This year, Thailand’s soft drink segment recorded 16% growth in sales, a new record compared to single digit growths in the past 5 years. The growth is mainly attributed to revival of tourism, full resumption of food services operations in the country, on top of a prolonged hot weather season this year, which has attracted more consumers in this category.
One major beneficiary is Thai Drinks, the distributor of est cola, which has resumed aggressive promotional activities in the country.
Suporn Denpaisarn, Director of Marketing for the non-alcoholic beverage business line at Thai Drinks Co said, “We observed an increase in demand across various packaging formats for cola drinks, and this demand is not limited to just the summer season. This persisted even during the off-peak seasons due to the extended duration of hot weather compared to last year.”
Suporn highlighted Nielsen data that showed the value of Thailand’s soft drink market during the first 8 months this year to be at Bt 62 billion (US$1.75 billion) in value and 2.1 billion litres in volume terms. This represented a 16% increase year-on-year in value.
Suporn mentioned that est cola achieved the highest sales growth, soaring by 22.6% in its latest fiscal year, surpassing the industry’s growth rate of 16%. In terms of volume, the market share of est brand has expanded from 7% to 9.1% year-on-year.
Est cola top-of-mind brand awareness also rose to 18%, a substantial increase from 6% recorded in the previous year. To encourage consumer switching to its brand, est cola plans to allocate Bt 200 million (US$5.65 million) to promote the consumption of the est brand among consumers categorised as Gen Z in its fiscal 2024 period.
A big part of the marketing budget will be allocated for collaborations with renowned music partners, including A-Time, the organiser of a music competition, and GMM Show, a leading music event organiser in the country, to present 2 music events, namely “Est Cola Presents Hotwave Music Awards 2023” and “Est Cola Presents Monster Music Festival 2023” across various genres to provide a platform for Gen Z music enthusiasts to express their unique identities.
It is noteworthy that 40% of est brand consumers fall within the Gen Z age range.
In addition, the company has also launched the est cola Monster can package, along with premium collectable items from October to December 2023.
