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.

Chart: Sources Used to Search for New Products/Services

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)	They see a friend or someone they follow engage with posts from a new brand (like, comment, or share) They see the page of a brand as a recommended page to follow
Social media (paid)	They see or get to know a brand which could be: A promoted/boosted post [1] An offer for them to follow a brand An offer for them to provide their emails in exchange for gifts or coupons A commercial of a brand offering products or services They see an influencer who they follow, posting about a new brand’s products or services
Search (organic and paid)	They see the website of a new brand when they search for products and services that are of interest to them They see the blog post of a new brand appear when they search for information relating to their problems or interests
Video	They see an ad for a brand while they are viewing a YouTube video They see a video of a brand appear in the search results when they use keywords to search for videos on the topics of their interests
Display Ads	They see a brand’s ads on a website they are browsing (not on the brand’s website)
Public Relations	They see a brand mentioned in a blog post they are reading (not on the brand’s blog) They see a brand mentioned by the media – it could be local, national, niche or industry-specific
Others	They see a brand’s app as a recommendation from a friend, on a blog, by an influencer, in the app store, on social media or elsewhere They see a brand’s podcast as a recommendation from a friend, on a blog, by an influencer, in Spotify/Podcast app, on social media or elsewhere
Offline	They see a brand’s ads in a newspaper, magazine, on TV, billboard or hear its ads on the radio They see a brand’s merchandise display in a store They are given free samples or offered a free trial of a brand

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)	They engage with one of the social posts of a brand (like, comment, share) They click through one of the posts and look at the content on a brand’s website They follow a brand on the social platform to get access to more of its content later They read a brand’s posts in a private community group where the brand is engaging in conversation with people They make an enquiry to a brand
Social media (paid)	They engage with a brand’s ad (like, comment, share, click through to the brand’s website and look at the content, claim an offer, or participate in a survey) They make an enquiry to a brand’s ad
Search (organic and paid)	They click through to the product or service page when they search for keywords related to certain products and services and they look at the content of the page They click through to the blog post when they search for information relating to their problems or interests, they look at the content and find it useful and maybe share it
Video	They click through to watch the video of a brand when they search for keywords related to certain products and services on a video platform They like, share, and subscribe to the channel after watching it
Display Ads	They click a banner ad for a brand on a website they are browsing, they look at the content and browse the website
Public Relations	After seeing the product or service mentioned in a blog post they are reading, they click the link to the brand’s website where they browse it After seeing the product or service mentioned by the media, they search for the brand’s website where they browse it
Email	They subscribe to the email list of a brand They open an email sent by a brand, read it, and click the brand’s website if applicable and look at the content
Others	They download the app and start using it They subscribe to the podcast and start listening to it
Offline	They visit a brand’s stores, ask questions, and try to understand the products or services They “like” the social media at the store in return for a gift or coupon

[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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Thai Consumers: Marketing Throughout the Customer Journey (2)