This week’s shock news, exclusively revealed by Dot Property Group, that the Philippines has overtaken Thailand as the most-searched Southeast Asian destination in a monthly Top of the Props survey by a leading British-based overseas property websites comes as a timely reminder to the Kingdom’s real estate developers and agents.
Thailand now trails its regional compatriot by some three places; just a matter of months ago it was more than 30 places ahead.
Dan Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of TheMoveChannel.com, exclusively told Dot Property Group: “The end of the high season shouldn’t mean the end of the marketing cycle.
“For international buyers and investors, the research phase of transaction cycle is an almost continuous process, so it’s important for the Thailand real estate industry to stay relevant and compete for share of attention, even if the immediate plans of prospective European buyers are less likely to involve a trip to Asia.
Wise words indeed, and ones that were recently echoed by marketing guru Graystone Bird in an interview with Dot Property Group.
At that time he explained the relationship between share of market and share of voice. The higher your share of voice compared to your market share, the more likely your brand is to grow its market share in the years that follow. So if you increase your marketing investment when competitors are reducing theirs, you substantially increase the saliency of your brand.
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So while some may complain that marketing now could be deemed to be a waste of money, the fact the Kingdom seems to be falling out of the limelight with overseas buyers is something that everyone in the real estate sector in Thailand needs to be worried about.
Adam Sutcliffe, Managing Director of Dot Property Group (Thailand), supported the premise that cutting back on marketing now is not the way to go.
He said: “If anything developers and agents need to be fighting back and spending more, especially now other countries are doing more than we are in Thailand.
“That said, just throwing cash at marketing could easily be a waste of money. Companies need a plan and ways to immediately measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. That can be done so easily on the Internet.”