About the new Inside Loyola

LOYOLA LINKS

Go

A one-stop-shop of Loyola's most popular and useful Web resources.

A - Z Index

DIRECTORIES

 

Day 7: When in Bangkok

As we arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand I didn’t feel like I was in a developing country anymore. Everything seemed very advanced in comparison to Cambodia and even Vietnam. Technology was more advanced, there were more English speakers, a lot more foreigners living in the city and even the marketing was different.

I saw all the famous franchise fast food or coffee chains, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and in several corners. Ads were both in English and Thai to a certain degree and more high end targeting.We used the public train to get to dinner and that also felt very natural. Everyone was on their phone, there were screens and ads on the train and it was pretty advanced. Sound familiar?

Site seeing was very different than in Cambodia as well because there is a lot of French and British influence. The Grand Palace was like a Thai version of the palace in Alice in Wonderland that really is the best way to describe it. The Emerald Buddha, the Royal Temple had so much detail that no one knew which angle to take a good photo from. Every corner showed the Thai culture and identity. A lot of Buddha but also Hindu heritage that are still practiced  today.

After a Thai lunch looking at the Chao Phraya River that gave us a chance to see some of the most impressive monuments along the way, we met with Jeff Rexeisen who has been operating a tour guide company in Thailand for the past 20 years or so. He spoke to us more about his journey and decisions and what makes him unique to other companies that try to set up in Thailand. The most important thing was understanding the culture and how to treat people to build relations. It takes a long time to truly get accustomed to a very different way of life and it also takes Thai people some time to get accustomed with guests who enter their country.

We ended our agenda with a very interesting meeting with a market research and consulting company operating in Thailand for 40 years. The presentation gave us a tremendous outlook on the Thai economic social and political situation and really down to certain information that no one would know or become aware of before living in the country for a few years!  It was the perfect brief for a group of entrepreneurs who are interested in investing in the country which was a great opportunity for us to be a part of.

An interesting point was made about the population of Thailand today and that a citizen who is now 18 years old should have gone through a couple of military coups, nine prime ministers, four elections and four constitutions. This is the upcoming generation today and if you consider them as a target group for a product you want to bring to Thailand or a business that will serve the Thai people there is a lot of understanding and background history that needs to be studied to understand your target market and how to communicate to them.  It was a very good discussion, I enjoyed it very much.

Our night ended in the night market of Bangkok which was all tourists and Thai men singing loudly to 90s classical rock music. I found that very amusing and they were really good at portraying the western rock stars.

Add a Comment

(required)

(will not be displayed) (required)