'n Profielontleding van wynverbruikers in die Noord-Kaapprovinsie

Abstract

Consumers play an important role in the productive functioning of the economy. They form an integral part of the daily flow of transactions of all organisations in a business-oriented society. Analysing the consumer is therefore important to determine what they buy, how much they buy, who does the shopping as well as how and where they do their shopping. A marketing strategy is a combination of decisions on target marketing and the marketing mix. An organisation's marketing strategy rests on the following: *The analysis of specific consumer preferences and needs; * Based on this, marketing management decides on a product which will satisfy these consumer preferences and needs (product); * Marketing management also decides on a price which the consumer would be prepared and able to pay (price); * Marketing management distributes the product when, where and in the quantities the consumer desires (distribution); and *Marketing management communicates the message about the product marketing communication). This study was aimed at doing a profile analysis of wine consumers in the Northern Cape Province. In order to realise these objectives, specific attention was given to the four elements of the marketing mix, namely product, price, distribution and communication. The research was limited to the six most important cities/towns of the Northern Cape Province. The venues where the population of wine consumers would be found were divided into three strata, namely liquor stores, restaurants and supermarkets. The venue locations within each stratum was drawn on the principle of random sampling. Five questionnaires were completed for each location and a total of 465 questionnaires were completed. The questionnaire has face validity and both its design and the data processing was done with the help of the Statistical Consultation Service at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. The most important findings for each of the elements of the marketing mix were: *Product. The majority of wine consumers (86%) indicated that they prefer to buy wine in a glass bottle; *Price. Wine consumers, of all races and income groups, indicated that price is an important indicator of the quality of wine; *Distribution. Wine consumers indicated that 49% prefer self-service, while 39% prefer self-selection with the aid of sales personnel and only 12% of the wine consumers prefer a counter service; and *Communication. Wine consumers indicated that the different types of media motivate them differently to make purchase decisions. These referred to point of sales advertising (39%), television (29%), magazines (15%), newspapers (11%), radio (5%) and movie theatre (1%). The study was concluded with proposals about the preferences of wine consumers in the Northern Cape Province regarding the above-mentioned elements of the marketing mix.