Why are labels so important to our wine-buying choices?

In a busy bottleshop, where shelves are crowded and the choice can be overwhelming, it’s not the winemaker’s resume or even the price that will sell your wine. Learnings from consumer psychology tell us that most wine sales are made purely on the strength of a label.

The reality is most consumers aren’t connoisseurs; they are customers looking to buy an experience.

What their searching eyes see on your wine label lays the foundations for that experience. Purposeful and carefully crafted visual cues subtly influence perceptions of price, quality and even taste.

To encourage a hand to reach deeper into their pocket, consumers expect to see labels that feature minimalist, uncluttered designs and an elegant, refined font. Adding texture – such as embossing – provides a tactile feature that activates increased perceptions of price and correlates with heightened anticipation and an increased drinking experience.

To sell a wine at a value-for-money price point, labels need to visually jump off the shelf through the careful construction of bright colours, bold, fun graphics and quirky or unique fonts.

At the end of the day, your label sets the tone for your customer’s experience and is often as important – if not more important – in driving the sale than the wine itself.

John Jewell spends several months every year traveling the world and acquiring insights into consumer psychology, preferences and trends to bring back home and translate into eye-catching, award-winning labels for his clients. If you have a label or brand that could benefit from John’s experience and knowledge, give him a call on: +61 (0)2 6040 4433 or send him an email.