Most of the major players are rolling out high-dollar marketing campaigns, and the losers - likely locally made whiskies - may stagger home with smaller sales than the rest.

Johnnie Walker Black Label, distributed locally by Riche Monde (Bangkok) is spending more than US$20 million (Bt757 million) this year to keep its leadership position in Thailand, its largest Asian market. Chivas Regal, distributed locally by Pernod Ricard Thailand, is spending nearly as much on marketing - more than $18 million.

And Brown-Forman Thailand, sole importer of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, is spending more than $1 million to promote the US blended-whiskey brand, which is far behind in the premium market compared with Johnnie Walker Black and No-2 Chivas Regal.

While consumption of standard whiskies has dropped 20 per cent over the past three years, consumption of premium whiskies increased 7 per cent annually, reports Euro Monitor, a market research agency.

Brown-Forman is hoping to gain some ground on its larger rivals.

"Thailand is still a priority market for us. The country enjoys a stable currency and interest rates and strong foreign investment. There are also 32 million potential customers in Thailand," said Alan C Anastacio, regional commercial manager of Brown-Forman Thailand. He said Thais' incomes had been increasing, giving them more disposable income and the ability to raise their social status. That means more people will switch from locally distilled whiskies to premium brands.

"We expect to sell more than 20,000 cases of Jack Daniels this year, and our volume sales are set to reach more than 30,000 cases [a year] in the next two years," said Anastacio.

He predicted Jack Daniels' sales would grow 20 per cent this year. The company's $1-million market budget is 30 per cent higher than last year's. "Our key strategies are to increase consumer interest by implementing relevant and exciting promotions - both regionally and locally initiated programmes. We also would like to recruit new customers to the brand through the improvement of our brand awareness and visibility, as well as

educate the Thai consumers on

the advantages of American whiskey over Scotch whisky," said Anastacio.

He said 500,000 cases of

premium whiskies would be sold this year.

"We have now between 5 per cent and 7 per cent market share in the local premium-whisky market. Jack Daniels is also the leader in the 34,000-case American-whiskey market in Thailand, with a 70-per-cent market share," said Anastacio. He added that Jack Daniels had 2 million regular customers in Thailand. It wants to grow its customer base 5 per cent a year by targeting younger drinkers, particularly those in their mid-20s.

Anastacio said Thailand and Malaysia were the two largest markets for Jack Daniels in Southeast Asia, while the largest market for the brand in the Asia-Pacific region was Australia, followed by Japan and China.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation