MESSAGE ON A BOTTLE: COLOURS AND SHAPES IN WINE LABELS Message on a Bottle: Colours and Shapes in Wine Labels

Wine consumers rely mainly on the label to infer the quality of a bottle. But there is little empirical research on how colours can be interacted with shapes in the design of wine labels. This study draws from an experiment using data from Spain and shows that there are strong preferences for selected colour-shape combinations in label design. Surprisingly, colour alone does not elicit as strong preferences as certain shapes do, at least when they are assessed irrespectively of the shapes featured in the label. Other combinations, on the other hand, are very resilient, especially those that contain colour hues, such as brown, yellow, black and green, in labels with salient rectangular and hexagonal patterns. It is probably the expressive qualities (primarily of colour but also of shape) that spontaneously affect the passively receiving mind, whereas the tectonic structure of pattern (characteristic of shape, but found also in color) engages the actively organizing mind. Rudolf Arnheim in Art and Visual Perception, a psychology of the creative eye. Consumers are well known to rely on the imagery, layout and colour used in labels to infer wine quality and brand personality (Gluckman, 1990; Jennings and Wood, 1994; Verdu Jover et al., 2004; Boudreaux and Palmer, 2007). Labels are also the second most important predictor of wine purchase intent, after price. Traditional labels, such as those depicting quintessentially French chateaux, bucolic vineyard sceneries and landscapes in pastel colours, are often taken to signal high quality. This is at odds with the effort made by traditional, highly acclaimed winemakers in Europe and the New World to innovate in label design by shifting away from these conventional patterns and motifs into more “modern” compositions featuring elaborate, catchy, colour-rich patterns. In this new setting, the now well studied quality signals associated with the chateau-on-pastel-background paradigm breaks down. A question that emerges is therefore how consumers infer quality, and hence their willingness to pay for a bottle of wine, when they are confronted with labels that do not conform to the conventional compositional patterns. This is particularly relevant in the case of infrequent drinkers, who are known to rely more heavily than regular drinkers on the information provided in labels (Chaney, 2000). To answer this question, this paper focuses on combinations of colour and shape in label design as the guiding elements to convey quality signals to customers on the basis of an experimental survey conducted among Spanish students. The emphasis of this study is on the colour-shape compositions depicted in wine labels that are deemed most appealing to consumers, regardless of the reasons for their choices. By shape we do not necessarily mean the actual geometry of the label, but the dominant form of the layout and motifs depicted in label design. Why colours and shapes? Colours have meaning and, as such, they are a fundamental tool in corporate/marketing strategies and communications. These underlying meanings are often used for the purpose of product and brand differentiation (Schmitt and Pan, 1994) on the basis of consumer perceptions (Grossman and Wisenblit, 1999). Shapes are also an essential feature of marketing strategies, but, to our knowledge, no research has been published to date on whether or not shapes have meanings of their own or when interacted with colours in wine label design. The research that is closest to ours in the empirical literature is that of Boudreaux and Palmer (2007), who also focus on selected aspects of label design (i.e., imagery, layout and colour), but emphasise their effect on consumer purchase intent and perceptions of brand personality. Recent research on brand equity has shown that strong emotional connections between consumers and products affect the perceived links between price and quality as a determinant of purchase intent (Pitta, 2007). Interest in how label design can be used as a marketing device stems from ever growing competition in world markets, as well as changing age and gender patterns in wine consumption (Barber, Almanza and Donovan, 2006). In this setting, the assessment of quality signals that go beyond the traditional label compositions becomes increasingly important. Previous research shows that wine packaging provides a quality cue that consumers use to assess alternative products with respect to their own values following a set of subjective rules (Reynolds and Gutman, 1988; Hall and Winchester, 2000; Lockshin, 2003). The shape of the bottle, the colour of the glass, the types and drawing patterns on the label should attract attention and help potential purchasers to distinguish specific wines from several competitors (Rocchi and Stefani, 2005). In this respect, packaging has to communicate to consumers the relevant and appropriate information about the quality of the wine, in some way replacing the salespersons action (Tootelian and Ross, 2000). Time also plays a role. Because a rising share of quality wine is marketed by large retail outfits, consumers often make their choices among a large number of alternatives in a very short time (Britton, 1992). Packaging elements that help consumers to evaluate swiftly both material and immaterial characteristics that make up the quality of wine (Nomisma, 2003) become increasingly important marketing instruments. The contribution of this paper is manifold. First, no empirical study has yet been published to our knowledge on the use of colour and shape, as well as their associations, in wine label design using Spanish data. To a certain extent, the dearth of published empirical work on these issues is due to competitive concerns (Bellizzi et al., 1983). Further research is nevertheless needed to examine the meaning of colour/shape compositions and complementarities on products and brand evaluations. Second, this paper opens up new opportunities for marketing research, especially concerning experimental design and the use of colours and shapes to extract information on consumer purchase intent. Finally, this area of research also has direct managerial implications. A better understanding of colour-shape compositions can be used as a tool for creating labels that are recognizable and evoke brand and corporate images. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents a summary of the relevant literature. Section 3 discusses the survey methodology, the questionnaires to be used and the sampling method. Section 4 reports the empirical findings. Section 5 concludes.