Consumer behaviour changes in times of distress as people shift their priorities; new research identifies 11 ‘crisis personas’ in Thailand who are adapting to the new normal.
Digital marketing consultancy ADA analysed shifts in app usage before and after Thailand took emergency measures to successfully contain the spread of COVID-19 and came up with a range of personas, of which ‘bored homebodies’ and the ‘sad and confused’ constituted the majority.
In a new WARC Spotlight series, Suppakit Limboonsong, Thailand Country Director for ADA, reports that the 11 personas the agency lists make up 59% of Thailand’s population of ‘working adults’ – a segment with the highest disposable income and which is heavily skewed towards Bangkok.
“A quick check on Google search trends confirm that these personas have very much acclimated to the digital realm by shifting their offline shopping behaviours to online, as well as showing an increased demand for food delivery,” he adds.
The value of such personas is that they help brands curate better strategies and creatives that speak directly to their target customers. Suppakit outlines a process that ADA uses and which, he says, “takes the guesswork out of the creative process”:
• Uncover the unconscious mind’s ‘real need’ – Look to sentiment analyses on what consumers are really saying about a product, on which platforms, and who they are engaging with.
• Recalibrate for the target segment’s ‘why’ – Take a deep dive into your target audience and their mindset, think about what you really know about them beyond surface demographics.
• Informed content tonality – Once you understand your target persona, it is time to catch their attention with a deal they cannot resist.
In this way, he advises, it is possible to unlock the key to driving sales by using data-driven creatives.
As proof this approach works, he cites the example of an international luxury skincare brand in Thailand which leveraged this approach. By using additional data sources and a well-defined target audience segmentation strategy, it was able to grow its business by 490% at the height of the pandemic.
For more details on how to drive digital demand, read Suppakit Limboonsong’s article in full: Getting to know urban Thailand’s new post-pandemic personas.
This article is part of a Spotlight series on how brands can connect better with Thai consumers as the domestic market becomes the main market in times of COVID-19. Read more here.
Sourced from WARC
