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Thais seeking happiness, and a return to their roots
The Nation, 7th November 2006

In a significant change in behaviour, Thais are seeking more happiness and striving for balance in their life compared to last year, a local market research firm said yesterday.

Daranee Charoen-Rajapark, president of the Thailand Marketing Research Society (TMRC), said the change had been brought about by many incidents that had occurred since early this year, politically, socially and economically, and that it would influence consumer spending.

Daranee said purchasing decisions had become more rational than during the five and a half years of the recently ousted Thaksin government.

This change is one of many consumer trends that will influence consumer spending over the next year and the most obvious seen by the TMRC from its research with 40 marketers and experts in various fields.

Daranee said the information was gathered during a seminar yesterday, "Inspiration, the Unwritten Rule of Success", hosted by five associations at The Intercontinental Hotel.

The associations were the TMRS, the Marketing Association of Thailand, the Advertising Association of Thailand, the Thai Direct Selling Association and the Public Relations Society of Thailand.

One of the other main trends pointed to an increasing number of single, educated and late-marrying women.

Statistics show that women aged 35 and up accounted for 5.5 per cent of the total Thai population in 1990, 7.4 per cent in 2004 and 8.6 per cent last year.

It was also forecast that the average age of first-marriage women in 2040 would be 27.3 years, compared with 24 in 2004 and 22.1 in 1996.

Products that serve women's independent lifestyle, career development and traditionally held duties, for example, and target this group include housing and condos for single women, career clothing, cosmetics and car repairs.

Thailand is entering an old-age era, in which senior citizens are starting to form the vast majority of the overall population. So, anti-ageing, health and fitness, financial planning, medical equipment and insurance and activities like tours for the elderly can make money from this group.

Another trend seen is one of people leading more complicated lives. They grow richer, smarter, more efficient, healthier and more beautiful but busier, more stressed and more complicated.

Many choices, innovations and expectations emerge every day that require them always to learn new things. In order to cope with this complexity, they need tools like suggestions from those they trust and recommendations from experts or salespeople, for example. Thus, creating a high reputation for a brand is crucial for success.

To this point, Chaipattana Foundation secretary-general Sumet Tantivejkul said people today were living in a modern era in which technology kept advancing and they grew richer.

Yet they want to have houses in the countryside surrounded by nature to release their stress.

This shows their development is causing a decrease in happiness and that they want to return to their roots.

Also, companies should learn how to adopt the principles of the sufficiency economy to create long-term healthy growth instead of concerning themselves only with how to diversify their businesses further, which could eventually lead to collapse, as shown many examples.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation