To uncover patterns of consumer interest in craft beers, the authors explored the quality perception of craft beers in a panel of industrial mass-marketed beer drinkers (n = 150) and examined the differences in interest for this beer segment between men and women. The authors adopted a conjoint rating experiment in which the respondents were given forty-nine beer profiles to evaluate and were asked to score the degree of interest in each profile on a 9-point scale. Each profile was described on eight attributes (type of brewery, brewing technology, characterizing raw materials, brewhouse equipment, location of the brewery, type of container, retail price, where to buy) varied at different levels. Results showed that Italian consumers placed greatest importance on type of container (30.49%) and on brewing technology (17.64%). Characterizing raw materials (13.44%) and type of brewery (12.64) rank 3 and 4 and were placed in the same band some way below brewing technology. Retail price (9.87%) and where to buy (8.73%) were of far less importance. The least importance of all was attached to brewhouse equipment (4.44%) and to location of the brewery (2.75%). As far as utility values are concerned, the factor level glass bottle + crown cap and the factor level microfiltration are the utilities that most increased the interest of consumers.
