How Social Media Brainwashes Millennials Into Buying More Expensive Booze

June 3rd, 2016

A new study by two marketing groups (Evolve Media and Havas Media) says that Millennials buy pricey alcohol so that they can post pictures of themselves drinking “cool” brands on Facebook and Instagram (or, given their generation, more likely Snapchat), impress their friends and gain social capital.

The study, titled “Behind the Bottle: An Exploration of Trends in the Spirits Category,” found that 42 percent of adults aged 21-and-up, not just Millenials, say that digital media helps them “get ideas and recommendations of what spirits to buy.” Just 24 percent cited dorky old media, like TV, print publications and radio, as inspiration for their alcohol purchases. The most common influence was “word of mouth,” with 59 percent saying it was a factor. Then again, given the likelihood that for many Millennials, “word of mouth” means (or at least includes) social media, the real social media percentage may be even higher.

And according to the study, 28 percent of Millennials endorsed the statement “I sometimes order a premium brand just to impress my peers,” compared to only 11 percent of Baby Boomers.

As the press release puts it, “knowledge of spirits is becoming social currency among Millenials.”

In addition to posting on social media, consumers choose brand-name alcohol more frequently when entertaining and giving gifts than when drinking alone, further evidence of the “showing off” component of choosing booze.

So how will alcohol companies, at whom the report is directed, capitalize on the earth-shattering news that Millennials are all about the social media?

James Chase, the marketing director at Chase Distillery, says that he’s been specifically targeting Millennials via social media for the past six months, and is seeing results: “We have seen an increase in terms of engagement” with the brand, with “this age group sharing content [i.e. advertisements] within their own communities on social.”

“We see Millennials ‘brand-calling’ more and more as a sign to their friends that they know what they are talking about,” he says.

Oh good, “brand-calling.” The future is fun.

The Influence staff

Kenneth Anderson

When will people ever learn that what tastes best is not necessarily the most expensive? I have taste-tested a hell of a lot of booze in my life including some very pricey ones. But the 4 or 5 best tasting ones I have found are either in the medium price range are a bit below. In ultra expensive NYC where I live that means $20 to $40 a fifth. Some of the pricier and ultra popular ones are truly mediocre and when I see millennials or anyone else buying them in the liquor store I laugh all the way to the bank.
- gommer strike
  
  Name brands and marketing presence > all, especially when it comes to status-conscious young people.
  - Lumarra
    
    By ‘all the way to the bank’, he meant he was saving the cash he would’ve spent had he bought the same thing those ‘millennials’ in line bought.
    
    As for the ‘what tastes best’, that’s exactly what it’s about. Everyone has they’re own tastes and maybe some pricey vodka tastes like moonshine to you but to someone else it’s akin to spring water direct from the mountain stream. Regardless on price, people are going to by what they like. They might show off sometimes but they’ll stick with what suits them, logically…
    - gommer strike
      
      Thank you for the clarification.
      
      My view on it is, myself spending $6 on a vodka orange, but see the suit next to me order similarly, but with a name brand vodka three times the price of mine…I don’t interpret that as “savings” to me. I merely see it as him spending more than I did…and in the end, arguably the drink is not the same drink(after all there’s gotta be a difference right)?
      
      Shrug, and he’s got more money to burn than I do, soooo he’s probably ahead of the game compared against my more frugal self?
      
      There’s a very fitting statement my electronics teacher once said two decades ago. “You can get 80% of any product for a cheap price. To get that little extra 20% of quality and name brand, you pay 100% more”.