Marston’s

As the UK’s largest Ale brewer and licensed distributor of highly recognised World lagers and Craft Beers, Marston’s have a wide portfolio of stakeholders to satisfy in terms of innovation, growth and category management. Even before the COVID pandemic, the business was adapting to a long term change in drinking habits with consumers increasingly favouring drinking at home rather than in the pub.

In addition, Marston’s need to keep up with rapidly changing drinking styles, flavours and trends. Ales are being influenced by craft styles with more hoppy flavours, and Lager is seeing a shift towards more premium level brands. The confirmation of the merger with Carlsberg UK is likely to mean an even greater focus on brand, ranging and delivering the right consumer experience within each category.

Every year Marston’s commission Eureka! to interview drinkers from across Great Britain to ensure they are adequately understanding the drinker and keeping an eye on emerging market trends. We collect insight from 2,000 Ale drinkers and 2,000 Lager drinkers across both the on-trade and off-trade (in home) markets. That’s a whopping 4,000 annual interviews with drinkers each with their own story to tell in terms of the consumption behaviour, drinking occasions and future needs.

Our findings are then uniquely fused with CGA sales data, Kantar Worldpanel and Alcovision data to create a holistic, up-to-date picture that feeds into two annual reports. These ‘state of the nation’ reports are always keenly anticipated by stakeholders across the alcohol trade. Key data is also shared with individual brand teams across the business who, in turn, might also commission their own bespoke research with us – for instance, a deeper dive into the German Lager Category.