What do today’s beer, wine and spirit consumers want to see more of from the national chains they visit? Mike Ginley, Partner at Next Level Marketing, provided the latest on-premise consumer research study fielded exclusively for the 2014 VIBE Conference. The study was conducted using Next Level’s custom on-line survey tool. The study includes 1,000 on-premise national chain beverage alcohol consumers. The 2014 study includes 21+ consumers from all of the top casual dining, fine dining and hotel chains.
Here are a few statistics relating to the consumer that will help owners and operators to better understand their patrons:
- 55% of respondents are going out as often as last year
- 70% visit the same types of restaurants and bars
- 15% are going to less expensive places
- 15% are going to more expensive places – Millennials are the group skewing to better places
- 65% order drinks most to all the time with males ordering more frequently than females. Surprisingly, Millennials order less frequently than older consumers.
- 79% try a new drink every 90 days with new drink trial highest among Millennials.
- 73% have ordered a beer at a restaurant or bar in the past 30 days and 62% order the highest quality beer at the best price
- 70% of consumers have ordered seasonal beers and there is growing interest
- 65% have ordered wine at a restaurant or bar in the past 30 days with 64% ordering the highest quality wine at the best price
- 59% have ordered a spirit cocktail at a restaurant or bar in the past 30 days
The average consumer order 2.3 drinks per occasion with males ordering more than females and Millennials ordering more than the older consumers. Asking for the order is the number one way to sell an extra drink per occasion followed by after dinner drinks, better quality drinks, faster service, smaller sizes and lighter drinks.
When consumers order that second drink, they have been hooked, they need to be reeled in and turned into a repeat customer. The most popular loyalty programs are TGI Fridays, Applebee’s, Chili’s, Olive Garden and Red Lobster.
In order to keep up with the top loyalty programs, restaurants need to stay on top of these consumer trends, such as electronic menus. Today, 25% of consumers have ordered from an electronic menu and this will grow rapidly as they are placed in more locations. Over half of the consumers studied are somewhat interested in ordering from an electronic menu – this is something that is not going away.
Information related to menu content concluded that 80% of consumers expect to see all drink prices listed on the menus that they order from. The majority of consumers feel more comfortable ordering drinks when the prices are published and over half are less likely to order a drink when the prices are not visible.
In the hospitality industry, restaurant owners and operators have to give the people what they want. This also means said owners and operators have to stay on top of industry trends in order to know what consumers will want before they even know what they want.
For more information on the most relevant industry information and trends make sure to attend the 2015 VIBE Conference for exclusive research for the chain beverage executive, taking place on March 31 – April 1, 2015 in Las Vegas. www.VIBEConference.com.