Sep 01 2010
Baby Boomers Are Buying Wine Over Beer, Causing Boost Wine Market
While Australia has more drinkers who buy wine than any other Western country, Aussie baby boomers are driving wine sales growth, not young consumers as once thought, says an industry researcher.
CEO of Wine Intelligence (market research group) Lulie Halstead, said older drinkers in Australia are moving away from traditional beer and spirits to wine. While speaking at a wine conference, she said “There’s a misnomer within the wine industry that it’s younger consumers that are driving all of market growth,”.
She said 66 per cent of Australian wine drinkers drink wine about once a month (66 per cent), with 59 per cent in the UK and 33 per cent in the US. Of Australia’s 10.8 million drinkers of wine, aged between 48 to 49.
Health and alcohol ad campaigns including the highly successful drink driving campaign has assisted the shift from beer and spirits to wine amongst baby boomers, Ms Halstead said. She said “Wine is seen as the more acceptable face of alcohol,”.
Wine Intelligence’s research also revealed growth in both red wine and white wine consumption in Asian countries, in particularly in China. There are a increasing number of Chinese women adopting wine as a part of their health and beauty routine. “Red wine is seen as enhancing skin tone, digestion… a small glass of wine on the night stand before bed will aid the beauty regime,”.
Apparently for Chinese mean, it’s important to be seen as being able to choose wine for their girlfriend or partner. She said these trends in Asia and China promise great opportunity for our wine industry to drive more wine exports but warned that Australian Wine Makers will need to understand what factors influences will impact this demand.
She also stated “If you don’t listen and understand the motivation of your consumer let that be at your peril,”. “If you don’t understand what’s driving drinkers to buy wine, it doesn’t matter what we do in the wineries and the vineyards, we’re not going to connect with those consumers to achieve wine sales.”
