The company plans to spend more than Bt100 million on advertising and promotions to enhance consumer confidence in Nestle Pure Life as the world's leader in the drinking-water industry.

Prayad Anuchiracheewa, executive director for the water business at Nestle (Thai), said that following the success of a commercial launched last year and production expansion, Nestle would this year continue to focus on brand differentiation. It will achieve this by introducing three 30-second television spots - "Basketball", "Chat" and "Traffic" - which started yesterday.

"Besides the new TV-commercial campaign, the company will continue to expand its customer base to cover the younger generation by capitalising on the product's strength in terms of quality and trendy packaging, as well as a strong retail distribution network and a continuous retail-outlet decoration campaign," he said.

 "The company is confident that such strategies will allow it almost to double sales growth by the end of this year."

Prayad said competition in the drinking-water market this year would be more vigorous, given last year's market value of more than Bt13 billion and a forecast of continuous growth. Major players are coming up with competitive marketing and branding strategies to gain acceptance and recognition.

Thailand has one of the highest Asian rates of consumption of drinking water, especially in the recyclable-bottle segment.

There are thousands of players in the market but only four or five major players. Nestle Pure Life claims the No-2 position for market share.