Coke’s best-selling fruit juice brand globally is Minute Maid, but it also has bought into locally made fruit brands such as Earth & Sky and Eight O’clock in the Philippines. Although the company hasn’t confirmed whether it will create local brand for Vietnam many business experts agree that if it does create local fruit juice brands that this should be a good boost for locally grown fruits and raw materials.
According to Euromonitor market research, the fruit juice category in Vietnam continues to grow at much faster rates than concentrated and carbonated drinks due to the health concerns. PepsiCo is leading the category with its Tropicana brand, which has 25.4 percent market share. Tropicana is also the main competitor with Minute Maid in regional and global markets. Vietnam Dairy Product is also a significant player in this sector.
Trang Nguyen, a research analyst from Euromonitor, shares that “The juice drink category in Vietnam still has a lot of room to grow. The country has a large population of young people that likes to try new drinks and per capita for juice drinks is still quite low compared to other Asian countries like Singapore and Taiwan.”
Another crucial factor is the growing awareness of health and wellness in Vietnam. Vietnamese consumers believe that fruits can help them to detox, get fit and prevent a variety of illnesses. However, due to the busy urban lifestyle, people don’t have time to eat real fruit and instead are increasingly relying on fruit juices and fruit smoothies. “Vietnamese consumers are starting to pay more attention to health and wellness, which will stimulate higher demand for juice,” Nguyen added.
Coca-cola has been criticized by health experts for its’ drinks, which contain high-levels of sugar and can lead to obesity and diabetes. In order to diversify the company’s products it is building a portfolio of fruit drinks and medicinal drinks in the “health category” Coca-cola recently announced their plans to launch its first herbal brand, Habu, in Thailand. Experts believe that if the brand is well received in Thailand, that Habu will rollout in other Southeast Asian markets, starting with Vietnam.
Over the last five years, Vietnam has become one of the key focus markets for the world’s largest beverage company. Since 2004, Coca-cola has invested $700 million to grow the market through its factories and marketing activities. The company has created more than 27,000 jobs in Vietnam and its expansion into the fruit juice and medicinal drink markets lead experts to believe that the company will continue to grow and prosper in Vietnam.
Coca-Cola Vietnam’s media investments continue to grow with $20 million in new media spend projected over the next 12-months but marketing experts are divided as to whether Coke can expand its brand and market reputation from a sugar water brand into a healthy brand so the next 12 ~ 18 months will be an interesting time for the company in Vietnam.
