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Published on February 4, 2008

Judged by market share, growth rate and other performance measurements, the Thai subsidiary has been cited as one of the success stories for Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks company doing business in more than 180 countries.

But Vorathep Rangchaikul, president of the local importer and distributor of Johnny Walker, Benmore and other alcoholic beverages, won't stop at that.

"Good performance and high integrity must go together. We have already been the leader in market share and sales and we also want to be the leader in that [integrity]," he said.

Vorathep was not merely making a public relations statement. Indeed, his firm has been bound by a "Code of Marketing Practice" comprising 11 rules that would be considered harsh by many companies.

The "don'ts" include not using an actor under 25 - or one who looks younger than 25 - in its advertisements; not using any image, symbol, music, cartoon character or person that appeals primarily to those under the legal purchase age; and not placing its advertisements in media targeting that group.

Linking drinking to social and sexual success is also taboo.

"You won't see any ad from us which exploits sex," he said.

Diageo's code of marketing conduct might prove a handicap to sales and marketing people since it places limits on what the firm can and can't do, even though competitors may be doing otherwise, he said.

"The company has a 'value', which is very important. It is 'Proud of What We Do'. If you're not sure of what you're going to do, just ask yourself 'would you be proud of doing that?' If the answer is yes, do it," he said.

Every advertisement and piece of promotional material will need to be approved first by the "DMC champions", including the vice presidents for marketing and corporate communications, before it can be seen by the public.

A few years ago, a Johnny Walker Black Label commercial was pulled the night before it was supposed to go on air because the leading actor did not step out of his Mercedes to wai his old teacher.

Vorathep said Diageo would also like to see the alcoholic beverage industry adopt a code of conduct, particularly as Thailand has witnessed an explosion in underage drinking in the past decade.

"In the past, students were not drinking as much. Some good evidence is the number of pubs targeting students [including those located near schools and colleges] was less than 1 per cent of today's," he said.

A major reason is whiskey has become cheaper despite several rounds of tax increases since the 1997 economic crisis.

Vorathep blamed this on the taxation system which levies an excise tax based on the price of an alcohol product, rather than on the international standard of taxing alcohol content.

He said the WHO (World Health Organisation) last year endorsed this taxing of alcoholic content as the better policy.

Pichaya Changsorn

The Nation