Indian netizens say cheers to Kingfisher beer more often

One third of internet users in India above 25 years consume alcohol, with a majority of them preferring beer over any other alcoholic drink.

According to a survey conducted by Qilo, a marketing communications consultancy, and online research-based advisory Juxt, one third of the internet users in India above 25 years of age consume alcohol, with a majority of them preferring beer over any other alcoholic drink.

The online survey was conducted on Juxt's India Research Panel (an initiative of Juxt and Youmint) among 6,56,596 net users above 25 years of age, residents of top 12 cities. Nearly a third of the total respondents (210,000) stated that they consumed alcohol. About 90 per cent of the online alcohol drinkers are male, 55 per cent of them are aged 30 to 39 years, and 45 per cent come from Delhi and Mumbai.

Beer emerged as the No. 1 choice with 44 per cent of alcohol consumers on internet in India citing it as their favourite drink, while close to one-fourth (26 per cent) of them said they preferred whisky the most. Vodka, preferred by 14 per cent of them and rum, preferred by 9 per cent, took the third and fourth spots, respectively. Only 6 per cent of those surveyed cited wine as their favourite drink. Just about 1.5 per cent showed their preference for gin.

Among the beer brands, Kingfisher leads with 53 per cent of beer drinkers on the net citing it as their favourite brand, followed by Haywards 5000 and Fosters, which together made up for less than half the number polled by Kingfisher.

In whisky, the brands competed more closely, with Royal Stag leading at 21 per cent, followed by Blenders Pride at 17 per cent. While Smirnoff was cited as the favourite drink among 37 per cent of vodka drinkers, Old Monk and Bacardi together accounted for 80 per cent of the choices in rum category. Blue Riband led dominantly among gin drinkers with 48 per cent of them citing it as their choice.

"The internet is an excellent medium to not only study usage and brand loyalty but also drive engagement in categories like alcohol, as there are close to 28-30 million drinkers on the net in India," says Mrutyunjay Mishra, co-founder, Juxt, adding, "More interestingly, 19 per cent of the whisky drinkers and 14 per cent of vodka drinkers on the net consume premium brands."

Speaking about the objective of the study, Vipul Mathur, co-founder, Qilo, states, "The study just reiterates Qilo's strong belief in online as an excellent medium to reach out to the consumers in lifestyle categories like alcohol. Some of the brands are already leveraging the power of social media to engage with the consumers. Kingfisher, which emerged as the leading brand in the research, for example, also leads in its social media following among its peers."