Beer mix category reaches market saturation

Despite the fact that almost every German brewer has beer mixes in his portfolio, it’s merely a good dozen or so brands which have reached any size and volume.

Market research has shown that beer mixes appeal to consumers of all ages. 79.3 percent of consumers who drink beer mixes are aged between 19 years and 59 years. This has proven brewers wrong who hoped that Germany’s thirtysomethings would lose the taste for beer mixes and start drinking beer.

Now you will ask: “Even if they failed to live up to expectations, beer mixes have surely helped to compensate German brewers for their losses in a declining market?” Sorry to disappoint you, but the answer to this is “no”. The overall beer market has continued to decline for the past twenty years all the while beer mixes have grown in popularity.

GfK market research, Nuremberg, says that Radler (beer plus lemonade) is the most popular beer mix (43 percent), followed by beer + lemon and beer + coke which together account for 27 percent. The more exotic combos combine to share 30 percent (2009).

Let’s put it this way: the ad men were the only ones who really profited from the surge in beer mixes.