The Asian market feature numerous soft drinks including, RTD tea, Sports and energy Drinks, carbonates, concentrates, fruit/Vegetable juice and bottled water and lastly RTD coffee. The main leaders in Vietnam features RTD tea, Sports and energy drinks, Vegetable/fruit juices and bottled water. This is similar to other Asian markets. For example Singapore's leading soft drink remains to be RTD tea with Unilever Singapore holding the largest market share. In Thailand, the main drinks include Asian RTD tea and Asian juice drinks. In Taiwan, due to the plasticiser contamination scandal in 2011, their main drink is cereal/pulse based while the same are least preferred in South Korea. The Philippines showed a drop in volume sales of 2% and remains unique one since all other Asian countries have only recorded growths of the same.
Focussing on Vietnam, the leading soft drink consumed by people is RTD tea. Its main advantage is its natural appeal and the tea drinking culture of the people of that country. The next most popular soft drink is the vegetable/fruit juice followed by sports drinks and bottled water.
The leading soft drink manufacturers In Vietnam include PepsiCo Vietnam and Tan Hiep Phat Group. Their marketing strategy involves educating consumers in order to raise awareness thereby boosting sales by maximising the demand for their soft drinks. The people of Vietnam have an active culture of working hard therefore they are always busy. This means that they find themselves constantly in need of energy drinks, which is a quality desired by the drinks manufacturers. In 2012 the marketing of fruit juices majored in raising health awareness thereby causing the Fruit juice market to double in terms of growth. Interestingly, the health aware population also feel like they have too little time to spare therefore their perceived remnant option at maintaining a healthy balanced diet is taking of fruit juices instead of eating the real fruits. This has boosted sales in the past and continues to work in favour of fruit juice drinks growth despite the domination of the market by RTD tea.
PepsiCo boasts of 21 per cent off trade value share and is actually the leading in the market shares in trade. There stand at just one per cent higher than their biggest rival and competitor Vietnam Dairy products. Technically they don't share the same market niche because their products differ in content. Vietnam dairy makes 100 per cent fruit juices while PepsiCo sells sports drinks. Regarding competition in the fruit juice market as well as in sports and energy drinks, PepsiCo is the leading. It boasts of a massive over 50 per cent off-trade value share. Its brands Sting energy drink and 7up revive remain the main market leaders. It has endeavoured to maintain itself at the top of the market by numerous programs of intensive advertisements. Vietnam Dairy products the one that follows aims to reduce the gap between them by health awareness programs which have begun to bear fruit. It began the advertisements before introduced the products and has maintained the same.
In terms of projected growth, RTD tea is expected to grow most in the coming financial year, followed by sports and energy drinks and lastly the fruit juices. Sports and energy drinks performed well in 2012 and managed to record 25 % off trade value growth which is impressive but explainable by numerous promotional efforts by the main market holders like PepsiCo. Energy drink is new to the Vietnamese culture, but it has great potential considering the intensive advertisement programs. The projected and expected growth in the market in the fruit juice industry is an unwavering off trade value growth of 11 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate. Carbonates recorded 205 off trade value growth hit over 6 trillion Vietnamese Dollars. RTD coffee had a big price increase which was expected to lower demand but it still recorded positive growth in terms of volume consumption. Bottled water maintained itself at a positive growth as well due to the increasing favour it gained over tap water.
There have been rising public concerns for food safety health and wellness. This has proved to work in the favour of pure 100 % fruit juice, RTD tea and sports drinks which have enjoyed constant growth. Apparently the public believes that packed foodstuff and drinks is safe, which is actually mostly true. Unpackaged drinks are the ones at the wrong end of this growing public concern. Vietnam has recorded a rise in public consumption of bottled water. The public actually aimed at increased precision and accuracy in ensuring their food safety.
The top domestic players that dominate the market include, in order from the largest to the smallest: Tan Hiep Phat Group and Vietnam Dairy products Jsc while the leading international companies include PepsiCo Vietnam, Coca cola Beverages Vietnam, an lastly URC Vietnam. The competition between these players works to the consumers' advantage by maintaining a rich variety of goods at affordable rates. If the consumers remain happy with the market trends in costs spend on their part, there is guaranteed growth in demand.
Currently, the sales methods used by the companies face numerous challenges. For one, the retail business is undergoing transformation with increasing modern outlets like supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, which were never there. The new strategies of marketing have been tailored to meet these changing trends. There seems to be little cause for alarm just yet because the dominant sales terminals to consumers are still the traditional small scale retailers.
In conclusion, there has never been any negative form of growth as per soft drinks and energy drinks. The Vietnamese is favourable for soft drink and any energy drink investment and it has a lot of potential.
Works Cited
Euromonitor. "Asian Speciality Drinks Market Search." August 2013. euromonitor. 3 September 2013 <http://www.euromonitor.com/asian-speciality-drinks>.
—. "Fruit/Vegetable Juice in Vietnam." August 2013. euromonitor.com. 3 September 2013 <http://www.euromonitor.com/fruit-vegetable-juice-in-vietnam/report>.
—. "Market Research for Vietnam." August 2013. euromonitor. 3 September 2013 <http://www.euromonitor.com/vietnam>.
—. "Soft drinks in Vietnam." August 2013. euromonitor.com. 3 September 2013 <http://www.euromonitor.com/softdrinks-in-vietnam/report>.
—. "Sports and Energy Drinks in Vietnam." August 2013. euromonitor.com. 3 September 2013 <http://www.euromonitor.com/sports-and-energy-drinks-in-vietnam/report>.
