Research Proves Tasting Room Value

Ontario study finds visitors recommend brands and become repeat buyers

 Vineland, Ontario -- Tasting rooms are a key to expanding markets and garnering new fans of rising wine regions. Recent research in the Niagara region of Ontario demonstrates the contributions of wine country tasting rooms. A study of almost 1,000 visitors to tasting rooms at five wineries on Ontario's Niagara Peninsula between August and November 2007 suggests that a tasting room is one of the best ways to develop and maintain a connection with consumers, even when the economy heads south.

A team led by University of Adelaide associate professor Dr. Johan Bruwer, senior research fellow at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in Vineland, Ontario, and Dr. Isabelle Lesschaeve, the facility's research chair in sensory and consumer sciences, found that visitors to the Niagara wine region who buy wine purchase an average of 3.15 bottles each, spending an average of $70.45 CAD (US$64.08) per visit.

The wines are primarily consumed within three months of purchase. Approximately half of tasting room visitors purchased additional wine or a first bottle from the winery within three months of visiting the premises.
"The experience of the winery impacts the future behavior of the visitors, at least the ones that we interviewed," Lesschaeve told Wines & Vines.

While further research is required to determine the exact factors that lead to the repeat sales, Lesschaeve said the work underlines the significant role tasting rooms play in cultivating loyal consumers. Indeed, 86% of tasting room visitors surveyed reported recommending wineries they had visited to family, friends and colleagues, making word-of-mouth the top method of building greater awareness for Niagara's wineries.

The project was funded through research contracts with three major wineries and two smaller properties. The wineries each received individual reports, which included data collated for the report the Vineland researchers published.

While research took place at just five of the region's 57 wineries, Lesschaeve believes it is reliable enough to provide insights into consumer behavior in the region as a whole. A repeat of the study last year at one of the five wineries that commissioned the original work yielded similar results."The re-purchase behavior and the fact that people were recommending their experience at the winery and recommending the brands to their friends or family was consistent between '07 and '08," she said.

Lesschaeve is discussing the possibility of a follow-up project with the Wine Council of Ontario, which is keen to improve customer service and satisfaction at its 81 member wineries. Council marketing director Wendy Cheropita said the council is pursuing a secret shopper program in Ontario's four wine regions this year for the second year in a row. The shoppers report back to wineries on visitor experiences. The findings will also help improve instruction delivered during an annual training program the council organizes for winery staff.

A deeper understanding of how tasting rooms cultivate loyal consumers is important, Lesschaeve said, because it would highlight whether it was the experience of the destination, the treatment visitors received at a particular winery or the enjoyment of the wines themselves that earn the wineries ongoing sales.

"This first step showed that the experience that those people had did indeed affect their purchase three months later, but we don't really know what affected that," Lesschaeve said. "We would be able to identify the key performance indicators in the wineries' tasting rooms that are key to the experience of the consumer so that visitors have this positive image and look for the brands in their future purchases."

Repeating the research on a regular basis would help the industry track consumer buying patterns and improve its understanding of what influences purchase decisions, Lesschaeve added. "The tasting room seems to be a big component in the ability to expand their markets, so that's why we're keen on developing this research," she said.