When Consumers Tighten Their Belts—The Marketing World Turns Upside Down Now, It’s Time for Marketers to Do What They Have Never Done Before

Change Mindset to Deal with Changed World

Mindset is crucial to dealing with the challenge. When spending feels heavier and money flows slower, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ake suggests that marketers should make their marketing activities special based on four following concepts:

• Small – Use small size or lot to win big. In the past, large sizes or bulk packaging might offer tempting value. But today, breaking things down into smaller units makes it easier for consumers to buy. A clear example is the rise of sachet products, which grew from a 20-billion-baht market to 50 billion in just a few years. The same applies to telecom providers, now selling data by gigabyte or call time in small bundles instead of large prepaid plans. While consumers may need to purchase more frequently, each transaction feels lighter in the wallet.
• Short – Long-term plans can be a trap. In today’s fast-moving market, marketing plans that are prepared six months to one year in advance can quickly become outdated. Many department stores now adjust product placements daily, responding to rapidly changing consumer behaviors, a sudden drop in sales, or a competitor’s stronger promotion. Marketers who cling to rigid, long-term plans risk falling behind the game.
• Simple – Simple is Smart. Look at the Chinese ice cream and beverage brand MIXUE, which has grown into one of the world’s leading franchises. The brand opts for simple store designs with movable furniture, allowing outlets to open quickly, relocate easily, or close underperforming locations without major losses. Marketers must adopt a new mindset: simplicity is not laziness but the approach to respond rapidly and intensely involving business landscape.
• Good – Don’t compromise quality. No matter how small, short, or simple approach a business embraces, its commitment to doing good must remain unchanged. Cutting costs is acceptable—but cutting quality is not. Consumers often remember a brand not in its moments of success, but in how it behaves during difficult times. Brands that continue to offer quality products and act responsibly toward society will be remembered as genuine and trustworthy.

Add Value Instead of Cutting Prices

When consumers seek value, lowering prices can feel like a “sugar rush,” which offers instant gratification but harms long-term health. The same holds true for businesses. Marketers must remember that lowering prices is easy but raising them back to normal is always difficult. Overreliance on discounts may provide a short-term boost, yet it can erode brand value and profitability in the long run.

The sense of value can be created in many ways—without relying on price cuts. Marketers can draw on the following six Ps to strengthen value perception:

• Product: Enhance product value, for example, by creating a shampoo that can also function as a conditioner.
• Place: Increase convenience, such as by offering free home delivery.
• People: Provide sincere after-sales service.
• Process: Streamline operations to ensure speed and efficiency, avoiding unnecessary delays
• Packaging: Design packaging that is aesthetically beautiful and collectible, reinforcing positive physical impressions through what customers see and touch.
• Pricing: Lowering prices should be used as the last resort only. Don’t forget that while it is easy to lower price, it is difficult to bring price back to the same rate as before. Price cut is nothing short of “marketing nuclear weapons,” which may complicate business operations in the future.

Shift Your Investment Toward Data

In an era where every baht counts, precision marketing depends on deep, insightful data. Investing in building a richer, more targeted customer database can significantly enhance brand value. Because Thailand Post has invested hundreds of millions of baht each year in developing its customer database, it can bring back a large number of customers.

Building and leveraging customer data allows brands to conduct more effective marketing at lower costs, delivering both short- and long-term returns. For example, if you have reliable customer information in hand today, you can make tomorrow’s Facebook ads far more precise. Embracing technology and digital marketing can immediately improve a brand’s sales

Although the economy may still feel sluggish today, we must remember that we have already weathered the far greater storm of COVID-19. Many new marketing ideas may seem to turn the old playbook upside down—but they are far from impossible.

Marketers should view this as a test of brand resilience. And when the storm eventually passes, those that adapt and endure will emerge stronger than ever.