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Drink for thought

A bit on the topic that Stan dealt with the other day is this article from an Argentine newspaper "Five qualities from wine that beer watches and envies". (in Spanish)

The headline might be quite silly, but it still makes a bit of sense. The author claims to have had access to a study that was based on marketing surveys from several countries, which had been commissioned by breweries.

For those who don't read Spanish here's a summary:

1- Frequency: People drink more beer, but they drink wine more often, and they drink it at home with meals. In Argentina people drink beer 5.6 times a month and wine 9.4

2- Food: Beer is drunk mostly with fast-food, while wine will wash down "proper" meals.

3- Attributes: Wine is associated with God, the land, tradition, history and even country, as well as variety, knowledge, exploration and prestige, while beer is associated with parties, nightlife, young people (i.e. inexperienced consumer), etc. Something in the lines of what I've talked about almost a year ago

4- Stereotyped consumption: Beer is seen as a refreshment with alcohol.

5- Concentration: Brewing is in the hands of a few large companies, while wine is made by many small ones, or so says the author, who bases his claim on the difference in the advertising budgets of both industries. In 2009 the advertising expenses of breweries in Argentina represented 21.5% of the total for the country, while wine's were only 7.7%. For example, the country's biggest brewer, Quilmes (property of AB-InBev and second largest beberage advertiser) spent 661.53 million Pesos and in comparison the largest winemaker, Grupo Peñaflor spent 116.76.

Before you scream "Bollocks!" you should be aware that this is not the way we see beer, but the way the average consumer does, and that, although the article speaks about Argentina, it could be very well applied to many other countries.

Na Zdravi!

Comments

  1. Very well put in that last paragraph, Pivero. It speaks to the fact that although breweries and beer blogs are popping up all over the place, there's still a lot of room for education and exploration among the average consumer.

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  2. There is definitely more variety in wine than in beer, even taking into account small breweries. Just think of however every shop has a mostly different selection of wines but basically the same beers. Part of that is due to the greater internationalisation of wine as opposed to beer, for sure.
    I don't think all those things are necessarily bad though. Beer and wine are different, there's no reason to want them to be the same. I would hate it if people were as stuck about about beer as they are about wine.

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  3. however = how
    stuck = stuck up

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  4. Mike,

    I agree with you. Those things aren't bad, at least not for me as a consumer. They are something brewers have to sort out themselves.

    Funny thing with wine is that if you go to a wine producing region people who live there take wine as their everyman's drink, it's then the marketers and the snobs who get stuck up with it.

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