Millennials and the Take-Off of Craft Brands: Preference Formation in the U.S. Beer Industry

AbstractThe U.S. Beer industry has undergone two periods of major structural change in the post-World War II period. The first period, 1950–1980, was one of consolidation in which concentration increased dramatically. Since this period, combinations among leading brewers took place that would not have passed antitrust scrutiny earlier. The second period, from 1980 on, is one of fragmentation, marked by the entry of many craft brewers and increased product heterogeneity. The fragmentation has brought about consumption complementarities between wine and beer that never existed before. The wine and beer industry both face distributional inefficiencies sustained by state regulatory provisions that were a consequence of ending prohibition in the United States. Each of these topics is explored in this paper. (JEL Classification: L66, M37)

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Craftwashing in the U.S. Beer Industry

Beverages ◽

10.3390/beverages4010001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Philip Howard

Keyword(s):

Beer Industry ◽

The U.S

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Guilty by Association: Product-Level Category Stigma and Audience Expectations in the U.S. Craft Beer Industry

Journal of Management ◽

10.1177/0149206316657593 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 44 (7) ◽

pp. 2934-2960 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Matthew A. Barlow ◽

J. Cameron Verhaal ◽

Jake D. Hoskins

Keyword(s):

Product Category ◽

Online Reviews ◽

Brewing Industry ◽

Product Level ◽

Product Categories ◽

Craft Beer ◽

Beer Industry ◽

Process Product ◽

The U.S

While researchers have been increasingly interested in the notion of category stigma, they have largely focused on stigmatized industry categories. Because products serve as a key interface between producers and consumers, we suggest that product categories should play a prominent role in the stigmatization process. Product category stigma occurs when a product category is seen as violating the expectations of its audience members. We argue that when an organization offers a product from a stigmatized category, it is subject to lower evaluations and higher penalties from the stigmatizing audience, regardless of its true underlying quality. Further, when an organization is perceived as increasing its engagement in a stigmatized category, the lower evaluations transfer to the organization’s other products. Finally, we argue that an organization’s reputation for quality actually amplifies this stigma penalty. We find support for our hypotheses in a sample of online reviews for the U.S. craft brewing industry.

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