All Eyes on Me: The Influence of the Bourbon Label Design on Consumer Willingness-to-Pay

This study examines how bourbon label design complexity and local product information influence consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP), while considering the moderating effects of objective bourbon knowledge and age. Using artificially intelligent (AI) generated bourbon labels varying in complexity, data were collected from American bourbon consumers (n = 276) through an online survey. The results indicate that consumers’ preference for label simplicity positively influences WTP for bourbons with concise labels, while preference for locality shows positive associations with WTP across all label types. Objective bourbon knowledge negatively moderates the relationship between simplicity preference and WTP for concise labels, as well as between locality preference and WTP for complex labels. Age positively moderates the relationship between locality preference and WTP, particularly for moderately concise labels. These findings provide practical implications for bourbon producers in designing labels that effectively communicate product information while meeting diverse consumer preferences across different market segments. The study contributes to the limited research on bourbon label design and extends the application of General Evaluability Theory in the spirits industry.