To Wine or Not to Wine

This paper examines wine consumers' personal involvement with wine. We use the notion of a Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) to segment wine consumers into wine enthusiasts (those highly involved with wine) and wine novices (those with limited personal involvement). Using a large and representative data set and employing a multivariate logistic regression framework, we find that a typical wine enthusiast can be classified as someone who has a strong personal preference in her wines, buys wine for pleasure, has a high level of knowledge on wines, and spends significant amounts of money in purchasing wines on a monthly basis. Our findings have important implications for wineries and other wine marketers and in the development of successful wine lists.