Today’s craft beer lovers are ‘women, millennials and Hispanics’
Source: the drinks business
by Steven Green
16th August, 2016
The Brewer’s Association has released a new set of data showing that craft beer is now most popular among women, millennials and Hispanics.
Back in May the BA conducted a study entitled How to Build a Craft Beer Drinker: The Attitudes That Identify Prime Prospects, which drew on data from the 2015 U.S. Yankelovich MONITOR survey, where they tapped more than 10,000 respondents and asked about the attitudes, values and priorities of U.S. consumers.
And with the results, they have put together a number of infographics to back up what they found, showing that Millennials, women and Hispanic people were amongst the biggest proponents of craft beer nowadays.
When it came to age, millennials lead the way as younger drinkers continue to look for a more individualistic way of drinking, which shows that they are continuing to stray away from bigger beer brands.
Gen Xers, those that were the age millennials were in the early to mid 90s were the next highest proponents, while the numbers showed that boomers and matures are slipping.
However, when it came to gender, it was women that featured more prominently. But as Julia Herz wrote: Although it’s dismal for sure to see that men of drinking age are close to three times more likely to drink beer weekly than adult women, things are not always black and white.
When it came to creed, the results showed that Hispanic drinkers were growing in numbers. One in five weekly beer drinkers and weekly craft drinkers are Hispanic, which now makes them the second largest cultural demographic when it comes to craft beer.
However, though these kind of studies are largely accurate, they often need to be taken with a grain of salt as there can be several asides that need to be taken into account. For instance, many craft beer drinkers will identify with brands that align with such core concepts as authenticity, community and sustainability. Julia Herz notes that with individual identity now being more fluid than ever, values have consequently become a more critical means for consumers to connect with their chosen brands.
Elsewhere, the overt targeting of women and Hispanics could prove to be less effective than eliminating the perceived barriers blocking entry into the world of craft beer. Neither demographic particularly use social media to inform their brand decisions, while Hispanics are seemingly more in touch with their American side than other new craft drinkers as they strive for biculturalism.