Wine brand category choice and Confucianism: a purchase motivation comparison of Caucasian, Chinese and Korean consumers

Immigrants are an important demographic group who are increasingly targeted as consumers by the wine industry in Australia and other Western markets. These markets are often not homogenous as intra-national diversity has created a complex market place in many Western key markets. In this study, wine brand category choice for Chinese and South Korean consumers living in Australia was probed and contrasted with the choices of Caucasian consumers. Three purchase scenarios, namely self/household-consumption, social entertainment-use and gift giving were presented to 511 consumers through a shopping mall intercept using a paper-based questionnaire. Separate models were developed to distinguish preferences for Australian and French wine. Backward deletion regression analysis was used to arrive at the most parsimonious models. A comparison of three research models, namely a marketing model, a Confucian Consumption Behaviour Component (CCBC) model and a Hybrid Model were tested. We found that the hybrid model (i.e. a combination of marketing variables and CCBC variables) has the highest explanatory power for consumers’ wine brand category choice. Different ethnic groups have different wine brand category choice for different purchase scenarios. Our findings provide theoretical implications for ethic marketing research and brand category choice, and we also offer insights for wine makers to better position their products for all markets characterised by intra-national diversity.