99 % of the beers sold in Laos are the good old Beer Lao. What ever beer trying to brake into the Laos market, face a tough time. The reason is that we can compare the Laotian people’s relation to its beers, with the relation’s football fans have to their own football club, writes The Danish newspaper Borsen.
Nothing above - nothing beside.
Danish Carlsberg owns half of the Lao Brewery, and the green Carlsberg Logo has the best location on the 35-year-old brewery facade. But despite that Carlsberg is almost non existent as a brand in Laos.
A fact confirmed by the PR manager Phengphachanh Sanasith, writes Borsen. On a question about Carlsberg were producing beer the day is was there, the PR chiefs gave her answer right away:
"No. Lao people are very fanatical about their beer. It is very difficult to sell anything other than the original Beer Lao, which has a market share of just over 99%".
And consumer fanaticism against anything but the traditional Beer Lao, also affects people's beloved brewery's attempt to sell newly developed Beer Lao beers.
Over the last few year Lao Brewery has launched five six new beers, but they are almost only on posters, and on the posters in Carlsberg / Beer Lao’s showroom.
And PR manager Phengphachanh Sanasith can only get full support of her statesmen’s by scandAsias.com correspondent, who travelled in Laos for 8 days. During my visit to the Lao Brewery in the capital Vientiane, I did not see any sign of “Carlsberg activity”. Not a single bottle out in production, not a single beer case with empty or filled Carlsberg beer case out in the square where the full or empty packaging store. And through visiting at least 20 different restaurants in three different towns, I did not witness single sale of a Carlsberg beer.
A strange problem is part of the problem: Pepsi and Coca Cola have been the first to supply free refrigerators to retailers. Carlsberg constantly try to give free Beer Lao refrigerators away, but shops and restaurants are afraid that they can’t pay for the extra power.
The traditional Beer Lao is the one people want. Nothing else. Therefore, it’s that beer the local dealers will keep in the fridge, waiting for the costumers. A fact Carlsberg, in cooperation with their partner, the Laotian government apparently has recognized.
In the context of Beer Lao's 35 year anniversary as a beer brand, they are running a competition where the main attractions are three Ford cars, five advanced Motorola mobile phones and large sums of cash. A promotion campaign which would make it even more impossible for Carlsberg to enter his own brewery, with its own brand, Carlsberg, writes Borsen.
