Tipco seeks to boost brand awarness in Asean markets
Tipco Foods (Thailand) aims to double the sales contribution from Asean markets to 20 per cent over the next two years under its strategy to promote awareness of Tipco brand fruit juices at the regional level.
Tipco wants to be well placed to cash in on the Asean Economic Community when it becomes fully effective in 2015.
Ekaphol Pongstabhon, the company’s new managing director, said Tipco would focus primarily on two markets in the region, Indonesia and the Philippines, because of their large populations, 240 million and 100 million respectively.
“What we want to do is send the right product and the right message into these countries. To achieve that, we need to understand the consumers and the market mechanism itself. We have been conducting market research in cooperation with our distributors in those countries to access insights on consumer [behaviour] and see what room is available in the marketplace,” Ekaphol said.
He said the company could not rely on applying business formulas that were successful in Thailand in other markets in Asean as they had their own characteristics.
Tipco Foods has been in the canned-fruit and fruit-juice business in Thailand for almost 20 years. The company achieved Bt5 billion in sales last year, half of which were from beverage products. Of that, 70 per cent came from fruit juice, 20 per cent from Aura mineral water, and 10 per cent Mirai ready-to-drink green tea.
The company posted 15-per-cent growth in sales in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year.
“We have set up a vision of doing business for the health of Thai and Asean people. We also want to be a regional player in the branded fruit-juice sector,” Ekaphol said.
Tipco is highly recognised by Thai consumers, with more than 90-per-cent brand awareness. However, few consumers in the Philippines, for instance, are familiar with the Tipco brand.
“What we want to do initially is to create awareness of the brand in potential markets in Asean and promote market accessibility in those countries,” Ekaphol said.
Tipco has a total marketing budget of about Bt200 million this year, of which about 5 per cent will be allocated to international markets, especially Asean. However, the company will allocate a higher amount for marketing in Asean next year.
