CHICKEN-ESSENCE MAKER, MAJOR CINEPLEX JOIN HANDS TO TARGET MOVIE-GOERS

       Scotch Industrial (Thailand) has teamed up with Major Cineplex Group in its first marketing partnership to spend almost Bt100 million on promoting its bottled chicken essence and birds' nest to movie goers.
       "We and Major Cineplex share the same target customers, who enjoy entertaining lifestyles," marketing director Sompoch Chavalvechakul said yesterday.
       Under the budget, which accounts for about 30 per cent of Scotch's overall media budget, various lifestyle marketing activities will be launched aggressively this and next year, including the screening of Scotch commercial at cinemas and joint seasonal marketing campaigns.
       Scotch will also open sales outlets in Major Cineplex's entertainment centres.
       All Scotch products, including collagen, will be available at over 70 locations, selling snacks and beverages, in Major's network.
       Major Cineplex operators 372 screens in 46 locations both in Bangkok and upcountry.
       Sompoch said this was the first time for the company to kick off such lifestyle marketing activities by targeting movie-goers.
       The company will launch a health-food product, which may be chicken essence or collagen, to cater especially to movie-goers, who are younger consumers and first jobbers, by the middle of next year.
       The new product is now under research and development.
       "It is in line with the company's strategy to launch new, innovative products into the market. The market for health foods is quite dynamic as consumers are demanding products with new innovative ingredients for their good health," Sompoch said.
       Scotch chicken essence occupies 20 per cent of the Bt3-billion bottled chicken essence market, while Scotch birds' nest has 50 per cent of the Bt2-billion bottled birds' nest market.
       The markets for bottled chicken essence and birds' nest are expected to grow by 14 per cent and 7 per cent respectively this year.
       Nielsen Media Research recently reported an overall increase in media spending last month, from Bt7.5 billion to Bt7.7 billion.
       Many of the mainstream media-such as radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor and in-store media-showed a significant drop in ad spending.
       But cinema ads, together with some other media, such as television advertising, which accounts for about 60 per cent of overall media spending, transit media and Internet ads, recorded year on year growth in August.
       Cinema ads alone rose 61 per cent to Bt475 million.
       Sompoch said the company's performance in the first eight months of this year was quite satisfactory.
       "Our chicken essence posted significant growth of 26 per cent in the first eight months of this year. Our birds' nest product also enjoyed growth of 15 per cent over the same period," he said.
       Scotch's overall sales were up by 17-18 per cent over the same period last year.
       "The health-food industry has not been impacted seriously by the current economic and political problems. Our target customers are those medium-to upper-income earners and their purchasing power has not been affected by the economic recession.
       "We have seen an increasing trend of health-conscious consumers in the market," Sompoch said.
       Scotch expected to grow its overall sales by 20 per cent this year to Bt1.6 billion-Bt1.7 billion, he added.