in Navarra.