We weren’t able to find a lot of recent research data in the public domain on the topic of packaged beverages of the “anti-soda” variety. And with the explosion of offerings on the market — everything from infused waters, organic juice blends, fitness shakes, smoothies, and nutrition-enhancing drinks — we wanted to better understand the profiles of the consumers of such products.
The question we posed was: “How often do you consume juices, nutritional shakes, or smoothies?” The question was open-ended to encompass both packaged grocery products as well as home-made items and those purchased at a food service establishment. Our interest was in getting an assessment of consumption in the category as a whole.
What we found in studying these drinkers were some very interesting insights that could serve marketers well in formulating advertising creative and buying strategies.
Nearly half (49%) of respondents said they never or almost never consume such beverages, whereas 15% consume them on a daily or multiple-times-a-day basis. The remaining 36% consume such beverages several times a week to once a month and may represent the biggest area of opportunity for increasing sales in this category.
All of the question’s respondents were then analyzed, looking at hundreds of other questions they’ve also answered across our polling network, to show strongest areas of correlation to better define who they are in contrast to others.
Here’s what we learned at a summary level:
- More frequent consumption of nutritional beverages and an interest in music seem to go hand in hand.
- Those who consume these drinks daily include the younger demographics, but also over-index on the 65+ age group.
- Daily consumers are more health-minded overall, with a bigger focus on organic foods, health and fitness, cooking, and healthy snacking.
- Weekly and monthly consumers skew a bit younger, are more tech-oriented, spend at least two hours a day on social media on average (particularly Pinterest).
- Interestingly, income, employment status, and education attributes do not play significant roles in consumption frequency.
Our full report offers more details about those summary points, but as you can see, by defining the segments in this way, we are able to uncover some pretty strong correlations to inform marketing decisions for makers and retailers of such products.
View the full report online here.
