Healthy Drinks Survey: Consumers Look for Low Calorie Drinks

Alcoholic beverages aren’t traditionally considered to be especially healthy. But as consumers become more concerned about the ingredients of their food, the companies that make beer, wine and cocktail ingredients have taken notice. Now, there are even studies, like this one from ScienceNordic, that suggest even beer isn’t as unhealthy as consumers had previously thought. So what do consumers think about alcoholic beverages that include some healthier ingredients? We asked 1,000 respondents on August 7 what they think about the options out there for healthy drinks.

Health Concerns

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 58% of respondents said they consider themselves to be at least somewhat healthy. 62% said they have generally healthy eating habits. And 48% said they will sometimes go out of their way to purchase food and drink items with healthy ingredients.In general, 15% of respondents said they’ve enjoyed alcoholic beverages in the past day. 17% have done so within the past week. 12% have within the past month. 10% have within the past three months. 6% have within the past year. 8% said it’s been more than a year since they last purchased alcoholic beverages. And 32% said they aren’t alcohol consumers at all. Those who go out of their way for healthy food items were actually more likely to be alcohol consumers.

Alcohol Consumers

46% of alcohol consumers said that they have beer regularly. 38% enjoy wine. 30% like cocktails or mixed drinks. 28% regularly purchase liquor. 11% enjoy hard cider or soda beverages. And another 11% enjoy other types of drinks like wine coolers, or don’t have any alcoholic beverages regularly. The top alcohol brands mentioned by respondents include Budweiser, Smirnoff, Miller, Jack Daniel’s, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Heineken, Bacardi and Captain Morgan. Consumers who go out of their way for healthy food also claimed to enjoy those brands. But others like Corona, Stella and Barefoot Wine were also popular. And those consumers were also more likely to enjoy wine and slightly less likely to enjoy beer regularly.When purchasing alcoholic beverages, 22% of consumers rank taste as an important consideration. 20% put a lot of emphasis on cost. 19% look for quality. 14% value a strong brand name. 12% look for ingredients. 8% care about the calories of their drinks. And 5% care about nutritional value.

Healthy Drinks

Overall, just 5% of alcohol consumers said that they only ever drink beverages that they consider to be relatively healthy. 10% enjoy healthy drinks most of the time. 17% do so about half the time. 32% said they rarely ever have healthy alcoholic beverages. 23% never do. And 12% were unsure or had no opinion.When it comes to the factors that actually make a drink healthy, 24% think that low calorie drinks are relatively healthy. 23% think that having antioxidants makes drinks healthy. 17% think that low carb drinks are healthier. 15% look for superfood ingredients. And 8% think that gluten free beverages are healthier. However, not many consumers actually look for those factors in their own beverages. 18% said they look for alcoholic beverages with low calories. 11% look for low carb drinks. 10% buy drinks with antioxidants. 7% look for drinks with superfood ingredients. 6% look for gluten free drinks. And 49% said they don’t look at any of those factors before purchasing alcoholic beverages.

Key Takeaways

Offering healthy options for alcohol consumers can be a beneficial step for some brands. But it doesn’t seem to be an absolute necessity, since about half of alcohol consumers don’t look for any health-related factors when making their alcohol purchases. But for those brands that do want to target health-conscious consumers, sticking to the basics can be more effective than going the trendy route. Consumers seem to care more about things like calories and carb content than trendy ingredients like superfoods and antioxidants. Even though consumers might acknowledge that those things can make drinks healthier, they don’t seem to care about them when making purchase decisions. But if you keep it simple, those consumers who care about buying healthy beverages might be more inclined to support your brand.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: wine glass by Elisa Maser 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 August 7 via AYTM’s online survey panel.