Research aplenty has emerged to support the idea that Gen Z drinkers – those of legal drinking age born between 1997 and 2012 – are moving away from alcohol. Yet recent analysis and industry players are seeking to dispel the argument.  

Earlier this year, Rabobank analyst Bourcard Nesin highlighted multiple factors were causing reduced spending by Gen Z on alcohol, including the cohort’s lower incomes, is more diverse and made up of demographic groups that historically don’t drink as much.  

When it comes to Gen Z consumption of specific products, like spirits, data is harder to come by, though major distillers are generally confident they are able to win over younger drinkers.

Speaking at a Diageo event in June, Giles Hedger, the group’s global consumer planning director, said its research found Gen Z consumers “drink socially a little less frequently than other cohorts” but he added: “They do so very enthusiastically and in a very socially anchored way.”

Hedger was confident that, as a spirits-led business, Diageo was in a good position. “We will experience Gen Z differently,” he said. “We’re a spirits-focused business, Gen Z love spirits. We’re an innovation-focused business, Gen Z love experimentation and exploration.”

Findings from GlobalData, Just Drinks’ parent, suggest spirits are more likely to succeed with younger legal-age drinkers compared to other alcoholic drinks. The data analytics group found Gen Z tends to be “underrepresented in traditional, high-volume categories” like beer but are “more likely to be over-represented in spirit-based RTDs, cocktails, liqueurs, and aperitifs”.

Spirits may indeed chime well with Gen Z compared to other alcohol products but what are their preferred serves? Where are they drinking? What can they spend and is developing a targeted approach the right answer for distillers?

Pick your poison

According to GlobalData, Gen Z drinkers are moving away from “mainstream volume”-led alcoholic drinks, such as beers.

In survey carried out by the data analytics company last year, 59% of respondents said they were “more loyal to brands that offer a personalised product/service”, while 57% noted they would be more likely to buy from brands that offer personalised products/services”. One spirits-based drink aligning with these qualities is cocktails.

“There’s a lot of interest in cocktails” among Gen Z drinkers, David Harris, alcoholic beverages director at GlobalData tells Just Drinks. “There’s a lot of interest in mocktails, as well as semi-cocktails, or long drinks. If they come in a can, there’s a lot of interest in that. Hard seltzers did very well to benefit from this as well in an adjacent space.”

Harris says globally, “on a very granular level”, there’s a “move towards fruitier flavours, which, again, is very much met by the approach of cocktails”. Consumers in Africa and Latin America are displaying a greater interest in “fruit-driven or sweeter flavours”.

He adds: “Particularly in Africa, more so than anywhere else, there’s a real push back against what their dad’s drank.”

In Western countries, there is not so much a focus on fruity flavours but more “the brand heritage angle”, Harris says, which he argues benefits products like Bourbon and Tequila.

Harris doesn’t classify gin as “one of the big losers” but believes it has “fallen out of fashion… as its own thing” from the growth it experienced with millennial drinkers. Vodka meanwhile is holding steady, he adds. “It’s kind of a bit timeless. It’s not seeing a massive growth outside of fruit-flavoured vodka, but nor has it fallen out of favour.”

According to Hedger, Diageo’s research has found Gen Z are mainly showing interest in three spirits – Tequila, vodka and gin. All three are segments in which the company has a leading presence globally. Hedger did not disclose which spirits were some of the least popular.

What spirits click with Gen Z also depends on local factors, says Jing Mertoglu, global vice president for insights, analytics, innovation and marketing at Suntory Global Spirits.

“In India, whisk(e)y is a common spirit that people partake with, even when they’re younger and LDA. So, whisky, meaning Scotch, [it’s] not as scary as it is with other markets.”

Some markets like Korea and China also have spirits which “are very traditional and endemic to the culture”, she says, like soju and baijiu.

While these spirits have strong geographical ties, Mertoglu says there still is opportunity for foreign spirits, like American whiskey, which “is continuing to attract a lot of younger cohorts as well, and [regions] outside of the traditional markets, like Germany, Australia, the United States”.

RTD opportunity

Spirits-based ready-to-drink products also have particular promise with younger drinkers, many of which will be fairly new to spirits.

“Spirits is a huge opportunity when intertwined with RTD, and it’s proven very well in terms of growth rates,” explains Suntory’s Mertoglu. She argues they deliver “flavour and experience” and “potential ways to discover new drinks”.

The US, Australia and Germany are “strongholds” for Suntory’s RTDs range, as well as China and Taiwan where the group sells its Minus 196 vodka seltzers.

Earlier this year, Diageo launched Muck Pit – a sparkling tropical brew made with brewed mangoes, Captain Morgan’s Spiced Gold rum and hop flavourings – in the UK. The company will eventually roll-out the product to Europe, Africa and Asia.

Nathan McGivern, innovation marketing manager for Diageo’s Baileys brand in Europe (and formerly for cocktails) said the company found younger drinkers are resonating most with craft beer brands but they don’t necessarily find them easy to drink. The Captain Morgan Muck Pit Brew product looks to offer similar hoppy notes to beer, served in a pint glass, but with a sweeter, tropical flavour. Will blurring the lines between spirits and beer appeal to Gen Z? Diageo will have to wait out the testing phase to see.

Is luxury ‘getting younger?’

With Gen Z being a low-income cohort, it may be surprising that some players see an opportunity in targeting younger drinkers with more expensive products.

Diageo, which sells its “luxury” products at $100 and above is one such company.

While the segment “is not uniquely or specifically a Gen Z opportunity”, Hedger says, “it does link to Gen Z” and “younger cohorts, because, to coin a phrase, ‘luxury is getting younger’.”

According to Hedger, the next ten years will see millennials and Gen Zers making up “75% of all of the luxury personal goods buyers on Earth”.

It’s unrealistic to assume young people will start forking out their savings on a four-digit sum on a rare edition of Johnnie Walker but it doesn’t mean they don’t want a taste of more upmarket products. Younger drinkers have an “aspiration to have a small part of a so-called luxury lifestyle”, according to Hedger.

“Our business focuses on everyday luxuries and so we become part of that. We are an achievable luxury. We’re within reach for many people.”

GlobalData’s Harris also sees opportunity for pricier spirits with Gen Z drinkers but that it lies more within the on-trade.

“In the on-trade, they want not just a cocktail. They want a cocktail with the individual brands broken out,” says Harris, adding growing numbers of bars have started including the name of the spirits brands on menus.

Our business focuses on everyday luxuries, and so we become part of that. We are an achievable luxury. We’re within reach for many people

Giles Hedger, global consumer planning director, Diageo

In retail on the other hand, younger drinkers are more likely to be purchasing “mass premium” labels, Harris says.

“We also see them far more financially sensible than millennials or Gen Xs were at this stage of their lives. They will not part of that sort of cash. What they would do is probably spend £30/£40 ($41/$55) on an upper level but not explicitly luxury bottle.”

Affordability

While there are opportunities to sell luxury spirits to Gen Z, products need to be within their financial reach.

As Laurence Whyatt, head of European beverages research at Barclays, says: “Affordability is a clear issue at the moment, just on the back of the levels of inflation that we’ve seen over the past few years and the higher interest rates, so any sort of loan payment is going to be impacting discretionary income.”

A GlobalData survey carried out last year showed some 21% said they spent a “medium” amount on spirits more broadly. Meanwhile, 8% and 12% said they had a “very high” and “quite high” spend on spirits, while 13% and 15% reported spending a “very low” and “quite low” amount respectively.

As Harris notes, though Gen Z are showing interest in mixed and longer spirits-based drinks, they are buying fewer of them. “The competing challenge of that is Gen Z is don’t have much money but facing really tough financial times”, he says. “What we’re seeing in practice is that they are buying these cocktails, of these long drinks, but for only drinking one or two”.

This doesn’t mean producers shouldn’t sell high-end products to Gen Z, they just need to remain accessible. One way companies are doing this is through smaller pack formats. For example, Diageo’s 5cl miniature of Don Julio 1942, is sold around the world. In the UK, the product retails between £16.50-£20 a bottle.

As Barclays’ Wyatt explains: “You might not be able to afford a 75cl bottle but you could afford a 325ml or even a 50ml”.

“Let’s say you were going to a dinner party. If you bought a bottle of 1942 that’s going to cost you $200. If you wanted little miniatures, you could say [have] two couples having dinner, four miniatures of [Don Julio] 1942 even two miniatures of 1942, you share them. It’s a much more affordable way of having the same experience.”

Though it will take a lot of purchases to provide the same value and volumes, smaller packs can open up more expensive brands to a generation with less cash on hand.   

“Perhaps you increase regular spend, but historically, people only buy six bottles of spirits a year, that’s the average in the US,” adds Wyatt. “So, if you’re just doing it more frequently, then you align with people’s pay packet timing, and you keep people in the category.”  

On- or off-trade?

Knowing what types of spirits Gen Z enjoy is key to securing their consumption but producers also need to know where they are most likely to buy their drinks.

Hedger at Diageo believes the generation is “over indexing” towards the on-trade.

Harris agrees, noting that while the Covid-19 pandemic meant Gen Z could not visit bars as often as previous generations, they have been consuming in on-trade spaces but with “a far more measured kind of approach”.

Social occasions no longer tend to be directly associated with alcohol by this cohort, meaning general alcohol consumption at-home and in the on-trade has been affected, Harris adds. “But if they are drinking alcoholic beverages, it is far more likely to be in the on-trade.”

Hedger also stresses the importance for “the outdoors and the third spaces” like festivals, meaning “they bring with them a kind of strong indicator for convenience.”

Music festivals have played a key role in building brand recognition for Absolut vodka, says Mathieu Deslandes, global innovation director at Pernod Ricard.

“From a festival point of view, the brand has been connecting to Coachella Festival for multiple years by being present where Gen Z is present, whether it’s within the festival industry, whether it’s the artistic aspect and bringing that creativity.”

He adds: “We know that Gen Z, like any young generation, are probably always more open to creativity and self-expression.”

Casting a wide net

Is it necessary to develop tailored products and marketing towards Gen Z? Given the changing nature of consumer tastes, some companies prefer to focus on a broad audience as opposed to a single cohort.

“It would be wrong to be obsessed by just one target group,” Deslandes tells Just Drinks. “One target group [that is] in an evolution… maybe next year, or in two years’ time or three years’ time, [could be] slightly different.

“There is more change between 18 to 25 in terms of behaviour than between 30 and 80. That’s why, yes, we are looking at market opportunities but, again, from a whole perspective, if we want to win in the future, we need to concentrate on where we can get more scale.”

One example of a broader focus is Pernod’s Malibu white rum liqueur, which is marketed to younger drinkers but not exclusively.

It would be wrong to be obsessed by just one target group

Mathieu Deslandes, global innovation director, Pernod Ricard

“What is more important to me for this brand is that it’s a young mindset, rather than a young target,” Deslandes says. “It doesn’t stop you being 40 and wanting to have the fun of summer. Malibu is about celebrating summer and that summer mindset. I would say that whether you are young or not that summer mindset resonates [with] consumers.”

Deslandes adds consumers “will probably connect to the Pernod Ricard portfolio slightly at a later stage of [their] life cycle because that level of sophistication and clearness and substance is more what you’re looking for”. The older you get, “the more you go premium” as buying power increases.

It’s a point that was echoed by Rabobank’s Nesin in his research. While alcoholic consumption may be lower now for Gen Z than previous generations at a similar age, he says Rabobank thinks it’s likely “by their mid-30s, their consumption will be much closer to that of previous generations”.

That’s “an ideal outcome”, Nesin says. But while it’s always a good thing to adapt and learn how to serve a broad range of consumers, longer-term perhaps Gen Z won’t stray too far from the path of previous generations as we might think.