Fans make surprising beverage choices, survey says - Scarborough Research Co - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Modern Brewery Age, April 29, 2002

The Scarbourough Research Co. has recently released a study examining the alcoholic beverage preferences of sports and entertainment fans.

The latest Scarborough Research study found that those who engage in extreme sports (bungee jumping, sky-surfing, etc.) are 107% more likely to drink imported beer than the average person. In contrast, golfers and hunters display a clear preference for domestic light beer, choosing it 64% more often than the norm. On the other hand, the study reveals that wine drinkers engage in a wide variety of sports and entertainment activities, not just the fine-arts-related pastimes that stereotypes suggest. For instance, those who attended R&B/rap/hip-hop concerts are 94% more likely than the average person to drink champagne or sparkling wine, and snow skiers are 89% more likely than the norm to consume red wine.

"For beer and wine advertisers, these findings suggest that targeted promotional opportunities abound, although they may occur in some unlikely places in addition to the typical ones," said Alisa Joseph, vice president, director of sales, Advertiser Marketing Services, Arbitron Inc. "Scarborough is one of the few sources that enables advertisers to examine the lifestyle and product preferences of consumers in-depth. This is very important considering that these preferences often don't follow stereotypical patterns."

The study also found that people who go to the symphony not only drink red and white wines, but also prefer premium beers. Similarly, those who attend Indy Racing/IRL events consume all types of beer, yet surprisingly they indexed well above the norm for blush or rose wine consumption.

Other surprising results from the Scarborough study include:

* Comedy club goers are more willing than the norm to spring for higher-priced beverages such as champagne and sparkling wine, imported beer, premium beer and wine that costs more than $10 per bottle;

* CART racing events attendees enjoy domestic regular beer and imported beer, but they are even bigger fans of champagne or sparkling wine (87 percent more likely than the norm to consume it);

* Snow skiers are ranked highest when it comes to higher-priced beers and wines of all types.

Nearly 50 percent of the people who consumed inexpensive beer in the past thirty days were between the ages of 21 and 34. In addition, over 63 percent of inexpensive beer drinkers are men. Furthermore, the study revealed that more than 47 percent of inexpensive beer drinkers like to garden, about 42 percent enjoy swimming and more than 56 percent walk for exercise.

"Advertisers can identify targeted promotional opportunities based on the specific lifestyle and activity preferences found in the study," said Ms. Joseph. "For example, the lifestyle information on inexpensive beer consumers suggests that media and events surrounding certain activities, such as beach fairs, TV and radio gardening shows as well as urban outdoor advertising, may all offer appropriate marketing opportunities. Additionally, advertisers may also wish to consider purchasing signage and/or promotional sponsorships at fishing tournaments, golf tournaments, hunting contests, power boat races, CART races, comedy clubs, Indy/IRL races, NASCAR races, nightclubs and rock concerts."

According to the study, beer and wine drinkers, on the whole, are active, social, well educated and affluent. Of the people in the nation's top 75 markets, about 27 percent consume domestic light beer, nearly 23 percent drink red wine and approximately 21 percent consume white wine. Although people of all ethnicities consume alcoholic beverages, as a whole, Asians drink more beer and wine than any other group.

The data for this study are contained in the 2001 Scarborough Multimarket Release 2. Data are gathered from more than 200,000 interviews with adults in 75 of the country's largest markets. The reports are single-source studies that examine a variety of characteristics including demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, lifestyle activities, online and offline consumer habits, local market shopping patterns and product usage as well as media behavior.