02 Aug 2013 US: Warning signs for big lite beers
Of consumers drinking fewer big light beer brands, 27% said the main reason is “getting tired of the taste”, while 21% said they were “consuming more types of other beer”, according to ConsumerEdge Insights’ Beverage DemandTracker, a periodic survey of US adults who consume alcohol at least once a week.
Economic factors, the reason so often cited by big marketers, ranked third, at 20%.
Moreover, 37% of premium light beer drinkers described the segment as “watery” compared with 34% a year earlier.
What could be most concerning for the big US beer brands is that drinkers are now more likely to name an import brand as their favourite (30%), compared with a premium light beer (28%, down from 32% a year ago), according to the survey.
Not surprisingly craft beers are continuing to gain, with 15% of consumers picking a craft as their favorite, up from 13% a year earlier.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has reported that Bud Light volume sales to retailers fell by 4.7% in the second quarter in the US. Meanwhile, MillerCoors parent company, SABMiller, says that for the quarter ending June 30, premium light sales volume to retailers in North America fell by “high single digits”, with Coors Light down mid-single digits and Miller Lite down high-single digits….