The company said it is confident it will hit earnings of Bt100 billion and become the number one in the consumer’s mind in 2020.

Hidekazu Ito, CEO of Panasonic Group in Thailand, said 2018 was the year that Panasonic companies around the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in Japan under the concept “A Century of Reliability”.

One of the remarkable event was Panasonic’s 100th Anniversary global exhibition called “Cross-Value Innovation Forum” where Panasonic Corporation President, Kazuhiro Tsuga emphasised Panasonic’s strategy of looking into the future and stepping into the second century by co-creating along with business partners, customers, and consumers in daily life.

He also announced the vision and the direction of Panasonic’s business operations around the world in the next 100 years.

One of the important guidelines is the introduction of a new business concept called “Lifestyle Update”, which is considered a challenge in the next 100 years for Panasonic as a “manufacturer” of electronic appliances to become a leader in offering modern lifestyles with products and services developed by Panasonic and based on the preferences and lifestyles of each user.

The concept “Lifestyle Update” is based on the use of lifestyle data and consumer behaviour to answer as much as possible the lifestyle of consumers involved with technology.

“In the next 100 years, Panasonic is still continuing to adhere to the main concept of “A Better Life, A Better World” in accordance with the company founder’s guidelines commitment to non-stop development of innovation and technology to give a better life and to solve the quality of life problems for people by offering sustainable solutions for a better world through the development of products and solutions in 3 categories: Living Space, Mobility and Business to Business (B2B).

“The event “Cross-Value Innovation Forum”, recently held in Japan, exhibited products, technologies, and innovations from Panasonic for today and in the future from these three business categories. The Mobility, for example, features a small multi-purpose car platform that can be adjusted to different usage such as a vehicle for family, a postal service bus, a school bus. At the B2B, the group presented an example of successful business-to-business cooperation between Panasonic and other businesses, such as at the largest hot pot restaurant chain in China where Panasonic’s robotic arm is used in the food preparation process,” the company said.

The Living Space launched HomeX Project, the latest solution that is ready to be used in Panasonic’s home, developed by Panasonic Beta, a Panasonic subsidiary based in Silicon Valley.

HomeX Project is a topnotch information infrastructure that understands what inhabitant wants by season or depending on weather conditions by collecting data from a device via the Internet.

This indicates that Panasonic has transcended its traditional business practices from “upgrading” or improving the well-being of people with updated home appliances and electronic devices that Panasonic has developed meticulously to become a leader, which presents the modern lifestyle or Lifestyle Update by the trend of lifestyle that is changing rapidly with diversity as well as an individual’s lifestyle that paves the way to create opportunities for Panasonic at the global level.

Based on Panasonic’s global approach to becoming a Lifestyle Update, especially in the Living Space, Panasonic Group in Thailand has mapped out to implement this approach for marketing operations by focusing on presenting new experiences and better quality of life along with studying the needs of the domestic market.

Panasonic finds that Thai consumers pay more attention to quality of life, convenience, and safety. The ‘Quality Air For Life’ is one of the solutions that Panasonic offers for the better quality of life for Thai people because the air quality is significant to everyone, which may affect health and safety while living at home.

Presently, air pollution problems are becoming a big problem around the world, including Thailand. Panasonic’s Quality Air For Life solution will help solve air quality problems, whether for homes or public areas, with ventilation systems that keep the rooms clean, air conditioning systems that create cool air, offering nanoeTM Technology that inhibits PM 2.5 dust. Fungi, and viruses, which can help alleviate air pollution problems Thailand is facing.

Modern consumers opt for buying a house that meets their future lifestyle needs, equipped with convenience and safety of living in the home and the community. Panasonic thus offers Home Automation, a home control system that combines all aspects of convenience together.

Making it different with the concept Smart & Safety Life to help raise the safety level of the residents’ lives. The functions are controlled by a smartphone. Panasonic’s IP Camera offers full HD quality with an infrared system that can be used even in the dark, including the Panasonic Home Automation system that can turn off and turn on lights and electrical appliances via a smartphone when you are not at home.

This helps stop worrying about dangers. Panasonic believes that providing a better quality of life in terms of air quality and safety will meet the needs of today’s consumers the most. ”

For 2018, Panasonic forecasted its operating results worldwide to be worth Bt2.5 trillion, an increase from 2017, by approximately 1 per cent from 4 business groups, consisting of 1. Appliances Company (AP), generating a sales proportion at 31 per cent; 2. Eco Solutions Company (ES), making a share of 23 per cent; 3. Connected Solution Company (CNS), holding a proportion of sales at 13 per cent; and 4. Automotive & Industrial Systems Company (AIS), seeing its proportion Sales at 33 per cent.

In Thailand, the total turnover is recorded at Bt91 billion, consisting of the following groups: 24 per cent by AP, 9 per cent by ES, 2 per cent by CNS, and 65 per cent by AIS. From the direction of the operation, it is expected that Panasonic Group in Thailand will generate revenue of over Bt100 billion in 2020 and become the number one brand in the consumer’s mind as planned.

“I love travelling and exploring so much that I can call it a fascination. Our travelling style that we offer in the business has no limitations – and that makes it different from the others,” says Napira, who is the managing director of Napira Travel Stylist.

“We can provide you with luxury restaurants, premium hotels and famous tourist attractions in the way that you prefer them.

“Besides, my inspiration for the travel design business is to make your trips the most outstanding they can be, and that is the motivation pushing my team and me forwards.”

The extra touches that Napira provides for customers are all about making the company live up to its title of being a travel stylist business.

“We hope to be a little part in the whole machinery that drives tourism in Thailand forwards. The more I’ve worked and learned about Thailand’s travel business, the more I strongly desire to help the local tourism sectors,” Napira says. “Also, I want to help distribute income to local people and to let foreign tourists experience more about the local tourism in Thailand, and these are greatest benefits that I can receive.

“In Thailand, wherever I go or whatever I do, it always makes me feel young again, because there are always new things waiting for me to learn and experience,” says 36-year-old Napira. “Some of these places are provinces in Thailand that I have never known before, and that surprises me even more. I came up with the idea ‘Local life, Local Experience’, and I think this is what other people must go and explore.”

Napira graduated from Assumption University with a bachelor of arts, majoring in business (English medium). While studying at Assumption from 2000 to 2005, she also gained a minor in advertising management. The year that she finished her studies in Bangkok she also completed a course in basic cuisine and basic patisseries from Le Cordon Bleu Institute in the United Kingdom. She added to these qualifications with a master’s degree in multimedia marketing from the University of Portsmouth, also in Britain, where she studied from 2005 to 2007.

“During my bachelor’s degree, I started planning my own trip and styling it in the way I am fond of. Then during my master’s degree in England, I found that travelling had turned into my passion,” she says.

“Every holiday and summer vacation, my friends and I loved to go travelling to new places and towns in England and many other countries in Europe. Each trip, we planned about what we were going to do and where we were going to eat. That was so much fun, seriously.”

There were also times that Napira had to travel on her own, but she was always one to get out and about rather than stay at home.

“Initially, the thought of travelling on my own made me full of fear, but my curiosity was bigger,” she says. “I think that was the moment that I could break through the wall for the very first time. That was because back then, I was treated and lived my life like a princess. But now, to go travelling by myself is like opening up to a new world that I have never been before. And yes, I finally found myself being fascinated with it.”

After finishing her studies and returning to Thailand, she took up work at Unseen Planet, an advertising and media agency in Thailand.

“I worked a lot on print media and marketing media for the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). I had to search for resorts in Thailand, recommend hotels with a health programme, and also design tourism campaigns for them,” Napira says.

“I focused on promoting local tourism in Thailand, and that was the reason I had a chance to know many resorts and local communities, and from these experiences came my own business.”

Napira says her company organises private trips and acts as a travel concierge for families and corporations, for trips spanning the globe.

“Now we have expanded our business to cater to foreigners who would like to explore Thailand with local communities,” she says.

Napira is on one of the committees of the Young Entrepreneur Chamber of Commerce (YEC) in Bangkok, and now has connections with YEC members from all over Thailand.

“Thus, our team are experts when it comes to local tourism. We are insiders and we are sure that we can take to tourists unseen places with interesting activities,” she says.

“This led me to start G Venture by Napira, a Facebook page especially for local tourism. When we go to these places, we both travel and absorb the way of life of the people deeply. We live, laugh, learn, and understand their problems. And this also brought me the idea of volunteering, which is one of my new projects.

It is called Be Hub, a project that gathers people who love volunteering and helping other people.

“I have a chance to help villagers continue in their natural way, teaching and being engaged in local marketing projects. We help give local people, especially kids and the elderly, a better life. This provides amazing memories that fulfil my life. We have succeeded in those projects together, little by little, and we are so happy with that.”

Napira says there are any number of problems that local travellers can have in creating their own trips.

“For example, if you travel in a group tour, you have no choice to choose what you truly want. If you travel all alone on your own, you may get in unexpected troubles such as with food, accommodations or the direction.

“To style your trip, we have connections and a bunch of information from all over the world – accommodation, restaurants, shopping centres, or tourist attractions that you can trust in. These can be guaranteed by many business families, celebrities, and the many people who have travelled with us privately.”

For her ambitions for the business, she says they go beyond merely making the utmost profit.

“We hope to become one of the top three lists and be chosen by the customers based on their experiences with us,” she says.

However, Napira admits there is plenty of competition given the travel boom that Thailand is enjoying.

“Therefore, we need to make ourselves stand out as being different,” she says. “We need to understand the customers’ demands so that we can design and style the journeys that they want. We have to make our customers believe that their journey is designable.

“In the near future, I would like to do organic farming in the North of Thailand, building on all the experiences that I have earned from local communities.”

Napira says she has struck a good balance between work and personal life.“I think I am lucky because my hobby has become my job. I work on what I am passionate about,” she says. “Every time I go to work, I feel as if I am chasing my goal and fulfilling my dreams. I don’t feel like I’m really working.

“To work in this field provides the greatest chance to experience and explore new things – especially about the food; it has become my new hobby.

“My passion for food brings me to Chef’s Table, a new way of food presentation that also creates a new travelling route for me. I have just created a Doi Hang trip in Chiang Rai and it now has legs.

Tourists have been enjoying it and are interested in the local experience we provided. So, I will keep moving forwards on that initiative.

“Even though I am working on local tourism projects, I am still engaged in outbound tourism as well. I believe and have faith in the word ‘balance’. To balance your life, work, and happiness is the key to life, I would say.”

Napira believes in the power of gratitude, when it comes to crediting others for her success.

“I would like to say thank you to the people that I met in all the places that I have been to, as they have taught me so much,” she says. “I have been to a lot of luxury places and in many countries. But now I think is the time to aspire to simplicity.”XxxxxNapira graduated from Assumption University Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Business – English and Minoring in Advertising Management (2000-2005), Basic Cuisine and Basic Patisseries, Le Cordon Bleu Institute, United Kingdom (2004- 2005), and University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom Master of Multimedia Marketing (2005-2007).

Launched in January, the “Insurance for those who don’t like insurance” campaign aimed to gather insights from Thai customers on their views about life insurance, as well as raise awareness of the importance of life insurance among them, the company said.

The online campaign ran from January 16 to February 17, attracting approximately 3,000 participants, and 3,623,422 video views through YouTube and Facebook.

Aman Kapoor, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer, Prudential Thailand, said: “At Prudential Thailand, we work hard to make sure that customers remain at the core of our business, providing specially curated products and service offerings that truly correspond to their needs. PRUsuper link is proof of our commitment to always listening to and engaging with customers, as well as delivering valued and trustworthy insurance products.

“We are confident that the flexible nature of PRUsuper link will meet the needs of modern-day consumers, especially those who are unfamiliar with insurance.”

PRUsuper link allows customers to customise their insurance coverage, make a savings plan, pause their premium payment, withdraw a part of the investment and switch mutual funds for free, whenever they want.

The flexibility of this product means that customers have an option to purchase additional benefits, such as hospital income or critical illness coverage to include in their insurance policy while enjoying continued coverage, even when they put their premium payments on hold.

With regular contributions, this plan can help to steadily grow a customer’s wealth, whilst offering them opportunities to receive investment returns from various domestic and overseas fund choices, managed by leading asset management companies. Apart from the plan’s flexibility, customers can enjoy faster bonus payout from the second year of the policy with 0.5 per cent of unit value per year, as stated in the policy.

Wichai Cheewasrirungruang, Chief Agency Officer, Prudential Thailand, said: “We are delighted to launch PRUsuper link, Prudential Thailand’s first unit-linked product that’s available through our agency channel. Thanks to the feedback and insights from customers, we have developed a customisable product that responds to the various needs of customers, be them protection, savings or investment.

“Our Investment Consultant-licensed agents are well-prepared and excited to introduce this product to interested customers going forward.”

PRUsuper link is available through agency channel. A variety of Unit-linked solutions are also offered through bank partners – UOB, Thanachart, Tisco and Siam Commercial Bank.

In a press release on Friday the company said it is also unveiling the new international tagline “For the Love of It”.

Somchai Ketchaikosol, marketing director – beverages, PepsiCo Services Asia Limited, said: “Pepsi at the global level has recently kicked off the year 2019 with unveiling a new marketing platform and tagline across its trademark: For the Love of It.

“Throughout the year, more than 100 countries around the world will unleash a collection of distinctive For the Love of It content that champions the cola of today’s generation.”

The company said the global tagline encourages people to go all in for the things they love. In Thailand, For the Love of It is brought to life through the brand’s passion of music – which has been at the heart of Pepsi for decades.

The “Pepsi Music 2019” campaign will focus on five key elements namely media integration, unexpected music experience, superstars as authentic brand ambassadors, innovative packaging and fashion collaboration with global lifestyle brand.

M is for Media integration: Pepsi is set to activate a Bt250 million full-fledged marketing communication campaign in Thailand, targeting the young generations with a focus on consumers aged between 17–22.

Anchored by a new, music-themed TV commercial, the campaign be supported by other media to create vast awareness and maximum impact including out-of-home media; mass transit and cinema ads; as well as retail and in-store media.

The brand will also be taking a highly proactive approach to digital marketing to get connected and engaged with today’s consumers via online and social media namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LINE application.

U is for Unexpected music experience: To connect and create an amazing, unexpected experience with consumers through music, Pepsi in partnership with Yuthana ‘Ted’ Boon-orm – one of country’s most inspiring and creative music festival initiators – will create a series of music event themed “Pepsi Unexpected Music Experience”, featuring four genres of music: Pop, Rap, Electronic Dance Music (EDM), and ‘Luk Thung’ or Thai Country Music. Throughout this summer, the music event will be organised in three provinces including Bangkok, Udonthani and Nakorn Ratchasima.

Pepsi will continue sponsoring two music events during the Songkran festival namely “Pepsi Presents S2O Songkran Music Festival 2019”, which is the most-awaited and biggest Songkran Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival in Bangkok, and “Wonder Waterland @ UD Town” in Udon Thani Province which is a landmark for connecting with music fans in Northeastern. In addition, the brand will partner with JOOX – the No.1 free music streaming application – in creating “Pepsi Music Roadshow”, organizing free concert on the campus in five universities, both in Bangkok and upcountry.

S for Superstars as authentic brand ambassadors: Pepsi has appointed local renowned artists from four different music genres as ambassadors of the campaign: Thanwa ‘The TOYS’ Boonsoongnern as Pop idol, rapper Nattawut Srimhok aka ‘Golf F. Hero’ as Hip-Hop idol, Boom Boom Cash band as pioneer in Thai EDM, and Jintara Poonlarp as queen of Luk Thung. They have collaborated with Pepsi in the campaign’s theme song, “Why Wait?”, encouraging people to go all in for the things they love. They all will be featuring in all advertising and promotional activities.

I for Innovative packaging: A collection of “Pepsi Music” limited-edition packaging that reflects the spirit of the four music genres is being launched for a limited time, from February to May. The four designs of music-inspired packaging will be found on packs of regular Pepsi and Pepsi Max Taste, both in PET bottle and aluminium slim can.

What’s more special is that Pepsi has been leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) technology on this package to increase engagement with the consumers via Facebook platform. This is the first-ever technological collaboration between Pepsi and Facebook in Southeast Asia. With a unique generated QR code printed on each of bottle or can, consumers can simply transform themselves upon scanning into their favourite Pepsi artists in the digital world, and further collect points to redeem unique rewards from Pepsi, worth more than Bt1 million in total.

C for Collaboration with a global fashion brand: To build on its position as a leading lifestyle brand, Pepsi has joined forces with FILA, an Italian-South Korean sportswear label, to introduce a special-edition “PEPSI X FILA” fashion capsule collection, in the iconic colours shared by both brands — blue, white and red. Inspired by the four music genres, the collaborative collection will comprise a full range of sports and casual outfits – such as t-shirts, sport jackets, hoodies, skirts, sweatpants, caps, and sneakers. More than 60 items will be available for sale at FILA store covering over 30 branches nationwide, starting on March 1st onwards.

Carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) continue to grow and were among the top three growth beverage categories, seconded only to packaged drinking water. The CSDs were valued at Bt50 billion and still enjoyed the growth rate of 1.6 per cent, comparing to the previous year. While the Bt35-billion valued cola segment grew by 1.6 per cent as well.

Despite a challenging economic situation, Pepsi has continued to achieve a growth rate higher than the industry average and outperformed all other cola brands in Thailand. The brand has continued to maintain cola leadership in non-returnable packaging nationwide, with more than 45 percent share.

“We are confident that our Pepsi Music 2019 campaign will bring fun and excitement to Pepsi fans in Thailand, especially the new generation consumers, help drive sales volume this summer and strengthen our leading position in cola segment,” said Somchai.

He said the company was planning to ensure sustained growth in 2019.

Production from a wind power plant in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, with a total installed capacity of 10 MW, is planned for the second quarter of this year.

Towards the end of this year, commercial operations will start on CMU Smart City-Clean Energy, a 12 MW joint project between BCPG and Chiang Mai University.

Bundit said the company was committed to delivering high value, while creating wealth for shareholders and a sustainable future for all.

“BCPG is striving for expansion through clean energy businesses both domestically and internationally, particularly in Asia-Pacific, as well as focusing more on retail business to produce and deliver clean energy directly to consumers,” Bundit said.

“Additionally, the company is transitioning into retail market with ‘energy as a service’ models bringing in innovation to provide consumers with options to produce clean energy by themselves at a lower cost.”

The company and its subsidiaries announced their operating results for 2018, gaining a total net profit of Bt2.21 billion, which marked a 25 per cent increase from the previous year.

The main contributor was the profit from solar assets monetisation to an infrastructure fund in Japan, along with the good performance of solar power plants in Thailand and Japan.

The company posted earnings per share of Bt1.11, compared with Bt0.89 per share in 2017.

In addition, the BCPG announced a dividend payment from the net profit in the fourth quarter of 2018 at Bt0.16 per share, which is equal to Bt0.64 per share or Bt1.27 billion in total.

The company will inform shareholders who have the right to receive the dividend on the record date of March 6, while the payment is scheduled for April 22.

The XD (exclude dividend) sign will be posted on March 5 and the annual general meeting will take place on April 9.