Humans are not purely rational beings—a fact that extends to their purchasing decisions. Especially when it comes to wine, buying behavior is often deeply emotional. As Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman aptly put it: "Once you stop assuming that people act completely rationally, you also stop assuming they make the best decisions."
Science supports this understanding of human behavior. One of the most well-known examples involves Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In 2004, researcher Read Montague conducted a study with nearly 70 participants in Houston. In blind taste tests, most participants preferred the flavour of Pepsi. However, when shown the labels, the majority chose Coca-Cola.
The reason for this was revealed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): while Pepsi activated the brain’s reward system, Coca-Cola stimulated regions associated with self-image. The conclusion seems clear, if possibly speculative: participants were more likely to see themselves as Coca-Cola drinkers
What Montague definitively demonstrated, however, is that brand perception can outweigh pure sensory preference.
A similar wine experiment was conducted in 2008 by Hilke Plassmann and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology, focusing on price instead of branding. Participants were asked to taste five wines labeled with ascending prices: $5, $10, $35, $45, and $90. However, there were only three actual wines served, with the $45 and $90 wines being identical to the $5 and $10 ones.
Participants rated the more expensive wines as tasting better.
Predictably, participants rated the more expensive wines as tasting better. Yet brain scans revealed a more complex story. While the sensory perception areas of the brain showed no changes, the orbitofrontal cortex—responsible for evaluating emotional stimuli and regulating emotions—became increasingly active as the stated price rose.
Another study found that this same brain region is significantly more active in sommeliers compared to novices when tasting wine. While novices displayed predominantly raw emotional reactions, sommeliers demonstrated more sophisticated neural responses.
This relationship between brain activity and wine perception is explored in greater depth in neuroscientist Gordon M. Shepherd’s 2016 book, ‘Neuroenology’. Shepherd explains that taste and aroma are constructed in the brain and are heavily influenced by external factors like price, prestige, and the opinions of others. These elements shape our sensory interpretation even during tasting.
For marketers, these insights carry clear implications. For example, wines in higher price segments should not rely solely on taste to justify their value. Similarly, arguments like ‘it tastes just as good but costs less’ often fall flat.
Ultimately, neuromarketing supports what experienced salespeople likely already know: novice wine drinkers respond best to simple descriptors like ‘delicious,’ while experts—or those aspiring to be—prefer discussions about terroir and cultivation methods.
Boosting sales with psychology and storytelling
Jonas Reggelin, agency founder and author of ‘Neuro Webdesign’, specializes in the intersection of neuromarketing and web design. He prefaces what he has to say with a caveat: truly tailored advice requires a deep understanding of a company’s strategy. However, Reggelin shares several broadly applicable techniques that can be implemented with ease.
One such strategy is the anchoring price. This involves presenting a high price point first, which makes subsequent prices seem more reasonable by comparison. “It’s almost as if the customer is negotiating with themselves,” Reggelin explains. He cites restaurant experiments, where listing the most expensive dish at the top of the menu made diners more willing to pay higher prices overall.
What’s fascinating, he adds, is that this effect works with any large number, not just prices. In one experiment, his agency placed a product’s item number above the price. While the effect wasn’t dramatic, it was measurable—leading to a 5% increase in sales with minimal effort. As long as the anchor number exceeds the price, businesses can leverage this psychological principle.
Reggelin also highlights the exceptional power of storytelling, particularly in wine sales. “Storytelling works with wine better than almost any other product,” he notes. In an online shop, this makes well-crafted text essential, as it’s the primary vehicle for storytelling. Yet, Reggelin warns, most website copy goes unread—an assertion he supports with data from his book, which claims that 80% of website text is overlooked.
To counter this, Reggelin advises against overwhelming users with ‘walls of text.’ Instead, he suggests breaking up content with bold highlights and subheadings to create what he calls a ‘second reading path.’ This approach ensures that even skimmers grasp the key messages, boosting engagement and the likelihood of conversions.
For online shops—especially those selling wine—combining anchoring prices and structured storytelling could be a simple yet effective way to influence customer decisions.
A common mistake, according to Reggelin, is using the product name as the headline. “The headline must sell the text,” he emphasizes. Simply using the product name is dull and likely to turn readers off, wasting the potential of sophisticated storytelling. “The headline is part of the storytelling—it should be emotional and capture the reader’s attention.”
Reggelin dismisses the common objection that product names need to be prominently placed for search engine optimization (SEO). He argues that this can be easily addressed through smart formatting, as the title that a human reader perceives as a headline doesn’t have to be the same title recognized by search engines.
In addition to choosing engaging headlines, subheadings, and bold text to break up content and avoid overwhelming readers, Reggelin also shares a technical trick: accordion menus. These are collapsible text sections that allow the reader to focus on one part at a time without immediately seeing the full length of the text. This encourages them to read more, especially when the subheadings and section endings spark curiosity.
“Copying Amazon or Apple is a waste of time."
One piece of advice from Reggelin that might surprise many is his view on emulating big brands like Amazon or Apple. “Copying Amazon or Apple is a waste of time,” he asserts. These giants have entirely different resources and challenges compared to a small online shop. For smaller retailers, the focus should be on convincing the customer: Why should they buy here? Reggelin explains that Amazon doesn’t need to convince customers—it’s already a trusted giant. Smaller shops, on the other hand, must work harder to build trust and present strong arguments for why customers should choose their products.
For smaller online stores, the key to success lies in creating trust, offering persuasive reasons for purchase, and crafting a story that resonates with customers—things that larger companies may not need to focus on as much.
Emotions and wine
While Reggelin’s approach as a web designer focuses on practical, actionable advice, Silvia Germann and Urs Burgermeister, founders of the Swiss consulting agency Inmind Consulting, take a more disruptive and research-driven approach. They have developed a tool that combines AI and neuroscientific insights to delve into the emotions and deeper needs that drive a customer’s decision to purchase, for instance, a bottle of wine. In a nod to Abraham Maslow, the creator of the term, they have called the tool MetaMotivation.
Their findings often yield surprising results. MetaMotivation draws on the work of psychologists like Ernest Dichter and Daniel Kahneman who emphasized that brands must infuse emotional content into their messaging, moving beyond purely rational selling points. Current research provides clearer insight into why emotions play such a central role in consumer behavior. Emotions guide us on how to act, and when a brand triggers the right emotion, the subconscious cannot resist the purchase urge.
MetaMotivation maps these emotions, showing where brands currently stand and where their greatest market potential lies. This discipline is known as neurobranding. Experts can create qualitative analyses, while MetaMotivation, thanks to AI, uses online data to generate quantitative ‘emotion maps’, offering insights into both competitors and a brand’s emotional landscape.
Looking at a demonstration of this system, it’s clear that customers in Germany have different motivations for choosing wine or champagne. For wine in general, unconscious drivers such as a sense of home and individual enjoyment are prominent. However, when it comes to French wine, the emphasis shifts, with individual enjoyment playing a larger role. Champagne, on the other hand, presents a radically different set of motivations, as revealed in the emotional maps.
Interestingly, wine marketing typically focuses on factual distinctions between products, often neglecting to address customers’ emotional drivers. There is significant potential to enhance marketing efforts by addressing emotional triggers at every stage—from label design to communication and sales strategies. By tapping into the right emotions and speaking to customers' deeper needs, wine brands can better resonate with their audience and unlock untapped market potential.
Burgermeister shares a practical example: Looking at a competitor to Nespresso, the premium coffee capsule brand, he points to a company called CoffeeB, which has a similar technology but eliminated the widely criticized aluminum capsules. This company tried to combine its message of sustainability with an exclusive image. “Spoiler: it didn’t work,” says Urs Burgermeister. The mistake, he argues, was trying to target too many areas at once, especially focusing on an abstract concept like sustainability. “For our subconscious, sustainability isn’t a driving motive,” he explains. Sustainability can only be effective if it's linked to other more emotional motives. Many brands, according to Burgermeister, make the mistake of being too fact-focused in their approach, often assuming that customers’ motivations are mainly rational.
So what do these somewhat abstract insights mean for the wine industry? Burgermeister suggests a couple of approaches: How do you create a business that attracts younger consumers? Or, more specifically, what can you learn from other categories that successfully target younger audiences, such as sneakers, sports cars, or handbags? The emotional motivators behind buying decisions in these industries are often similar to those in wine.
In conclusion, neuromarketing is less a tool and more a mindset that brings a fresh perspective to all aspects of marketing. From shop design to branding, neuroscience not only validates existing strategies but also reveals new insights, offering valuable guidance for innovative decision-making.
Mick Schulz
