U.S. wine market research and insights

The following is excerpted from our Wine & Wellness report, based on a survey of nearly 2000 households in NielsenIQ’s Homescan panel in late 2020, as well as two years tracking of household purchases.

Respondents to the survey were asked: “Which type or types of alcoholic beverages, if any, would you most closely associate with each statement? Please select as many types of alcoholic beverages as apply…” and presented with several drink categories.

Roughly half of the consumers thought the drink categories were all the same, or simply did not associate beverage alcohol with these attributes. Among those who did, hard seltzer was most likely to “check the boxes” of lower calories, sugar and carbs. However, wine was seen as healthier than the other categories by more than double the number for hard seltzer, and far ahead of beer and spirits. This may be in part due to the long association with cardiovascular health, or due to a generic image as a natural, fruit-based beverage.

Those who did check “wine is healthier” were dramatically more likely to associate all of the other attributes with wine too, from 19% for “contains less sugar” up to 40% for “a good option when dieting…”  Those drinking more wine than two years ago were significantly more likely to agree with nearly all attributes for wine. Those drinking less wine were less likely to agree with wine being “healthier,” yet it was still 30% and ahead of the other categories. Interestingly, those drinking more wine also had higher associations of hard seltzer with the various attributes.

Wine’s image as healthier than the other categories was higher (42%) among those aged 55+. It was also higher (40%) among those who were trying to reduce harmful or artificial ingredients in their diet, and/or eating more plant-based foods.

NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH THE MEMBER LOGIN PAGE

From Thursday, June 24, 2021

Wine, Beer, Spirits & More: The Battle for “Share of Mouth”

Wine Market Council President, Dale Stratton, and Director of Research, Christian Miller,  present data from SipSource and the new WMC Category Trends report, followed by a discussion with veteran brand builder, Lisa Ehrlich, an industry expert experienced in multiple channels. The focus is on how the major beverage alcohol categories interact; the impact of RTDs, cocktails and hard seltzer; and speculation on where all this is headed.