Measuring consumers\u2019 preferences for craft beer attributes through Best-Worst Scaling

Concetta Nazzaro,Marco Lerro,Giuseppe Marotta

doi:10.1186/s40100-019-0138-4

Abstract

The current paper investigates consumers’ consumption behavior and preferences for craft beer. More specifically, it uncovers consumers’ consumption habits and perception about craft beer, as well as their preferences for 13 beer attributes drawn from the literature.The analysis was carried out in Italy by administering a structured questionnaire to 323 consumers. Best-Worst Scaling was used to detect consumers’ preferences towards the 13 craft beer attributes. The latter were then ranked on the basis of their best-worst scores to identify the level of importance Italian consumers assign to the different attributes.The study findings reveal that Italian craft beer consumers are young, well-educated, and employed. They drink craft beer more than once per month, mainly in pub and with friends and colleagues. Craft beer is perceived with higher quality and different flavors, while compared with a commercial beer, it results tastier, more genuine, and natural. As for the beer attributes, Italians prefer taste, fermentation process, and color, while store promotion, brand, and price rank as the least important.The study findings offer several implications for brewers and marketers involved in the beer sector. Based on the preferences detected, breweries should adapt their product offer to meet craft beer consumers’ expectations.

Highlights

Over the last decades, the European beer sector has been shaken up by the rising interest of consumers towards beers produced on small scale and slower fermentation process, namely craft beers (Carvalho et al 2018)
To support brewers in uncovering the craft beer attributes more appealing to consumers, the study carried out an explorative analysis investigating the characteristics and preferences of craft beer consumers
While two sections of the questionnaire detected consumers’ consumption habits and sociodemographic characteristics, the core of the questionnaire was the assessment— through a BestWorst Scaling (BWS) experiment—of 13 craft beer attributes which are crucial in consumer purchasing decision

Summary

Introduction

The European beer sector has been shaken up by the rising interest of consumers towards beers produced on small scale and slower fermentation process, namely craft beers (Carvalho et al 2018) The creators of this astonishing renaissance, that positively affect the whole beer sector, are mainly the microbreweries (approximately 7900 in Europe, in 2017) (The brewers of Europe 2018) that were able to rethink the product and the sector focusing on high quality, variety, and uniqueness (Calvo-Porral et al 2017; Muggah and McSweeney 2017). They were sensitive to the dynamic consumers’ expectations and consumption habits which have generated new business opportunities promptly seized by breweries. In a market dominated by industrial mass market producers, microbreweries rely on these perceptions to differentiate their offer and drive the premiumization of the product (Muggah and McSweeney 2017)

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