Abstract
Purpose: We sought to test if (a) price information given to participants (truthful, non-existent, or wrongful) as well as their (b) self-reported general decision styles (deliberate, intuitive) does have an influence on wine quality judgments and on purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach: Using a one-factorial blind tasting experiment of two wines of different quality, we have randomly assigned N= 104 subjects to three different price information groups: truthful, non-existent, and wrongful price information. In addition, deliberate and intuitive decision styles were assessed as potential moderators of wine-quality judgments and purchase intentions using psychometric instruments (Betsch, 2004).
Findings: We find that wine quality will prevail, i.e. that wine quality judgments and purchase intentions were unaffected by price information. However, decision styles do actually moderate comparative wine quality judgments and purchase intentions. While the association between intuitive decision making and wine quality judgments and purchase intentions is unaffected by price information, more deliberate decision makers are less able to discriminate the higher quality wine from the lower quality one especially when no or an incorrect price is given to them.
Practical implications: Because consumers tend (on average) to be able to discriminate between different levels of wine quality regardless of price information, the results suggest that wineries should employ value-based pricing strategies in the long run. Moreover, the results also indicate that wine quality assessments are less accurately captured by consumers using deliberate procedures (as opposed to those with an intuitive judgment style).