Research on the Greek Beer Market — LoADing
We are LoADing, a creative team formed for the needs of the Ad & PR Lab in the Department of Communication, Media & Culture at Panteion University. Our team consists of 8 members, all sharing the passion for the marketing and advertising world.
In the beginning of the spring semester of our first year in the Ad & PR Lab, we were introduced to the field of New Media & Market Research. Motivated to conduct our own market research about a specific product category, we were immediately drawn by the beer category, which we chose for our project.
Our first and most demanding task was to carefully design an appropriate methodology that would help us meet the objectives we had set, the best way possible. Our goals were to understand the Greek beer market at whole, explore the usage and attitude habits of beer consumers, while focusing on two specific and diametrically different beer brands: Heineken & Athineo. To do so, we designed a mixed methodology, collecting primary and secondary data, using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
To begin with, we started our research by collecting secondary data from trusted sources, so as to understand the international beer market. We further researched the market by conducting SWOT & PEST analyses (desk research). We, then, moved forward with the primary research, to collect data from Greek consumers.
To begin with, we utilized the qualitative method of focus group (6 participants, Greek, 20–30 years old), which was conducted online, using a semi-structured conversation guide. The focus groups enabled us to understand the perception of the category users about 18 different beer brands and categorize them according to their characteristics. This process ultimately led us to create a category map, representing the competition landscape of the Greek market, and also create buyer personas for our focus-brands, Heineken & Athineo.
Our research journey continues with the quantitative research, for which we constructed and distributed an online questionnaire, via SurveyMonkey. It consisted of 10 questions regarding beer products, and was filled by 100 participants. Our sample proved to be quite unbalanced since we acquired a disproportionate number of replies from Centennials (18–24 years old).
The analysis of the responses led us to make several observations about the category in general, as well as the two brands we focused on. Our findings include observations regarding consumption frequency, occasion of consumption, important brand choice drivers, brand awareness, brand perception and, finally, consumer satisfaction (regarding Heineken & Athineo).
Specifically, we noticed that the term ‘light user’ can be applied to most of the respondents regardless of their age. Moreover, we noticed some quite high percentages of ‘regular users’ in Gen Z and the Millennials, while the percentages of heavy users were extremely low at all ages. From the gender perspective, 3 of 4 women are ‘light users’ and 1 of 2 men are ‘regular users’. Moreover, all generations and genders relate the habit of drinking beer mostly to outdoor activities. Hence, all types of consumers share the same habits more or less.
We then explored the most important factors that are taken into considerations when it comes to choosing a beer brand. All the generations seem to share the same standards when making a choice:
taste, value for money and alcohol level of a beer are considered the most important choice drivers.
Corona proved to be the most recognizable brand, followed by Heineken and Mamos throughout the sample. Athineo was the last on the list. Moving on, we extended our result analysis to specific findings about Heineken and ATHINEO. To begin with, we observed that 1 out of 2 people who are aware of Heineken’s brand, ended up consuming it at least once in the past two months, while the respective ratio for ATHINEO was 1:3. Another important observation was that 2 out of 3 people who are aware of ATHINEO, only/also consumed its direct competitor, Mamos.
Delving deeper into the results, we analyzed the audience’s perception about each brand, based on 7 factors. We observed that participants share a neutral -perceived- opinion on both brands, when it comes to taste quality, while they don’t seem enthusiastic about the packaging either.
Last but not least, we explored the levels of satisfaction for each beer. The rates are derived from the answers of participants who stated to have consumed each of the brands within the past two months. When it comes to taste quality, people seem to be particularly indifferent in both brands. At the same time, after trial, levels of familiarization and trust in brand increase, while consumers seem particularly satisfied with the price-quality ratio, which is the second most important choice driver. Having a closer look to ATHINEO’s rates, it becomes obvious that after trial, people develop stronger and firmer opinions about the beer’s type and alcohol levels.
The aforementioned observations and conclusions led us to provide each brand with valuable insight, as well as recommendations on their marketing and advertising strategies.
We summarized our main findings on an infographic poster, shared below:
