Carlsberg Team with ComZone to Launch their Bottled Premium Mild Beer in Cambodia

Cambodia may be a small market, but it’s safe to say nearly all Cambodians (okay, men!) are beer lovers. And adding to the spirit of the industry, Carlsberg launched its bottles in the market earlier in 2017.

Carlsberg, known globally for their premium mild beer, is certainly not unknown to Cambodians, but the challenge ahead of the brand now is to see how well received it is by the local beer loving Cambodians.

Witnessing positive growth with the initial launch of cans, Carlsberg has now, with the help of creative agency ComZone, launched bottles aimed at becoming the preferred choice of premium beer drinkers in urban Cambodia. In a competitive landscape, with tough competition from strong and loved homegrown brands like Angkor Beer and Cambodia Beer, how Carlsberg carves a market for itself will be interesting to see.

Jessica Lim, Managing Director, ComZone Cambodia said, “The Cambodia beer market offers a fair amount of choice. But Cambodian beer drinkers are not necessarily brand loyalists. We have seen this with new entrants in the beer industry take a sizable market share from the established leader in the past 2 years. Which is why with the Carlsberg launch, we have tried to stay away from a promo-based short term approach, we have laid emphasis on creating a genuine ‘likeability’ for Carlsberg.”

“The real strong players (in Cambodia) are definitely the homegrown brands. These brands are well invested in and well in sync with the beer drinker’s life style and preferences. There are varying shades of ‘fun’, ‘friendship’ and ‘good times’ promised by several brands, but there is a stark gap when it comes to the upfront promise of great taste and quality. Which is what Carlsberg brings and that’s what the launch creatives celebrate,” added Daisy Hazra, ComZone about the strategic approach behind the entry campaign.

ComZone explains further that due to several linguistic and cultural reasons, they advised
consciously that Carlsberg do not launch with the global platform, ‘If Carlsberg did’. With several local players, and now foreign brands entering Cambodia, the country is slowly becoming the hotbed for beer brand wars that can be interesting to follow.

Source: Campaign Brief Asia

  Alcohol, Beverage, bottles, Cambodia, Campaign, ComZone, If Carlsberg did, Marketing, Product Launch