Brands’ preferences remain largely unchanged

A consumer survey was carried out by Spiritz to decipher the change (if any) in alcohol consumption preferences from before lockdown to unlock phase 1 period, in the upwardly mobile urban India. The idea was to understand how consumers reacted to non-availability or paucity of their preferred brands and if they opted for any alternative brand/s. Interestingly, the survey revealed that most of the respondents are inclined to stick to their preferred brands after the reopening of the liquor shops, even though the lockdown has exposed many of them to alternate brands.

The survey, which covered high-end professionals and entrepreneurs across urban India, which of course comprised metros and satellite cities (like Noida, Gurugram, etc.) revealed that there were instances of inconveniences to get the preferred liquor brand/s in the initial phase of reopening of the retail liquor outlets. All the respondents were consumers of alcoholic beverages through their frequency of intake and monthly spend on alcoholic beverages varied.

This scarcity of

 preferred brand/s perhaps had induced people to opt for alternative brands in the initial phase of reopening of liquor shops. However, most of the respondents asserted that now that dust has settled down and most of their preferred brand/s being available, they would stick to their preferred brand/s only.

We can infer from this survey that by and large Indian consumers are conservative with their buying choices as far as alcoholic beverages are concerned and brand loyalty plays more weightage to them than prices. However, at the same time there is a little room for experimentation in their mind share.

And what are the alternate brands? Well, they varied from respondent to respondent in our survey. For a person preferring single malts, Teacher’s and Rockford came across as alternate choices, while for a person preferring Johnnie Walker Red Label and Jack Daniel’s, brands like Golfer’s Shot, Black Dog and Blenders Pride were among the alternate choices. Similarly, a person having Royal Stag as the preferred brand had White & Blue as his alternate brand.

For a respondent who preferred Budweiser, Kingfisher came across as an alternate beer brand. Conversely, for another respondent, whose preferred beer brands are Kingfisher Ultra and Heineken, Budweiser emerged as the alternate brand. Another respondent who has Heineken, Budweiser and Carlsberg among his preferred brands opted for alternate brands like Yavira and Bad Monkey.