Women and beer group, Dea Latis, has been awarded a second grant by the The Worshipful Company of Brewers from their Brewers’ Research and Education Fund (BREF) to delve further into women’s attitudes and behaviours around beer following the publication of their report in May this year, The Gender Pint Gap.
Dea Latis directors, Lisa Harlow and Annabel Smith identified during the early stages of drafting their report that the results demanded a much ‘deeper dive’ into the psychology of female relationships and attitudes towards beer. The report was drawn from a YouGov survey of 2,000 respondents answering mainly multiple-choice questions so there was no opportunity to explore responses in more detail at that stage. The new funding will provide an opportunity to conduct more detailed, qualitative research.
They are also keen to explore how brand owners, brewers and retailers are responding and reacting to female attitudes towards beer and to draw up some ‘best practice’ guidance.
Lisa Harlow explained: “Our first report was the most comprehensive piece of research in this area for over nine years and provided us – and the sector – with a fascinating overview of today’s situation. At the same time it generated more questions than we could answer.
“For example, why did so many non-beer drinkers say that they just don’t like the taste of beer. Was it tempered by inherent beliefs and opinions or have they had a poor experience of beer so their conclusion is that all beer is the same? Have they had the opportunity to experience a diverse range of flavours, styles and colours, and been encouraged to form opinions without judgement or ridicule?”
The second piece of research will also look into why women don’t drink beer for fear of ‘being judged by others’; why marketing and advertising of beer is such a big barrier (48% in the 18-24-year-old age group) and what brewers might be doing to address the misconceptions about beer in terms of calorific content, serve size, quality and image.
Annabel Smith added: “Our aim is not to tell the beer industry how to do their job or give negative opinions about their marketing strategies. We want to engage and work with brewers to create an achievable set of standards and messages based on robust ‘real life’ opinions of real consumers. We want to engage, educate and entice women to consider beer and research such as this is commercially valuable to brewers, brand owners and retailers.
“We are very grateful to the Worshipful Company of Brewers for their support in this, and our earlier research.”
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The Gender Pint Gap report from May 2018 can be downloaded here: https://dealatis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Gender-Pint-Gap-Report_Dea-Latis_May-2018.pdf
For more information contact:
Lisa Harlow on 07917 757860 or email lisa@lisaharlow.co.uk
Annabel Smith on 07920 058500 or email annabel@beerbelle.co.uk