Cause-Related Marketing and Health-Related Information on a Wine Label

Despite the attention that Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) has received, effects of a cause’s relevance to health issues in the wine industry still need to be explained. The recent interest of wine consumers in the effects of wine consumption on their health has rarely been investigated along with CRM in wine studies. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how cause messages and health-related statements presented on a wine label affect wine consumers’ trustworthiness of messages on the label, perception of the cause supported by a winery, and purchase probability of wine. Three hypotheses were tested via a quasi-experiment based on a 2 (cause messages) x 3 (health-related statements) crossed design. The researcher created six different manipulated wine labels. Data was collected in cities in Texas and Washington during spring, 2010. Participants were assigned to one of the six treatments and then evaluated two different labels for increased generalizability. The results suggested that wine consumers recognized a good cause. The recognition of a winery’s social contribution drew more positive evaluation of the causes if a winery supported a health-related organization as opposed to a non health-related organization. However, direct links between a cause type and trustworthiness of messages on a wine label as well as purchase probability of wine were not found. A winery’s goodwill was positively enhanced by added health-related referrals. Wine labels with health-related referrals also induced a higher trustworthiness of overall messages on labels. The results indicated that consumers presented with a health-related referral showed a higher purchase probability than consumers without such a referral did. However, the sources of referrals were not significantly important to consumers. The findings imply that wineries may benefit by wine consumers’ recognition of good causes and presentation of health-related referrals on wine labels. Consumers appeared to perceive a health-related cause as a more legitimate contribution to a social cause. However, both health-related and non health-related causes were positively enhanced by health-related referrals. Health-related referrals, regardless of sources, tend to increase consumers’ trustworthiness of the messages on labels and probability of wine purchase.