Sustainable Drinks Survey: Sustainability Not a Major Factor for Consumers

Environmental issues are having an impact on a variety of different industries, and that includes the alcoholic beverage industry. According to Beverage Dynamics, sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor for wine consumers. And those concerns might also impact other beverage consumers as well. So how many people are more likely to buy drinks that are sustainably made? We asked 1,000 respondents about their thoughts on sustainable drinks.

Alcohol Purchases

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 9% of respondents said that they’ve purchased alcoholic beverages within the past day. 19% said they’ve bought alcohol in the past week. 17% have done so in the past month. 9% have within the past three months. 7% have within the past year. 6% said it’s been more than a year since they last bought any alcoholic beverages. And 35% aren’t alcohol consumers at all.Beer was the most popular alcoholic beverage among respondents, with 55% of beverage consumers saying they buy it regularly. 39% have wine regularly. 31% purchase liquor. 20% enjoy mixed drinks. And 14% like hard soda or cider.

Buying Decisions

Of those who have purchased alcohol, 57% said they normally make those purchases at grocery stores. 51% regularly buy alcohol at liquor stores. 27% purchase alcohol at restaurants. 25% do so at bars. 12% go to specialty stores. And 8% regularly buy alcohol at special events.When making those purchases, 37% of beverage consumers said that taste is their most important determining factor. 33% said that price is their most important determining factor. 17% consider quality to be most important. 8% care most about brand name. 3% value convenience. 2% care about the ingredients. And less than 1% said they care most about sustainability when it comes to making alcohol purchases.

Sustainable Drinks

In general, just 5% of respondents said that they always purchase alcoholic beverages that they consider to be eco-friendly or sustainable. 10% buy sustainable drinks most of the time. 14% do so about half the time. 22% rarely ever buy sustainable drinks. 15% never do. And 35% said they aren’t sure how often they purchase sustainable alcoholic beverages. Wine consumers were slightly more likely than others to say that they purchase sustainable drinks all or most of the time. But they were actually less likely to consider sustainability to be important when making their buying decisions. Those who have purchased sustainable drinks at least on occasion named Budweiser, Smirnoff, Jack Daniels and Heineken as the most popular sustainable drink brands.

Key Takeaways

Sustainability still isn’t a major factor for most drink consumers. In fact, a good portion of buyers weren’t even aware of how often they purchase sustainable drinks. So it’s not the type of information that a lot of consumers will go out of their way to find. However, if that sustainability might have a positive impact on other factors like taste and quality, that could be an angle that consumers are more likely to respond to. And if beer, wine or other alcohol brands really want people to know about their sustainable ingredients and/or processes, they have to make it very clear on labeling or marketing materials, as a lot of consumers aren’t likely to seek out that information. Just don’t expect that information to draw in tons of new customers on its own.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: Central Bottle by Didriks 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 December 6-11 via AYTM’s online survey panel.