The purpose of this study is to explore wine consumer appreciation towards terroir-based communication in the social media context. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach was applied to elicit consumer preferences for alternative Instagram posts including image-based and text-based signals about wine terroir. An online survey was administered to a sample of Italian wine consumers who use social media. Results showed that image-based posts were largely preferred to text-based posts. Among image posts, the visual appearance of the grape variety and the natural label, which means a combination of an intrinsic cue with an extrinsic one, gains higher user attention in comparison with the other signals. Among text posts, posts proposing a ‘terroir association’ received higher priority than those explaining a ‘terroir concept’. These results were tested analysing real Instagram posts of an Italian winery. The number of likes received by the different terroir-related posts reflected the AHP-estimated global priority weights highlighting that actual consumer appreciation agreed with the evaluation determined by using the proposed AHP model. The study revealed that the AHP was a useful approach to evaluate wine consumer engagement with digital communication. It contributed to understanding how wineries can effectively convey wine terroir meanings via social media.

The ‘sense of terroir’ among wine-consuming social media users in Italy

Capitello, Roberta;Ricci, Elena Claire;Begalli, Diego
2024-01-01

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore wine consumer appreciation towards terroir-based communication in the social media context. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach was applied to elicit consumer preferences for alternative Instagram posts including image-based and text-based signals about wine terroir. An online survey was administered to a sample of Italian wine consumers who use social media. Results showed that image-based posts were largely preferred to text-based posts. Among image posts, the visual appearance of the grape variety and the natural label, which means a combination of an intrinsic cue with an extrinsic one, gains higher user attention in comparison with the other signals. Among text posts, posts proposing a ‘terroir association’ received higher priority than those explaining a ‘terroir concept’. These results were tested analysing real Instagram posts of an Italian winery. The number of likes received by the different terroir-related posts reflected the AHP-estimated global priority weights highlighting that actual consumer appreciation agreed with the evaluation determined by using the proposed AHP model. The study revealed that the AHP was a useful approach to evaluate wine consumer engagement with digital communication. It contributed to understanding how wineries can effectively convey wine terroir meanings via social media.
2024
Terroir
digital communication
wine consumer
Analytical Hierarchical Process
signalling theory
Instagram
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1144430
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