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Научни трудове на Съюза на учените в България-Пловдив Серия A. Обществени науки, изкуство и култура том IV, ISSN 1311-9400 (Print); ISSN 2534-9368 (On-line), 2017, Scientific works of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria-Plovdiv, seriesA. Public sciences, art and culture, Vol. IV, ISSN 1311-9400 (Print); ISSN 2534-9368 (On-line), 2017.
PERCEPTION AND CONSUMPTION OF BEER AMONG YOUNG POPULATION IN BANJA LUKA Mico Partalo, Bozidar Marie Menthor: Prof. dr. Aleksandar Ostojic University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Agriculture, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
The market of Bosnia and Herzegovina has an abundance of many different kinds of beers and completely satisfies the needs of young population. The consumption of beer in the last period in Bosnia and Herzegovina records a tendency of increasing and at the moment accounts to 80 litres per capita. This trend of increasing is mostly reflected among the members of the younger population.
The goal of this paper is to determine the perception of the youth towards the beer, their preferences and behaviour during buying and consumptions of beer, and all that in the area of Banja Luka city. The research is carried out by survey that included 201 youth of different ages form 18 to 32 years old. The survey was done online and the data was processed via Microsoft Office Excel programme. The results of research showed that 98.1% of the youth in Banja Luka consumes beer. Out of all the sorts of beers, the local Nektar beer is mostly consumed by young population predominantly because of its quality and taste, but also because of the accessible price. Studies in this paper showed that 78.7% of the interviewed don't buy the cheapest beer, but the brand of the beer is important to them.
Around 78% of respondents consider that the beer is the most popular drink among the young population, as well as the fact that men consume beer more often than women. This kind of research could be of great use to the companies which deal with the production and the distribution of beer, especially from the point of improvement of their own reputation and expansion of the market on the area of the Banja Luka city and also the wider.
Key words: beer, youth, research, consumers opinions, Banja Luka. Introduction
The beer is considered as fermented alcoholic drink made by brewing of malt, hops, water and yeast. The world production of beer records constant increase in period 2006-2016, precisely of 11.3% (https://www.statista.com/statistics/270275/worldwide-beer-production). The biggest producers in the world are located in Asia, while Europe takes 27% of whole world beer production (http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-beer-producing-nations.html). In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is a long tradition of beer production with the assessment of consumption of 80 litres per capita. There are six breweries in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the consumption and purchase of beer, the customers have different behaviors According to Jovic et. al. (2015), as stated by Gjonbalaj et. al. (2010), the price and the quality have the biggest influence on customers buying behaviours, while loyalty to domestic brand is 77%, and 52% of respondents are buying
domestic beer while foreign brand is only bought by 5.2%. The supermarkets are the most common places where customers usually buy a beer. Hajdu et. al. (2007) researched attitudes of youth and high-educated population about the beer consumption and perception in Hungary. Results of the research point out that 60% respondents drink beer once a week and that the most consumed beers are from western Europe: Amstel, Tuborg and Steffl. The goal of the paper is to determine perception of the youth towards beer and their loyalty to certain domestic or foreign brand of beers.
Methodology and data sources
The research in the paper is based on using a questionnaire structured of 39 questions. Five questions were an open type, while the rest were closed type. The opinions of respondents about beer characteristics and their buying behaviors and consumptions were measured by scale from 1 to 5 (Likert scale), precisely from the most unfavorable to the most favorable. The survey was created on the https://drive.google.com website. An online research was applied. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2017 among 201 respondents. Analysis was made by Microsoft Office Excel and SPSS v22 (IBM) program. In the paper, statistical methods (frequency and distribution) and a chi square test were used. Since that survey included a large number of questions, the most important research results are analyzed and discussed in the paper. The questions in the survey were divided into several sections: social and demographic characteristics of respondents, the attitudes of respondents by buying and consuming beer and the important characteristics in purchase and consumption of beer. Results and discussion
Social and demographic characteristics of respondents
About 47.6% of male and 52.4% of female respondents participated in the research study. The age structure of respondents is younger population, in the range between 18 and 32. An average age of respondents was 22.74 years with the standard deviation from the mean value of 2.49. In addition, the survey also showed data on monthly earnings of respondents, where 21.8% of respondents have a monthly income more than 400 BAM, then 20.4% of respondents receive 200-400 BAM, while 57.8% have monthly income below 200 BAM1.
The attitudes of respondents by beer buying
Considering the frequency of beer consumption, it is evident that the majority of young people are drinking beer few times a week (41.7%), while about 5% of respondents consumed once a month.
Graph 1. Frequency of beer consumption. Source: Calculated by authors.
1 1 EUR = 1.95583 BAM 76
Frequency
Everyday Several times a week Once a week Several times a month Once a month Seldom Total
Gender Female Count 1 33 14 26 8 23 105
% within sex 1% 31,4% 13,3% 24,8% 7,6% 21,9% 100%
Male Count 14 52 10 14 2 4 96
% within sex 14,6% 54,2% 10,4% 14,6% 2,1% 4,2 % 100%
Total Count 15 85 24 40 10 27 201
% within sex 7,5 % 42,3% 11,9% 19,9% 5,0% 13,4% 100%
Table 1. Frequency of consumption in relation to gender.
Source: Calculated by authors.
As is showed in table 1. the research results indicate that gender has an impact on the frequency of consumption (p=0.00; p<0.05). The men drink beer more often than women, which is expected. Throughout data analysis females are more inclined to beer consumption on a special occasion in comparison to male populations. The research results showed also a large number of respondents (43.70%) who believe that beer is healthy if it is consumed in moderate quantities. Most young people primarily buy and consume beer in bars/clubs (50.5%). Hajdu et. al. (2007) in their research came to the conclusion that most of the respondents drink beer at home or with family.
Dominantly most respondents drink beers of domestic producers (60.70%). Based on obtained answers it is evident that 59.7% of young population stays loyal to the brand regardless of price change. About 45.6% of respondents said that beer price is not too high.
The reasons for domestic beer consumption are an accessible price, adequate taste, quality, and the 52% said that they buy domestic beer because it is a domestic product. Generally it is noticeable that young people buy and consume beer of local producer. Considering the foreign beers, young people mostly prefer beer from Serbia. According to the preferred packaging, a statistically important impact is noticed (p=0.009;p<0.01), whereby men prefer 0.5 l bottles, while women 0.33 l. Most of the young population, about 81.6% prefer glass packaging, 14.6% - metal package, while 8.6% - plastic package.
Importance of certain features in purchase and consumption of beer
Analysis of the gender has impact on this specific sentence: "I like to drink different types and brands of beer", giving the results that were not statistically significant (p=0.06; p>0.05). Gender does not have any impact on differences in answers, which confirms that younger populations are loyal to the domestic beer. The research showed that price is not the deciding factor in the selection and purchase of beer. Conclusion
The research that was conducted among young population in Banja Luka showed that youth most frequently consume beer several times a week (42.3%) and that men drinks beer more often than women. Statistical analysis showed that there are differences in individual attitudes among men and women respondents. The most dominantly consumed beer is domestic brand Nektar, produced in Banja Luka, and with a good reason it can be said that the youth prefers domestic brand of beer in comparison to the regional and foreign brands. This kind of research can be used by leader companies in production of beer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well in the region, especially from the point of improvement of their reputation and expansion on the market of city of Banja Luka.
References
1. Hajdu I., Major A., Lakner Z., (2007): Consumers behavior in the Hungarian beer market
2. Jovic Dj., Ostojic A., Bosancic., (2015): Consumers opinions about the consumption of beer in the city of Banja Luka, Agrieconomica No. 66
3. Vlahovic B., (2010): Trziste agroindustrijskih proizvoda, Poljoprivredni fakultet, Novi Sad, page 494.
Websites:
1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/270275/worldwide-beer-production/
2. http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-beer-producing-nations.html
