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Thai Consumers: Marketing Throughout the Customer Journey (2)
22 March 2021
Awareness serves as a crucial connector in the customer journey. Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are familiar with the qualities of a particular business product or service. It is more than just brand recognition. Awareness implies knowledge and understanding of a brand, that enables customers to identify products or services, images and narratives that are synonymous with the brand.
There are two main ways of generating brand awareness. The first is customer driven. Customers searching for products or services come across some new brand names during the process.
E-commerce and search engines are two top resources used by the Thai middle class to help search for products and services, and they were used by over 80% of the survey respondents. However, 75% of respondents said that they also use social media as search tools. Clearly social media have evolved to become not just a means to communicate with friends but also a platform for information, shopping, and entertainment.
Most focus group respondents, especially those between the ages of 20 and 29, spend hours daily on social media. Almost every respondent revealed that they follow some shops on Instagram and Facebook. Social media are becoming prime tools for researching and buying new products, a trend that many brands see as a big opportunity.
The second way in which customers discover new brands is more random. They are strolling down a street or browsing on the Internet, and unsought brands just pop up in front of them. The chart below highlights some of the ways in which consumers discover new brands. The top three ways are, in descending order, social media (90%), television ads (69%), and merchandise displays in physical stores (54%).
Respondents in the focus groups provided further insights into the various mechanisms whereby consumers become aware of a new brand. The table below summarises various touchpoints at the stage of awareness.
Channels |
Touchpoints |
Social media (organic) |
|
Social media (paid) |
|
Search (organic and paid) |
|
Video |
|
Display Ads |
|
Public Relations |
|
Others |
|
Offline |
|
Awareness is just the first step for a business that wants to grow a brand and drive conversions. Consumers need to like and trust a brand before they will be willing to open their wallets. Familiarity can breed trust and create a connection between a brand and its target customers. The more that customers engage with a brand and understand the brand’s mission, narratives, and core values, the more likely that they will trust the brand products or services.
Businesses must develop a share of mind with the consumer in order to turn a prospect into a customer. Regular, positive engagement with the prospect can help a brand to gain mindshare and develop a relationship with the target consumer. The more expensive or complex a product or service is, the more important the stage of engagement becomes.
Below are the insights provided by focus group respondents which show various customers’ possible touchpoints at the stage of engagement.
Channels |
Touchpoints |
Social media (organic) |
|
Social media (paid) |
|
Search (organic and paid) |
|
Video |
|
Display Ads |
|
Public Relations |
|
|
|
Others |
|
Offline |
|
[1] A boosted post is a regular Facebook post that a business pays to reach a wider audience. This ensures that the post is seen by a larger number of users or seen more often by users who are likely to engage with its content.
[2] The HKTDC conducted a consumer survey and organised four focus groups in the cities of Bangkok and Chiang Mai in April-September 2020. 1,004 Thai consumers aged between 18 and 60, with a monthly household income of THB30,000 (US$930) or above, responded to the survey. The participants in the focus groups were from the same age and income bands, and also had to be internet and mobile phone users, and to have travelled abroad at least once in the past year.
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