Consumers Preferences Through a Multilevel Latent Class Models: The Case of Italian Market of Sparkling Wine

The Italian market of sparkling wine has undergone a strong expansion driven by what can be defined as "Prosecco phenomenon". The strong growth of the Prosecco market was in fact accompanied by an expansion of the supply aimed at reaching new markets and meeting the needs of a new and large circle of consumers. Accordingly, the sparkling market growth has extended the consumption reaching new and more complex segments. While in the past the sparkling wine consumption was mostly seasonal and pulled by Christmas holidays; nowadays, the purchase occasions are larger and distributed along the year. More specifically, the wide offer of appellations, brands, prices has strongly increased the market penetration which is around 50% of Italian wine drinkers having different loyalty and consumption. This paper aims to evaluate the market of sparkling wines to figure out competitive relations among main winery brands while showing loyalty and variety-seeking consumer's behavior.