‘Jason’ rebrands for growth
KURON, a well-known manufacturer and distributor of health, hair and beauty products, has revealed a new growth strategy for its “Jason” health and fitness business unit, as well as setting a plan to explore expanding the business into Vietnam and other nearby countries.
Norman Gaw, managing director of Kuron Co Ltd, said that Jason was founded in 2004 from a unit within the company responsible for selling small fitness equipment. However, in 2012, the company became more serious about that sector. The importer and distributor rebranded and extended its portfolio from fitness gloves to other highlighted products.
“According to our brand vision, we would like to see our customers have good health, stay fit and firm and be happy,” said Gaw.
“Another achievement we would to add is related to our mission, ‘Jason is where your fitness journey starts’. We want to Jason to be a top-of-mind brand whenever a customer want to start their fitness journey.”
The sector offers a lot of potential.
“The biggest growth sector is health and beauty – every year this segment grows by two digits. The key driving factors are influencers and celebrities, and these two groups have great impact on our trends. Consumer behaviour has changed a lot over the years. We started from just a ‘sport trend’ then we moved to an ‘exercise and fitness trend’ and now with influences from celebrities and key opinion leaders, to ‘sport and fitness brands’. We are now moving to the era of ‘exercise lifestyle’,” he said.
Gaw said that the big challenge now facing Jason is growth of the online market, where many Chinese product have penetrated the market with a strong cost leader model. That has resulted in a price war in the online marketplace, he said.
“Our key strategy to overcome such challenges is to embed ‘value added’ aspects into our product. That is why we are focusing heavily on developing our fitness communities, providing product how-to, fitness knowledge, nutrition guides and motivations,” Gaw said.
“We have a plan to spread the Jason business beyond Thailand. We have already explored Vietnam market. And if we can penetrate that market, we will look further to adjacent countries of Thailand.
Gaw said that Kuron is strongly expected to see growth of 45 per cent on its Jason business this year, largely due to their success in launching the new product, the XST (Jason X-Shape Trainer).
