Firms undecided on marketing outlay for year

Amid the current economic uncertainty, various innovative marketing techniques are being used by the business sector to communicate with targeted customers at less cost but higher efficiency.
Hasan Basar, managing director and co-founder of Bangkok Public Relations and widely regarded as Thailand’s top PR guru, said demand for public relations services is likely to firm up during 2016. While there is some optimism that the government’s spending programmes may stimulate the economy, the reality on the ground is that most marketers are very cautious with their budgets, especially those dealing with fast-moving consumer goods.
The real growth in demand for public relations counsel and related services is with major Thai corporations that have bulked up in preparation for the emergence of the Asean Economic Community. With so much more at stake in everything that they do, they are a lot more interested in bringing onto their overall communications teams the best possible talent that they can find, both inside and outside their companies.
This is great for the industry and I foresee 20-30 per cent growth for the sector. At the same time, it also puts a lot of pressure on public relations service providers to develop themselves to be deserving of the growing responsibilities and expectations being placed on them.”
Buppa Lapawattanaphun, lecturer at the Department of Strategic Communi-cation at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s School of Communication Arts, who specialises in marketing communications and brand building strategies, said that the time for traditional marketing methods, such as discount promotion is nearing its end.
“The only way to bond the brand with consumers is their positive relationship towards the brand, which is created by their positive accumulative experience with the brand and the product. It is, however, a long-term process, which will not happen in a single day,” she said.
“This year, we will see many business players try to win their customers’ hearts by focusing on intangible value. Customer Experience Management CEM will become a crucial strategy in impressing their clients and to take advantage over rivals. Marketing campaigns will be created to connect and allow individual customers to share greater experience with the brand at any touch points,” said Buppa.
She said that being a good citizen of society would remain an important policy for business firms if they want to raise the brand image to another positive level and strengthen trust in the eyes of all stakeholders. However, corporate social responsibility (CSR) may not be the final answer anymore.
“CSR, which tends to serve only social issues, not the business purpose, will be significantly replaced by the creation of shared value between business and society,” said Buppa.
Kitti Chambundabongse, chairman of Spa-Hakuhodo Co Ltd, said that the trend of PR in the future will change from general targets groups like many marketeers are doing now to more specific targets .
Online PR will emerge as an alternative as press coverage is declining.
Many clients will have a tendency to do their own PR, so that they can have more control.”