Public seminar - Wine Consumers

This public seminar hosted by the University of Newcastle Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition presents Dr Julie McIntyre from The University of Newcastle and Professor Michael Siegrist from ETH-Zurich, Switzerland.

Making Australian Wine Consumers

 

Dr Julie McIntyre

The University of Newcastle, Australia

The Australian wine industry grew from imported Old World (European) vine stock, skills and traditions. While British colonists in Australia made some drinkable New World wine as early as the 1840s, the predominantly working class population of the Australian colonies did not constitute a ready domestic market. They preferred beer, ale and spirits. Neither were there willing customers for colonial wine in Britain and the British Empire, the export markets to which colonial wine producers aspired. Despite this, due to industry efforts and rising prosperity, a cultural taste for colonial wine began to flourish in Australia prior to the 1890s Depression and again between Federation and the 1930s Depression. After World War II, although many wine drinking Europeans became Australian citizens as a result of migration schemes, a more significant trend saw beer and tea drinking British-Australians begin to turn to wine. In this presentation Julie outlines these key historic phases in the creation of Australian taste for wine to give context to contemporary questions of consumer preference.

Julie McIntyre is a historian whose research has provided a foundation for interdisciplinary wine studies in Australia. Her academic publications include the award winning First Vintage: Wine in Colonial New South Wales (2012). She is a member of the University of Newcastle's Wine Studies Research Network and Research Fellow on the Australian Research Council Linkage Project "Vines, Wine & Identity: the Hunter Valley NSW and changing Australian taste", partnered with the Hunter Valley Wine & Tourism Association and Newcastle Museum.

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How To Influence Wine Consumers

 

Professor Michael Siegrist

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

In the New World, the importance of wine marketing has been early recognised. Therefore, most studies examining consumer motivation to consume wine have been conducted in these countries. However, consumer insights for product development and marketing seem to play a less important role in the Old World. In the first part of his talk, Michael will present results from a wine consumer segmentation study conducted in Switzerland. These results may be important for more successful wine marketing. In the second part of his talk, Michael will discuss about how consumer's taste experience can be influenced. Results of an experiment suggest that a wine critic may affect consumers' experience itself and not only consumers' overall assessment of the wine after the tasting. Another experiment showed that the wine label influenced how much consumers liked a wine.

Michael Siegrist is a full Professor for Consumer Behavior and Head of the Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Prof. Siegrist studied psychology, economics and mass communication at the University of Zurich. Prof. Siegrist is an Associate Area Editor of the journal Risk Analysis and an Executive Editor of the journal Appetite. He has published numerous articles about risk perception, trust, risk communication, and food behavior. His research focuses currently on factors influencing healthy food consumption, sustainable food consumption and perception of food hazards.

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Following this seminar, a wine and cheese tasting will be on offer for attendees.  The wine and cheese is supplied and sponsored by First Creek Wines.  First Creek Wines is situated at Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley, NSW.

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