BANGKOK: Established Thai producer of canned fruit and vegetable
juices Malee Sampran has set an ambitious target of becoming a regional
brand by 2003.
The company has awarded Batey Advertising the brief to build up its
regional brand profile. The agency has been handling Malee's Thai
business for the past eight years.
Malee has earmarked 10 per cent of its 100 million baht (USdollars 2.2
million) marketing budget to promote the brand in regional markets.
Malee marketing manager, B. Adisak, said the company is in a strong
position to push for a larger market share in established consumer
markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia as well as the
emerging Myanmar, and Vietnam markets.
"We already have factories and distributors in all those markets," he
said, pointing to the company's multinational distribution system
headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Adisak added: "The products are there,
they just need to be promoted under the Malee brand name."
The regional launch coincides with Malee's drive to bring its brand
upmarket in Thailand.
As part of its first step in building Malee into a regional brand, Batey
is planning a regional print ad campaign. Yosrod Yod, Batey's account
executive, said: "We're at the point where we're just introducing the
company." Yod said the campaign would launch "very soon".
Despite the very different characteristics of the various target
countries, the print ads will be identical, at least for now. "The first
couple of print ads will concentrate on very basic things - Malee's
corporate background, the products, and the company's policies on using
quality ingredients," Yod added.
All print ads will be in English for the time being. "In Hong Kong and
Singapore, most consumers speak and read English, and in countries like
Vietnam and Myanmar, it's mostly educated people who buy pre-packaged
consumer products like Malee," Yod added.
No other media will be used in the initial campaign, with the exception
of display booths and possibly some point-of-purchase literature. "We
may have some banner flags promoting the URL of the Malee website, but
it's mostly going to be colour print ads in magazines."
This is in contrast to Malee's much more developed marketing campaigns
in Thailand, where its products are well-branded and Batey's ads run in
newspapers and on television and radio.
Almost simultaneous with the regional campaign, Batey is launching a new
round of ads on Thai media nationwide, to coincide with a major redesign
of Malee's product packaging. "Our Thai campaign is much larger,
focusing on brand development based on previous recognition," said
Yod.
Malee has retained its original logo and typeface in the new packaging,
but increased its size. It also retained the original colour scheme,
matching visual choices with specific fruits, but lightening the hues
for a more upmarket look.
"The company is definitely moving upmarket in Thailand," said Yod. "Our
new ads are based on projecting a very professional urban image," Yod
said, citing a radio ad that featured a young woman talking about her
independence, fast-paced job and the fact that she can "fix her own car
without a man's help." And her healthy fruit beverage of choice is
Malee.
In contrast, previous campaigns focused on Malee's use of quality
ingredients.
Yod maintained that the regional and Thai promotions are only indirectly
related.
"They're very different markets at very different stages," he said. "In
Thailand our competition is very set - in some of these new markets,
like Myanmar and Vietnam, there's no serious competition at all."
