Malaysian consumers choose Carlsberg as top brand in two brand awards

25 March 2010, Shah Alam – Malaysian consumers have chosen once again to place Carlsberg as their most preferred beer brand in the country in two prestigious brand awards. The brand won Gold Award in the Beverage – Alcohol category at the inaugural Putra Brand Awards 2010, a consumer research that measures the most preferred brand in Malaysia. Carlsberg also won the “Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Gold Award”, an award it has won for 11 years in a row.

“Being honored this year at both the Putra Brand Awards as well as the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Award confirms our own research that Carlsberg maintains its market leader position and enjoys strong preference by the Malaysian consumers. The independent studies gave us a way to benchmark and measure ourselves against,” Soren Ravn, Managing Director of Carlsberg Malaysia commented after receiving the Putra Brand Awards at the Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur last night.

Organized in association with the Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brands (MMVB), the Putra Brand Awards is a recognition and brand valuation exercise initiated by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) to recognize brands that are near and dear to the hearts of Malaysians. While MMVB measures best brands by financial valuation, the Putra Brand Awards measures brands by consumer preference utilizing a robust consumer research methodology developed by Pulse Group.

The Readers Digest Trusted Brands has a well-established reputation as the premier consumer-based, international measure of brand preference. The consumer poll is carried out simultaneously across all countries of South East Asia.

Carlsberg’s success as the market leader is a direct result of constant innovation with fresh twists to the brand’s products, packaging, promotions and marketing. In the past year, Carlsberg focused its efforts on a variety of innovations to elevate the brand among Malaysian consumers. New products extension such as Carlsberg Gold and Carlsberg Extra Cold gained wide acceptance and won industry awards like the iTQi’s (International Taste & Quality Institute) “Superior Taste Award 2009” for Carlsberg Gold. A newer profile bottle and can were introduced to appeal to young and trendy consumers.

In a recent study by Milward Brown, an internationally renowned research firm, Carlsberg gained a brand preference score of 49%, 22-percentage points ahead of its closest competitor as well as a Top of Mind Recall score of 51%, a lead of 16-percentage points.

Carlsberg performance has been stellar and continues to be the market leader in the beer category for over a decade. On the back of effective marketing campaigns that won an award at the Malaysian Effie Awards 2009, Carlsberg successfully grew its lead in marketshare to 49.1% (2009) and delivered strong profitability and growth despite uncertain market conditions.

Today, Carlsberg is the best-selling beer in the country with 1 in every 2 beers sold bearing the famous crown. With two prestigious awards added to its stellar list of credentials, Carlsberg is positioning itself for more aggressive growth in 2010.

“2010 will be a phenomenal year of opportunities for Carlsberg. With the acquisition of Carlsberg Singapore as the wholly-owned subsidiary of Carlsberg Malaysia, we see opportunities to accelerate growth of the brand and will continue to focus on innovation and effectiveness to draw more consumers to the embrace and engaged with the brand not only in Malaysia, but also in Singapore. Consumers can expect rewarding promotions and exciting activities for the upcoming Football championship as well as periodic trade promotions and online campaigns. These campaigns are expected to contribute positively to its brand performance throughout 2010,” Soren shared.