Perceptions and attitudes among Swedes towards Bulgarian wine

Sammanfattning: Consumption of wine is high internationally. There is a tendency of increasing consumption of qulity wine over table wine. The experience of drinking wine is not like drinking any other alcohol beverage, it is more sensual experince because of the sophistication of the taste and flavors that wine possesses. Sweden is not an exeption from the worldwide trend of increasing wine consumption. Moreover, Swedes are developing even more esthetic way of drinking wine, namely combining it with food. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of the Swedish consumers towards wine and in particular towards Bulgarian wine if there are any existent. It further investigates the determinants of the attitudes and perceptions towards wine. Three interviews with representatives of HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurants and Catering) and Systembolaget are conducted. They and the literature review serve as a base for the formulation of hypotheses which have to be supported or rejected with the help of a questionnaire developed for that purpose. The questionnaire is translated in Swedish as it is designed for the Swedish consumers. The current research is descriptive, so only descriptive statistics are used for the analyses of the data collected. The results of the study are really intriguing. Some factors that are mainly con-sidered of great significance turned out as not so important when it comes to the Swedish wine consumers. The interviews gave a really interesting insight about the specific situation on the Swedish alcohol market and the consumption of wine among Swedes. The questionnaires reached their purpose and helped to support or reject the formulated hypotheses and to draw some essential conclusions about the perceptions and attitudes towards Bulgarian wine. Finally, this paper ends with the main conclusions reached by conducting the research, some market implications about wine producing companies that would like to enter the Swedish alcohol market and in particular Bulgarian wine cellars. Then the shortcomings of the study and the future research are dis-cussed.