SINGAPORE: Virgin Drinks has chosen Yeo Hiap Seng (YHS) to handle
bottling, distribution and marketing for its Virgin Colours soft drinks
range due to launch in Singapore later this month.
The local beverage company took on the franchise partly because Virgin
Colours is a strong brand, which it can use to woo kids, mostly 10 to 16
year olds, and take market share from Coca-Cola's F&N flavoured drinks
range.
Elaine Ng, YHS trade marketing and brand manager, said: "Virgin Colours
is a little bit different to other brands and will create some
excitement in a segment of the soft drink market which until now has
been quite plain and boring."
Virgin Colours will come in curvy bottles with four flavours to choose
from - Virgin Purple (berry fruits), Virgin Cool Blue (tutti-frutti),
Virgin Yellow (passion fruit) and Virgin Ruby (cranberry). Ng said there
were no plans to launch Virgin Cola as YHS has the Pepsi-Cola franchise
in Singapore.
Tequila is handling advertising for Virgin Colours, which was launched
to the trade on October 11.
Virgin Drinks is already in Bangladesh, Japan and Taiwan making
Singapore its fourth Asian market. It plans to expand further in the
region by launching into Hong Kong, China and South Korea.
Coca-Cola has generally focused on its power brands - Coca Cola, Sprite
and Lift - in Singapore, with relatively little spend going on marketing
the F&N brand.
But coincidentally, Coca-Cola's ad agency McCann-Erickson is currently
working on a campaign for F&N.
Singapore is the regional headquarters for the Virgin Group, which is
launching several other businesses in Asia, including Virgin Mobile and
Virgin Radio.
