The Marketing of Alcohol to College Students
By: Joe Norton
Did you know that the average college students spends $900 a year on Alcohol, and only $450 on books?
College binge drinking means big money for distributors in the surrounding areas of colleges. I dug up this intriguing study by the geniuses over at Harvard about the nature of the alcohol marketing to college students. I’ve included some of the more conclusive sections, it is full of academic jargon, just a warning for anyone wishing to read the report in it’s entirety.
“the lower the price of beer in the surrounding community, the higher the binge drinking rate at the college. This is consistent with previous findings that alcohol consumption by young people (in this case, college students) is affected by price.”
Interesting, that there is a scientifically established link, but seriously anyone currently in college can tell you that Price is a significant issue and absolutely influences alcohol consumption in college.
“Marketing practices that reduce cost may increase drinking levels, and heavy drinking by students may induce bars and restaurants to cater to and compete for their patronage through price lowering promotions.”
While interesting, both of these are just about common sense to today’s college student.
However, what can be further inferred about this is that in those campuses where competition amongst alcohol distributors is particularly competitive means a campus that has a higher binge drinking rates.
Competing merchants drive up the binge drinking rate. Meaning if there is a few new bars in the area, chances are that the binge drinking rate at your school is going to jump drastically as the merchants compete by lowering prices and establishing promotions which benefit college students and their intensely price based alcohol purchasing decision.
Don’t be a zombie consumer, just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean you need it. Think next time you see all the promotions around campus geared to lure you into the lifetime ailment Alcoholism.
According to the Core Institute, an organization that surveys college drinking practices (and sells informational products about the dangers of college drinking, how convenient), 300,000 of today’s college students will eventually die of alcohol-related causes such as drunk driving accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, various cancers and heart disease.
Drink Responsibly.
Source: Harvard Study on the Marketing of Alcohol to College Students
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/Documents/marketingalcohol/AlcoholPromotion.pdf
Source: Core Institute
http://www.siu.edu/~coreinst/
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Posted in College Alcohol | By Joe |
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May 1st, 2008 at 9:21 am
Yeah, we might be marketed to and I don’t think we are that stupid. With or without the marketing we’d be drinking, it’s just that the marketing helps us decide what to drink!