Thailand’s ready-to-drink tea market will heat up this hot season due to competition between Ichitan and arch-rival, Oishi.
Tan: Targeting the youth market
Ichitan Group Plc will stop distributing its Double Drink in the country by mid-year and put more focus on other two beverages, Ichitan green tea and Yen Yen herbal tea.
It has no plans to expand any new restaurant outlets this year. Ichitan has a few restaurants such as Tokiya, Melt Me, Tan Tan Izakaya buffet and Sushi Otaru.
The company has earmarked 800 million baht on its 2014marketing budget to boost overall sales by 20% to over 7 billion baht.
It has a new promotion campaign to give away three Porsche supercars to attract younger customers.
Oishi Group Plc plans to broaden its non-green tea portfolio with the launch of O Herb, a new herbal drink, to challenge Inchitan’s Yen Yen yesterday.
Ichitan chief executive Tan Passakornnatee said his firm will use 150 million baht to stimulate consumer purchasing under the “Ichitan Sudden Rich Part 3” campaign from March 10 to May 12. The 66-million-baht campaign will allow customers to win gold bars worth 1 million baht and three Porsche Boxters. A monthly lucky draw will be held until May.
Besides this campaign, Ichitan also intends to build brand awareness of its beverages throughout the year.
“We will broaden our product portfolio both vertically and horizontally with the use of bottom-line marketing activities,” he said.
Mr Tan added that this will help attract more young-generation customers.
On the other hand, its arch rival Oishi yesterday also announced to spend 200 million baht to promote its O Herb herbal tea this hot season.
The company plans to become the leader in Thailand’s herbal drink segment worth 1.5 billion baht by 2015.
Jesdakorn Taratip, Oishi’s vice-president for beverages, said the expansion into herbal drink is because the segment has high growth potential with a few players.