VietNamNet Bridge – While the battle among green tea manufacturers is described as a noisy fight, the competition among supplemental nutrition drink manufacturers has been going quietly, but very fiercely.

The new potential market segment

In March 2013, Tan Hiep Phat launched a noisy marketing campaign, introducing its new product--Number One Vitamin, after a long period of surveying the market.

The General Director of Tan Hiep Phat Tran Quy Thanh in person, together with his staff, came to the markets to sell the products/

With Number One Vitamin, Tan Hiep Phat hoped to make a breakthrough in the new market segment – the thing it once did with Tra Xanh Khong Do and Dr Thanh green tea products.

Tan Hiep Phat has declined to reveal the sales over the last three months, but one of its senior executive said the sale has been good enough to think of launching other products for the same market segments.

Prior to that, in August 2012, the market witnessed the appearance of Pocan Sweat, an iron supplement drink of the Japanese group Otsuka. The products have been available at nearly all the shops and supermarkets throughout the country.

In fact, the supplemental nutrition drink market was exploited some years ago already. Pepsi launched Gatorate, A&B marketed Vodik, Thuy Tien had Oky Sport. In January 2007, Tan Hiep Phat marketed Number One Active. After that, in 2010, Pepsi Vietnam launched Sting Pro for those who play sports.

The nutritional drink market is believed to have great potentials, which explains why mineral water manufacturers have also jumped on the bandwagon. Quang Hanh mineral water with salted lemon flavor, Vinh Hao and Tien Hao mineral water with lemon flavor have also been marketed.

Tran Uyen Phuong, Deputy General Director of Tan Hiep Phat Group, has noted that the bottled drink market has seen big changes. Since the consumers have become choosier, drink manufacturers now have to provide the products good to health and convenient in use.

The market is still large enough

Phuong has noted that though many more products have been marketed, the supply still cannot satisfy the demand, and that the world’s leading brands still have not been present in Vietnam.

Pepsi has Gatorade and Revive 7 up, Coca Cola has Powerade and Aquarius, ut Lucozade of GSK, a well known brand in the UK, has not turned up in Vietnam yet.

A report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that in 2010, about 2 billion liters of non-alcoholic drink was consumed in Vietnam, which meant that every Vietnamese drank 23 liters a year. The consumption level increased by 17 percent in 2011, while it is expected to grow further in the next year, when the Vietnamese income gets improved.

As for iron drink, a survey of Hong Minh JSC has found out that 2 billion liters of drink is consumed every year in Japan, and many billions of liters are consumed in the world. The market of drinks for sportsmen is expected to reach $55 billion by 2018, when people’s sports activities boom.

Having realized the great potentials of the market, drink manufacturers do not regret money spent on marketing campaigns. Number One Active sponsored the trans-Viet bicycle tournament, while Sports Drink Power sponsored Tennis Club.

DNSG