The company said it had adopted a new strategy for its flagship Cheers brand aimed at “optimising its product lines and driving growth in the mainstream beer market” this year.

Patcharachanok Sil-udom, marketing manager, mainstream (Tiger and Cheers) for TAP, said the company is redesigning the Cheers Selection Riceberry product as well as launching Cheers Selection Siam Weizen, a German-style wheat beer with the essence of Thainess.

“This reinforces its premium brand image to further penetrate the upper mainstream market, which tends to have an increased appetite for a variety of beers,” Patcharachanok said. “This also signifies the brand as a quality Thai-owned beer that uses |international manufacturing standards and quality control processes.

“Our goal is to offer unique beers that are distinct from other products in the mainstream beer segment.”

She said that the overall beer market has dropped about 3.9 per cent. However, the upper mainstream market has performed well thanks to popularity of craft beers. The main consumers in this segment are those aged 20 and 44.

Cheers holds a 0.5 per cent share in the mainstream beer market, which is worth around Bt139 billion.

“Cheers has optimised its product lines and adopted a new marketing strategy for 2019 to be more relevant with different target groups,” said Patcharachanok. “There are traditional mainstream consumers consisting of those aged between 20 and 49 with moderate incomes and who favour beverages with a higher alcohol content and then there are the upper-mainstream consumers consisting of those between 20 and 44 who have an appetite for a variety of beers and enjoy exploring new tastes in addition to traditional lagers.

“Consequently, the product lines of Cheers have been divided into Cheers as the flagship product line consisting of Cheers Classic, a lager with 4.8 per cent alcohol content, and Cheers Xtra, a lager with a 6 per cent alcohol content and Cheers Selection as the secondary product line.”

Patcharachanok said the company expected the sales of Cheers to double for this year compared with last year.