Innovative approaches to wine marketing: Applications of influencers, VR technology and gender cues

Shenrui Deng

doi:10.7273/000005322

The three-essay dissertation explores three novel approaches to wine marketing from the influencer marketing, VR technology marketing, and gender marketing aspects, which is in response to rising phenomena such as the prevalence of social media influencers, adoption of virtual reality technology, and dynamic changes of female consumers’ lifestyles and an uprising awareness of identity and empowerment induced by the feminine movement. The composition of main research objectives under these three essays is responding to a calling for more innovative research in wine marketing and hospitality marketing, supporting the transformation of sustainable marketing structure and renaissance of economic activities after the enduring impact of Covid-19 pandemic at the micro and macro levels. My first essay incorporated big data analysis and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to underpin TikTok users’ responses to the influencer-endorsed wine videos in a systematical manner, drawing upon the message interpretation framework. The user-generated content data were harvested using Python programming from 81 wine videos uploaded by the leading 30 social media influencers, who emphasized wine products and consumption experience messages. About 24,458 online comments were analyzed through topic modeling via latent Dirichlet allocation, content analysis following two-cycle coding, and Mann-Whitney U tests techniques. The findings suggested that Tik Tok users responded to product-related topics the most, followed by influencer-focused, emotional-focused, drinking intent-related, behavioral-involved, logical-oriented, internalization-related, platform-involved, and skepticism-focused cases. Furthermore, the study found significant differences in the focus of influencer-endorsed wine video messages between gender and generational cohorts (Gen Z versus Gen Y). This information can help wine marketers develop effective segmented strategies, optimize the effectiveness of influencer marketing in the wine domain and avoid potential resource waste. The second essay unraveled innovative wine marketing techniques by leveraging virtual reality technology, catering to individuals who face physical disabilities or constraints that prevent them from experiencing wineries in person. In this essay, we designed two consequential experimental studies to investigate the role of virtual social presence on desirable outcomes, namely memorable wine experiences and destination visit intention through mental imagery and telepresence, and the interplay between virtual social presence and environmental cue (nature: vineyard setting versus non-nature: tasting room setting) on memorable experience and destination visit intention, respectively, drawing upon dual coding theory. The first study in Essay Two was operated through an online experiment, and 177 qualified responses were retained to examine the proposed path analysis using Mplus 8.1 version. The second study in Essay Two was conducted through an onsite investigation at the consumer behavior lab at the Carson College of Business. Through seven days of recruitment, 85 participants attended the research, experienced the VR adventure in a wine tourism context, and reported their feedback with a small cash incentive. MANCOVA was incorporated to test the proposed main effects and the moderation effect. The results revealed that VR users had a higher memorable experience and destination visit intention when exposed to a virtual social presence-focused environment. Furthermore, the positive linkage between virtual social presence and destination visit intention was moderated by environmental cues. The third essay proposed novel wine marketing tactics from gender marketing aspects to address the benefits of gendered wine products, responding to the ongoing feminine movement and a call for more gender and sensory experience research in the hospitality and tourism domain. In this essay, we operated an onsite experiment. Specifically, we recruited 153 female wine consumers from our community to give feedback regarding their sensory expectations, sensory evaluation, and purchase intention after reviewing and sampling a local winery-sponsored red wine packaged with fictional gendered wine labels (feminine versus masculine). By doing so, we aimed to underpin the effect of gendered wine product and the underlying mechanism between gendered cues on purchase intention through sensory evaluation, grounded on gender schema theory and expectancy disconfirmation model. Before the field experiment study, we designed several wine labels embodying feminine, masculine and neutral cues. Through an online pilot test, we confirmed three wine labels in our research. Afterward, a three-level within-subject experiment was included to examine the efficacy of selected stimuli and the direct linkage between gendered wine produce and purchase intention. For the main study, MANCOVA was operated to examine the impact of gendered cues on sensory experience, and Haye’s Process Model 4 was operated to examine the indirect paths. The results in Essay Three supported the acclaimed role of gender cues, primarily the favorable consequence of feminine signals, on female wine consumers’ sensory expectation, sensory evaluation, and sensory disconfirmation and ultimately their purchase intention. An additional follow-up data collection was created, attempting to provide more valuable input to winery owners for the design of female wine consumers’ preferred wine styles, aligning with the perceived sensory expectations provoked by gendered wine label design. All three essays, to the best of my knowledge, are the first trials to enrich the existing literature of knowledge in wine and hospitality marketing from different perspectives. Therefore, our findings will provide meaningful input and recommendations for wine business people and hospitality marketers to draft effective and innovative marketing strategies and target an untapped segmentation from a new lens.

Innovative approaches to wine marketing: Applications of influencers, VR technology and gender cues

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