The Lost Boy

New approaches for old businesses

Marketing strategies in Thailand are continually having to evolve due to the fact that brand recognition is no longer enough to reach today’s consumer. Most brands in today’s market are essentially commodities. Fundamentally, Pepsi is no different to Coke, DTAC no different to Orange and Toyota no different to Honda.

Whilst splashing logos and advertisements around sky train stations helps people to remember the name of a certain brand, such techniques fail to establish an emotional connection with the consumer.

Recent trends in consumer habits have pointed towards a shift in buying patterns. Whereas companies have previously aimed their products at certain demographics based on income, increasingly in contemporary society there has been some change in who is buying what.

More and more people are buying products that are typically considered ‘luxury brands,’ such as Gucci bags. These same people are not always the upper end of the earning market, as was previously believed. They are able to buy Gucci bags because they are making sacrifices elsewhere by purchasing generic, no-brand products.

Tesco in the UK brings in half of its revenue from generic, brandless products.

It is only recently that major companies have realized that by only targeting specific demographics they were effectively missing large groups of people who would have been interested in their products.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for branded commodities, such as Pepsi and Coke, to appeal to consumers who are opting for a generic band of cola and using the money saved to buy upper-end products. For these reasons, new strategies are being implemented to target consumers and establish the aforementioned emotional connection that is often lacking.

Brands are now in a situation where they must convince consumers that the product they offer is of more value than the brandless alternative.

“You have to really understand your customer base and get into their lives,” says Win Pisabordintra of BLM, a multimedia firm that helps brands build loyalty with their customers. “You have to be where they go, websites, restaurants, clubs. You have to show you care about what they like, and in turn they will care about your brand. And you have to monitor and measure yourself constantly, because consumer behavior changes all the time. It’s not just about celebrities and pretty pictures.”

This is a relatively new ideology, especially for Bangkok, but it reflects the notion that brands have to appeal to the public by linking themselves with the lives of the people their product is aimed at. This establishes a relationship between brand and consumer.

Whether or not all Thai brands are ready for this shift in methodology remains to be seen. “Not everyone is ready for it,” says Win. “Lots of companies say they want to be innovative and original, but they do the same old things – billboards, loud ranting celebrities, pretty dull ads. But there are a few who are more daring and innovative. Sprite has been sponsoring b-boys and street artists. Toyota’s youth centre in Siam Square, The Style, is a real innovation. You see it more in other countries than in Thailand, but it will come. It’s inevitable.”

A growing number of companies are associating themselves with genuine artistic movements in Thailand that previously they had not been interested in. At the end of last year, Thailand’s first international community arts festival, Hoontown, took place. The event was an enormous success with more than 3,000 people attending the three day festivities. Sponsorship came from major companies, including Singha Beer and Siam City Cement. This exemplifies large companies seeking to form relationships with people it had previously ignored.

Street arts is a growing phenomenon in Thailand, although it is nothing new. With the help of brands such as Sprite, fragmented street arts communities are able to come together and form bigger, more varied scenes. Sprite recently became involved with a group of international street performers, known as Lunge, who have been taking part in a two month tour of eight of Bangkok’s universities. Sprite’s presence at a number of these events shows a willingness to appeal to people on a very real, human level.

Sprite Brand Manager Robert Pike said he believes that the real art in society comes from the streets. Large brands now increasingly keen to become involved in street arts and thus both parties benefit, as the artists receive exposure and the brand establishes itself along with the artists’ scene.

This may be the key to brand survival in an ever-competitive world. A large number of companies are still relying on cost-cutting promotions to win customers over. This has recently happened in Thailand with the mobile phone networks, who have subsequently suffered greatly and failed to live up to consumer demands through a string of connection difficulties.

Consumers are increasingly ready to develop emotional relationships with brands and are yearning for brands they can trust. Price becomes almost irrelevant. Extravagant launch parties, boorish celebrity link-ups and logos galore will not win the people of Thailand’s trust in the long run, as brand recognition is no longer enough to keep people interested.