The quantitative research, carried out across Germany, the UK and the US, focused on the benefits consumers expect from their energy, sports and functional water drinks. The research results show that ‘prolonged energy’, ‘balanced energy’ and ‘mental performance’ are ranked highest as benefits respondents expect from their sports, energy and functional water drinks.
Dr Christian Niederauer, market research manager, Beneo, says: “Only slight differences in priorities are recorded across the beverage sectors in our consumer research, but the message remains clear: functional beverages need to deliver new forms of energy provision and mental performance if they are to prove successful in the long-term.”
German, UK and US respondents favour ‘prolonged energy’ and ‘balanced energy’ as the top benefits for sports drinks. When consuming energy drinks, all respondents place high importance on ‘prolonged energy’ (UK: 84%, Germany: 81%, US: 87%). Only the US favours ‘mental performance’ more (88% and 87% respectively). The provision of ‘balanced energy’ is rated highly by the respondents when consuming functional waters (81% of US, 84% of UK and 76% of Germans).
This quantitative study shows that the non-cariogenic benefits of drinks score well in all countries. In particular, US respondents favour tooth-friendly sports drinks (76%), whereas German and UK participants prefer their functional waters to deliver tooth-friendly benefits (Germany: 78% and UK: 86%).
The frequency energy, sports and functional water drinks are consumed differs dramatically in the UK, US and Germany. With 30% of the US respondents frequently consuming sports drinks each month, this beverage category seems to be the most favoured for the US market (energy drinks: 18% and functional waters: 20%).
German and UK respondents also show a difference in their frequent monthly consumption, with 31% of Germans preferring functional waters (energy drinks: 23% and sports drinks: 24%), and more than a third (36%) of UK respondents choosing to consume an energy drink (sports drinks: 31% and functional waters: 16%).
Not only does the frequency of drinking functional beverages differ depending on the country or type of functional beverage, but the times of day it’s consumed as well. It seems that all countries are agreed that sports beverages are best consumed during sport (62% of German, 51% of UK and 60% of US respondents). However, German respondents feel the need for an energy boost during the evening, with 52% consuming an energy drink, as opposed to UK and US respondents who prefer to drink theirs during the day or at work (UK: 49% and US: 62%).
The consistency of need across all respondents for prolonged and sustained energy may in part be due to the lack of energy felt across the nations. The female respondents in the Beneo study feel ‘lacking in energy’ the most (US: 47%; UK: 43% and Germany: 39%). However, this lack of energy crosses ages in all countries independent of gender. In Germany, teenagers are struggling the most (43%) with low energy levels. In the UK and the US, the groups aged 20-29 and 30-39 years respectively are feeling they lack energy the most (UK: 45% and US: 44%).
Source: Beneo
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