What you need to know
This report provides a comprehensive and comparative view of how alcoholic beverages compete for purchase and consumption occasions. Its goal is to examine who drinks which alcoholic beverages on what occasions and for which reasons. The report will identify frequency with which of beverages purchased and consumed and attitudes toward alcoholic beverages as a whole and by type. Analysis will include the following alcoholic beverage categories as they relate to one another in purchase and consumption habits; for complete coverage of the respective categories, please see the report listed alongside the category:
Beer (for in-depth category coverage, see Mintel’s Beer – US December 2013)
Wine (for in-depth category coverage, see Mintel’s Wine – US, October 2013)
White spirits (for in-depth category coverage, see Mintel’s White Spirits – US, November 2013)
Dark spirits (for in-depth category coverage, see Mintel’s Dark Spirits – US, October 2013)
At-home alcohol consumption (for in-depth category coverage, see Mintel’s Alcohol Consumption at Home – US, May 2013)
On-premise alcohol consumption (for in-depth category coverage, see Mintel’s On-premise Alcohol Consumption Trends – US, May 2014 or On-premise Alcohol Consumption Trends – US, February 2013)
Consumer survey data
For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through GMI to explore consumer consumption of alcoholic beverages and the attitudes and behaviors toward alcoholic beverage drinking occasions. Mintel was responsible for survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in March 2014 among a sample of 2,000 adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.
Mintel selects survey respondents as proportionally balanced to the US adult population based on key demographics of gender, age, household income, and region. Mintel slightly oversamples, relative to the population, Hispanic or Black respondents to ensure adequate representation of these groups in survey results. Please note that Mintel surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or non-English speaking are not included in the survey.
Generations
Generations are discussed within this report defined as:
| World War II/Swing generations | Members of the WWII generation were born in 1932 or before and are aged 82 or older in 2014. Members of the Swing Generation were born from 1933 to 1945 and are aged 69-81 in 2014. |
| Baby Boomers | The generation born between 1946 and 1964. In 2014, Baby Boomers are between the ages of 50 and 68. |
| Generation X | The generation born between 1965 and 1976. In 2014, Gen Xers are between the ages of 38 and 49. |
| Millennials* | Born between 1977 and 1994, Millennials are aged 20-37 in 2014. |
| iGeneration | Born between 1995 and 2007, members of iGen are aged 7-19 in 2014. |
| Emerging generation | The newest generation began in 2008 as the annual number of births declined sharply with the recession. In 2014 members of this as-yet unnamed generation are under age 7. |
* also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers
