Are customers having e-conversations about your wine? The importance of online discussion forums as electronic word of mouth for wine marketers

Wine purchase decisions are influenced by the experiences of other consumers and with social media, these experiences can be delivered electronically. Of these, wine discussion forums are the least understood source of unbiased wine experiences. This chapter examines online discussion forums devoted to wine and identifies their potential influence on consumer attitudes and value for wine marketers. Fifty-one online wine discussion threads were analyzed at the conversation and individual post level and their Internet visibility was compared to other winery generated/controlled sources. The results document the anatomy of online wine discussions and indicate that wine forums are a visible and potentially valuable information source for wine consumers.