Yellow Tail label comes out on top with US wine consumers

A US survey has revealed Yellow Tail's striking kangaroo is the most appealing label for purchasers at wine shops.

California Polytechnic State University has published a research paper - How Millennial, Generation X, and Baby Boomer Wine Consumers Evaluate Wine Labels - that discovered 71% of US wine consumers make their purchases based on the attractiveness of the label, with Casella's Yellow Tail coming out on top alongside California's Twin Fin.

Author of the paper, Marianne McGarry Wolf, notes: "In an effort to attract the youngest wine drinkers—the millennials—wineries have upped the colourful, wacky, and creative design elements on their labels. Interestingly, in a cross-generational survey of the importance of attractiveness, millennials and Baby Boomers both rated a wine label’s appearance more important to them than Generation Xers did. For the most part, wine drinkers of all ages agreed which labels were most attractive. So it’s not only the millennials who are attracted to colourful and creative labels."

Among the groups, Generation Xers were the most attracted to the Yellow Tail label and inclined to purchase the wine on that basis.

Gender also played a role, with women preferring more creative, eye-catching, colorful, and ornate wine labels than men did.

It wasn't all about the front label, with 49% of the wine drinkers surveyed saying the words on the back label are at least somewhat important to their purchase decision. Around, 55% said they read a wine bottle’s back label at least somewhat often.

Consumers indicated that a description of flavours and aromas of the wine on the back label is the most important information, rather than details about the winery, food pairings, history of the winery, or history of the wine.

The survey also asked consumers to evaluate four specific back label concepts for a new wine - flavours and aromas, award-winning wines, growing region climate, and a romantic story about the winery.

Respondents said it was the flavour and aroma description that would probably increase their likelihood to purchase the wine. Awards and climate information may also increase purchase likelihood. The romantic story did not increase purchase interest.