Wineries in the mid-Atlantic region should consider recycling and encouraging their customers to bring bottles to their tasting rooms for refilling to distinguish their businesses from so many others, according to a team of wine-marketing researchers who surveyed consumers.

With competition to attract visitors stiff and still growing among the hundreds of wineries in the region, connecting a winery’s brand to sustainable practices would attract more visitors to its tasting room, according to Kathleen Kelley, professor of horticultural marketing and business management in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. The strategy, researchers believe, would especially appeal to environmentally conscious younger customers.

«We see that millennials seem to be more concerned with the environment, so a way for wineries to stand out from the crowd with younger wine consumers is to encourage recycling bottles and perhaps offer refillable growlers,» she said. «The question is, how do we motivate people to return to wine-tasting rooms? Using recyclable containers is one way.»

The purpose of the research, recently published in the British Food Journal, was to investigate consumers’ wine preferences, recycling attitudes and behaviors, and socio-demographic data in an effort to build market-segment profiles of those willing to bring wine bottles back to wine-tasting rooms to be recycled. The study also looked at consumer attitudes toward glass-alternative packaging and various cork-alternative bottle closures.

To learn consumer preferences, researchers administered a detailed online survey to 714 wine consumers residing in the mid-Atlantic region — Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey — and the researchers analyzed their responses using a special method that allowed market segments to be identified. About 85% of survey participants indicated that they were willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery for recycling.

Collectively, 77% of participants were members of just three of the eight market segments developed, with 90% percent of participants in those segments willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery tasting room to be recycled. These three segments were comprised of millennials, born between 1980 and 1994; members of Generation X, born between 1965 and 1979; and Baby Boomers, born between 1944 and 1964.

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