Russia: Review of Ryazan Beer Market
According to research data, 76% of Ryazan dwellers drink beer: 88.2% of consumers are men and only 11.8% – women.
Purchase frequency of beer is identical to consumption frequency, so beer is the product of immediate consumption and is not bought in.
Group of active consumers, i.g. those drinking it at least once a week, includes 61.9% of respondents. Within this group 28.9% buys beer several times a week, and 2.7% does it every day. The core consumer group covers Ryazan dwellers aged 18 to 40; the majority of them are men.
The group of moderate consumers constitutes 32.8% of respondents – they purchase beer at least once a month, 14.4% of them do it several times a month.
As for consumer preferences for beer sorts, purchases of light beer outdo all other sorts approximately by 5 times. “Street” consumption style is typical for city dwellers and this is clearly reflected in preferences for purchase places: 46% of respondents buy beer in food stores, and 21% do it in street stalls.
Among reasons influencing the choice of this or that sales point respondents most often mentioned convenient location, reasonable prices and guaranteed quality. The main factor of beer brand choice is in most cases the balance of price and quality – it is important for 42% of Ryazan beer drinkers. Noteworthy, this factor is meaningful both for men – 23% of total sample – and women – 19%. Still, if we look at these factors separately, we’ll see that quality is important for 22% of pollees, and price – for 14%. Thus, even the aggregate index of these choice factors is lower than the index of price/quality balance.
The majority of respondents – 87% – thinks that advertising does not influence their choice. Yet 13% is sure this influence exists, and for 8% it is the first important choice factor. This mainly refers to consumers of brands “Baltika (Baltic)” and “Klinskoe”.
Package plays a very important role in choice of beer. Thus, more than half of beer drinkers – 62% – buy beer in glass. About one third of consumers prefer aluminium cans and only 10% chooses PET containers. Draft beer is purchased only by 1% of respondents.
The great majority of pollees – 77% – buy beer in 0.5 litre containers. 1 litre containers are preferred by 16% of respondents, 6% chooses 0.33 litre containers and only 1% purchases beer in containers larger than 1 litre. Noteworthy, 2 litre containers are mostly preferred by men of 30 to 49.
According to poll data, 64% of beer consumers in Ryazan prefer to buy this drink for Rb10 to Rb20 per 0.5 litre bottle. These are mostly men aged 18 to 29 – students or temporarily unemployed. 23% of respondents choose beer for Rb20 to Rb30. Premium beer for more than Rb30 per 0.5 litre bottle is purchased by 13% of respondents.
In Ryazan beer brand and/or manufacturer is important for 10% of pollees. Inarguable leaders are the following companies (in alphabetical order): “Detroit Brewing Co.” (USA) / “Pivovarni Ivana Taranova (Ivan Taranov Breweries)”, “MPBK “Ochakovo” CJSC (Moscow), “Pivovarennaya Kompaniya “Baltika” (Brewing Company “Baltic”)” OJSC (Saint Petersburg), “Pivovarnya “Moskva-Efes” (Brewery “Moscow-Efes”)” CJSC, “Ryazanskaya Pivovarennaya Kompaniya (Ryazan Brewing Company)” OJSC (Ryazan), “SABMiller PLC” (South Africa) / “Kaluzhskaya Pivovarennaya Kompaniya (Kaluga Brewing Company)” LLC, and “SUN Interbrew”. Aggregate share of these manufacturers constitutes more than half of retail sales.
Brands brewed by these manufacturers are really in great demand. In the frames of the poll respondents were asked the question: “What beer brands do you drink most often?” So, preference rating is headed by brands of local brewer “Russkaya Pivovarennaya Kompaniya (Russian Brewing Company)” OJSC with TM “Russkoe (Russian)” and “Zhigulevskoe” – they are in demand respectively of 16.2 and 14% of pollees.
Leading position of local manufacturers is determined by low price and brand names well-known to consumers.
Still, we can state that “Zhigulevskoe” practically shares the second position with “Baltika” (13.9% of consumers). “Klinskoe” also stands strong with 12.4%.
At the same time such brands as for instance “Ochakovo” and “Yarpivo” which were among the most popular not long ago are now loosing positions on Ryazan beer market.
“Klinskoe” is positioned as youth brand, has strong promo support and the product line is being enlarged. In case of “Ochakovo” we currently see five varieties but no significant development of product line or bright launches were registered, so these might be some of the reasons this brand ceases to be popular.
Consumption of imported and license beer is not too high in Ryazan. We should mention here that women are more inclined to drink imported or license beer and respectively display less interest in domestic brands. For example, preference index for “Miller” in female audience is 8.8% against average 3.6% in total sample; and corresponding preference indices for “Russkoe” beer are 8.6% against 16.2%.
Summing up we can say that in general Ryazan consumers over 18 years displayed good knowledge of domestic and imported/license beer brands, and demonstrated high loyalty to locally brewed beer.
Besides, Ryazan dwellers are characterized with high level of beer consumption, and their preferences are formed under the influence rather of product quality and price than of such external factors as advertising or special promo activities.
Thus, presented data allows the statement that beer brewing is still profitable despite brand diversity and severe competition.
In the nearest future main efforts of beer manufacturers will be most probably focused on keeping of competitive prices, enlargement of product lines and development of taste varieties. Favourable macroeconomics and increasing income of population might lead to increased production of premium beer.
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