TRUE TALES OF THAILAND LIFE III/ THE ELIXER OF LIFE

 TRUE TALES OF THAILAND LIFE III/ THE ELIXER OF LIFE 

When jogging in Thailand wear your Hoka’s , as my friend and endurance athlete Henry Dullink said a few weeks ago. This morning while enjoying the dawn and a coffee on the beach, I decided to go barefoot for a jog. As the beach was being cleaned Thai style , had some time to observe and shoot a few picks of this labor of love. Good that they are investing in a durable future for tourism I thought, only to nearly miss a glass shred on the way to the horizon. Be HE kept me safe some somehow..

This led me to contemplate a little more on the plastic soup, the Thai energy drink industry and my role in this. As I am an avid dfan of market research I observed a little bit where and how Red Bull is sold here , in comparison to the Netherlands. You may know that Red Bull was a Thai invention and that Matenitz bought 49% of it back in the eighties. Red Bull now holds a market share of 38% in NL ( figures from the Nielsen database of 2017) and also has a 38% market share in the main supermarkt descanter Albert Heijn ( AHOLD). This is what we call a locked- in situation in FMRG marketing. They can not do without each other. 

This means that prive promotion does not have a large effect on sales, and you will know that with a retail price of 1,29 Red bull makes a lot of profit on their elixer for an exiting life. In face the only promotion RB does is 6 for the price of 5 before Grand Prix in Formula 1, some YouTube commercials and a good deal of exciting sports sponsorship, like cliff diving. A golden formula resulting  in a global al turnover of 9 billion USD in 2020.

What does this have to do with Thailand, you may ask ? Well RB is sold here in small 12mm bottles as extract only, and people still hold  the firm belief that it gives you the strength of a bull. At 7-11 the largest convinience store chain ( franchise based) here,  RB is prominent both in the fridges and on the counter. 68 % of buying decision are made in the store, so RB is also likely to be market leader here.

Are there any RB cans on the beach like in NL ? No, all the glass is dumped in bins and recycled here. Contrary to the plastics - which burn very clean btw, they end up on the street and the beach. Again: a strong marketing proposition by RB. I carry one bottle with for emergencies to mix with a coke while stopping a seven eleven. Just in case they have run out… 

And there you have it: you’re truly has become a part of the economy here, while contributing to the ocean clean up. And that thought  gives me wings for today