ANALYSIS: Bacardi faces uphill entry - Beachside bars are out as Bacardi eyes Thai whisky drinkers

In a market that is largely indifferent to white spirits, Thailand's importer of Bacardi rum is facing a long and uphill battle as it launches variants in the market. While Thailand is the world's sixth largest market by volume for Scotch whisky, white spirits make up less than one per cent of imported liquors. This makes the key marketing issue one of "communicating what the product is all about", says Mahesh Madhavan, marketing director of Caldbeck Macgregor Thailand, which imports Bacardi. "Even before you really get started branding, you've got to tell people how to drink the product. One of the things we learned in research is that people used to try Bacardi or vodka with water. And obviously if you drink this with water, you won't drink it a second time." Another task is fine-tuning Bacardi's brand image to ensure it appeals to new-entry drinkers, the core target. While the brand's Western promotions play off its Latin roots, its sexy TVCs with dark-haired men and women dancing in moonlit beachside bars don't hold the same catchet in Thailand. "For the average Thai, with Koh Samui and Phuket in his backyard, is this feel aspirational? "For a guy sitting in Europe, it is. But our research found it wasn't that compelling here. It perhaps linked the brand with a geography and gave it home, but that's all. It didn't really build a badge for the brand, which is what I think we really need." Finding space to position the brand won't be easy. The vibrant values of Bacardi's brand have already been co-opted by established whisky sellers, Madhavan points out. "Unlike the West, where whisky is seen as fairly conservative, here the producers have placed it exactly where white spirits are in the West. So obviously it's going to be that much more difficult for a white spirit in a Thai market because the whisky products are exactly where we should be." To overcome these challenges, Madhavan will be spreading his 28 million baht (USdollars 620,000) budget between two agencies. McCann-Erickson will continue to represent the rum account, which was first introduced two years ago, while Ogilvy & Mather is helping with the launch of ready-to-drink Bacardi Breezers. Along with TVCs and a strong below-the-line campaign, Madhavan has some other weapons in store. One is to use Bacardi's mixability as its trump card. Future campaigns may leverage the versatility of the white-spirit. That rum can be blended with a number of secondary products gives it an advantage over whisky's less varied mixers of water, ice or soda. "And actually we'd welcome more competition from white spirits," he adds, laughing at the irony. "It's true! It would help to the strengthen the product category. It can't be done by Bacardi alone."

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