Steve Charters

• MA (Hons), MW, Phd, HDR
• Professor at ESC Dijon/Burgundy School of Business - Ecole de commerce, Dijon, France

Purpose This paper reports on a project looking at consumer perceptions of terroir in the UK, using cheese as a stimulus for the data collection. Design/methodology/approach Data collection was based on a consumer survey using a discrete choice experiment which included a number of cues to, and stories about, terroir. Analysis of preferences produ...

Consumption choices depend on the feelings experienced in the period preceding a consumer's decisions. We confirm this hypothesis using a large sample of Italian consumers collected by ISTAT (the Italian National Statistics Institute) as part of the multi-purpose survey “Indagine multiscopo sulle famiglie: Aspetti della vita quotidiana” (n = 114,05...

Discussion of terroir emerged from “Old World” producers explaining their wines’ provenance and special nature and consumers wondering why one wine’s flavor differs from another’s despite no apparent difference in winemaking. European markets have entertained the concept far longer than their New World counterparts, applying it to a range of agricu...

The onset of Covid-19 has been the most evident global crisis of the current decade so far. This study explores the difference between professionals in the drinks industry and non-professional wine lovers and the impact on their consumption behaviour of wine and other alcoholic beverages in the early stages of the pandemic, particularly in the cont...

This study advances the field of sustainability- and origin-related attributes with an analysis of the role of a carbon reduction claim in consumer choice when it is labelled in conjunction with terroir cues on a bottle of wine. Data derive from a survey, including a Discrete Choice Experiment, with a sample of 982 Italian young consumers. The esti...

Purpose In this paper, the authors argue that fine wines can be considered art and as such can be awarded luxury status. The authors discuss the processes of artification, through which such wines are recognized as art (Shapiro and Heinich, 2012), and heritagization, in which the cultural differentiation implicit in the concept of terroir (the var...

This study aims to analyse the influence of alternative formats of health warnings on French and Italian Millennial consumers’ choices of beer and wine. Two Discrete Choice Experiments were built for wine and beer and two Latent Class choice models were applied in order to verify the existence of different consumer profiles. Results show that young...

This study investigates the multi-sensory responses experienced by consumers in consuming and evaluating wine, and further identifies the differences in wine consumption experiences by novice wine consumers versus those of wine experts. How those experiences are shaped by consumer levels of knowledge regarding wine, and are defined by emotion, memo...

The aim of this paper is to identify the key drivers of wine tourism adoption in Chile and their feedback loop structures through an extensive literature review supplemented by in-depth semistructured interviews of Chilean wine managers. We develop a model to quantitatively assess the impacts of these drivers on wine tourism adoption over time. We...

This paper examines how aesthetic institutional logics and objects shape markets. We focus on the champagne field, for which dominant category conventions include luxury, celebration and protected regional origin (exemplified by grande marque champagne). Our attention, however, is on more recent, alternative conventions, such as site-specific terro...

Wine tourism is growing in importance in many European wine regions, reflecting broader trends of rural change. The past decade in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, a traditional and highly-reputed wine region, has seen changing demand from visitors for tourism experiences, and local actors have responded in various ways. Our objective of is to consider t...

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Purpose Tasting experiments involving willingness to pay (WTP) have grown over the past few years; however, most of them occur in formal wine-tasting conditions, removed from real-world experience. This study aims to conduct experiments on wine appreciation and willingness to pay in both settings, to allow a comparison of how tasters reached conclu...

Purpose The traditional view of the process of value creation suggests that it occurs inside the firm through its activities or resources. However, there are special cases where firms create value using external shared resources, e.g. a territorial brand. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how the combination of both internal and external...

This paper aims to analyse Generation Y consumers' preferences for, interest in and attitudes towards different formats of health warnings on wine labels in two countries with different legal approaches: France and Italy. A Discrete Choice Experiment was realized on a sample of 500 wine consumers. Three warning options were applied: the long-term e...

Purpose The purpose of this research study is to identify differentiation factors Burgundian wineries use to distinguish their brand, and to determine whether these methods align or conflict with luxury marketing differentiation attributes. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology of 23 in-depth interviews with various sized wineries,...

In today's society, globalization and global flows are ubiquitous and undeniable. Consequently, it is possible to question the role and importance of national identity in consumption choices. This research inductively develops a theory for product patriotism, defined as how consumers construe their identity through nationally-iconic product consump...

Purpose: This paper uses performance theory to explore how wine-tourism experiences are orchestrated by wine tour guides to encourage engagement of consumers. It describes how such orchestration is built on material elements such as landscapes, architecture, vineyards, production facilities, and wine tastings. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-l...

This chapter aims to understand the role of wine as a perceived component of the image of an urban tourism destination located in a traditional wine-producing region (Verona, Italy) for Chinese tourists. China is playing a marginal role in the local wineries’ market portfolios, but it is considered one of the most promising markets for the wine and...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to consider place as a value proposition, in the context of Resource-Advantage Theory, by analysing the concept of terroir, including its antecedents and consequences. Design/methodology/approach The authors conceptually analyse the role of place in marketing by contrasting terroir to three other approaches: “in th...

The aim of this research is to understand the role of wine as a perceived component of the image of an urban tourism destination and measure the weight of wine in shaping the destination image. Although many studies have shown that the typical wine and food offer is a pivotal component of the tourist experience also for an urban destination (see, e...

The Wine Value Chain in China: Global Dynamics, Marketing and Communication in the Contemporary Chinese Wine Market presents information on China and its role as a relevant player in the international wine industry, both as supplier and consumer. The book provides new insights into the global dynamics of the wine industry, expanding the knowledge o...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test Luna and Gupta’s (2001) investigative framework on the interaction of cultural values and consumer behaviour by conducting a cross-cultural comparison of young wine consumers’ interpretation of images of champagne and sparkling wine. The research examined consumer responses to the images through the pr...

This study aims to understand the terroir effect in influencing consumer’s choice and measure the utility given by the terroir attributes conveyed on a wine label, verifying the heterogeneity of consumer’s evaluation process. It analyzes young consumers belonging to Generation Y, from Italy, applying a Discrete Choice Experiment. An online survey w...

The Australian wine industry is dominated by small and medium enterprises. Many of these businesses incorporate primary, secondary and tertiary activities which require a range of management skills to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. The motives of owner/managers for being in this industry are varied and potentially impact on the succ...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine consumer preferences and perceptions of rosé wine with an ultimate purpose of constructing a perceived image of rosé in the cross-cultural context. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in four markets, comprising the USA, New Zealand, France and the UK. The data were collected via a structured...

The increase in recognisability and distinctiveness is the ambition of many cities, aiming to provide visitors with memorable experiences. This study aims to assess the most important components in characterising the perceived image of a city by current (Experienced) and potential (Inexperienced) visitors and explore differences in lived and expect...

While most brands belong to individual enterprises, some brands are collective and based in a single territory. This paper, based on qualitative research, examines the characteristics of these territorial brands using the case study of the wines of Champagne in France. Employing a series of primary data sets and past studies the paper first explore...

Purpose -The project was designed as a cross-cultural examination of consumer preferences, perceptions, and attitudes towards rosé wine. Design/methodology/approach -The study was conducted in four markets, comprising the US, New Zealand, France, and the UK. The data were collected via a structured self-administered survey through a combination of...

Purpose – This article aims to empirically test the terroir concept and tackles the issues of origin, typicity and legality. Whilst this has previously been examined at a theoretical level, the research uses a study of producer and consumer perceptions to examine the multidimensional nature of terroir and its relationship with authenticity. Design...

By bringing together a product with a rich cultural history—champagne—and consumers of sparkling wine in Russia, we aim to advance the understanding of authenticity. Our research objective is to use autobiographical histories to explore how consumers’ memories shape their perception of product authenticity. Ten in-depth interviews collected in Russ...

With asymmetric information, consumers need to rely on the reputation of wine to define quality before the purchasing. Amongst the tools available for underlining reputation, geographic location is considered to offer high potential. Today, some wines benefit from a country's reputation, some from the renown of a region and some from the local repu...

Purpose – The aim of this study is to consider how key actors in a territorial brand view the creation of value, and how it is balanced between the territorial and individual brands – using champagne as a means of exploring this. Design/methodology/approach – The project was exploratory and a qualitative process involving interviews with key actor...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the engagement of Australian consumers when buying and drinking Champagne. Design/methodology/approach The paper identified seven variables a priori that were expected to influence consumers' decisions and then used exploratory interviews to investigate how Champagne consumers were influenced by...

The world of champagne offers a fascinating insight into the complexity of modern business management and marketing. Champagne is at the same time a wine, a luxury product and a regional brand-it is tied to the place from which it comes, and can be made nowhere else. It therefore highlights a range of characteristics which make it interesting to th...

Regionally distinct cultural systems are manifest in the landscapes of all cultures. Geographers have begun to explore such cultural systems in an attempt to better understand a range of cultural geographical phenomena, but such an approach has yet to be applied to our understanding of tourism. Using Bonnemaison’s cultural systems approach, this pa...

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate and compare the engagement of Generation Y consumers with champagne and sparkling wine across five Anglophone countries. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was adopted using focus groups with young consumers, including images and wine tasting as projective stimuli. Findings There wer...

This is an international project investigating how young adults interact with sparkling wines and champagnes in a variety of hospitality environments. Research, via focus groups, was undertaken in the UK, New Zealand, United States, Australia and South Africa. The results show that two types of sparkling wine exist, "girly" fun wines and significan...

The goal of this article is to expand the understanding of wine tourism in a European context (less closely researched than that of New World countries) by examining aspects of its operation in Champagne. Two separate studies contribute toward this goal. The first qualitative project examined the perceptions of small champagne producers on a range...

Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate and compare the engagement of Generation Y consumers with champagne and sparkling wine across five Anglophone countries. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was adopted using focus groups with young consumers, including images and wine tasting as projective stimuli. Findings – The...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way Hong Kong drinkers have internalised the meanings associated with alcoholic beverages and how these meanings influence the motivation to drink. Also of interest was how symbolic meanings and motivations are similar or different to those in Western nations and the implications for the marke...

Wine tourism and research surrounding it has developed substantially over the last 15 years. The importance for wineries of visitation to cellar doors is recognised by both the tourism and wine industries (Carlsen and Charters, 2006; Mitchell and Hall, 2006) and the need to understand the expectations and experiences of wine tourists has driven muc...

There is a growing body of research on the experience of visitors to winery tasting rooms, and their expectations and satisfaction. This overview uses qualitative research in Australia and New Zealand to examine a number of themes relating to the visitor's experience in the tasting room, including the impact of the size of the winery, the nature of...

Purpose This conceptual paper seeks to examine the issue of whether or not a brand needs to be consistent. Whilst this assumption often seems to be made within the marketing literature, it has not previously been examined. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the example of wine to explore the consumer's desire for consistency. The paper is...

This is a theoretical paper providing a comparative overview of wine tourism in the New World and Europe - particularly the Mediterranean region. The review is timely because while there has been substantial wine tourism research in Anglophone countries, less has occurred in Europe, despite the fact that it has such a long history of wine productio...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits of tasting as a projective technique (PT) in explicating consumers' thoughts and feelings towards food and beverage products. Design/methodology/approach In total, ten focus groups were conducted with 35 consumers, 14 wine producers, and 13 mediators. The mediator category included t...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the key management skills for running a successful winery business, which in the Australian industry is predominately a small to medium sized business, and explores the existence of such skills within the industry. Design/methodology/approach The information was obtained through structured interview...

There is an increasing interest in the consumption and social meaning of food and drinks in the discipline of marketing. This article reports the findings of an exploratory research study into the motivational factors which inform the reasons why people drink wine. A qualitative research process was used to explore these factors to understand bette...

There is an increasing amount of research into both the marketing of wine and its historical development, but less consideration has been given to how the two might interact. This is a conceptual paper which considers how the historical evolution of wine consumption and production may influence some of the underlying ideas which inform the way in w...

Purpose There is growing research on the value of winery tasting rooms/cellar doors as an avenue for relationship building with consumers resulting in greater brand loyalty. This paper aims to examine the role of tasting rooms in this regard in an Australasian context. Design/methodology/approach The research was exploratory, designed to explore a...

This research investigates the perspective of wine drinkers on the relationship between food and nine generally. The research was exploratory, and used qualitative methods, in order to investigate in depth vine drinkers' understanding of wine and its relationship to food. The research suggests that the consumption of trine alongside food may have a...

Wine tourism is currently a key issue for the European wine industry. As wine production around the world continues to exceed consumption, techniques which develop brand loyalty and stimulate sales need to be developed. Whilst substantial research has been carried out into wine tourism in the new world much less has been done in Europe. Currently,...

The nature of product quality is complex and repays close investigation. Using qualitative methods, this study examined Australian wine drinkers’ perceptions of wine quality to construct a comprehensive, consumer-focused understanding of the complexity of the concept. Wine quality was found to comprise a number of dimensions, both intrinsic to what...

The Australian wine industry is dominated by small wineries and has experienced a large number of new entrants over the past ten years. With greater competition the importance of exports and wine tourism has increased, suggesting that business and management skills will be critical to the survival and prosperity of individual wineries. This paper i...

This study investigated wine drinkers' perspectives on how product quality is conceptualized. The research was carried out because the dominant paradigm for quality within the marketing literature is perceived quality, and as such it is important to understand how consumers construct frameworks to understand quality and specifically whether they sh...

The importance for wineries of visitation to cellar doors is recognised by both the tourism and wine industries (O'Neill and Charters, 2000). The quality of cellar door service plays a central role in the tourist’s experience of a winery and in the emotional attachments a tourist develops for a brand, and by implication, the future purchase intenti...

Wine regions are attracting increasing numbers of tourists through tours, wine festivals and events, and winery, restaurant and cellar door experiences. Using a host of case studies from Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand this book reviews the latest wine tourism research and management and marketing strategies. The book...

This book reviews a broad range of topics concerning wine tourism, including regional development, marketing, cellar door experiences, festivals and events, and tours and trails, with insights from case studies in Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The book has 20 chapters and a subject index, and will be of interest to...

This book reviews a broad range of topics concerning wine tourism, including regional development, marketing, cellar door experiences, festivals and events, and tours and trails, with insights from case studies in Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The book has 20 chapters and a subject index, and will be of interest to...

This book aims to enhance theoretical and practical understanding of quality management in tourism and hospitality. Part I (chapters 1-5) deals with the core issue of managing customer satisfaction. Part II (chapters 6-8) focuses on structural issues, particularly competition and collaboration, both of which are strongly characteristic of the indus...

This article presents a review of recent thinking about consumers' aesthetic experiences. These experiences are examined within the context of philosophical, psychological, and social science perspectives on aesthetics. A distinction is made between aesthetic products and aesthetic consumption, and these two concepts are discussed in terms of marke...

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between wine drinkers' product involvement and their engagement with wine quality. It examined particularly how they conceptualise quality, how they evaluate it, and the dimensions of quality they focus on. Design/methodology/approach The study used focus groups (including wine tast...

Purpose – Food and alcohol are symbolically and physically linked in many cultures. This article seeks to explore Australians' perceptions of the relationships between food and two of the more popular forms of alcohol – wine and beer. Design/methodology/approach – The findings from two parallel alcohol studies are reported. One study examined the...

The competitive nature of the wine industry in Australasia means many wineries recognise the importance of securing product sales and establishing brand loyalty through opening their cellar doors to visitors. Understanding what the wine tourist demands and wants from their cellar door experience is therefore critical for the success of the wine tou...

This study focused on consumers' difficulties with the concept of quality using the example of wine quality. The research was carried out because previous academic perspectives on quality have focused on the conceptual problems faced by researchers, rather than concentrating on the difficulties consumers may have with the idea of quality. Informant...