The survey, it turns, out, does not say this!
What it says:
-38% of beer drinkers say they wouldn't buy Corona (for any reason at all, including, presumably...they prefer other beer)
-4% of people who usually drink Corona say they would stop
prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
What it says:
-38% of beer drinkers say they wouldn't buy Corona (for any reason at all, including, presumably...they prefer other beer)
-4% of people who usually drink Corona say they would stop
prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
Methodology listed from 5WPR is "a survey via phone of 737 American beer drinkers over the age of 21 on February 25 & 26, 2020."
Meanwhile, YouGov sees negative "buzz" for Corona (which could include...stories like that CNN one!) and a dip in "purchase intent," but notes "the summer-y beverage...does see substantial seasonal fluctuation"
today.yougov.com/topics/food/ar…
today.yougov.com/topics/food/ar…
I should note my summary of 5W's results in the first tweet is based on their own summary, since questionnaire doesn't seem to be publicly available. I've emailed them asking for toplines.
5w's exact framing of the results is "38% of beer-drinking Americans would not buy Corona under any circumstances now" -- which notably doesn't say "because of the coronavirus," but also doesn't really make it clear whether or not that was mentioned. Hope to see the question!
The problem here is that:
-If pollsters bring up coronavirus first, that can bias responses by making people think about it when they wouldn't normally
-But possibly people are uninterested in buying for other reasons (don't like it, it's a summer drink)
-If pollsters bring up coronavirus first, that can bias responses by making people think about it when they wouldn't normally
-But possibly people are uninterested in buying for other reasons (don't like it, it's a summer drink)
One design would might be to ask people if they've stopped drinking it, and then ask an open-ended question about why, but admittedly I don't have much experience with market research!
Also seems worth digging into what exactly "stopped drinking Corona due to Coronavirus" means. Do people really think the beer will make them sick, or is it more like..."the name reminds me of something unpleasant" or "ordering one feels like the setup for a joke" or something?
Meanwhile, from Ipsos:
"Our study finds that while clear majorities of Americans are concerned about the impact of the coronavirus on the country, markets, and themselves, only a few have made significant changes to their behavior in the past few days."
ipsos.com/en-us/news-pol…
"Our study finds that while clear majorities of Americans are concerned about the impact of the coronavirus on the country, markets, and themselves, only a few have made significant changes to their behavior in the past few days."
ipsos.com/en-us/news-pol…
I'm still waiting to hear back from 5W and see the actual results, but right now the general gist of the data seems like: Corona has gotten a bunch of unfortunate press/buzz off the name similarity, quite possibly some effect on consumer behavior, probably not that gigantic.
This would be interesting:
One additional point: there's not enough information about the survey methodology for me to comfortably vouch for it, but I'm seeing a lot of people focus on the fact that full sample was 737 people. However, that size is not, in itself, a problem. See: washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/… 
Here's a look at the botched survey design and reporting behind that buzzy-but-dubious finding that 38% of Americans stopped drinking Corona beer because of the coronavirus, complete with a few requisite, terrible puns. And now I need a drink.
huffpost.com/entry/corona-b…
huffpost.com/entry/corona-b…
Props to @Yascha_Mounk and @declanpgarvey, who were also chasing this down -- read their pieces below:
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/are-38-perce…
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/are-38-perce…
