Purchasing Modalities and Consumption of Wines in Romania: A Segmentation Proposal

French companies in the wine industry are facing a decline in demand on their domestic market and an increasing competition on their traditional export markets. A solution for French companies could be to seek new outlets. Eastern and Central European countries, because of their fast economic growth and of the recent evolution of their consumption modes, are very attractive market targets. In order to better understand these emerging markets, this article analyses wine consumption using a sample of consumers of the area of Banat in Romania. From data collected using a questionnaire, it aims describing and identifying the principal characteristics and determinants of this consumption and proposes a market segmentation. With this intention, we use two different approaches of market segmentation (one-dimensional and multidimensional) based on socio-economic and behavioral criteria. We obtain five segments which are different by the importance given to various product characteristics and the modes of data processing. Four of them describe the principal characteristics of the consumers interested by wine, whereas the fifth gathers the individuals not interested by wine.