Values as driving forces of culture-specific consumption patterns – an empirical investigation of wine consumers

Nowadays, consumers do not just consider the functional use of a product important, but also the emotional experiences a product is able to provide. These emotional experiences are sated with non-material elements of a product whose accordant importance depend on the values held by consumers. Hence, by referring to Means-End-Chain-Theory it can be stated that personal values constitute the actual buying motive. For this reason, the identification of values helps to explain purchasing motives and preferences. Since values do not just influence a consumer’s purchasing decisions, but vary between cultural circles, it is expected that cultural values lead to culture-specific consumption patterns. To determine these coherences between cultural values and the consumer behaviour of a cultural circle, 40 female wine consumers, comprised of 20 German and 20 Ukrainian women, were interviewed using laddering-interviews. The results of this empirical study will be presented in this paper. In doing so, we highlight some differences concerning the consumption habits of German and Ukrainian wine consumers which might be caused by the divergent cultural background of the consumers surveyed.