James McCormack, managing director and head of sovereigns at the ratings company, on Tuesday highlighted that Fitch was forecasting global economic growth of 3.3 per cent and 3.1 per cent in 2018 and 2019, respectively, led by continued above-potential growth in the US supported by fiscal expansion, and strong growth in China – notwithstanding the ongoing trade war between the two nations.

Risks to the outlook, however, are growing, particularly for emerging markets, he said.

As global financial conditions tighten into next year with higher US interest rates, the end of quantitative easing by the European Central Bank and continued appreciation of the US dollar, international capital flows are likely to be more volatile, especially for emerging markets with the largest external funding needs and policy frameworks that are judged to be weaker, he explained.

Thailand, however, is very well-placed to deal with these global challenges, running sizeable current-account surpluses and maintaining a sound fiscal position, McCormack told the conference.

Further escalation of the US-China trade war is a threat to all open economies, including Thailand, and poses downside risks to 2019 growth projections, he added.

Parson Singha, senior director for financial institutions at Fitch Ratings (Thailand), noted that banking sectors in the Asia-Pacific were mostly well-positioned to cope with gradual, well-signalled US interest-rate hikes.

The committee’s previous prediction was for GDP growth of 4.3 to 4.8 per cent.

“In terms of exports to the Asean region, so far, Thailand has been performing exceptionally in 2018,” Sontirat said.

Exports have seen double-digit growth year on year for the period January to August, he said.

“Until the upcoming election, we aim to sustain this positive momentum in exports to the Asean market and have set a target of 20 per cent growth,” he said.

With the election approaching in early 2019, there was not a lot of time left for the current government with regards to the goals of the Commerce Ministry, Sontirat said, adding, the ministry intended to use the remaining time efficiently to boost trade, establish strong foundations for the lumber industry and enhance Thai services.

“The Commerce Ministry has always prioritised Thai-Asean trade. Of all our foreign trade, we attach the greatest importance to exports to the Asean region,” he said.

Thailand will greatly benefit from growth in exports to other Asean countries as the Kingdom is geographically located in the centre of the region. A healthy growth in Thai-Asean exports will help strengthen various aspects of the Thai economy such as manufacturing, agriculture and services, Sontirat said.

Speaking of the ongoing trade war between the US and China, he said Thailand will first have to gain a clearer understanding of how it affects Thai enterprises.

There will be both winners and losers from the trade war in Thailand.

The Commerce Ministry is currently working to assess which industries would benefit and which would be hit the hardest by the ongoing trade war, Sontirat said.

“Our mission is to make sure that despite the ongoing trade war, Thailand’s exports remain at a healthy level. We will implement the necessary measures to maintain a positive momentum for exports,” he said.

The ministry has been working constantly with the private sector to assess the impacts of the trade war on Thailand’s economy. So far, the ministry has concluded that the impacts on Thailand are limited, he said.

One long-term goal of the ministry is to further develop the Thai lumber industry, so that Thailand could become a leading exporter of lumber.

“We have been working to promote economic opportunities which arise from trees grown on private property,” Sontirat said.

Earlier this year, the ministry pushed for the passing of a forestry law, which would allow trees grown on private property to be put up as collateral with a bank or sold for profit.

“Like many Scandinavian countries, Thailand can benefit greatly from forestry, and in the future we can become a leading global exporter of lumber,” Sontirat said.

Online media represent the fastest growing advertising platform, while printed magazines are becoming less popular. This clearly reflects a change in consumer behaviour, due to soaring use of smartphones and the Internet, increased preference for online TV platforms, and less time spent in reading books. Meanwhile, outdoor advertising is expected to be active again before the upcoming election.

Disclosing this year’s advertising spending and the forecast for the fourth quarter, MAAT president Triluj Navamarat said: “Thailand’s economy is obviously rebounding after two years of slow growth, resulting in higher spending on all advertising mediums. Constant economic stimulus packages, the upcoming election, Thailand’s special economic zones, export and tourism have undoubtedly boosted consumer and private sector confidence to invest and spend more, which has driven 4-per-cent growth in GDP.”

MAAT vice president Rattakorn Seubsuk added: “Looking at the advertising expenditure in the past three quarters and the outlook for the remaining three months, all advertising mediums have the potential to grow, surpassing that in the previous year. Online media has recorded the highest growth at 21 per cent followed by in-store media at 16 per cent and outdoor advertising at 6 per cent. Movie and TV advertising (including digital TV, cable TV and satellite TV) each saw 4 per cent growth, while radio advertising rose by 3 per cent.

Spending on transit media showed no change, whereas the popularity of newspapers and magazines for advertising spending has fallen by 21 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively.

“With GDP forecast to grow by 4 per cent and barring any unfavourable factors, 2019 will be a good year for the overall industry. Next year’s election will surely accelerate the growth of outdoor and transit media by 5 per cent. Although online media has the highest growth increase at 25 per cent, significant spending continues to be seen on TV advertising. We will be seeing a media budget shift from TV to online media due to the escalating number of Internet users against the decline of radio, cinema and print media,” added Rattakorn.

“Today’s fast-changing consumer behaviour has greatly influenced media spending choice. Consumers nowadays are rapidly responding to news updates and newly launched technologies. Marketers and media planners must have an in-depth understanding, particularly, a quick mind to learn and transform their strategy instantly so that their marketing campaigns and media planning can reach the targets successfully,” said Triluj.

The MAAT was established in 2007, bringing together top people from Thailand’s media agencies, with a shared commitment to promoting and growing media business related to media effectiveness, media personnel standards and professional ethics. The MAAT is also committed to promoting media research and development, which is useful for the advertising industry and society, including encouraging media collaboration at an international level.

WHAT ARE THE KEY FACTORS FOR GOOD BRANDING? WHAT ARE ITS SUCCESS COMPONENTS?

I THINK a good brand does two things really well. One, it knows what people want from it. I think this is something a lot of organisations overlook because they just sit in a room and do not get out enough into the real world to understand what the consumers expect. The second is consistency – making sure that the brand, whether you are experiencing it in a retail store, or on Instagram, or in the box that comes in when ordered online – does it all feel the same? Does it have the same value? Does it have the same way of allowing you to experience it? Do you understand that it is all from the same place? If it feels that way, then a brand really has a lot of value in the mind of consumers…And making sure that it ties to things like your overall mission, your values, and the way your organisation is set up. A brand that just looks cool, for example, but does not connect to values and purpose and mission and things like that is empty and consumers can see that right away.

HOW CAN A BUSINESS CREATE BRANDS THAT WILL ENDURE IN THE LONG TERM? WHAT ARE THE KEY STRATEGIES FOR IT? WHAT WILL BE THE KEY SUCCESS FACTORS IN MAINTAINING AND STRENGTHENING THE BRANDS OVER THE LONG TERM?

For a brand to stay relevant and evolve over time, it should be willing to evolve. A brand that stays static and stays fixed has a very hard time staying relevant, as it grows through different changes in a marketplace, the way a consumer is changing. So one of the things that we develop with brands is what we call a “Brand Code”. A Brand Code has things like, ‘what is your mission?’ Your mission should be something that is going to be willing to change as the world changes around you. But certain things should be true all the time, like your values. Your values should not change the way the market changes. So make sure you have a sense of that. Make sure you have the sense of how it looks and feels but also how it finds ways to intersect with consumers and absorb their information. I was talking about this with my colleague the other day when the new Apple iPhone was announced. The past five iPhones have all said that they were bigger than the previous ones – bigger screen size. I think that they are actually missing a part of the market that wants smaller phones, something that will fit in their pockets. I do not think they are doing a good job paying attention to that. They are only seeing half of the story…One is to practice listening and I think that is really hard for a brand to be successful doing any of this if they are sitting in a room with the doors closed and only talk to each other. You have to get out in the world. You have to actually experience it, but it does not mean focus groups, it means actually meeting people and having real conversations and connecting with them. We just worked on a big project globally for ESPN and one of the big things ESPN is interested in is the fans’ rights because if they do not have sports fans, then they do not have a TV network. And so one of the things we have to do is to help them figure it out: how do you meet fans, how do fans come into your conversation. We actually helped created a fan advisory board that actually comes to their global headquarters a couple of times a year and sits down and says this is what we care about, this is why we love the teams we love. It is really a kind of a different way of thinking that puts their consumers first. That is one of the big ones…. So I think strengthening a brand comes as much from inside as from outside. What I mean by that is: do you have the right people inside the organisation who are going to ask hard questions and make sure that we are being true to who we want to be and how we grow this business? Do you have the right processes? Do you have the right principles? Do you have the right products and services? All of these sorts of things are internal work that help make a brand durable in the long term. But then, going back to what we were saying earlier on the external side, you also have to be willing to listen. You have to be willing to talk with consumers and meet them halfway and understand that as they will need to change, you have to change with them. And also find the right types of leaders inside the organisation. When I say “leaders”, I do not just mean seats and suits. Anyone can be a leader in the organisation but the type of people who are willing to make the effort and investment internally as well as externally are the ones who they think really create the long-term scale and success.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE POTENTIAL OF ASIAN BRANDS, AS WELL AS LOCAL ASIAN COMPANIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLOBAL BRANDING? WHAT ARE THEIR KEY CHALLENGES IN TERMS OF THEIR ABILITY TO COMPETE WITH GLOBAL BRANDS, WHICH HAVE BEEN DOMINATING THE MARKET?

I think it is hard to generalise because the culture here is so different. But one of the things that I have seen pretty uniformly across a lot of APAC work that we have done has been a real attention to the quality of the relationship, and a service-minded approach in many instances. We have done work in probably five or six different markets out here and I think everyone has a service-oriented DNA that helps them create brand experiences and businesses that ultimately feel connected to the consumers. That is not necessarily true in Western Europe, not uniformly at least. That is not necessarily true in the Middle East and North Africa where we have done some work as well. And there are some brands that do it well but I think here it has been such a part of the hospitality culture of Southeast Asia overall that having a kind of mindset that actually allows the businesses to differentiate and to be more consumer-minded than perhaps other markets… I mean one is awareness. It is super-hard to…especially in the louder markets like the US where they are tons of domestic brands who are all trying to get your attention. How does a brand with a name that is not necessarily recognisable enter and cut through and become relevant and meaningful. But, there are tons of success stories of that as well. I can think of Muji, which has done an amazing job in the US. They did not come to the US and try to be something different.

They came and said, ‘These are our values. This is the type of expression as an organisation we want to have in this marketplace’. And because they were so true to that and they did not water it down to try to be like an American Muji, it was really differentiated. So, I think you must make sure that when you enter these foreign markets, you must not give up what makes you special, or to try to be more like the rest of the competition there…I think the compromise is, ah, it is important to know what you are willing to compromise on and what you are not willing to compromise on and know that before you start spending money in the new market.

WHAT ARE THE KEY STRATEGIES FOR THAI AND ASIAN COMPANIES TO OVERCOME SUCH FUTURE CHALLENGES SO AS TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE LONG TERM?

One of the things we talked about in the lead up to being out here was actually looking at King Rama IX. Someone who is really making an effort to know the people and to understand the people. I think one of the important things with particularly Thai businesses is to kind of embrace the lessons but not just embrace them and put them on a shelf and revere them but to embody them and to practice them and to make sure your teams understand them and make sure they become a real behaviour and a part of the organisation’s mindset. To me, one of the things that will help guide a future growth plan is to connect to those empathic traits that I think are probably innate in many organisations have not necessarily been embodied here. You have to make them a part of the blood that runs in your veins.

This year, 61 projects from 608 entries received the award, as well as “going international” to Japan with G-mark.

Vannaporn Ketudat, deputy director-general of the department, on Monday described the “Design Excellence Award 2018”, or DEmark 2018, as an award that guaranteed creativity, quality and functionality for design products by Thai designers, and that was considered as one of the Commerce Ministry’s campaigns to drive he creative economy.

The ITPD has continuously had campaigns to develop and support businesses to add value to their products through innovation and creativity, as well as created platforms for Thai businesses to demonstrate their potential and capabilities to buyers at both the national and international levels, she said.

This year, 608 Thai designers and businesses submitted projects for consideration for DEmark 2018.

Sixty-one of those projects received the DEmark 2018 award in six categories: furniture, lifestyle, creativity and innovativeness in fashion and accessories, industry, packaging, and graphic design.

Projects that land a DEmark Award will also be exhibited and have their products launched at the “STYLE” lifestyle exhibition from October 17-21 at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre.

Thailand is very lucky to have a talented new generation who are so creative, and has the capabilities to develop Thai products to international standards, Vannaporn said.

This is especially important because it is a well-known fact that, in the international market right now, products that have a unique selling point in their design and functions will have a competitive advantage and be able to gain more interest from consumers than an average-looking product, she added.

“The past 11 years of the campaign have demonstrated the advancement of skills and creativity of Thai designers, who have shown their dedication to designing more and more creative products to meet the changing lifestyle of consumers around the world, as well as improving the quality of products to achieve international standards.

“This award is another supporting platform that allows Thai designers to play a crucial role in driving Thailand forward with creative products and goods, in line with the government policy of ‘Thailand 4.0’”, the deputy director-general explained.

“The campaign has also received strong support from the Japan External Trade Organisation [JETRO] and the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, through their experts from the Good Design Award [G-mark] – an internationally recognised award for design – as part of the panel of judges.

“Their support is also extended to submitting products that have won the DEmark awards to participate in the “Good Design Exhibition” [G-mark] awards, as well. This year, 18 winners will be exhibited at the G-mark exhibition in Tokyo between October 31 and November 4.

“At the same time, the ITPD continues to cooperate with the private sector, such as Siam Piwat, to increase the avenues for sales and promotion of Thai products that have received the DEmark award, aside from those with other design awards and guarantees. Products will be displayed and sold at Siam Discovery and Icon Siam in the future,” Vannaporn said.

The Constitution and election law prohibit an incumbent government nearing the end of its term from implementing projects that would impose budgetary constraints on the next government, secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul said during the official launch of the party.

He said the Election Commission needed to keep a watch on the situation, and he would wait to see whether the agency would apply the same standard to junta-backed government actions as to those by others.

The government has insisted that it will accelerate investment projects, such as high-speed rail lines connecting three main international airports, on the grounds of promoting investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor and boosting the economy.

Meanwhile, Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroomgriamgkit said he preferred a hyperloop rail transport system, in which train speeds could reach 1,000 kilometres per hour in a vacuum tube.

Thanathorn also pledged to dismantle everything the junta-backed government had done during its time in office, including rewriting the Constitution, if he could form the next government after the general election early next year.

Piyabutr explained that the party would compensate people whose rights had been damaged by the current government.

As to projects to be undertaken with foreign businesses and governments, greater public participation would be encouraged, he added.

It marks the 15th consecutive month of growth following a rise in energy prices of 8.10 per cent, while the price for fresh food dropped by 1.16 per cent, the ministry said.