The Influence of New Media on Customers Buying Behaviour in the Wine Sector: Empirical Models and Simulation of Information Diffusion among Potential Customers

We empirically evaluate the impact of media and information on wine buying decisions. In particular, the analysed factors are: advertisements/reviews on traditional media (e.g. magazines, newspapers, TV); advertisements/reviews on new media (e.g. forums, blogs, websites); price; brand; word of mouth; previous personal experience. A growing number of specialized sites, blogs and forums is devoted to wines and many of those feature competent, professional reviews and suggestions. Since wine is a traditional good, not linked to technology, the research question is to empirically analyse whether these new channels have an influence on consumers’ behaviour and decisions, or not. In order to study this, a questionnaire has been created and spread to potential Italian buyers, gathered from specialized websites and blogs, wineries or social channels. A Likert scale (1-7) has been used to evaluate the level of agreement towards the impact on buying decision of the mentioned factors. A total of 460 full questionnaires have been returned; the data have been analysed by statistical means, to compare the impact on consumers’ behaviour of new media compared to more traditional sources of information. After that, a simulation model has been used, parametrized with the data coming from the questionnaire, to show how new and social media, when used as a marketing and communication mean from the company, can impact the diffusion of a message towards potential customers, in this specific use case