Foster's aims for brand revival in Vietnam

To this end, it secured the services of Red Brand Builders which developed a long-term print campaign for the brand.

Foster’s is distributed by Vietnam Brewery Limited, the local arm of Asia-Pacific Breweries, which acquired brewing rights for the brand in a US$105 million deal when Foster’s Group called time on production in Asia in 2006.

Chris Elkin, managing director of Red Brand Builders Vietnam, said, “Foster’s has been quiet in the past decade. There was hardly any activation or media done to promote the brand.

“That was partly because the distributor was trying to work out how it wanted to position the beer. Now it is finally ready to get behind the brand and to position it better among its portfolio as an international brew - as opposed to just being an Australian beer, which has less cachet with Vietnamese consumers.”

The Vietnamese beer market was valued at $2.7 billion last year and is expected to grow at a rate of 7.4 per cent until 2011.

Its growth reflects rising local living standards on the back of an expanding economy, as well as a young, mobile population who are eager to consume foreign brands.

However, the market is becoming increasingly competitive as a growing number of international brands move in. France’s Kronenbourg 1664, a $75 million joint venture between Scottish & Newcastle Group and Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation, recently launched in Vietnam.

Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser, seeking international expansion due to flagging sales in its US domestic market, also signed an agreement with Gannon Distribution last month to bring the beer to Ho Chi Minh City.

The ‘Enjoy life - enjoy Foster’s’ campaign centres on the quality and taste of the brew, and uses images of a tsunami of beer in the print executions.

The campaign will expand into lifestyle themes later in the year.

It will be supported by an activation component to promote at point-of-sale.