Effect of geographical origin on consumers' emotional response to alcoholic beverages: A study with wine and cider

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AbstractConsumers do not evaluate food products exclusively using sensory properties, but rather they judge them using both intrinsic (ex. sensory properties) and extrinsic (ex. brand, packaging, geographic origin) factors. Alcoholic beverages include a wide variety of information on their packaging, with one factor being geographic origin. The purpose of this study was to determine how geographic origins can influence a consumer's emotional response to alcoholic beverages (wine and cider). First, consumers were asked to identify wine and cider‐producing countries. Then in the first trial, consumers (n = 112) evaluated wine samples from different geographic origins (France, Italy, Canada, USA, Nova Scotia [NS]). In the second trial, consumers (n = 102) evaluated cider samples labeled with different geographic origins (France, USA, Canada, United Kingdom, NS). In both trials, the samples were evaluated using the check‐all‐that apply variant of the 25‐item version of the EsSense Profile® and a purchase intent scale. The geographic origin affected the consumers' purchase intent of both wines and ciders. Participants that had higher knowledge about wine or cider, were not influenced by the geographic origin. In both trials, purchase intent scores increased when positive emotions were selected. However, the consumer's level of knowledge did not affect their emotional response to the different geographical origins. Future research should investigate how cultural background affects consumers' emotional responses, and the influence of other extrinsic factors.Practical ApplicationsConsumers have emotional responses to foods and these responses begin prior to purchase. Consumers rely on the packaging (extrinsic cues) to make purchasing decisions and alcoholic beverages contain a large number of extrinsic cues. Geographical origin is an extrinsic cue that is especially important for alcoholic beverages. This study aimed to evaluate consumers' emotional responses to alcoholic beverages from different geographical origins. The geographical origin affected the consumers' emotional response and purchase intent. When consumers experienced positive emotions their purchase intent increased. Future studies should evaluate the effect of other extrinsic cues.