“The market as a whole is showing signs of recovering, albeit in a volatile way. The import level of wine is recovering from the huge dip in 2013, baijiu brands are reporting rather positive figures in their first quarter reports in 2015, and beer, despite the disappointing year in 2014, is looking at a mild recovery. The positive outlook, however, cannot put brands’ minds at peace.
The anti-extravagance campaign has certainly reshaped the competitive landscape of the on-trade alcoholic drink market. With brands from all categories returning to the drawing board in the hope of identifying the true demand of consumers, the mass market is getting increasingly crowded.
Consumers are not making their purchase decision in a linear way focusing on one product category when deciding which alcoholic beverages they drink. They tend to undergo a complex process, where brands, product types and occasions are influencing their decision-making simultaneously. This creates the dynamic of the on-trade alcoholic drink market. Brands are competing with the whole alcoholic drink market under a wide range of occasions and locations.”
Methodology
This is a market intelligence report published by Mintel. The consumer research exclusively commissioned for this report was conducted by a Chinese licensed market survey agent (see Research Methodology China for more information).
For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned a quantitative research survey carried out online to explore consumer attitudes towards on-trade alcoholic drinks. Fieldwork was conducted in March 2015, in four tier one cities, two tier two cities and four tier three cities of 3,000 internet female and male users aged 20-49. Tier one cities are Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Tier two and tier three cities are Dalian, Changsha, Guiyang, Wuxi, Foshan, and Nanchang.
Limitation
Because the sample is exclusively made up of people living in tier one, two and three cities who have internet access, results of Mintel’s survey may not reflect the situation in tier four or five cities, as well as in less developed areas and regions.
Definitions
This report covers the sale of alcoholic drinks through on-trade outlets in China, including:
Beer (eg lager, ale, cider)
Wine (eg red wine, white wine, rosé wine)
Chinese spirits (baijiu)
Champagne/other sparkling wine (eg Prosecco, Cava)
Western spirits (eg whisky, vodka).
On-trade outlets include:
Chinese full-service restaurants (eg Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine, Mongolian Hotpot)
Foreign full-service restaurants (eg Italian cuisine, French cuisine, American cuisine)
Other Asian full-service restaurants (eg Japanese, Korean, Indian)
Karaoke clubs/KTVs
Nightclubs
Bars & Pubs (eg hotel bars, wine bars, themed bars, brew pubs).
Out-of-home drinkers are defined as consumers living in urban areas (tier one to tier three cities) who have drunk alcoholic drinks out of home in the aforementioned on-trade channels in the 12 months to March 2015.
