Conclusion

In conclusion...

Throughout our time completing this project, we managed to cover the Portuguese beer market and analyzed the sales of value and volume of 5 years, from 2014-2019. On top of this, a focus group and survey was conducted with the purpose of gathering more information on the consumption of beer directly from consumers.

With the skills learned throughout the semester in the fields of consumer behavior, market research, marketing strategy, and data analysis, we were able to broaden insight on the different aspects of these areas in the Portuguese beer market.

With this in mind, we focused on ways we can increase the engagement and consumption of beer for Gen Z. The research question that was studied regards to Gen-Z consumption; “What elements affect consumption of beer in Gen Z?”. To gather insights for this, we conducted a focus group. Additionally, we conducted a survey with the purpose of gathering data answering our other research questions being; “Does the amount of calories in beer influence female beer consumption?”.

As of today, the two main competitors in the beer market are Sagres and SuperBock, given that Sagres took the lead in recent years.

In regards to the macro environmental factors, we saw that nowadays, underage drinking is the biggest political problem. Factories and brewers need to be aware of the ingredients and materials when making the product as an environmental factor. Covid-19 has had one of the biggest ever social and cultural impacts on the beer industry. Consumption and sales of beer keep rising. The innovation and efficiency of beer and its packaging was a point worth mentioning within the technological factor.

While analyzing the buyers profile, we found out that in 2016, 4.5 million people consumed beer in the last 12 months, 2.8 million of those were male, while 1.7 million were females. Most of the customers (936,000) are between 35-44 year old. Out of 4.5 million 1 million of them are in the region of Lisbon.

It is important to keep in mind the two factors that will influence consumer's buying decision; the internal factor, which is the consumers impression of the beer brand, and the external factor, which is the cultural influence that the surroundings have on buyers.

Six A Priori segmentations have been made with some mainly focusing on younger females, the older population, specific regions and all costumers. 3 Post Hoc segmentations were formed based on the survey. Additionally, all the products within each segment was positioned by brand attribute and benefit of attribute.

We have deeply analyzed the statistical side of the market and concluded that in the demographic profile, females tend to consume more beer than men. The biggest consumer age group is between 15-24. The region of Porto consumes the most beer. In regards to consumer behavior, larger beer is the most consumed beer type. We found that most people tend to drink out of home, which led us to understand why Covid-19 had such a big impact on the beer market. When it comes to differentiation factors and determining whether people like it or not, association, attributes, characteristics, nutritional information, promotion, and palliative aspects all have a big impacts on this.

We finished this project by composing three literature reviews in the topics of “ethics and social responsibility on segmentation and positioning”, “external and internal buying behavior influencing factor”, and “marketing research process”.