Eight facial skin care products and two gift sets will launch exclusively in 120 Boots stores across Thailand on November 26th building on the partnership that began in the UK a number of years ago and helped build Bulldog into the 3rd largest men’s skin care Brand in the UK.
“It can be difficult for a Western brand break into Eastern markets with all the competition and established brands. You need a good partner – to collaborate yourself to success,” Bulldog co-founder Simon Duffy tells CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.
Exciting market
Duffy, who founded the brand along with Rhodri Ferrier, introduced the award-winning range during a quintessentially British launch event at the British Embassy in Bangkok on Wednesday.
“We see Thailand as an incredibly exciting market to launch Bulldog. We’re delighted to be working with Boots Retail Thailand in this unique manner for the launch and we’re really excited about giving Thai men a chance to try our range of amazing skin care products,” he adds.
The move into the Thai market follows the brand’s success in Korea and the identification of the huge potential for a unique men’s skin care brand within the Asian market.
It also seems par for the course now for the growing UK brand having launched in 14 countries previously including Sweden, Spain, USA, Australia and Korea, in over 12,000 stores worldwide.
Proud to be British
Duffy says the brand will keep with its strong men’s focus and while it will be introduced for the first time not in English, he says the packaging and branding will not fundamentally be changed, just adapted for the market.
A strong marketing budget has been dedicated to supporting the brand in store and driving awareness out of store, and Bulldog hopes to take a 5% share of the 2.9 billion baht men’s skin care market in Thailand within its first two years.
Speaking at the launch, His Excellency Mr Mark Kent, British Ambassador for Thailand, said: “I am very excited to be involved in today’s launch which represents a perfect example of a working collaboration between two British success stories – Boots and Bulldog.”
“There are three B’s that I would like you to take away from today - Bulldog, Boots and Britishness. The Thai people have a huge appreciation for British products and British manufacturing. I am sure Bulldog will be a great success in this market.”