A clustered-based segmentation of beer consumers: from “beer lovers” to “beer to fuddle”

1. Introduction

The consumption of alcohol has been the focus of numerous studies, like sensory analysis (Leliévre et al., 2008), psychology (Valentin et al., 2007) and marketing (Choi and Stack, 2005), highlighting the importance of alcoholic beverage consumption.

In addition, new trends are emerging in the brewery sector, such as the increase of beer consumption at home, the increase of the awareness of beer quality among consumers, a higher demand for new flavours and varieties, and the increasing demand for craft and specialty beers (Aquilani et al., 2015). Considering that drink choices tend to be stable over time and consumers do not change their beverage consumption habits rapidly (Riet et al., 2011), it seems interesting to examine whether there are beer consumer segments with different demands and preferences.

Despite segmentation could be extremely effective in differentiating among beer consumers, there is scarce research on the examination of potential beer consumer segments. Further, a segmentation analysis is critical for brewers in order to identify and understand the different consumer segments and their consumption patterns in order to tailor beer products. In this context, the present study develops a clustered-based segmentation of beer consumers to provide a comprehensive profile of the different beer consumer segments identified.

2. Literature review

2.1 Beer consumers’ segmentation

Psychographic variables have been often been used in market segmentation to gain insights into the consumers’ behaviour, preferences and motivations. And in the brewery sector, some studies were conducted on consumer segmentation, offering different profiles of beer consumers.

Gomez-Corona et al. (2016) developed a research using consumer ethnographies to understand the benefits and motivations of beer consumption; suggesting that beer consumers could be classified as “industrial”, “occasional industrial” and “craft beer” consumers. However, consumer-based variables could be used in order to differentiate consumer segments (Cardello et al., 2016), such as product loyalty, familiarity, product image, perceived quality, “value for money”, purchase intention or even willingness to pay a premium price. Similarly, prior research on the topic supports that factors affecting beer choice and consumption could be divided in three different categories: consumer-based attributes, product-based attributes, and factors related to the purchasing and consumption situation (Aquilani et al., 2015).

2.2 Variables influencing beer consumption

2.2.1 Consumer-based attributes

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