The company typically declined to give figures, but said it would support the new drink with an integrated campaign, which would be "considerable, exciting and sustained". A television-led blitz created by Lowe is scheduled to air from early this month. Coca-Cola's marketing manager Chuenhathai Vuntanadit said the campaign would be extended to radio spots, point-of-sales promotions and sampling for more than a million consumers.
The company also intends to build on Coca-Cola's share improvement in Thailand in the past three months, she said. "Throughout the Year of Coca Cola, we intend to build on the momentum we have generated around our core brand by launching a series of new high-profile innovative marketing initiatives."
Industry sources are placing bets that this will include the launch of a diet coke with lemon variant to compete head-on with rival Pepsi's newest flavour, Pepsi Twist.
Pepsi, meanwhile, is expected to bring in Pepsi Blue, a blue-coloured, berry-flavoured drink to maintain its dominance in Thailand. Pepsi claims a 67 per cent share of the 10 billion baht (US$233 million) cola market, a figure its rival has disputed. Despite the bitter rivalry between the two cola giants, both are working to grow the 18 billion baht carbonated drinks market at a time when non-carbonated drinks are grabbing much of the beverage industry's attention. Energy drinks and more recently, green tea drinks, have been gaining popularity in Thailand. "From a business perspective, our initial goal is to achieve strong interest, trial and repeat purchase," Chuenhathai said.
Advertising for Vanilla Coke will build on the existing 'Coke Zah Doansa' campaign, which features teens "balancing what they want to do with what they need to do", said Chuenhathai, Vanilla Coke itself being "a balance between fizziness and unexpected smoothness". Doansa is used by Thai teens to mean "cool".
"Our local approach, guided by extensive local consumer research, was to bring out the product benefits of the unexpected smoothness and the hint of vanilla," she said.
In Thailand, "four out of five consumers who tasted the product confirmed that they would continue to drink Vanilla Coke," she said.
The launch of Vanilla Coke in Thailand comes just eight months after the flavour hit US supermarket shelves, making Thailand the fifth country outside the US to introduce the drink.