Functional Carbonated Soft Drinks – a new choice for Thai consumers
Healthy benefits are helping brands to increase penetration and loyalty – for themselves, and also the category as a whole.
Innovation is one of the key factors that brands can leverage to drive more shoppers to choose their products. In Worldpanel’s latest Brand Footprint report, of the 37,000 brands analysed globally that have at least 1% penetration, only 48% gained more shopper decisions compared to a year ago. Among the brands that grew, 88% did so by recruiting more shoppers or by attracting them on more occasions.
Carbonated Soft Drinks that include vitamins or health benefits – known as Functional Carbonated Soft Drinks – is a new segment that has arisen through innovation. While the traditional CSD buyer base remains steady, with just a slight decline, Functional CSD has been picking up buyers continuously and expanding the total penetration of the CSD category overall. This indicates that the segment is able to attract buyers from outside the traditional CSD market.
There are many factors behind the ongoing growth of the Functional CSD category – in particular CSD buyers adding the product to their baskets. Other factors include some people switching from traditional CSD to Functional CSD, and those who already buy Functional CSD continuing to buy more.
Lemon-Lime and Flavour Functional CSD are performing particularly strongly, having become popular due to added benefits and a new ‘healthy’ image that are capturing the attention of consumers. This shows the kind of strategies brands can employ to attract new buyers and develop repeat buyers.
Understanding real consumers’ needs is the key to sustainable growth
No-sugar, health benefits, tasty, and refreshing are the key benefits that Thai consumers are looking for today.
Functional CSD brands have been able to successfully combine the needs of Thai consumers to create and launch new innovations in the beverage market, driving consumer purchases and helping the beverage sector to gain more than 40% penetration last year – and an expected further 50%+ by the end of 2023.
