Teaching Universities Students on Education for Consumer Citizenship

Teaching Universities Students on Education for Consumer Citizenship

Helen Theodoropoulou and Despina Sdrali

Helen Theodoropoulou^*, Assistant Professor

Despina Sdrali, Lecturer
Department of Home Economics and Ecology,

Harokopio University, 70 E. Venizelos, 17671 Athens, Greece

However, in traditional wine producing and consuming countries, the function of wine has been changing from nutrition to pleasure. Wine is consumed on special occasions and represents a sort of status symbol, leading to a more occasional drinking. According to various studies, the consumption of wine nowadays is influenced, on one hand from a long-lasting tradition that is characterized by religious and symbolic values, and on the other hand from a new behaviour of market and consumption that is connected with pleasure, psychological satisfaction and cultural values (Fotopoulos et al., 2003; Hertzberg & Malorgio, 2008). Today, there is an increasing demand for wines, especially those that they have fresh and fruits aroma (Zalacain et al., 2007).

Enterprises that deal with the marketing of wine need to know the consumer’s needs for wine, his preferences, his attitude and his purchasing behaviour, so that to create the necessary conditions for future production. Many studies have been carried out with regard to the attitudes and the preferences of consumers toward to wine. More specifically, Gil and Sanchez (1997) investigated and compared the preferences of consumers of wine from two different regions of Spain. The price, the origin and the year yield of grapes were the three characteristics that they used in their analysis. The results showed that consumers from these two regions follow different behaviours and, accordingly, they developed different strategies of marketing, so that they satisfy the particular preferences of all consumers.

In another study, Goldsmith and Hauteville (1998) investigated the characteristics of wine consumers and they grouped the consumers in three groups based of how frequently they purchase wine. According to the results of this study, the group with the heavier users of wine appears to be better informed compared to the other two groups of consumers. Tzimitra-Kalogianni et al. (1999) investigated the behaviour of wine consumers in regions of northern Greece. The Greek consumers consider that the wine makes good in their health and they prefer to buy bottled wine, mainly from supermarket or wine-cellars and they prefer dry wine. The main characteristics of wine that influence the purchasing behaviour of consumers are the flavour, the colour, the grapevine origin, the aroma and the brand name. The price of wine in Greece is considered to be reasonable for the majority of consumers. However, this study showed that even those consumers who consume wine almost in a daily basis, they are not well informed for the particular characteristics of wine. It was proposed for consumers interests need to be informed for the stages of production of wine, the differences among different types of wine and the ethics of wine consumption. Also, Hertzberg & Malorgio (2008) examined the preferences of 444 wine consumers in North-Eastern Italy. The results showed that certain demographic characteristics of consumer, such as age, affect the wine consumption frequency and the type of wine that they prefer. According to the researchers, the presence of α designation of origin, a known brand and the indication of the grapevine variety on the label increase the choice probability and are all associated with a positive wine consuming. Other criteria of choice are the flavour and the opinion of social environment. Finally, important characteristics of wine that influence the purchasing behaviour of consumer are the place of origin of wine and its price. (Mtimet & Albisu, 2006; Martinez-Carrasco et al., 2006; Perrouty et al., 2006; Hertzberg & Malorgio, 2008).

In recent years, in Greece wine consumption per capita is 35 litres per year. In previous years, greek wine consumption had a reducing tendency, probably because consumers replaced greek wine in favour of the imported alcoholic drinks and beer. The demand of imported alcoholic drinks had increased because of a favourable advertisement (Oustapasidis & Vlachvei, 1999).

In the past few years the quality of local wines has improved considerably, but they are still downgraded in the domestic market, since they can not compete against cheapest imported wines. The decrease on sales on local produced wine can cause economical problems in many small towns in Greece whose local economy depends on wine production. One place that faces such a problem is the island of Lefkada. Wine production and marketing in the island is done mainly in a co-operative level. The main aim of the co-operative is bottling and marketing the wine on behalf of the producers. However, one of the main problems that the co-operative faces is its inability to promote the “lefkaditiko” wine to a wider consuming public. The aim of the present work was to investigate the wine purchasing and consuming behaviour of residents of island of Lefkada in order to increase local wine consumption and to recommend to the consumers that by buying from wine co-operatives they can have better prices and in that way they promote the local economy.

Lefkada is a mountainous island in the Ionian Sea, which is fourth in size out of all the islands in Ionian Sea. The population of the island according to the census of 2001 is 22,006 individuals who reside permanently on the island. The economically active population is 8,471 of which 18% is occupied in the primary sector and 11% in the trade. Wine production is one of the main economic activities for the island of Lefkada. Since ancient times up to today, vines grow in all the possible cultivated mountainous areas of the island, which is the main agricultural product of this place. Table 3 shows the cultivated acres since 1980. Since 1986 the cultivated acres are decreasing progressively every year, until the last four years where the cultivated area remains constant, while the production of wine is also decreasing with small ups and downs (Table 4).

Source: Agricultural Sector of Lefkada

Source: Agricultural Sector of Lefkada

The aim of this study was to analyse consumer’s decision-making process and purchasing behaviour for wine in order to increase local wine consumption. The study focused on wine consumers who lived on the island of Lefkada.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect primary data for this study during 2007. The survey was conducted using a structured close-ended type questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three sections: the first one investigated the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; the second one explored purchasing and consumption behaviour and motivations, and the third one explored the wine consumers’ opinion about the wine cooperative of the island.

The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for calculating the means and standard deviations of continuous variables and the frequencies and percentages of categorical variables. The correlation between the respondents’ characteristics and their purchasing behavior was studied using the chi-square test.

The questionnaire gathered information about major socio-demographic characteristics of 101 wine consumers and their purchasing behaviour for local wine. There were three general limitations in the study. First, all the participants consumed wine being produced in the island of Lefkada, second, all the participants were aged 18 and over and at last, only one adult from each household could responded to the questionnaire.

According to the data analysis, the majority of the respondents (51%) were women. Most of the individuals were unmarried (48%). The respondents had attended high school (36%) and were employed mainly in the civil sector (29%). Twenty nine percent (29%) of the sample had a yearly personal income less than €6,000.

Thirty one percent (31%) of the respondents consume “lefkaditiko” wine few times per week, mainly for reasons of pleasure (80%). The consumption of “lefkaditiko” wine is associated with familial meetings and circumstances.

With regard to the type of wine, 42% percent of the consumers prefer white dry and 33% prefer red. Consumers prefer wine in bulk not bottled (69%). Consumers buy wine mainly from supermarkets (40%) and wine-cellars (32%). On the contrary, only 6% of consumers prefer to buy the local bottled “lefkaditiko” wine from the local co-operative. Fifty six percent (56%) of the respondents buy lefkaditiko” wine on the basis of flavour. For 38% of the respondents the aroma plays important role in their choice of “lefkaditiko” wine, while other important criteria that shape their purchasing behaviour are the lucidity of wine (42%), its colour clearness (37%), the intensity of colour (43%), the brightness (36%) and its fluidity (30%).

The price of ‘lefkaditiko” wine is judged as average for 75% of the consumers, even if it affects in the purchasing decisions of consumers in moderate degree (36%). Buying ‘lefkaditiko” wine is based on the packaging (38%) and trade name (29%). Advertisement does not constitute criterion for the choice of “lefkaditiko” wine according to the 29% of the respondents. Sixteen percent of the respondents consider that advertising plays an important role to their decision to buy “lefkaditiko” wine. Also, the effect of social environment in the purchasing decision for wine plays important role for 54% of the buyers. Finally, the authenticity of product affects the decision of consumers (43%) to buy “lefkaditiko” wine, because it is a local traditional product connected with the cultural history of island.

In general terms, consumers are satisfied to a great degree from the quality of “lefkaditiko” wine (56%). However, to the question that concerned the improvement of quality of “lefkaditiko” wine, 43% proposed the production of more varieties, while 26% proposed the promotion of the product outside the island. Twenty one percent (21%) judged that there is no need for improvement. Twenty percent (20%) believe that “lefkaditiko” wine needs to improve its packaging. Improvement of price was proposed by the 12% of the consumers and, finally, 1% judged that it should becomes better control at the collection of grapes, so that it is produced wine of better quality.

Based on the results of χ², the knowledge on subjects of wine is related with the gender of the consumer (p<0.05). Also, the frequency of wine consumption appears to be higher for married people (p<0.05). Finally, men prefer to consume wine which is associated with their tradition and culture (p<0.05).

According to the results, the respondents consumed wine few times per week, mainly for pleasure and during family or traditional gatherings. Consumers chose the wine based on taste and colour or on the recommendation of their friends and they used to buy it from liquor stores and not from local wine co-operatives. Results also showed that certain individual characteristics, such as gender and family status, affect the consumer structure of preferences.

As a consequence of the increased level of competitiveness in wine markets, companies need to acquire information about the customers’ requests. It is important to educate consumers to realize that buying from wine co-operative they can have better prices and in that way they promote local economy. Furthermore, producers, through seminars, can be educated for consumer’s decision making process in order to learn methods to promote their product in national and international level.

Moreover, consumers believe that it is important to promote and advertise local products like the “lefkaditiko” wine which they can promote local economy. Therefore, it is important on one hand consumers to be informed about products’ and on the other hand to improve local foods quality so they are competitive in the local or in the international market.

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