Valores pessoais e identidade dos consumidores de vinhos: uma abordagem meios-fim

Abstract

The consumption of wine is an activity millenarian, loaded with socio-cultural meanings that accompany the development of humanity at various moments in history, crossing the centuries and maintaining its relevance in contemporary times. Currently, marketing exerts a great influence on the behavior of wine consumers, so that the understanding of the cognitive structure of these individuals, in relation to the personal values that motivate consumption, in the face of the identity traits that make up their self-image. As importance for the wine sector to continue to thrive and perpetuate for many other generations, attracting new consumers. In this context, the present dissertation aims to extract traits of consumer identity through the means-end chain, due to the attributes, consequences and personal values that guide and motivate the behavior of the frequent consumer of wines. To achieve this goal, 40 in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers of special wines in the cities of Lavras, Belo Horizonte, Uberlândia and Varginha. Laddering was used as an interview technique, aiming to identify the dominant chains that represent the cognitive structure of the interviewees, which were expressed in the hierarchical map of values, so that later, they were related to the identity traits that form the self-image of the wine consumer. In this way, the existence of a pattern of behavior regarding the ritual of wine consumption was first identified in the cognitive structure of consumers. Psychological factors are basically divided into the social aspects that are pertinent to the consumption of the drink, as well as aspects related to personal training that leads to satisfaction of consumption. This makes you seek more and more knowledge about the world of wines. From this cognitive basis, the existence of the instrumental values hedonism, benevolence - care, stimulation and achievement, as well as the terminal values of happiness and joyfulness, were evidenced. As for the identity traits of these consumers, one notices that they are salient and affirm the notion of their self-image; seek to associate personal identity according to memories, places, groups or people; consider the relevance of the wine according to the evaluations of its actions through the consumption objective, besides the symbolic aspects involved; verify their identity, validate it and seek affiliation in a group; and manage the identity conflict between the multiple identities that act in a context of consumption. Therefore, the personal values and identity of these consumers were interpreted from the perspective of the means-end chain, where it was possible to establish a relationship and to demonstrate the influence of each one of the values in the face of identified identity traits. It is concluded that the means-end chain theory is not only pertinent to identify the values that motivate consumption, but also to know the intrinsic aspects of the identity of wine consumers. The theoretical, methodological and managerial implications are discussed at the end of the study, as well as the limitations encountered and the proposal of a future research agenda, which may stimulate other researchers to use this perspective of analysis to understand the intrinsic aspects of consumer cognition in various contexts.