The influence of gender on wine purchasing and consumption

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the purchasing behaviour of consumers across four nations and evaluate the influence that gender has on wine purchasing decisions. Design/methodology/approach – An interviewer‐administered questionnaire was used to examine the actual purchase decisions made by 399 consumers inside stores in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the USA. Findings – The results indicate that gender has little significant impact on the frequency with which consumers purchase and drink wine. In addition, gender does not significantly influence the number of attributes which are evaluated by consumers nor the importance that they attach to them. In terms of product attributes, gender was found to significantly influence consumer utilisation of the discount price cue and the region of origin cue. Practical implications – For those wine marketers who are targeting the female consumer, one implication of this research is that this may be achieved by utilising price discounts. In general, however, the results provide little evidence of significant differences between males and females in terms of wine purchasing behaviour and therefore suggest that gender may not be a useful variable for segmenting the global wine market. Originality/value – This paper adds to current knowledge regarding the influence of gender on purchase decision making. In particular, the paper is of significance because it has explored the behaviour of consumers during an actual purchase decision and examined the views of consumers across four nations.