Meanwhile, Epson (Thailand) is expected to help the company generate revenue growth of 4 per cent in fiscal year 2018, rising to 5 per cent in fiscal 2019.

Toshimitsu Tanaka, the managing director of Epson Singapore, said the firm this year is investing in its new plant in Chachoengsao province to produce quartz devices for exports. The firm expects to hire more than 1,000 workers for the new plant. The new manufacturing line is expected to go on stream in the middle of this year. However, the firm did not disclose the total investment.

Yunyong Muneemongkoltorn, director of Epson (Thailand), said the firm in fiscal 2019 (April 2019 to March, 2020) is focusing on three business units – printing solutions, projectors, as well as wearables and robotics.

The overall printer and projector markets are declining or seeing flat growth in the domestic market. However, the firm will focus on industrial and commercial markets for printers, which have high demand. Meanwhile, projectors will focus on the education and retail markets.

“I think the overall IT market in Thailand this year will have flat growth. The stable politics and the upcoming local elections will be factors to drive the economy and the IT market as a whole,” said the director.

The firm targets 4-per-cent revenue growth in fiscal 2018 (April 2018 to March, 2019). Of the total revenue, 75 per cent will come from printing solutions, 20 per cent from projector products and 5 per cent from wearables and robotics. The firm in 2018 achieved market share of around 95 per cent for dot matrix printers while projectors achieved market share of 44 per cent. The company is No 1 in both dot matrix printers and projectors in the Thai market.

To drive market growth, the firm has launched a new projector designed for the education market. The EB-L20000U projector comes in a light and compact design and is easy to integrate into existing infrastructure. The L12000Q projector, which is the industry’s first 12,000 lumen native 4K 3LCD laser projector, will support demand in the market.

“We are eyeing the factors that will drive the IT market this year from international and domestic economic factors, the US-China trade war, Brexit, domestic elections and politics after the Thai elections. I think this year the printer market will decline. Meanwhile, the growth of the projector market will see a jump due to increasing demand,” said the director.

He added that the firm also aims to expand the business of Scara Robots to support industrial, education and small and medium enterprises. The firm provides inkjet printers to support all segments of the market, starting from homes to large enterprises market, he said.

The report aims to synthesise the professional foresight and consolidated wisdom of the Asian marketing fraternity.

Below are the top nine trends of marketing in Asia for 2019, as identified by AMF and MAT.

l Retail banking streamlining, digital payment platforms and fintech. We are seeing more adaptation of digital technology, especially within the banking sector in the area of customer service, payment and rating credit worthiness. There is a need to embrace analytics driven marketing.

l OMNI channel – increased popularity and accelerated adoption by retailers. The move of e-commerce giants to acquire brick-and-mortar retailers has highlighted the importance of OMNI marketing, the seamless integration of online and online marketing. This, in turn, has influenced smaller e-commerce players and brick-and-mortar retailers to incorporate OMNI marketing in their business strategy.

l Rise in utilisation of digital payment and disruption of traditional currency business with digital currency. With the improvement to the digital experience of e-commerce players and the facilitation of mobile transactions, digital payment platforms are starting to take on a new role.

l The increased usage of artificial intelligence and its transition towards hybrid intelligence (HyIntelligence). In the corporate world, the use of AI has started to help companies to personalise with their customers. By using AI tools, companies with a very large number of customers can collect and compile customer data and use it to improve the customer experience and build stronger relationships.

l Increased popularity of the “intrapreneur”. Many professionals from companies across the region are taking the plunge to launch their own companies. However, the percentage of successful startup companies remains very low and most fail to scale up. This has resulted in both the professionals, and the companies they work, for losing the opportunity to create value. To avoid such a situation, many companies are starting to encourage their professionals to become intrapreneurs. The professionals are encouraged to take bigger risks, and in return they are offered various benefits of intrapreneurship including shared ownership in a newly created company, houses or other non-monetary incentives for a win-win partnership.

l Drone technology as a marketing tool and advertising medium. More drones being used as a marketing tool. In the past, to capture stunning aerial shots we needed to deploy expensive cranes, scaffolds and fixtures, and even helicopters.

l Impact of retail disruption by unmanned 24/7 vending machines. An ever-increasing number of vending machines with cash and non-cash options are dotting the Singapore landscape. They offer items from simple freshly squeezed orange juice, to convenience goods and vacuum packed fresh salmon.

l The growing popularity of business with social impact. The always-connected customers, who are constantly updated 24/7 with the happenings around them, tend to make decisions influenced by emotional judgement. On the other hand, the growing commoditisation by businesses have hindered their ability to engage emotionally with customers.

To differentiate themselves from competitors, more businesses are adopting social responsibility as one of the many ways to engage their customers. These include fundraising for social programmes, lending support to a social cause, and embracing causes such as environmental responsibility and sustainability.

l Understanding and leveraging “smart home” technology. Grocery shopping at traditional outlets may be disrupted by enhanced smart-home technology where devices (including home appliances such as refrigerators) with AI technology will monitor consumption behaviour. It will then automatically send a reminder message to a homeowner to pick up a low inventory item. With an integrated network link directly to suppliers, digital payment and delivery infrastructure in place, the landscape of grocery shopping is expected to change.

With the smart home becoming more common, AI with face recognition and other AI technology will monitor individual behaviour and provide personalisation in the home-living lifestyle. This could range from setting temperatures to ambient lighting and entertainment programming for personalised music and television selections.

Marketers will need to understand the emerging smart home technology and learn how to harness it to market their products. Marketers will need to leverage the power of personalisation as, combined with customer intimacy, it is becoming the new standard in marketing.

The Asia Marketing Federation is the networking body of marketing associations in Asia. AMF has a critical mission as the premier regional body to effectively promote the interests of marketing in Asia and strengthen the Asian marketing fraternity.

Its member countries include Thailand, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The total value of the contract is Bt47.98 million (Including VAT). The rental period is 12 months after the date of receiving the electronic monitoring devices by the Office of the Judiciary.

The deal, worth Bt1.46 billion, will be completed in 2 year after signing.

The bank will also reduce interest rate by up to one per cent for its existing borrowers. The special offer is available till June 30, according to the bank’s press release on Tuesday.

Tatsuya Konoshita, CEO of Group Lease Public Co Ltd, yesterday announced the agreement between GLF and Bajaj dealers. It allows GLF to finance both new and pre-owned three-wheeler vehicles.

Previously in October 2018, GL in Myanmar announced a partnership with Bajaj’s Myanmar distributor to work together on three-wheelers. It has already resulted in 130 contracts from only two dealers. GL in Myanmar plans to expand to additional dealers this year. “This partnership builds upon the success we have had with Bajaj in Myanmar, and shows our ability to try a new product in one market and use that experience to launch that product in our other markets as we continue to expand our network throughout Asean,” said Konoshita.

“We will continue to grow and meet our mission of providing innovative finance products to emerging entrepreneurs to improve their economic development.”

Riki Ishigami, GLF’s director and CEO, noted that “three-wheel demand in Cambodia is very high. Tuk-tuks are an increasingly common sight in Phnom Penh and throughout Cambodia as they allow groups and individuals to move around affordably and quickly.

“These GLF financed tuk-tuks will allow emerging entrepreneurs to earn approximately Bt800 per day while their daily finance expense to GLF would only be about Bt150.”

Ishigami said a partnership with an established three-wheeler producer such as Bajaj was the best way for GLF to tap the growing market and better serve their customers.

Bajaj has 22 dealers Cambodia, selling about 2,000 tuk-tuks monthly for an average price of Bt110,00 to Bt120,000, he said.

“And with GL and Bajaj working together, we expect even further growth.”

Bajaj, originally from India, is the world’s largest manufacturer of three-wheelers at roughly 1 million per year. They have a presence in 36 countries and a 97 per cent market share for three-wheelers in Asean.