Increasing wine sales ...

Question: Could increasing the romance element of a restaurant sell more expensive Bordeaux? What about upbeat, hip music and art in a wine shop?

The Globe and Mail has a fascinating article about the psychology of how and why people choose wine.  Researchers at Brock University in Niagra are exploring the following:

1. How ambiance in a restaurant and wine shop can sell more wine.
2. Why the authority in any group can influence the followers into loving or hating any wine.
3. Why a Kangaroo on a label can motivate people to buy more wine.
4. Why the first wine people taste at trade shows is usually their favorite.

Here is an excerpt:

"Sensory scientists have built careers around trying to identify flavours that make some wines more popular than others. Now, a couple of Canadian researchers are turning their attention to a much deeper motivation for our wine-buying choices: bad judgment.

Introducing the new consumer behaviour laboratory at the Niagara region's Brock University, a facility devoted to probing such vexing questions as why pictures of kangaroos seem to have such pull with today's consumers and why, when presented with a series of mystery samples, people generally prefer the first wine.

Part psychology lab, part focus-group boardroom and part stage set, the facility, which was launched last week with a $69,000 federal grant, will enable researchers to create a variety of ambiences, including a barrel-cellar tasting room, candle-lit restaurant and liquor store.

"What we're interested in is looking at what types of cues participants would use to evaluate the wine," said Antonia Kronlund, a marketing professor who will oversee the lab with Isabelle Lesschaeve, director of Brock's Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute. "Independent of the actual quality of the wine or the attributes of the wine, we want to see if we can bias participants, increase or decrease their preference based on other extraneous variables."

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