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Even though there are plenty of alcoholic beverages already available, a new competitor is emerging. Hard soda brands like Not Your Father’s Root Beer and Henry’s Hard Soda offer options for consumers who don’t like the taste of beer or just want to try some different flavored beverages. According to MarketWatch, alcoholic soda was actually a $116 million business in 2015. But could the industry be poised for even more growth? How many have already tried alcoholic sodas? And how could those companies attract even more consumers?
Alcoholic Beverages
In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 9% of respondents said that they’ve purchased alcoholic beverages within the past day. 20% have done so within the past week. 13% have within the past month. 10% have within the past three months. 5% have within the past year. 8% said it’s been more than a year since they last purchased alcoholic beverages. And 35% said they aren’t alcohol consumers.50% of alcohol consumers said that they most recently purchased beer, and 46% said they purchase beer regularly. 31% last purchased wine, and 36% purchase it regularly. 27% last purchased liquor, and 30% purchase it regularly. 17% last purchased mixed drinks, and 20% purchase them regularly. And 11% of alcoholic beverage consumers last purchased hard soda and also purchase it regularly.
Buying Decisions
When it comes to making alcohol purchasing decisions, 62% rated taste as their most important factor. 17% said that cost is most important to them. And 11% said that quality is most important. Brand name, label, convenience and alcohol content were rated as less important factors for consumers.Overall, just 4% of alcohol consumers said that they last purchased a new type of alcoholic beverage that they’d never tried before within the past day. 8% last tried new alcoholic beverages within the past week. 17% have done so within the past month. 16% have done so within the past three months. Another 16% have within the past year. 25% said it’s been over a year since they last purchased a new type of alcoholic beverage. And 14% said they never do.
Hard Soda
More specifically, 7% of alcohol-consuming respondents said that they regularly purchase or consume hard soda beverages. 29% said they’ve tried them multiple times in the past. 19% have tried them at least once. And 45% of alcohol consumers said they’ve never tried hard soda. Mike’s Hard, Henry’s Hard Soda and Not Your Father’s Root Beer were the most popular hard soda brands mentioned by respondents. In addition, 59% of all consumers surveyed said that they purchase non-alcoholic soda regularly. Those consumers were slightly more likely to drink hard soda regularly, but not any more likely to have at least tried it.Of those who have at least tried hard soda, 51% said they purchased it from a grocery store. 34% bought it at a liquor store. 20% tried it at a restaurant or bar. 11% tried it at a friend’s home or special event. And 9% purchased it at a specialty store.
Key Takeaways
Although more than half of alcoholic beverage consumers have at least tried hard soda at some point, it’s still not as popular as other options like beer, wine and liquor. If the companies that sell hard soda want to reach even more consumers, they could try really playing up the taste factor. The good news is that more than half of alcohol consumers try new beverages at least on occasion. So by positioning those beverages prominently at grocery or liquor stores, it could catch the attention of consumers looking for tasty new beverages to try.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: summer common by Michael Cornelius under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.
Results were collected on June 25 via AYTM’s online survey panel.
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