Specialty beers market: a comparative study of producers and consumers behavior

Abstract

PurposeThis study aimed to identify, with producers of specialty beers (SBs), producers' perceptions regarding the consumers, besides analyzing the consumer's behavior of SBs regarding consumers' preferences, perceptions and determining buying factors.Design/methodology/approachIn the qualitative analysis, interviews were performed with 14 professionals from the SB industry. In the quantitative study, 301 consumers of SB answered a questionnaire about preferences, perception and determining buying factors of special beer. Techniques such as content analysis, frequency analysis, cross-tabulation and hierarchical cluster analysis were used in this study.FindingsThe study demonstrated an important convergence in the perceptions of producers about consumers and the real behavior of SB consumers, mainly on factors of beer packaging, label, style and price. Those respondents consuming just SB were characterized by having higher income, frequency and time of beer consumption and willingness to pay more for the product. Cluster analysis allowed to segment respondents into three groups: (1) beginners in the universe of SBs who also drink commercial beers; (2) regular consumers willing to pay more for SB and (3) legitimate consumers of SB averse to commercial beer.Practical implicationsThere are practical implications in this study such as new products development and assertive creation of labels and packaging for special beers.Social implicationsThere are social implications in this study such as the convergence between industry professionals and consumers.Originality/valueBy addressing professionals and consumers, this study generated scientific information and knowledge to assist the specialty brewing industry in developing new products and defining marketing strategies as well as creating actions for bringing producers and consumers closer together to benefit both parties.

Influence of consumption experience on the behavior of craft beer consumers: beginner and experienced consumers

“…Haddad et al (2022). Studies by Della Lucia et al (2010), Thong et al (2018), Meyerding et al (2019), Jaeger et al (2021) and De Paula et al (2021) support our selection of these research factors.…”

“…The factors and levels of the labels that we evaluated in our conjoint analysis were IBU, alcohol content and award seals; these are the label factors that most influence consumers during the purchase or consumption of craft beer, according Haddad et al. (2022).…”

“…Regarding the behavior of food and beverage consumers, consumption behavior is influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors (Calvo-Porral and Levy-Mangin, 2019). According De Paula et al (2021) and Haddad et al (2022), consumers are influenced by sensory characteristics (intrinsic factors such as appearance, aroma, flavor and texture) resulting from the balance of compounds in foods and also by non-sensory characteristics which include product-extrinsic information such as brand, price, product origin, color and illustrations stamped on the label and several other factors, such as those related to the consumer itself.…”

Brewing sustainability: assessing environmental concerns and consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable craft beer purchase intentions

“…Finally, many craft beer studies have focused on Brazilian consumers (Carvalho et al. , 2018; Haddad et al. , 2023; Koch and Sauerbronn, 2019; Steinbach et al.…”

“…Of the total sample, only 125 respondents consumed craft beers. This low response rate may be because beginner consumers having a lower perception, knowledge and purchase intention of craft beer than experienced consumers (Haddad et al. , 2023).…”