Hedonic, emotional and willingness-to-pay response to beers of a different type in Brazil

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the differences between common Brazilian beer and pure malt beer in the responses of hedonic scaling, willingness to pay and emotional response.

Two types of beer were selected to be tested – a common beer: Pilsen Skol and pure malt beer: Pilsen Eisenbahn. All the analysis was conducted under three labeling conditions: blind; labeled; inverted label with 70 participants in each test. A nine-point hedonic scale evaluated the acceptance. The consumer was questioned how much he/she would be willing to pay for a bottle of beer that he/she tasted. A questionnaire was elaborated based on the EsSense profile to evaluate emotions; 25 emotions were evaluated using a five-point scale. The socioeconomic status was defined based on consumer's household characteristics.

The acceptance score, positive emotions and willingness to pay were higher for pure malt beer in the labeled test and for common beer (labeled as pure malt) in the inverted test. The findings highlight that information, such as beer type and socioeconomic status, could influence consumer responses by altering hedonic perceptions, emotions and commercial value attributed to different beers. In general, the beer type did not affect the evaluated variables.

Brewing industry should explore in their marketing strategies and state clearly the pure malt label. In restaurants, owners can explore pure malt beers as a strategy for garnering different customer profiles. Technological and production investments should be encouraged to reduce the product price, favoring the final consumer.

This study contributes to understanding the growth in the consumption of pure malt beers in Brazil. Moreover, it brings an overview of the influence of the label/information on regular Brazilian consumers.