Rising Female Spirits In China

An old guy and a young guy walk into a bar in China…This may sound like a joke but it’s not, it’s actually the results of China Polling’s most recent investigation on the alcohol consumption of Chinese people. Studies show that under 2% of men over the age of 30 are choosing spirits as their favorite alcoholic beverage. Looking at males under the age of 30, we find that this number rises to 5.5%.

The image of a whiskey drinker in the west has already been hardwired into our minds: a well-established, middle-aged man that divides his time between

the office and the golf course. Though this image is often thought to be universal, evidence suggests that it’s the exact opposite in China.

When we start looking at female drinkers, a demographic ignored for far too long, we find something startling.

Females report drinking spirits twice as much as men at both age groups. An amazing 9.5% of females under the age of 30 prefer to drink such beverages

and 5% of those over 30, leading one to believe that there’s a new generation of spirits consumers in China.

What is often perceived as a luxury item sought after by only those that can afford to pamper themselves, studies indicate that a younger, more hip

population is attracted to hard liquor rather than those well into their middle years. As we look more closely at the breakdown of these age groups,

we see trends start to emerge. Wine drinkers are fairly stable, 68% of females and about 31% of males. Later in life males make a 10% change from

beer to Baijiu drinkers. Females also tend to prefer Baijiu a little more in their later years. Spirits however, show a curious trend. The younger

generation prefers spirits, whereas the older generations go for the bottle of Baijiu when they want the strong stuff.

What we can gather from this is there is a clear trend of Spirits being a drink for the young and strangely females report more of a preference for it

than males do. This is something that Spirits marketers in China would be wise to take note of when they are planning their next marketing campaign.

China Polling is a boutique advertising agency in Beijing China and has been conducting market research throughout China and East Asia since 1999.

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