Samuel Adams tops beer brands

Ted MarzilliCEO YouGov Direct
September 25, 2013, 9:48 PM GMT+0

American craft and global-based brands dominate both the top five overall consumer and quality perception rankings with U.S. beer drinkers.

Samuel Adams took the top spot in both perception and quality rankings over the past three months with U.S. beer drinkers, with Corona making the biggest gains in quality that same time period, allowing it to crack the top five.

There was a high overlap between the top five charts for both consumer perception and quality: four of the five labels were Samuel Adams, Dos Equis, Guinness, and Corona. Pennsylvania-based Yuengling was the fifth brand on the overall consumer perception ranking while Heineken was the fifth brand on the quality chart.

Next to Corona, Guinness made the second largest leap in quality perception over the past three months.

The highest ranking large-scale American beer brand on the consumer perception and quality lists is Budweiser, coming in at number seven on the former and 14 on the latter.

All major beer brands were measured using two of YouGov BrandIndex’s scores: Buzz, which asks respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" ; and Quality, which asks respondents, "Is it high quality or low quality?" All results reflect adults age 21 and over who drink beer at least once a week.

YouGov BrandIndex measurement scores range from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.

Buzz: Beer category

Quality: Beer category

Purchase Consideration: Beer category