US. Brewers urged to react to changing population – study

  • Reading time:2 min(s) read

Brewers must target the US’ fast-growing Hispanic population and young drinkers through marketing and product innovation to maintain its status as the country’s most-popular category, according to a survey.

Hispanics in the country have a “less strong preference for beer”, according to David Decker, president of Consumer Edge Insight, who conducted the survey. The online study, conducted among around 2,500 drinkers in June, found that Latino Americans like beer and spirits about equally, 34% and 33% respectively, while 27% named wine as their drink of choice and 5% said flavoured malt beverages.

Based on the survey figures, African-American respondents also like beer and spirits equally, 35% for each, with 20% naming wine and 7% naming flavored malt beverages (FMB) as their favourite.

Caucasians responding favoured beer over other categories by a wider margin, with 35% naming beer as their favourite, followed by spirits (30%), wine (26%), and FMBs (4%).

Among 21-27 year-olds, the study showed, spirits (36%) were favoured over beer (34%). A fifth (19%) favoured wine, while 9% preferred FMBs and 3% cider.

“While beer is still the most-consumed and is the favourite alcoholic beverage of most people, there are reasons for brewers to worry.” said Decker. “Targeting these groups with relevant marketing and product innovation will be critical for the beer category to maintain its consumption advantage.”

Overall, 39% of drinkers named beer as their favourite category, followed by spirits at 31%, wine at 25%, flavored malt beverages at 4%, and alcoholic cider at 1%.