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Published on January 19, 2008

The budget is set at Bt44 million.

While Pepsi Max's previous selling point was only zero calories, its new concept is "Max in All Senses", which communicates that consumers can discern the product's character and quality through all five senses.

Drinkers can taste the flavour of Pepsi Max, hear the sound of the can opening, see its packaging designs, feel the ice-cold soft drink and smell the sweetness.

Pepsi has designed three global designs with the theme of brown graphic stripes on a black background.

Pepsi-Cola (Thai) Trading marketing director Charlie Jitcharoongphorn yesterday said Thailand was the first country to introduce the new concept and packaging.

Pepsi has launched five commercials for the campaign with five presenters: two singers, an actor, actress and a celebrity.

Pepsi Max has actually been available for more than a decade, but Serm Suk and Pepsi-Cola started working heavily to build brand awareness and market the product only a few years ago, when the health-conscious craze took off. It now commands 58.3 per cent of the market.

However, Pepsi Max has come up against a strong challenge from Coca-Cola, which introduced its Coke Zero no-calorie cola with an advertising blitz and has gained high brand awareness.

Charlie confirmed that the refreshing of Pepsi Max's image was on track.

"Launching in the beginning of the year will stimulate consumers to try new things and increase consuming frequency at the same time. We remain the market leader, and as the leader we must continue creating strong trends in this product category," he said.

Calorie-free cola beverages account for only 1 per cent of the local Bt35-billion soft-drink market, but in many developed countries, such as the US, the segment can top 20 per cent of the market.

Marketing and sales-operations director Parinya Permpanich said the segment here had shown very good growth of 100 per cent over the past few years. That pace should continue for three more years until the drink gains a wide market base and then starts slowing down.

The segment will rise to 3 per cent of the total soft-drink market in three years, he said.

"It'll take time to have the same large proportion as in the US, because that country also took more than a decade to witness such a proportion," he said.

Pepsi Max alone enjoyed 112-per-cent growth last year.

It is distributed mainly through shopping malls, health centres and fitness centres.

Charlie said current economic and political uncertainties did not worry Pepsi very much, because the company could not control those factors anyway. Its strategy is to continue conducting marketing activities and advertising, constantly reminding consumers about the product.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation