Beer and Snacks Market Research

What's not to like about this sector? We certainly enjoy working with a number of recognisable brands in the alcohol and snacking markets, supporting business strategy with robust and well-considered consumer research.

The UK alcohol market is worth around £16bn per year and Beer is the fastest growing and most disruptive sub categories within this. The key macro trend is that consumers are drinking more at home and drinking less frequently, but moving towards better quality products such as local craft over mainstream beers. We understand the dynamics of On-Trade versus Off-Trade purchasing.

Snacking has a value of £2.8bn to the UK economy, which includes crisps, savoury, nuts, popcorn and baked snacks. Consumers are driving rapid change in this category, not willing to compromise on either convenience or quality, they are increasingly looking for more healthy and ' clean' labels.

The shopper definition of what constitutes a 'snack' is therefore rapidly changing. Some sub categories are quickly falling out of favour, such as the Breakfast Bar. Increasingly, consumers are choosing to spend on gourmet and healthy snack products to incorporate into their on-the-go lifestyles.

From brand trackers, through NPD and U&A studies, we have excelled in delivering research that has made a difference to the alcohol and snacking sectors, both in the UK and internationally. Get in touch, we're sure you'll be impressed with our knowledge.

What snacks are preferred with alcohol? What about emerging snacks like vegetable crisps and popcorn? How do consumers view advancements in packaging and labelling?

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Our beer and snacks experience

We have an in-depth understanding of the On Trade and Off Trade beer market. In the past few years, we have interviewed over 25,000 UK consumers about their ale and lager drinking habits, social routines, switching behaviour and brand preferences.

We have delved into the Discovery Lager and World Lager markets. This includes qualitative research groups with 'early adopter' drinkers across multiple locations in the UK.

The beer market is innovating at a rapid pace. Most beer drinkers have already heard and experienced Craft. We are also keeping an eye on new tastes, trends, and format preferences as well as a general trend towards NABLAB (No and Low Alcohol beers). Check out our free report below for more about Lager trends.

Earlier this year, we conducted a bespoke exploration of the fast changing Cider market. We researched premiumisation and innovation in the Cider category and what this might mean for the leading brands such as Strongbow, Bulmers and Magners.

We have helped snacking brands re-think where they sit within their category, striking new positioning between healthy and indulgent. As with many FMCG categories, packaging is key for snacks and brands are looking to push the boundary. We have tested an innovative pack format for Tyrrells which would sit within the all-important “on-the-go” convenience space.

Aside from providing more traditional studies using online research or qualitative discussions, we have also delivered hall tests and in store shopper video camera monitoring to get to the heart of what shoppers do at fixture. Our market research techniques with beer and snack shoppers include:

Online surveys and consultations
Telephone interviewing
Face to face for more detailed stakeholder interviews
Focus groups - face to face and online or virtual
Self completion methods, including SMS, POS, self-serve terminals
Ethnographic in-depth research
Mystery shopping

Snapshots of our recent beer and snacks market research

1. On-Trade versus Off-Trade market reports with Marston's

4,000 interviews each year with on and off-trade drinkers of ale and lager

Marston’s commissioned Eureka! to interview 2,000 Ale drinkers and 2,000 Lager drinkers as part of their annual category report, which is always keenly anticipated by stakeholders across the sector. Delving deeply into usage and attitudes the surveys provide crucial alcohol data to help understand On-Trade versus Off-Trade drinking behaviours.

This is the third year running we have worked with the Marston's team on this exciting project and together we work hard to develop the ale and lager surveys to ensure the comprehensive reports deliver fresh and actionable insight to the trade audience. As well as acting as an excellent resource internally and with Marston's partners and suppliers, the reports constantly receive industry recognition and act as an independent barometer of the state of the market.

You can download versions of the reports here:

Marston's on-trade report 2019

Marston's off-trade report 2019

Our recent blog on the ale and lager market and glassware can be found here.

2. Testing a new popcorn market variant with shoppers (NPD)

Consumer concept test in the snacking sector

We worked with a well-known brand in the snacking sector to assess consumer attitudes to a potential new variant of RTE popcorn. The study was conducted online, with an interview length of 10 minutes, with a combination of frequent and less frequent popcorn shoppers.

We explored popcorn category experiences, brand knowledge and appeal, attitudes to the new concept, packaging, popcorn flavouring preferences, shopper habits, marketing collateral and comparisons with competitors.

The study unearthed some surprising snacking insight that helped our client tweak their offer which was subsequently brought to the popcorn market. We also made recommendations about future flavour preferences amongst snacking consumers.

Free research reports in Beer and Snacks

Eureka - Cider Moments Report - cover.jp

We undertook an exclusive survey with UK based off-trade Cider drinkers, focusing on associations, brands and repertoires.

How has Cider reacted to the crafted beer movement? Is Cider seen as craft, and has the rise in 330ml cans had an impact on this category?

Download our exclusive FREE report

So what sort of lagers are piquing the interest of lager drinkers in the UK? We hear about Craft lagers, Sour lagers, Low alcohol lagers etc, but what is the lager drinker aware of and what are they drinking?

We've delved into this area and produced this exclusive FREE report

We all love a snack whether its chocolate, crisps, popcorn, sweets or a biscuit, but which is our favourite type and how much do we spend?

There are new fancy snacking categories such as tortillas and vegetable crisps, how are frequently are those being consumed and by who?

We've delved into this area and produced this exclusive FREE report

What do our beer and snacks clients say about us?

Marston's

"The work provided by Eureka! has been instrumental in furthering the understanding of our consumer. It laid the foundations for our annual category reports and has given us the insight to support several of our decisions over the past 12 months. The results and methodology behind them have also been well received by customers in all channels. Rich and Dave were a pleasure to work with and managed the project effectively for us throughout. We will definitely continue to work with Eureka!"

Tyrrells

"We worked with Eureka! on a fast turnaround NPD study, speaking with a niche target group of consumers to assess usage, attitudes and warmth to a new concept. They rapidly got to grips with our category and designed a study focussing on a snacking occasion of particular interest to us. Not only did they meet the challenging deadline we set, they also significantly over-delivered, providing us with additional insight to further help us understand the consumer and support our business case internally."