Survey reveals beer buying habits, top brands and a growing curiosity in craft

The folks at Survey Analytics have long ears. This research group specializes in the kind of “listening systems” that are geared toward channels in web, e-mail, social media and mobile. With these powerful cloud enabled tools, Survey Analytics delivers feedback on consumers, prospects, customers, sponsors, and employees in real time and on a global scale. What do they say about beer? Funny you should ask…

Survey Analytics recently conducted an online consumer survey to capture sentiment on beer preference and purchasing habits. As America gears up for Super Bowl XLVIII, data shows which beer brands will be flying off the shelves, how much money the average American is expected to spend and who’s really brewing in their garage.

For starters, every year consumers shell out an average of $1,270 on beer. The highest reported amount was $10,000 while the lowest was just $100. Twenty-two percent of consumers buy and drink beer two to three times a week while 20 percent imbibe just once a week and 9 percent pop open a bottle more than five times per week.

The King of Beers (Budweiser) managed to top the charts in both the best and worst brands of beer. Fifty-one percent of people rated it as their favorite while 46 percent named it their least favorite. The other brands that rounded out the best list: Coors (13 percent), Corona (12 percent) and Stella (10 percent). As for taste preferences, 33 percent of consumers prefer the taste of ale and 24 percent would rather have a lager.

Only 5 percent of consumers use price to determine favorite breweries. Surprisingly, a very small percentage used cost as the deciding factor for what beer they love most. What did they base their favorite brand on? Who has the best ads (32 percent), where the beer is brewed (29 percent) and what style of beer the brand makes (22 percent).

And most importantly craft is growing. Consumers don’t want to buy just any beer off the shelf — they want to invest time in creating their own brew or in learning about small microbreweries. Fourteen percent of people surveyed had brewed their own beer at home and enjoyed it while 68 percent are interested in taking craft brewing lessons from their favorite craft brands such as Dogfish Head Brewery and Breckenridge Brewery. What state shines as the best at brewing craft beer? Nineteen percent say California.

The Craft Beer Survey represents data from more than 300 respondents in 42 states including beer-lovers in California, Florida, Ohio, New York and Texas. Consumers took the survey online via desktops/laptops (50 percent), smartphones (47 percent) and tablets (3 percent). The majority of respondents were female, making up 56 percent of the total respondent population.

For more great info, visit www.surveyanalytics.com.