A new report has suggested that UK students find unfamiliar alcohol brands appealing, in part because well-known brands “were associated with low quality.”
The Alcohol Issue, a collaborative report between youth marketing agency Hype Collective and alcohol marketers YesMore, found that two-thirds of students in their focus groups associated unknown brands with being high-quality. Other reasons for supporting smaller brands were cited as ‘adventurousness’ and ‘supporting local businesses’.
This was part of a wider theme of students’ disloyalty to alcohol brands, where 53% of those surveyed said they did not care about brands, and preferred to just get ‘the cheapest option’.
Cutting back for mental health reasons
Another finding was that one third of students interviewed had taken a break from drinking alcohol for the sake of their mental health. This was done through a ‘cutting back’ rather than ‘cold turkey’ approach for most.
The report was based on the results of focus groups, industry interviews and a nationwide survey of 1,000 students.
