Changing Drinking Culture in Northeast Asia: In the Eyes of Millennial Consumers

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key Findings

Understanding growing moderation in drinking to play a key role

With the healthy living trend impacting globally, more consumers in Northeast Asia are shifting towards “mindful” drinking. A notable change is a decline in mandatory social drinking. Unlike baby boomers, the younger generations see more value in personal time, and avoid drinking after work with their managers or clients.

Lower ABV as an opportunity

With consumer behaviour having seen a consistent movement towards a reduction in alcohol consumption, lower ABV products are emerging as a relatively healthy option. Lower ABV products target a much wider range of consumers who are trying to find an alternative way to enjoy a drink while reducing their consumption of alcohol. Compared to non-alcohol products, which still have only a limited consumer base, lower ABV products have attracted the general drinking population through improvements in quality and flavour.

Flavours matter

Sweet and fruit flavours are the key to capturing young Northeast Asian consumers, who are well known for having a sweet tooth. Major players have focused on developing sweet and fruity options, and increased the number of products. Earlier products of this type often contained very little juice and had an image of having rather artificial fruit flavours, but recent launches have aimed to improve the health credentials by using real fruit juice.

Finding new ways to enjoy alcoholic drinks

Millennials have been changing the definition of what alcoholic drinks should taste like and look like, and also how and where to drink. Wanting to feel special, millennials are looking for ways to drink which differ from those of their parents’ or grandparents’ generations. The growing presence of social media channels has encouraged younger consumers to share creative recipes.