世論 What Japan Thinks

Last year Kirin started with Kirin Zero, a completely alcohol-free drink that supposedly tastes like beer, and they were soon followed by all the other major brewers. To see how people drink them, iShare conducted a survey into these beer taste soft drinks.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 18th of February 2010 509 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 31.8% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, and 37.3% in their forties.

I’ve drunk one can once – well, I drunk half a can and poured the rest away. It did look quite beer-like in colour and head, but the taste was just like what I imagine fizzy hops tea would be.

It gets promoted at a couple of the restaurants that I frequent, but it always seems to be priced just the same as real beer, and much higher than ordinary fizzy drinks. I’d stick with ginger beer if I was in the situation of needing to drive after a drinking party!

Research results

Q1: Do you like the taste of beer? (Sample size=509)

	All	Male N=273	Female N=236
Love it	14.9%	18.7%	10.6%
Like it	25.1%	26.7%	23.3%
Dislike it	26.7%	28.6%	23.6%
Hate it	33.2%	26.0%	41.5%

Q2: If people around you are drinking, do you want to have a drink too? (Sample size=509)

	All	Male N=273	Female N=236
Definitely	13.0%	14.3%	11.4%
Often	29.9%	32.6%	26.7%
Sometimes	24.8%	23.8%	25.8%
Never	32.4%	29.3%	36.0%

Q3: Have you every drunk any beer taste non-alcohol drinks? (Sample size=509)

	All	Male N=273	Female N=236
Yes (to SQs)	34.4%	41.0%	26.7%
No	65.6%	59.0%	73.3%

Those who like the taste of beer were more likely to have tried it, as were those who get thirsty seeing others drink.

Q3SQ1: At what times have you drunk beer taste non-alcohol drinks? (Sample size=175, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=112	Female N=63
When I wanted to see what it tasted like	69.7%	75.9%	58.7%
When I wanted to drink but couldn’t because I was driving, etc	27.4%	26.8%	28.6%
Drunk it instead of beer as I get drunk easily	9.1%	6.3%	14.3%
When I wanted to drink but didn’t feel too well	3.4%	3.6%	3.2%
When I wanted to drink but had to do something that I could’t turn up drunk for	2.9%	4.5%	0.0%
Drunk it instead of beer because I like the taste	1.7%	0.9%	3.2%
Other	7.4%	4.5%	12.7%

I would guess that some of the others for women included being pregnant.

Q3SQ2: Would you like to drink beer taste non-alcohol drinks again? (Sample size=175)

	All	Male N=112	Female N=63
Definitely want to	4.0%	1.8%	7.9%
If I had an opportunity to	43.4%	39.3%	50.8%
Don’t want to	52.6%	58.9%	41.3%