Less fizz in local soda market
The soda market shows signs of expanding only 5 per cent to Bt31.5 billion this year due to strong competition from non-carbonated drinks, especially fruit juices, which ride the health-conscious trend.
Kasikorn Research Centre (KResearch) said last week that demand for fizzy drinks slipped from 2.12 billion litres in 2004 to 1.9 billion litres last year. But the value of the market increased 5 per cent last year to Bt30 billion after the Internal Trade Department approved a Bt1 hike in the retail price of carbonated drinks in May."Consumer behaviour has changed to become more concerned about health, so almost all consumers have shifted from carbonated to non-carbonated beverages such as fruit juices or water," the report by KResearch said. Soda bottlers have to use aggressive marketing to boost sales during this summer season, which should be the best time for carbonated drinks, usually contributing 33 per cent of the bottlers' annual sales. The main marketing concept has to focus on teenagers, who continue to consume more soda pop than any other age group. Kasikornbank's research unit said lucky draws work well in stimulating teen demand, and offering the chance to win e-prizes such as MP3 or MP4 players, computer notebooks, digital cameras or game consoles should be a hit with teenagers. "Although Thailand faces hot weather this summer, that may be not the best time for carbonated drinks, when consumer behaviour is changing towards favouring healthy products, while it takes more money to buy carbonated drinks now following rising production costs," the research house said.
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