71 percent of wine drinkers are won over by labels

A full body, the subtlest floral notes and a dry finish are all qualities one imagines consumers look for in a good wine. After all, connoisseurs, oenophiles and amateur sommeliers have infiltrated the mainstream through blogs, magazines and other food media. As consumers are constantly inundated with information about what makes a wine good or bad, the answer for many is a very simple question: How nice does the label look? 

According to an Australian study, 71 percent of wine drinkers are persuaded to buy a new wine at least partially by good visual branding. With little variation among glass bottles on the market for 750 milliliters of vino, it really all comes down to how nice a label looks, how informative it is and the brand experience text and images provide for shoppers. Conducted by the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES), the survey found that while it’s hard to adequately judge a wine by its label, the majority of consumers certainly do try. 

Forty-eight percent of participants said they regularly evaluated the front label design, while 27.2 percent admitted to using the back label as a purchase guide. Between one third and one quarter of respondents rated the look of either label as being “very or extremely important” to arriving at a decision, and 74 percent said they regularly read the back label for information before making a choice. 

For winemakers, this is very good news. With product label printing more convenient and customizable than ever before, wine entrepreneurs can craft the perfect advertisement for their product, right on the bottle. Custom label printing can take a dull presentation of a range of wines to the next level, and attract customers on the strength of the image and information.