Abstract
This study deals with the alcopop market in the UK and the opportunities for a company to expand to the French alcopop market. An alcopop is a sweet and flavoured drink, available in attractive packages full of colours with a small reference to the alcohol it contains. This beverage, which belongs to the Flavoured Alcoholic Beverages industry, is really famous among the very young population mainly because of its attractive price, even if it aims at targeting a more mature market from the age of 18 years to 25 years. The launch of this easy-to-drink alcohol was in 1995 in the UK market, but really took off in 1999 with the coming of Diageo's Smirnoff Ice, a U.S product which took almost a third of the UK FABs market with higher shares than in the US, according to Datamonitor (2007) and Food&Drink Europe (2003). These alcopops mainly attract the teenagers and especially the girl population, because they look without much risks and attractive than a can of beer, cider and lager. It's important to know that alcopops are as strong as the other categories of alcohol and irresponsible behaviours might have consequences on a person's actions and might be transformed in addiction. The marketing of these products is really controversial and according to Datamonitor (2007), teens are far more exposed to the advertising of these brands than adults who are the main target. In the first part of this study, firstly, I will analyse the UK market, then the alcopop sector and finally, the WKD alcopop. The analysis of the UK market will lead to the recommendation of a marketing strategy for WKD in the UK market from 2009 to 2012. In the second part, the study focuses on a European country to expand WKD internationally with a recommended market entry strategy.
