Methodology - U.S. Reports

Beverage Marketing Reports are made up of primary research conducted by Beverage Marketing analysts enhanced with comprehensive additional research and analysis.

As industry experts with more than 40 years' experience, we believe that the most value can be gained not through simple tabulation of raw data, but by analyzing, interpreting and carefully filtering the data through the prism of industry expertise. Every year, Beverage Marketing conducts comprehensive interviews with key industry executives, discussing trends and issues affecting the industry. Moreover, extensive research of leading and second-tier players and their respective bottlers and distributors is conducted in each market segment to analyze their impact on the total beverage universe. Information obtained in these discussions enables the BMC staff to quantify and analyze the scope of each market segment. Our ability to obtain this data as well as subjective interpretations from leading companies results from years spent building relationships, which of course have trust and integrity as the cornerstone.

Data from the company's exclusive BMCDrinkTell™ database coupled with comprehensive secondary research, using a variety of sources, augments this information, providing a basis upon which to probe the more timely issues in each market segment.

From a select group of companies, we survey a statistically relevant sample base to determine the following:

  • Sales Volume
  • Wholesale Dollar Sales
  • Retail Dollar Sales
  • Market Share
  • Growth
  • Packaging (materials and sizes)
  • Advertising/Marketing
  • Distribution
  • Regional Trends
  • Leading Companies
  • Leading Brands
  • Demographics
  • Projections

Beverage Marketing's approach to the marketplace, which emphasizes total-market, all-channel-inclusive data (from grocery to foodservice to convenience stores to Wal-Mart to club stores to vending, etc.), is supplemented with information from Scarborough Research for demographic data and Kantar Media for advertising expenditure data.

 

Methodology for Global Reports

Beverage Marketing's global market reports contain up-to-date statistics and analysis based on data gathered from a variety of sources.

Beverage Marketing bases its original research and analysis on information from industry executives from leading companies (see U.S. Methodology Statement for additional detail) and from trade and research organizations such as Productschap voor Gedistilleerde Dranken/Commodity Board for the Distilled Spirits Industry (Netherlands), Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

  • For population statistics, Beverage Marketing uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau as well as the UN.
  • The company supplements information culled from primary sources with additional information gathered from databases such as Factiva, newspapers such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and beverage industry trade publications.
    • Beverage Marketing makes every effort to produce reports on the international marketplace that are as comprehensive, accurate and timely as possible. It analyzes data for more than 200 countries, territories and areas for each report.
  • In some cases, for reasons of space, countries with no significant, if any, production or consumption of a given beverage type are not listed in the exhibits of volume, share and growth data.
  • However, in those chapters of The Global Multiple Beverage Marketplace where both production and consumption data are shown, a country is included in both sets of exhibits even if it only has a significant presence in one area. For instance, many countries consume notable quantities of coffee but produce little or none themselves.
  • United Nations designations are used throughout the reports. (The presentation of this material does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitations of its frontiers.)
    • Information on beverages derived from primary agricultural commodity crops (e.g., coffee and tea) was calculated using production as well as import and export data from both the FAO and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • With these beverages, consumption was calculated by adding together production and import figures and subtracting exports, with adjustments made for inventory stocks.
  • The chapters on coffee and tea include statistics on both dry weight of beans and leaves as well as estimates of liquid equivalents.
  • Although import and export data were used to determine each countries' consumption of coffee and tea, only production and consumption (and related share and growth data) are displayed in the chapters.
  • Imports and exports play less of a role in the milk market. In the chapter on milk, total milk production is documented and estimates are presented on how much of that milk is consumed in fluid form.
  • Reports on particular beverage categories, such as The Global Beer Market and The Global Bottled Water Market, use data from beverage companies participating in the categories as well as trade groups and suppliers.