The company has hiked its marketing budget from Bt350 million to Bt400 million for this year to market all five of its beverages, including Oishi green tea, Seiki orange juice and Amino OK.

Oishi's main strategy is to launch new packages and increase product sizes. Its latest package is the 160-millilitre UHT-pack green tea, which was launched early this month.

The new package is available in three flavours - original, honey-lemon and Genmai Japanese rice. As the products target families and restaurants, the company has adjusted the ingredients to make the taste more intense, so that consumers can enjoy drinking it with ice.

It is also trying a new marketing strategy by investing Bt5 million to hire female presenters to promote its 160-ml green tea, which was launched early this month.

Tan said promotion no longer worked because all those in the market were employing the same strategy. He suggested that all the players should repackage their products and ensure they caught the consumer's imagination.

Oishi's sales during the first quarter grew 10 per cent from the same period last year. Sales are expected to grow 10-15 per cent this year to Bt4.5 billion.

Expanding its customer base is also part of the company's strategy. Its latest marketing activity is to join with the Major Cineplex Group and reach out to movie-goers through the "Oishi Movie Give Me 5" campaign.

Major Cineplex's chief of cinema business and media sales, Anavach Ongvasith, said his company would gain more customers who like Oishi products. He expects the campaign to result in a 20-per-cent year-on-year increase in sales during May to July.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation