Click Like for Thailand. Exploring Social Media s Potential in Raising Nation Brand Awareness

Transcription

1 Click Like for Thailand. Exploring Social Media s Potential in Raising Nation Brand Awareness - With a Study Case on Tourism Authority of Thailand - Master Thesis Master of Arts in Corporate Communication Aarhus University Business and Social Sciences August 2012 Authors: Alexandra Kraft & Raweeruj Vijaksirikul Exam number/student number: /AK89227 & /RV89670 Supervisor: Lene Augusta Jørgensen

2 Executive summary Purpose Social media, which are tools mostly used in the branding, represent an overly debated field of research. The purpose of this study is to apply social media in the case of an untraditional type of branding, one that refers to all activities undertaken to promote a country, known as nation branding. The approach taken is a corporate one, as all concepts discussed are applied in the Tourism Authority of Thailand s case, which is the organization responsible for promoting the country. The outcome of the paper has practical suggestions that can allow the company to improve its current social media strategy, in order to raise the level of awareness for the domestic public. Methodology The argumentation built in this thesis has a business oriented feature and therefore the stance taken is a more critical one. By revising some of the main concepts in the fields of nation branding and social media, the paper aims at enlisting some of the best practices, understanding how to these areas should be approached in order to maximize the outcome. The paper uses the secondary data to offer practical examples for the theoretical concepts enlisted. With this practical argumentation, the paper then presents a new perspective of the problem statement, with the help of the primary data, to enforce the discourse s objectivity. These methods, combined with the paradigm choice enable the discourse to present a pluralistic view of the topic, going from the company s strategic objectives to how successful its digital strategy actually is. Main findings The paper enfolded several lines of direction for the given topic. Firstly, it revealed a fragmented presence for both the brand concept as well as the digital approach. Due to a high number of slogans promoted by the company, the domestic public does not have a clear image of the brand 2

3 and the overall level of brand knowledge is low. Additionally, on the social platforms, the company created a multitude of pages and the users are demotivated and confused. Secondly, the effect social media have for the domestic public s level of brand awareness is low. However, the company s involvement in the digital space is positively perceived by the public. To improve its current strategy, the company should reposition itself on the market, connecting all activities to a clear message that embraces its mission and vision. Thirdly, it is suggested in the paper that social media s success does not have to be judged separately, but rather in the communication mix that includes both traditional as well as untraditional activities. In order to boost the level of brand awareness for the domestic public, the company should not neglect social media, however it should revise the way it uses them. Implication for practice This paper can offer valuable data both for the academic as well as corporate environment. The academic value of this research is oriented towards two aspects, by contributing to both a better understanding of how nation branding is used in the organizational environment as well as the consumer behaviour of Thai social media users in relation to nation branding. The practical value of the research will allow the company to maximize the outcome of their current strategy and explore the true potential of these overly debated channels, which are social media. Originality/value At a first glance, this paper seems to have a fairly narrow focus. However, the specific segment on which the study is constructed gives the paper its originality. By applying social media tools in the nation branding field it was possible to discover both similarities as well as new ways of combining them. Moreover, the discussion is applied for the domestic public in Thailand, revealing particularities of this market. The value of the paper is primarily given by the combination of perspectives chosen for the problem statement. With a narrow focus, it was possible to reveal multiple aspects and make the paper into both a business study case as well as an academic reference for the study of these two fields. Keywords: nation branding, communication channels, stakeholders, strategy, social media, brand awareness, communities, tourism, domestic public. 3

4 Executive Summary...2 Table of contents...4 List of Figures and Tables Introduction (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Motivation (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Problem statement (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Company background (Raweeruj) Research design (Raweeruj) Theory of science (Alexandra) Paradigm framing (Alexandra) Critical realism (Alexandra) Hermeneutical influences (Alexandra) Delimitations (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Structure of the thesis (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Methodology (Alexandra & Raweeruj) Data collection methods(alexandra) Types of data collected (Raweeruj) Secondary data (Raweeruj) Primary data (Raweeruj) interview (Raweeruj) Survey (Raweeruj) Survey as a quantitative data collection tool (Raweeruj) Purpose of the survey (Raweeruj) Rationale of the survey (Raweeruj) Target group (Raweeruj) Distribution channel (Raweeruj) Sample selection (Raweeruj)

5 2.5.Research quality (Alexandra) Validity (Alexandra) Reliability (Alexandra) Selection of variables (Alexandra) Theoretical framework (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Nation branding: general information (Raweeruj) Definition (Raweeruj) Characteristics (Raweeruj) Nation branding vs. Product branding vs. Corporate branding (Raweeruj) Particularities of the field (Raweeruj) Purpose and objectives (Raweeruj) Benefits and values (Raweeruj) Amazing Thailand : creating a concept for the brand (Raweeruj) Building a nation brand (Raweeruj) Tools for building a successful brand (Raweeruj) Dimensions of nation branding (Raweeruj) Types of tourism (Raweeruj) Domestic tourism (Raweeruj) TAT: emphasizing tourism in nation branding (Raweeruj) Targeting the audience (Raweeruj) Stakeholders (Raweeruj) Stakeholders in the tourism market (Raweeruj) Market segmentation (Raweeruj) Market segmentation for tourism (Raweeruj) Defining TAT s markets (Raweeruj) Communication channels (Raweeruj) Type of communication (Raweeruj) Communication channels in tourism market (Raweeruj)

6 Offline channels (Raweeruj) Online channels (Raweeruj) Reaching out to TAT s audience (Raweeruj) Social media: general information (Alexandra) Definition and evolution (Alexandra) Characteristics (Alexandra) Misconceptions about social media (Alexandra) Types of social media (Alexandra) Social media tools for TAT (Alexandra) How to use social media? (Alexandra) Facebook (Alexandra) Twitter (Alexandra) TAT on Facebook and Twitter (Alexandra) Integrating social media in the business strategy (Alexandra) Tactics and tools (Alexandra) Creating content (Alexandra) Raising awareness (Alexandra) Creating communities around the brand (Alexandra) How to manage a community(alexandra) TAT s digital media strategy (Alexandra) How to measure social media impact? (Alexandra) Measuring TAT s social media involvement (Alexandra) Results of the quantitative study (Raweeruj) Structure of the survey (Raweeruj) Presentation of the results (Raweeruj) Discussion (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Creating a link between the company and the brand (Alexandra) Amazing Thailand, always amazes you? (Alexandra) Aiming at the right community for the brand (Raweeruj) Enhancing the social media presence (Raweeruj)

7 5.5.Prospects for nation branding on social media (Raweeruj) The successful recipe: social media and traditional marketing efforts (Alexandra) Conclusion (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Limitations of the paper (Alexandra and Raweeruj) Future research directions (Alexandra and Raweeruj) List of References Appendices (see attached CD) Appendix A: TAT s annual report 2010 Appendix B: Transcript of interview with the former TAT employee Appendix C: Questionnaire Appendix D: Result of the survey (Table charts) Appendix E: Result of the survey (Pie charts) Appendix F: Correlation results Appendix G: Cross-tabulation of question 14 and 15 Appendix H: Results for question 5, 9, 12, 13 and 14 centralized database Appendix I: TAT s annual report 2003 Total number of characters: , equivalent to 120 standard pages. 7

8 List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 1: Dependent and independent variables...16 Figure 2: Six Social Science Paradigms...20 Figure 3: Focus of the paper...24 Figure 4: Structure of the paper...25 Figure 5: Data collection process...27 Figure 6: Selection of the eligible respondents in the survey...34 Figure 7: Comparison between nation branding and commercial branding...46 Figure 8: Results of the research: What are the first words that come to mind when thinking of Thailand?...50 Figure 9: Dimensions of nation branding (Placebrands)...56 Figure 10: Dimensions of Country Brand Index...58 Figure 11: Stakeholder map...71 Figure 12: Tourism stakeholder map...72 Figure 13: TAT stakeholder map...76 Figure 14: Incidence of using the internet Figure 15: Thailand Social Network Trends in Figure 16: User age distribution on Facebook in Thailand Figure 17: The channels where respondents search the travelling information Figure 18: The knowledge about the presence of TAT Figure 19: The recognition of TAT s branding Figure 20: TAT s slogan

9 Figure 21: Structure of the discussion Figure 22: AC 2 ID Test Figure 23: Suggested process for TAT Tables Table 1: Categories of Nation Brand Dimensions...61 Table 2: Income divided on types of tourism...64 Table 3: Internet Usage and Population Statistics Table 4: Facebook Statistics by Country Table 5: Correlation for the Facebook page Table 6: Correlation for Twitter Table 7: Correlation for brand awareness Table 8: Correlation for nation brand awareness and Facebook Table 9: Correlation for nation brand awareness and Twitter Table 10: Cross-tabulation for opinion about the company and slogan

10 1. Introduction Representing a very controversial and complex field of research, nation branding has a high degree of practical knowledge, as it is mainly focused people s perception and how this is created. According to Dinnie (2007), it is complex, because it encompasses multiple disciplines beyond the limited realm of conventional brand strategy; and controversial, in that it is a highly politicised activity that generates passionately held and frequently conflicting viewpoints and opinions (p. 13). Taking the above into consideration, it becomes interesting to explore different perspectives of the concept, especially having a communication focus. This means zooming the analysis on how the message is transmitted to people and the feedback received. As Fan (2006) agrees, nation branding is an ideological product, created by people and referring to cultural beliefs, political orientations, sociological structures etc. belonging to a country. Starting from this set of characteristics, the nation brand concept is created, representing a more concrete aspect of this field. This is then transmitted through communication channels to the audience, who decides whether it successfully characterizes and matches the country identity. The success of a nation brand depends on how well the audience identifies itself with the concept, understanding, adopting and redistributing the message (Brandconsultantasia 2010). Regarding communication channels, nowadays, with the fast development of the Internet and digital technology and all the action moving in the online environment, corporations have to consider new ways of presenting the brand and create awareness (Kania 2000). Yakal (2009) also mentions that having a Facebook page may not earn you any new business, but not having one may cause customers to ask why you don't 1. The field of social media has gained a lot of attention in the past decade especially in relation to branding, revealing their potential in creating visibility. These tools can no longer be ignored, as the advantages they can offer are significant. One of the areas in which these tools can be highly effective is raising the level of awareness for the brand (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). 1 Yakal, K Cheap or Free Marketing Ideas. PC Magazine [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 July 2012]. 10

11 Additionally, the same authors argue that such tools can reinforce the relationship a company has with its audience, as they can generate considerable amounts of data about consumer behaviour, as a result of a bidirectional exchange of information. Linking the two areas, according to John Della Volpe, Managing Partner at SocialSphere and Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School 2, a well-conceived social media strategy can rebrand a country efficiently in a short period of time and with considerable less financial resources than traditional marketing activities. This paper focuses on two areas which put communication processes in the centre of attention. It aims at discovering the potential of digital tools in raising the level of nation brand awareness. When applying the highly popular and praised field of social media for nation branding, to what extent can it reach their wide pallet of advantages? 1.1.Motivation As communication students, the research was inspired by the knowledge acquired about the field of social media and the advantages these tools can offer. With the desire to generate practical input about this field, a specific company was chosen. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (hereof TAT) is a public organization that promotes Thailand s tourism opportunities. Its main goal is to increase the number of visitors and improve the country s image both externally as well as internally. The organizational choice was influenced by the unique product it has to present, which is a country. Thailand, one of the most popular nation brands worldwide, presents a controversial cultural space and is mainly based on tourism 3. Recently, the company organized several types of events that targeted the internal public (Thai community). Such events included tourism fairs or social gatherings in different parts of the 2 Swissnex, Social Media and Nation Branding. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 24 July 2012]. 3 FutureBrand, Country Brand Index [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 March 2012]. 11

12 country. Besides the more traditional marketing campaigns, TAT also started using several social networks to promote the country brand internally. Examples of such social networks are: Facebook, Twitter and its official website. It becomes interesting to explore how these new communication tools can be used in an organizational environment, to create awareness about an untraditional type of product, that of a country. In the area of nation branding, the external focus is mainly prioritized, meaning that one of the more visible aspects is the international market. However, this research wants to emphasize more the internal aspects of nation branding, addressing the domestic public, in this case, Thai people. Therefore, the study changes the attention from the international market to the internal one, especially because it is a concept embracing domestic features. Driven by a business oriented mindset and critical theories of thought, the study aims to offer practical suggestion, applicable in the organizational environment. The suggestions focus on ways of improving the current digital media approach that will enable TAT to both create a stronger relationship with its audience as well as keep the nation brand on the top positions in the worldwide charts. 1.2.Problem statement The purpose of this paper is to carry out an analysis of the company s digital media strategy regarding nation branding and thus identifying potential ways of raising the level of awareness for the internal public. The problem statement that frames the research is as follows: How can the Tourism Authority of Thailand improve its social media strategy, in order to raise nation brand awareness among the domestic public? The problem statement above is going to guide the thesis, applying more broad concepts, like nation branding and social media in a specific case, that of TAT. It is going to focus on how such concepts were understood and used in building and reinforcing an efficient strategy for the internal public. 12

13 In order to answer the problem statement, research questions are going to going to act as directions of inquiry for the discourse. The research questions are: a. From a communication perspective, how did TAT create a nation brand for Thailand? b. Through which channels does TAT communicate with its domestic public? c. How can social media contribute in raising nation brand awareness? d. How successful is TAT in raising the nation brand awareness through social media tools? The first research question brings forward an analysis of the current strategy TAT has for the nation brand. This implies a review of present tools and tactics used at a more general level. Theories about nation branding are also brought into discussion to present a more practical and at the same time, critical approach. Zooming down the research lens, with the second research question, the study is then going to look at the communication channels used to address the domestic public. While identifying these channels, the study is going to emphasize the possibilities of using social media in order to reinforce its strategy. The third question focuses on social media s potential in raising the awareness among Thai people. This will firstly require an analysis of the internet user behaviour in Thailand and discover how people make use of these tools. Secondly, it will also combine best practices of the field and compare them with the study case, in order to see their degree of applicability. The last research question will focus on the domestic public s feedback regarding the digital strategy. This will be done by carrying out a research to investigate how successful the company is in using these tools and how the audience captured the brand concept. The data will also form the base for possible suggestions for improvement, which will emphasize the business potential. 13

14 1.3.Company Background a. History The Tourism Authority of Thailand was founded in It was the first organization in Thailand to be specifically responsible for the promotion of tourism. TAT is operated by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, a Cabinet ministry in the Government of Thailand. It supplies information and data about touristic areas to the public, publicizes Thailand with the intention of encouraging both Thai and international tourists to travel in and around the country. Today, TAT has established many local and overseas offices. During the past 30 years, TAT has since established 15 more offices in different parts of the world. b. Vision TAT aims at improving its standards in order to reach higher expectations of current and potential stakeholders. Therefore, the vision of an organization would regularly be changed and revised every few years. The latest vision announced for the period between 2008 and 2011 is: TAT is an excellent organization in tourism marketing and plays a vital role in driving Thailand s economy (Appendix A, p. 59). TAT aims at gaining expertise in two major directions: to be a professional company on tourism market and play an important role in the country s economy. c. Mission TAT s mission focuses on three main points which also serve the company s vision (Appendix A): - implement tourism marketing plans as per strategic concepts - encourage staffs to become marketing professionals - develop the organization s management system to an international standard The mission highlights a desire to improve the marketing and management strategy which will be an important factor for driving an international and successful organization. 14

15 1.4.Research design Research design is the overall plan for relating the conceptual research problem and practicable empirical research (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005 p. 56). This section provides a portray of what is going to be analysed in the paper, pinpointing how the two fields of nation branding and social media intertwine. The study consists of an exploratory research design that enables the researcher to gather data, observe and construct arguments based on the obtained information (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). This type of research offers the possibility of discovering new perspectives of a certain topic. For instance, the research problem given in this paper is narrowed down to a specific area and this gives the opportunity of revealing multiple aspects within that specific topic, which would not have been possible using a more generalized perspective. Even though this type of research has been criticized due to its procedures and nature, it is recommended for a growing interest area, that has previously been unresearched or underresearched (Mason, Augustyn & Seakhoa-King 2009, p. 434). Moreover, the forwarded recommendations have to be the topic of future studies, which will either confirm or deny their truthfulness (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). At a general level, the paper brings forward the area of nation branding, pinpointing main communication channels through which the message can be distributed and focusing especially on social media. The perspective of the analysis is a corporate one, applying the concepts on a specific organization (TAT). By narrowing down the focus, the paper can reveal not only general aspects about these new communication tools, but also their strategic advantages and contribution in reaching specific corporate goals. In other words, the study creates a bridge between the two concepts of nation branding and social media using existing literature to understand them. Additionally, it also constructs a more practical approach by undertaking a study case that can reveal the outcome of these two fields interacting. These two concepts embody participatory features that emphasize the importance of the human factor in creating content for a given context. Without the exchange of information, 15

16 these two concepts would not exist and they would lose the dynamics of their nature. Even though exploratory studies are more dependent to qualitative studies, they can also be applied for quantitative research (Mason, Augustyn & Seakhoa-King 2009). Zooming down to the quantitative research carried out in this paper, the dependent and independent variables can be identified. Firstly, independent variables are, according to Kerlinger (1986) manipulated variables, which help the research investigate the effects of a specific intervention. In contrast, independent variables are antecedent to the dependent ones. These two can be compared to cause and effect, as the dependent variable is influenced by the independent one (Rosenthal & Rosnow 1991). For the paper s research process, social media are the independent variable, while the level of nation brand awareness represents the dependent variable (Figure 1). Figure 1: Dependent and independent variables Source: Own creation The figure above shows that social media have an impact on the level of nation brand awareness. In other words, these tools influence the degree of visibility for a brand, which is also the purpose of the survey. The research is carried out to explore the success of the company s current digital strategy, by gathering data related to people s general nation brand knowledge and 16

17 impression about the company. The survey s results are not going to be used as an answer to a hypothesis, but rather as an opportunity to later enfold discussion points that will complement the literature concepts enlisted in the theoretical framework. 1.5.Theory of science Before looking into a specific topic, the researcher has to decide upon the scientific approach that is going to frame and guide the research process. According to Burrell and Morgan (1979), to be located in a particular paradigm is to view the world in a particular way (p. 24). Kuhn (1970) argues that the process of defining the term paradigm is of extreme difficulty, due to its broad meaning and applicability. He agrees that a paradigm stands for the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by the members of a given community (p. 175). Patton (1990) defines a paradigm, at a more general level, comparing it to a world view, a general perspective, a way of breaking down the complexity of the real world (p. 37). According to the above given definitions, the research paradigm can be compared to a pair of glasses that the researcher has to wear and which are going to influence the way he or she perceives the world around. It is a set of guidelines about the world and how it should be understood (Guba & Lincoln 1994). The paradigmatic thinking is based on ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions (Lincoln & Guba 1985). These assumptions approach reality and knowledge from different perspectives. The term epistemology comes from the Greek word episteme, which means knowledge. It defines the philosophy of knowledge and the way people come to know it. Epistemology questions the validity of knowledge, interpreting the reality of the world from a critical angle. It looks at how an individual embraces knowledge and what actually counts as knowledge (Seth 1894). Interpretation of reality forms the foundation of the epistemological assumptions (Guba & Lincoln 1994). 17

18 On the other hand, ontology questions the form and existence of reality, looking at what is there to be analysed in the research world (Leplin 1994). Gruber (1993) defines ontology as follows: An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization. The term is borrowed from philosophy, where an ontology is a systematic account of Existence. For knowledge-based systems, what exists is exactly that which can be represented (p.2). Krauss (2005) explains that epistemology, ontology and methodology are interconnected. If ontology refers to the philosophy of reality, epistemology discusses about how reality is known and methodology reveals practices used to get the knowledge. According to Colland Chapman (2000), when looking at paradigms as systems of beliefs, there are four directions which include positivism, post-positivism, critical theory and constructivism. Conventional or realistic ontological beliefs evoke the existence of a single reality in the researcher s spectrum. Reality is a given fact that exists independent from the researcher s thoughts and it cannot be questioned. Opposed to the ontological assumptions, the constructivist thinking ascribes to a transactional and subjectivist epistemology (p. 2). Truth and knowledge are created and not discovered (Schwandt 1994). Guba and Lincoln (1994) agree that the choice of methodological assumptions depends on the position suggested by the ontological and epistemological questions. The study in question is not based on hypotheses and therefore does not accept the existence of a single reality, having a more exploratory nature, epistemological assumptions that look at the possibilities given by social media, in increasing the nation brand awareness Paradigm framing The mindset used for approaching this study is placed in the critical theories of science. Throughout the research, the discourse starts from a more analytical interpretation and heads towards critical input, after gathering the data from the quantitative study. The research brought into discussion is a more observatory approach, which offered quantitative input. These data distanced the research from a very subjectivist-relativistic reality, towards a 18

19 more objectivist-rationalistic one (Arbnor & Bjerke 1997). As business school students, we emphasized a corporate perspective which needed a more critical stance in relation to the data gathered. More clearly stated, the data are interpreted and analysed taking a critical stance, thus enfolding multiple discussion points that form a pluralistic view over the subject. The reason behind this choice is the desire to include data that have a more experimental nature, that can offer the possibility of making analytical arguments, taking a step back from the very subjectivist angle of, for example social constructivism. This was done not to confirm or deny a hypothesis, but rather as an indication of how the current approach is seen by TAT s target groups. It is a more exploratory perspective, which offers the possibility of revealing more practical and business oriented suggestions Critical realism Our position as researchers is based on epistemological assumptions, through which we offer a critical interpretation of reality, based on the data collected. The knowledge presented in the paper is based on a series of information gathered from multiple methods, all presenting different perspectives of the same processes, thus acknowledging the existence of more than one reality. Critical social paradigms argue both against positivism and interpretivism as ways of understanding the social world. Critical inquiry seeks to go beyond understanding the world around, pointing towards a more challenging discourse, based on conflict and oppression, seeking to create change (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight 2006). Arbnor and Bjerke (1997) offer a representation of reality, going from the more objectivist towards the extremely subjectivist perception of reality (Figure 2). 19

20 Figure 2: Six Social Science Paradigms Source: ArbnorandBjerke 1997 (pp ) Discussing about critical realism, Morton (2006) states that a central idea of Critical realism is that natural and social reality should be understood as an open stratified system of objects with causal powers (p. 1). This line of thinking looks at the mutually influential relationships where humans shape the society, which in its turn affects human activities. Critical realism goes beyond the observatory feature of positivism and tries to reveal a deep understanding of any given situation. From a different stance, Keaton and Bodie (2011) argue that the existence of an object is determined only inside the communicative space. In the more constructivist theories of thought, meaning is created through intra- and interpersonal communication that is carried out in a social context. Constructions that are questioned in a research come as a result from the interaction between the investigator and participants (Coll & Chapman 2000). Such a perspective would position the study in the more subjectivist theories category (Figure 2). However, such a stance does not justify the quantitative methodological choice. Moreover, it is not justifiable in carrying out business analyses, which focus on more practical and quantifiable information. 20

21 Taken into consideration Arbnor and Bjerke s (1997) classification and due to the analytical perspective embedded in the research, the study is pointed towards the third category, in which reality is seen as mutually dependent fields of information. As researchers, we gather information trying to explore and understand how individuals make use of social platforms. The organization and its environment are seen to evolve together, the members of the organization continuously adapting to information from the environment (p. 31). Discourses are analysed and quantitative data is generated to present a more objective perspective on TAT s current social media strategy. Undertaking such an approach will enable the results to be generalized to a small extent, recognizing that individual responses or reactions can be applied in similar cases and in different periods of time (Arbnor & Bjerke 1997). Additionally it emphasizes an interdependence between the information and the context in which it is being analysed. The study focuses especially on the domestic market and it explores the applicability of social platforms within the mentioned segment Hermeneutical influences As said above, due to the methods used and how the data was approached, the theory of science used in this study is critical realism. However, the discourse is based on different methods which influence the arguments degree of subjectivity. Looking into this matter, influences of the hermeneutical school of thought can be identified. As a reminder, the paper offers an exploratory research design and therefore it cannot be positioned into a purely objective perspective. Dijk (2011) argues about two main concepts around the field of hermeneutics, which are understanding and interpretation. There is also a problem in using these terms, as they do not address their general meaning, but rather closer to the term explain (Arbnor & Bjerke 1997). Hoy (1980) discusses about hermeneutics, stating that it rejects the idea of certainty: It sees knowledge as pragmatically relative to contexts of understanding (p. 657). 21

22 Hesse (1972) gives a new name to the philosophers paradox of analysis, naming the concept the hermeneutic circle : "Hermeneutic circle" arises when the language, categories, and frameworks of our own culture are used to interpret and understand alien texts, alien cultures and even other individuals and groups in our own culture or society (p. 276). According to the mentioned author, interpretation is difficult, because there is a misfit between the researcher s own thoughts, language and the concepts analysed. In other words, an analysis is influenced by personal beliefs and interpretation has a subjective tendency. However, hermeneutics suggests bringing an objective description of the researcher s position. This stance offers the possibility of taking quantifiable methodological analysis (Hoy 1980). Unlike highly subjective paradigms, hermeneutics offers an analytical approach to knowledge. As said earlier, as researchers we distance the discourse from the highly constructivist theories, however without recognizing the existence of an absolute truth. In other words, the results of the study are not going to portray a wrong or right answer to the problem statement, as a positivist discourse would. The latter mentioned paradigm, positivism, focuses on the evaluation of hypothesis, through empirical studies. Positivist thinking addresses reality as a means to control and predict any possible changes through observation and measurement (Trochim 2000). The hermeneutical influences can be distinguished in how the discourse is put together, interpreting the data gathered and constructing an exploratory argumentation to the researched phenomena. Hermeneutics gives the possibility of not taking the study towards a very objectivistic angle, balancing the critical argumentation. 22

23 1.6.Delimitations Looking at the subject approached in this paper, there are delimitations at different levels of the analysis. These delimitations can be categorized according to the areas inquired, such as nation branding, communication channels or target group. Firstly, the field of nation branding embodies a high number of theories and models. However, the theories used in the paper only address the study case, which is Thailand. For example, nation branding is a field that embodies multiple dimensions, such as external affairs or business potential, but for this paper, the focus is placed on tourism, as it is representative in Thailand s case. Filtering these concepts does not allow the paper to explore all areas within this field. Nevertheless, the study does not intend to offer a review of the existing literature for nation branding and aims more at creating a practical approach, applicable in Thailand s case. Secondly, in the tourism environment, there are numerous communication channels which are used to reach stakeholders. The paper zoomed the focus on the online channels, more precisely social media. The rationale that supported this choice was to offer a more detailed and broad perspective of the virtual field. It is still an impediment for the research, as it frames the discourse to a specific field. Other communication channels can reveal additional and valuable information that would contribute at generating a broader and complete perspective for the study case. Moreover, many social media services such as Facebook and Twitter are originally from USA. As these types of platforms are mostly used by Americans, many theories emphasizing this new media therefore come from American authors and researchers. These theories are written for a Western context and culture (Browaeys & Price 2008). For a study which has as a focus an Eastern culture like Thailand, the degree of applicability becomes questionable. Yet, in this study, through the critical stance, some of the best practices from this field are applied in Thailand s case, showing how they can help at reaching strategic objectives. As nation branding addresses both the internal as well as the external public, there are several perspectives that can be chosen. The attention in this paper is pointed towards the domestic public, the Thai community. This distances the research from the international market as it does 23

24 not offer any data about, for example how the company addressed foreign tourists and whether the approach differs or not from the internal approach. As shown above, the choice of perspectives in this paper can limit the outcomes of the study, being a narrow and specific inquiry area. However, this was done to generate a complete and detailed insight in the area of domestic nation brand awareness through social media. 1.7.Structure of the thesis The structure of the paper was built around the problem statement, enfolding gradually each research question. Figure 3 pinpoints the focus of the paper, starting from how TAT is promoting the nation brand, transmitting the message on different channels to its stakeholders. However, the area of research addresses the online channels, with a special focus on local customers as receivers of the message. Figure 3: Focus of the paper Source: own creation 24

25 The paper is divided into five main sections, each contributing at approaching the problem statement (Figure 4): Figure 4: Structure of the paper Source: Own creation The first section presents the methodology used to carry out the research (Part 2). It offers an overview of the data collected and the methods used to gather the information. Due to the quantitative study carried out, information about sampling and research quality are also included in this part. Moving forward towards the theoretical framework (Part 3), concepts and theories from the fields of nation branding and social media are brought into discussion, for a better understanding of the inquiry field. Each theoretical chapter also includes a practical approach, applying the concepts into TAT s case. The data needed to support the argumentation is collected using the research methods laid forward in the previous section. In the next section (Part 4), the general results of the quantitative study are presented, however without making concluding arguments. This section also includes the results of the correlations made to test the relationship between the variables chosen from the survey. After having a more detailed perspective over the area of research, with relevant theoretical concepts and the results of the quantitative study, the paper then builds an argumentation (Part 5). The discussion addresses different aspects of the problem statement, based on the data 25

26 collected. This is done by going from a more general perspective of how the brand is perceived in connection to the company to a more business oriented stance, where suggestions are given to improve the current approach. The last part of the paper (Part 6) offers concluding arguments and possible future research directions. This part also enfolds the problem statement, embracing all the arguments brought throughout the study and composing exploratory lines of action. When answering the problem statement, the discourse does not point a right or wrong answer, but rather a pluralistic overview of the research s findings. 26

27 2. Methodology After deciding upon the paradigm used to guide the paper, in this section the research process is going to bring forward the data and methods used (Zikmund 1991). The methodology choice is directly influenced by the purpose of the research, rather than by a particular paradigm (Cavaye 1996). The information gathered in this paper can be broadly divided into internal and external sources (Figure 5). The nature of the source depends on the place where the information was taken from, whether it was from internal documents issued by the company, like for example annual report or official website, or information coming from external sources, such as articles or statistics. The reason for choosing such an approach is based on the attempt of building a more critical argumentation. By including information issued by other sources than the company itself, the paper can reveal more objective data, which would otherwise be inaccessible. The data gathered refer to the company s current digital media strategy and they will later serve as a base for the arguments made in the conclusion part. Figure 5: Data collection process Source: own creation 27

28 2.1.Data collection methods Comparing qualitative and quantitative methods, the main difference is that the first one acknowledges the importance of subjective experience and it offers the possibility of generating more in-depth data (Wolcott 1997). Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Looking at the quantitative evaluation and research method, Patton (1990) argues the advantage of the quantitative approach is that it is possible to measure the reactions of many subjects to a limited set of questions, thus facilitating comparison and statistical aggregation of data (p. 165). In contrast to quantitative methods, the qualitative approach can gather detailed and rich data, but only for a small number of subjects. One of the most important aspects in the method selection is the purpose that the researcher wants to achieve (Coll & Chapman 2000). The topic chosen for this paper addresses the domestic public in Thailand. In order to assess the potential of social media in raising awareness, a large number of respondents is necessary, to get the research closer to a generalization. It is also important for the company to access data about its customers, in order prove a better and deeper understanding of its publics. This is also the approach suggested by the critical stance. However, for a more balanced and trustworthy analysis, triangulation can offer the possibility of combining different data collection methods. Triangulation brings together different methods, making the data more objective and adding consistency to the overall conclusion. The comparison of data can reveal inconsistency or contradiction. The first one denotes differences between the sets of data presented, while the second one shows a high degree of differentiation of the data presented (Coll & Chapman 2000). The data gathered for this paper is done using triangulation. There are multiple methods of data collection brought into discussion, among which interview with a former TAT employee or survey carried out for the domestic public. The paper also analysed data coming from the company s website and social networks to better understand the theoretical concepts discussed in TAT s case. This approach, influenced by the hermeneutical school of thought can be compared 28

29 to content analysis, yet it represents complements the theoretical argumentation with a more practical approach. All these different methods help at broadening the research lens and gaining credibility for the assumptions made. The structure of the paper evoked best practices from the field of nation branding and social media and compared them to the present situation TAT is facing. Moreover, by conducting a survey, the research was able to gather data coming from the public and therefore grasping knowledge about its perceptions. Krauss (2005) mentions that one of the main characteristics of qualitative researchers is that of being dependent on the context. The participatory nature of qualitative research is in opposition to the observatory nature of quantitative methods. Healy and Perry (2000) refer to quantitative research as a one-way mirror, where data does not change and the researcher has he role of an observer. The choice for quantitative methodology was influenced by the paradigm chosen as well as by the purpose of the survey, which was to measure the social media impact on the domestic public. As it is going to be pointed out later, this type of method is recommended in approaching social media and customer behaviour. Therefore, social media inquiry offers the possibility of gathering numerous data and extending the findings to a more general level. The analysis is carried out for the domestic public in Thailand and using a quantitative method, the research can benefit from reaching a diverse public, with different age and preferences. 2.2.Types of data collected Through the data collection process, the researchers have to decide which type of data sources will be the best ones to provide relevant and useful information for the research. According to Ghauri and Grønhaug (2005), data sources can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary. 29

30 Secondary data Secondary data helps to better understand and explain our research problem (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005, p. 91). This type or data can focus on specific research problems and they do not address the main focus of the research (Coyer & Gallo 2005). Secondary data refers to information or studies that already exist and that the researcher can access to support different stances taken in the process (Duncan 1991). For example, in the paper under discussion, several statistics were given as examples to support statements, interpreting the data. Such statistics include: internet user behaviour in Thailand, number of visitors, economic situations etc. Additionally, information coming from Twitter, Facebook and TAT s official website were used to describe the company s actions regarding nation branding in the virtual world. The hermeneutical influence pointed the study towards the need of understanding and interpreting reality and such examples offered the possibility of gaining insight in TAT s strategy and how the community makes use of these tools. It can be compared to a more qualitative approach, as it offers in-depth data, yet these are more practical examples that help at applying theoretical concepts. According to Coyer and Gallo (2005) there are advantages as well as disadvantages in using secondary data. Firstly, they are time efficient and cost effective, as the studies have already been done and all the steps in the analysis taken. They also reveal data about a large number of people and can be generalized. For the purpose of the paper, this aspect is extremely important, as it addresses the domestic market as a whole and the studies brought into discussion can be applicable to the entire Thai population. However, the studies used as examples were taken for other purposes than that of the research in question (Castle 2003). The sampling selection also becomes questionable, making the data unreliable for generalization. As secondary data, press articles where used as an additional argument to the content presented on the website and the Annual report issued by the company. The articles presented official statements coming from the company s officials or statements made by other industry 30

31 representatives which directly affected the company. These data were included in the research to make the presentation more trustworthy and head the discourse into the more critical approach Primary Data When information from secondary data are not available or are unable to answer the research questions, the relevant data to a particular study and research problem must be collected. Primary data are original data collected by the researchers for the research problem at hand (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005, p.91). The same authors mention that with primary data, the reason behind consumer behaviour will be revealed. Primary data include observations, experiment, survey (questionnaires) and interviews. Data collection through these sources provides both advantage and disadvantage for the research. For the advantages, firstly, they are collected for the particular project in hand and are therefore more consistent with the research questions. Secondly, they reveal characteristics about consumer behaviour, management decision or problem. However, the researchers can encounter some disadvantages from collecting primary data as well. They can be time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, it may be difficult to find target groups who are willing to cooperate and answer the questions. The researcher depends on the willingness and ability of respondents. What is more, unexpected and uncontrolled factors may influence and interfere with efficient data collection. These drawbacks have to be taken into considerations while collecting primary data (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). In the next section, the selected data methods used for collecting the relevant information for this paper will be discussed more. 31

32 Interview For primary data, the researcher has to decide how to communicate with the respondents. The communication does not have to be direct or face to face. Questions can be distributed by mail or and the respondent is then asked to reply back in the same manner. This type of data collection makes it possible to generalize the results and test theories (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) state that in some non-standardized contexts this specific data collection method is recommended. Daymon and Holloway (2002) mention the advantages of an interview. They state that it gives an opportunity for the researcher and the interviewee to choose the time that best suits them. Especially if the interview takes place across worldwide time zones, this type of interview allows them to select the time they can participate to the study. Moreover, this type of interview, allows the participant to be more reflective because he or she can take time to respond in a more measured way. For this case, the interviewer conducted the interview from Denmark while the interviewee was in Thailand and an interview was the proper way of collecting the data, due to the time difference. An interview was conducted to ask Chawawisuttikoon, one of the former TAT s employees (Appendix B). The purpose was to get more information about TAT which cannot be retrieved from the internet or annual report of the company. The information can also be used to support the data that was already found through the secondary data. As Chawawisuttikoon only worked for the company for a short period of time, he could only provide a limited amount of information. However, the interview is part of the primary data set of sources, as it can be used to complement the information gathered through the secondary data sources, like for example website or the annual report. 32

33 Survey Ghauri and Grønhaug (2005) give a definition of a survey. It refers to a method of data collection that utilizes questionnaires or interview techniques for recording the verbal behaviour of respondents (p.124). A survey is considered primary data as it is directly relevant to a particular study and problem statement. It is an effective tool to get opinion, attitudes and descriptions as well as for getting cause-and-effect relationships. Backstrom and Hursh (1981) identify both benefits and drawbacks for collecting data with the survey. On one hand, it gives an access to a wide range of participants which will provide a large amount of data. On the other hand, the collected data may be superficial since the survey cannot be controlled by the researchers. The respondents have the opportunity of answering however they like or even choose not to answer to some questions if they are not willing to. For example, if the questionnaire is too long, a respondent may get tired and decide not to continue the survey. 2.3.Survey as quantitative data collection tool Purpose of the survey The purpose of the paper is to find out how TAT can raise the nation brand awareness among domestic public through social media. Therefore, in order to obtain the data relevant to this particular study and question, a survey is an appropriate method in collecting the data. The aim of the survey is to gain information about Thai social media users attitudes and opinions towards TAT s digital media strategy. The result of the survey will indicate the success of TAT in raising the nation brand awareness among Thai people. In other words, it will show people s general perception about the way TAT engaged in social media activities to promote the country. If the paper would only focus on information coming from the company s annual report or website, the obtained information may not be able to guide the discourse towards building possible improvement suggestions that can enable change, which is also one of the characteristics of the paradigm chosen. By combining the result of the survey with the secondary data, this will bring forward another angle. The structure of the paper aims not only at exploring the current communication strategy, but also at gathering feedback from the audience. Therefore, 33

34 the study will gradually enfold different layers, grabbing the given situation from different angles. This will later help the company to improve its social media strategy and also access valuable data about its audience Rationale of the survey The survey consists of twenty questions divided into six categories. They include travelling behaviour, internet usage behaviour, knowledge about TAT s social media, knowledge about TAT s branding, general opinion about TAT and general information about the respondent. The survey will start from asking general information about the respondent s travelling behaviour. Later, it will narrow down to the target group of the survey, respondents who are familiar with TAT and use social media platforms in gathering travelling information (Figure 6). Figure 6: Selection of the eligable respondents in the survey Source: Own Creation 34

35 The length of the survey has an effect on the answers given by the respondents. He or she may feel tired and lose interest in answering the questions if the survey is too long (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). For the survey used in this research, the approximate duration is around five minutes, for a qualifying respondent. According to Ghauri and Grønhaug (2005), the questions must be asked in very simple and concise language. The researcher has to consider the respondent s background, such as education level and knowledge about the subject. Hence, the questions should be adjusted and adapted accordingly. In this case, since the target group is Thai social media users, the questionnaire was posted in both Thai and English language. The Thai questionnaire will enhance the opportunity of reaching a wider range people as Thai language is the native language of the country. Open-ended question were also used to allow the respondents to express their own opinion or give answers that were not provided in the choice. With this kind of question, the researcher can get correct answers from the respondent as they do not have to limit their answers to one of the choices (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). Another important aspect in this survey is that every question has a no answer option. This aims at providing an escape route to a respondent who wants to avoid answering a question due to personal or sensitive matters (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). If there is no room for the respondent to avoid answering the question, he or she is forced to select one of the given choices. The result of the survey may not be reliable which might affect the accuracy of the result. Nevertheless, before posting a survey, the questions have to be verified thoroughly so that they are not understood differently. The best way to check this is to do a pre-test on the real respondents (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). The questionnaire was distributed to five target respondents who were asked to give feedback regarding the length, language and general opinion about the questionnaire. After receiving comments from these sample respondents, the questionnaire was revised in order to be more effective. 35

36 Target group In order to answer the purpose of the survey, a target group must be selected. As the focus of the paper is the domestic public, the target group for the survey is Thai citizens who are using social network websites. To obtain information from this target group, the channel chosen for distribution is Facebook which has a high representation of a designed segment. Facebook is the most popular social media website among Thai people with over 14 million accounts (Table 4) Distribution channel Referring to Bryman and Bell (2007), online questionnaires are the most practical way of reaching large groups of online users since the researchers engage the target group where they are as opposed to seeking them out in the physical world and handing them a questionnaire to fill out. By choosing Facebook, the research could reach respondents that would otherwise be geographically inaccessible. Facebook also offered the possibility of gathering considerable amount of data in a short period of time. Moreover, this channel can also help the researchers to filter the respondents who are not eligible. Since only the respondents who have Facebook account can access the survey, Thai people who do not use any social network website will not be able to complete the survey. The survey was posted on many Facebook pages such as TAT s official pages, and different community pages. The amount of time allocated for gathering data is three weeks, during which other respondents had an opportunity to share the questionnaire. 36

37 2.4.Sample selection After the research design and methodology were drawn, the next step in the research process is to select elements from which the information will be collected. One possible way is to collect information from a portion of the population by taking a sample of elements from the larger group. In quantitative studies, sampling is important as it is primarily associated with quantitative research, emphasizing estimation of various parameters, testing hypotheses and so on (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005, p.155). Sampling procedure can be divided into two major categories: probability and non-probability sampling. Bryman and Bell (2007) state that probability sampling gives each unit in the population an equal chance of being included in the sample. It refers to a representative sample as it can be used to generalize the entire population. On the other hand, with non-probability sampling, a sample is not selected by using a random selection method. On the contrary, some units in the population are more likely to be included than others. As mentioned earlier, the objective of the survey in this paper is to find Thai social media users opinions towards TAT s digital media strategy. To answer this objective, a specified group of samples was selected. A non-probability sampling can be used when demonstrating that a particular trait exists in the population. Therefore, non-probability sampling would suit the purpose of the paper since it does not give all the individuals in the population chances of being selected but only certain units in the population. These units include Thai people who use social media and are familiar with TAT (Figure 6). If a probability sample would be applied in this case, any single unit of the population can be selected which may cause an ineffective result of the survey. For example, a respondent who does not use the internet will not be able to answer the questions. However, choosing non-probability sampling also has disadvantages. Ghauri and Grønhaug (2005) mention that this type of sampling may give misleading results because it does not present the entire population. Moreover, it does not give a basic evaluation for the size of the sampling and the error of estimation. As probability sampling offers all units in the population the same chances of being included, the researcher can determine the sampling size and limit the 37

38 error of estimation through this random sampling procedure. However, since non-probability sampling selects particular representatives from the population, it is not possible to make valid inferences about the population and decide upon the sampling size. What is more, the results of the research cannot be used in generalizations for the entire population. For the selected technique of non-probability sampling, two types of sampling were chosen: judgmental sampling and snowball sampling. Looking at judgmental sampling, the researcher tries to select the units which are representative based on their knowledge and professional judgment (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). It is used when the speciality of a representative sample can bring more accurate results than other sampling techniques. These specific groups of people usually consist of a limited number of individuals who possess the trait of interest in the survey. For this case, it was to gain information about then domestic public s brand awareness in the virtual world especially on the uprising platform like social media. The appropriate representative samples would be Thai social media users who are familiar with the company. Any individual who does not fit this category will not be able to contribute. However, using this technique also presents some weaknesses. Due to the limited group of representative selected in the process, it can misrepresent the entire population which will later restrict generalizations of the results of the study. Moreover, the reliability and the bias of the researchers can be questioned 4. Another technique used in this survey is snowball sampling 5. Through this method, the researcher asks for assistance from respondents to recommend or identify others they might know who also meet the criteria or have a similar trait of interest. In other words, it is similar to a chained reaction. The researcher then observes the nominated respondents and continues in the same way until gaining sufficient number of respondents. Snowball sampling suits the characteristic of the chosen distribution channel. Facebook is a virtual and interactive community where each user has the opportunity to be a spokesperson by 4 Castillo, J. J. 2009, Judgmental Sampling, Experiment Resources. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 24 June 2012]. 5 Castillo, J. J. 2009, Snowball Sampling, Experiment Resources. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 24 June 2012]. 38

39 clicking the share button for the subject or topic that they are interested in. For this survey, after questionnaires were distributed to selected target groups, respondents can click the share button to publish and share the survey on their wall. Other Thai Facebook users who also meet the criteria are then able to complete the survey and continue the same process. This method will help the researchers to increase the number of respondents. Although the snowing ball technique is simple, time and cost-efficient in reaching a large number of respondent, it can be highly possible that these respondents share the same traits and characteristics such as gender or age. Therefore, the sample that the researcher obtains can be only a small subgroup of the entire population Research quality The bedrock of any research is the quality of the undertaken process, its applicability in a real context. This characteristic depends upon two factors: reliability and validity, which can decide upon the usefulness and appropriateness of the study (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005) Validity Leppäniemi (2008) argues about the existence of three tactics that can be used to assure the validity of a research. Firstly, the author mentions about the use of multiple sources of information. Secondly, the research has to allow the establishment of a chain of evidence, which can allow other observers to criticize the research throughout the entire process. Thirdly, a draft case study report has to be reviewed by key informants. For this study, these tactics are embraced by the use of triangulation. By presenting data gathered using multiple methods, the topic is discussed from different perspectives, building a more complete, holistic and contextual portrait of the object under study (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005, p. 222). Balancing objective as well as subjective arguments throughout the discussion, the data 6 Castillo, J. J. 2009, Snowball Sampling, Experiment Resources. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 24 June 2012]. 39

40 can be criticized alongside. Together with the critical stance taken, the objective data included form a broad and pluralistic view of the topic, bringing forward several data. Bryman and Bell (2007) mention about the existence of two types of validity: face and content. The first concept, face validity questions whether or not the content reflects the concept in question. For example, the survey represents a very important stage in approaching the problem statement of the paper, observing the audience s reaction to the current social media actions. Taking this into consideration it can be stated that the level of face validity is high. The second concept, content validity refers to the extent to which the scope of a subject is represented in the research. The study is carried out only for the domestic market in Thailand and further research could reveal additional information about the area of nation branding and social media. However, by narrowing down the focus of the research, the study was able to reveal new specific aspects about the field, which is in itself just starting to be explored. Specifically, the study revealed data about the Thai market and these data would not have been available by adopting a more generic view of the research area. Therefore, the level of content validity can also be considered as high Reliability Reliability is considered an indication of the stability and consistency with which the instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the goodness of a measure (Sekaran 2003, p.203). This implies that, if the given research is replicated by future investigators, the results of the studies would cohere (Leppäniemi 2008). In order to assure similar results, the conditions in which the research was carried out should be respected. Such conditions include distribution channel and filters used in the survey to select eligible respondents. However, the paper does not include only a quantitative study. As mentioned earlier, information from multiple sources are brought into discussion, like for example official website or interview with a former TAT employee. Because it is an explorative research, the information presented are interpreted, approached enforced also by the hermeneutical influence. This can question the reliability of the entire study, as future 40

41 researchers have to also present the same perspective when undertaking the research process in order to have similar results. However, the research was carried out for future investigations to take place based on personal interpretations or analysing the same data from different perspectives (Daymon & Holloway 2010) Selection of variables Another method of testing the reliability of the data gathered is carrying out statistical tests. Before analysing the data coming from the quantitative study, it is important to understand the level of data gathered. Even though there is always a degree of error in the results, by applying statistical tests, these errors can be diminished. Such analyses will expose if the relationships between the chosen dependent and independent variables are random occurrences or they have an influence on one another. These answers will therefore offer a reliable argumentation for the problem statement in hand (Hart 2006). Harmon and Morgan (1999) mention that a variable has to have different values, therefore vary. For examples, yes/ no questions are variables, because they have two or even three values, if the no answer option is also taken into consideration. For the survey presented in the paper, the independent and dependent variables have been evoked in Chapter 1.4. In analysing the variables, one of the most commonly used statistical tests is Pearson s r or correlation test. The values for this test can range from -1 to 1 and the closer the result is to 1, the greater the relationship between the variables (Hart 2006). Correlations are used to identify possible relationships or dependences between variables or sets of data. The correlation coefficient can reveal two aspects of the relationship between variables, the strength and nature of the relationship, which can either be negative or positive (Lang & Secic 2006). Correlations, whether they have a negative or positive coefficient, do not imply a cause-and-effect relationship between the variables chosen. This means that results can be referred to as indicators not the origin of a certain problem. The correlation coefficient is an index and not a measurement scale (Connelly 2012). For the questionnaire included in this paper, the data was gathered using the SurveyXact tool, through which tables, charts and cross-tabulations were generated. In order to calculate the 41

42 correlation coefficient, Excel was used, applying statistical functions. Correlations were made between questions that address directly the purpose of the survey. The first two correlations made (Appendix F) aim at revealing the relationship between people s knowledge about the Facebook and Twitter pages with the decision of clicking Like and respectively Follow. Such data can indicate whether the number of people who joined the community represents the real number of people who know about these pages. The results will later enable the study to explore the community s success and point towards how it should be analysed. The third correlation made brings forward the respondent s knowledge about the company and the nation brand (Appendix F). This correlation can show whether or not people s knowledge about the nation brand is influenced by their knowledge about the company. These set of data can reveal the level of awareness regarding the company and the nation brand and to which extent are the two elements interconnected. The fourth and fifth correlations (Appendix F) focus on observing how social media are related to the level of brand awareness. These two sets of data question the degree of influence that Facebook and Twitter have on people s knowledge about the nation brand. The research can therefore test the influence of these communication tools in building a brand. Combining these findings with some of the topics that have already been touched upon in other sections, the study can construct a valid and trustworthy argumentation and approach the problem statement. The reasoning behind the choice of variables presented above is mainly centred on the desire of revealing the potential that social media can have in increasing the nation brand awareness among Thai people. However, the research also includes charts, cross-tabulation and scales that will contribute at supporting complementary arguments made to guide the discussion towards the main topic. All in all, by using both statistical tests as well as percentage graphic figures, such as scales or pie charts, the study embraces reliable analysis choices. 42

43 3. Theoretical framework The theoretical framework is going to make a review of some of the main concepts in the fields of nation branding and social media. These concepts present best practices, guidelines that should be taken into consideration when approaching these fields. In order to build a more objective presentation, several theories and models are going to be enlisted, comparing and applying them in TAT s case. For the area of nation branding, the main theories come from authors such as Fan (2006) and Anholt (2005, 2006, 2008), which present definitions, characteristics, tools and practices for building a successful nation brand. This approach will also be applied in social media s case, with theories coming from authors such as Agresta, Bough and Miletsky (2011), Schmidt and Ralph (2011), Safko and Brake (2009). After each theoretical chapter, all concepts will be applied in TAT s case, bringing forward practical examples from the data gathered. This analysis will reveal several aspects for the study case, which will later be complemented by the findings of the quantitative study, moving the paper towards the final discussion part. 3.1.Nation Branding: General information In this chapter, several concepts such as definition, characteristics and values will be introduced to provide a general idea about nation branding. This will later be applied in TAT s case showing how the company presents Thailand as a brand, using secondary data to support the statements made. This chapter aims at giving details about this specific field for a better understanding of its specific characteristics, benefits and value building potential, approach that is driven by the paradigm choice. For a company like TAT, who wants to increase the awareness about Thailand for potential as well as existing visitors, mastering knowledge about the field of nation branding is mandatory. Kotler (1997) once gave a definition to what a brand is a name, sign, symbol, drawing, or a combination of all these, whose main purpose is to identify the products or services of one 43

44 company, and to differentiate them from those of competitors (p. 60). In the globalizing world of today, where countries have to compete against one another, branding has become a differentiation tool used to create competitive advantage and make a country stand out from other competitors Definition Dinnie (2010), Caldwell and Freire (2004) mention that in a globalised world, countries or nations must compete constantly with existing stereotypes, embedded in people s minds, so that they can be acknowledged worldwide. Therefore, such countries started to promote their products by using a marketing technique called branding. Countries have to do whatever they can in order to improve their images and remain competitive in the world s marketplace (Dinnie 2010). This type of competition is called nation branding. Many academic references contributed at raising the interest regarding nation branding, as it is becoming an increasingly prominent topic. Hundreds of definitions were given to define what the meaning of this concept is. One example comes from Fan (2006), who offers a more general perspective of the term, stating that nation branding concerns applying branding and marketing communications techniques to promote a nation s image (p. 6). Scott et al. (2010) take a similar position, defining nation branding as a marketing process. It refers to the application of branding and marketing communications techniques to promote and manage a nation s image; thus a nation s brand may be considered the desired image (p. 229). Delorie (2004) gives a more detailed explanation, a national brand is a national identity that has been proactively distilled, interpreted, internalised and projected internationally in order to gain international recognition and to construct a favourable national image (p. 65). The last definition referred to nation identity, which is seen as a process that is carried out from the inside, out. In contrast with the above definition, Gudjonsson (2005) declares that nation branding uses the tools of branding to alter or change the behaviour, attitudes, identity or image of a nation in a 44

45 positive way (p. 285). This makes nation branding similar to an influencer rather than replicating the identity, as stated by the former given definitions. From all these definitions, it can be observed clearly that the core idea of nation branding is to create a favourable and desired image of a specific country. This is done in order to maximize the competitive advantage and therefore differentiate itself from other competitors Characteristics A general characteristic for branding is that it delivers information about what a product is and creates value. It is a process through which a company or product communicates and differentiates itself in front of its audience (Aaker 2005). However, nation branding embraces a set of quite unique and different characteristics compared to any other type of branding and therefore requires different strategic skills and tactics. Fan (2006) describes this unique branding type, stating that a nation brand offers intangible products or services. Moreover, it embraces a variety of factors, such as places, natural resources, people, history, culture, language, political and economic systems, social institution, infrastructure, celebrities and image. From the mentioned factors, the biggest challenge in nation branding is how to communicate a universal message to different audiences, coming from different nations. The obstacles those countries have to encounter is that it is almost impossible to create a single message about a country that can be applied in different industry sectors. Nation branding does not limit its focus to few groups of people. On the contrary, its target groups are very heterogeneous. It aims at creating a desired image and reputation in everyone s eyes despite their age, gender, religion or geographical appearance. Because of the variety of customers across the world with unrelated needs and intentions, creating a harmonious and coherent value chain can be a problem (Fan 2006). Overall, branding a nation is not a singular dimensioned process as it is composed of different aspects. In order to create such a brand, collaboration from all stakeholders is needed (de Vicente 2004). The uniqueness of this type of branding is that the product is intangible and it is created 45

46 by the collective perception of people. Even though a country is geographically identifiable, the brand associated to it does not have a physical presence, being composed of customs, religion, behaviour, experiences etc Nation Branding vs. Product Branding vs. Corporate Branding There are various types of branding. For example, there is product or corporate branding and they both have specific characteristics. It is important to distinguish the differences between all these types of branding concepts in order to have a better understanding of nation branding. Fan (2006) illustrates the comparison between nation branding and commercial branding as it can be seen in the figure below: Figure 7: Comparison between nation branding and commercial branding Source: Fan (2006, p. 7) Figure 7 shows a wide range of differences between nation branding and commercial branding. Nation branding is a complicated term, with multiple attributes and it takes time to define and adjust. Fan (2006) explains there are several elements that cannot be controlled and this makes a nation brand become difficult to change in a short period of time. As a complementary argument to this approach, Kotler and Gertner (2002) mention that products can be repositioned, replaced, discontinued, modified or withdrawn from the market when facing problems or difficulties. On the other hand, countries or places cannot use the same strategy. 46

47 This is because the image of such countries may be established in deep-rooted problems which may take many years to adjust or change. Looking at the table above, differences can also be identified regarding the brand image. Compared to commercial branding, nation branding cannot shape a universally valid representation in the mind of its audience, because people can have different and subjective experiences towards the brand. A country is not something that the customer can visualize without associating it to personal experiences. In commercial branding, the product offers a tangible and singular image to the customer. Additionally, nation branding is composed of many factors, such as political, economic, social and cultural while product and corporate brand mainly focus on economic factor. The ownership dimension refers to who actually owns the brand. In order to build a nation brand, it is difficult to point out who is the owner or who is the most powerful stakeholder while a product or corporate brand usually belongs to a sole owner or a small and defined group of people. Fan (2006) argues that the nation image can be used by any party (organization, people, public institutions, etc.) both inside and outside the country, to achieve its own goals or desires. Nation branding has a great number of complicated factors that need to be taken into consideration. Unlike other types of branding, this concept involves different groups of stakeholder, delicate issues and emotional aspects. Therefore, it would be very useful for a group of people or an organization, which is implementing this concept, to acknowledge these differences while developing the strategy Particularities of the field These days, the concept of nation branding has gained popularity among many countries. Many researchers and professional scholars seek to find what encourages one country to implement this concept. What advantages does such a country have in comparison with a country that does not take nation branding into its strategy? According to Anholt (2005), the motivation for creating a nation brand comes from the idea of gaining competitive advantage. This is the reason why many nations have to manage and get 47

48 involved in managing their branding. Such reasons may include the desire to leverage the reputation at the same level as the rapid economic growth and political power. A different example refers to the use of nation branding to remove any negative reputation that was underserved and that blocks the overall progress. Some countries believe that if they can have a unique image which differentiates themselves from other countries, they are going to be able to compete in the global marketplace more effectively. Van Ham (2001) also notes that image and reputation are important for a country s strategic equity. The nation or country which does not have a brand would encounter difficulties in developing its economic and political factors. Therefore, nation branding has become more and more important for countries trying to improve their economic situation in order to survive and be successful in this competing and globalising world Purposes and Objectives Gertner and Kotler (2002) state that nation branding will provide numerous profits for a country that is implementing this concept. The need of increasing investments, exports or tourism drives a country to adopt marketing management and a branding strategy. Fan (2006) explains that the goal of nation branding has to be identified before developing the strategy. A successful nation brand is based on two factors. Firstly, a nation has to be distinctive and enable itself to be different from other competitors. Secondly, the common perceptions of a country shared by customers are also important in order to gain psychological leverage. All in all, the objective of nation branding is to create a positive image of the country that other people can relate to, through various types of communication channels so that it can differentiate itself from other countries. After the desired image of the country has been developed, this later will bring that country many benefits, such as tourism, investments and exports. 48

49 Benefit and Values As it was mentioned earlier, once a target group has a positive image or good impression of that country, many benefits will follow respectively. The main idea lies beneath the concept that successful nation branding can generate positive effects, especially in the economic sector. Kavaratzis (2005) explains that there are several benefits from branding a nation, such as the tourism development and the attraction of foreign investment. Anholt (2008) also notes that an economic increase is a complementary factor for image. A good country image will make it become a premium product whereas a negative image would make the country become a discount product. Similarly, another value highlighted by Kotler and Gertner (2002) is these images can influence people s decision regarding purchasing, investing, changing residence and travelling Amazing Thailand : creating a concept for the brand Anholt (2006) discusses the trend of nation branding in Asian countries. He mentions that many Asian countries are trying to implement the nation branding concept as they recognize its importance. There are countries including Japan and South Korea who have traditionally relied on exports for their foreign revenues. On the other hand, there are countries whose economies and images focus on their appeal as a destination, such as Thailand and Maldives. These countries are using their destinations to embrace foreign direct investment, exports and other sectors. The Thai Government initiated The Branding Thailand project in 2001 to find out how people worldwide view the nation s strengths and weaknesses, discover how appealing the country is to them. The purpose of the project was to determine Thailand s brand equity from the perceptions of prospective consumers towards Thailand and its major industries: namely cuisine, fashion and tourism (Nuttavuthisit 2007). The result of the research is shown below: 49

50 Figure 8: Results of the research: What are the first words that come to mind when thinking of Thailand? Source:Nuttavuthisit(2007, p. 23) In Figure 8, the responses to the question show that the majority of respondents had positive thinking towards Thailand. Words such as exotic, friendly people, tourism and good food represent a good impression about the country. However, there are also few negative comments, such as sex/prostitution and poor/poverty. The results presented above indicate that Thailand s positive qualities can come from numerous factors, ranging from the physical environment, entertainment and recreation attractions and the nature of the Thai people. These factors are directly related to tourism, which is the main feature that characterizes Thailand as a brand. On the other hand, the present underdeveloped infrastructure may undermine the country s attractions by causing problems such as traffic jam, pollution and poor waste management (Nuttavuthisit 2007). TAT s Governor stated that the organization is going to focus on building the brand based on emotional marketing, in order to overcome unpredictable or uncontrollable negative factors (Appendix A, p. 5). TAT embraces such comments and makes an effort to correct these negative perceptions about the country, as it is the singular public institution responsible for tourism. This aspect becomes even more important when considering such 50

51 groups, potential customers. In such a context, it is challenging for TAT to change these perceptions if these beliefs have been embedded in people s mind for such a long time that it has become a stereotype. Nation branding is an intangible product, with unique characteristics, especially a high amount of emotional value. This means that TAT is not selling a product, but rather a cumulus of emotional perceptions, coming from a diverse group of people. With this type of product, the organization has to involve people, create a bound between them and the country and make them feel emotionally attached or have a sense of belonging to that country in order for them to buy the product. In its attempts to improve the nation brand, TAT had to go through a difficult process, which involved a continuous change of the concept, according to the market s demands. The branding process had to not only take in all the differences between people s tastes and combine them in a single message, but it also had to accept and work around the already existing perceptions about the country. The Amazing Thailand campaign was created just after the economic crisis of TAT, one of the authorities belonging to the Thai government launched this campaign in The main idea was to highlight historical and cultural sites, fabulous cuisine, beautiful beaches, diverse and affordable price for shopping and friendly Thai people (Roll 2006). The same author mentions that, in 2003, the government launched a new campaign Unseen Thailand as the Amazing Thailand project had an impressive success. This new slogan wanted to promote different places that have never been explored before including world heritage site, boutique, and world-class golf course. One year later, Happiness on earth was introduced to promote the outstanding spa facilities, river cruises and many relaxing activities packages. These new offers positioned Thailand as a luxury brand which aims at rich professional tourists. Although there were many attempts to change the brand, TAT decided to return to the first slogan, aligning it to the current mission of the company and transforming it into Amazing Thailand, always amazes you (Choibamroong 2007). This decision can be motivated by the success of the first brand created by TAT, which had a high degree of visibility for the public. 51

52 This proves a high commitment to the nation s preferences, thus remaining true and fair to the brand itself. It is, after all, a product with a strong emotional nature. From a corporate perspective, TAT has to create competitive advantage in a globalising market, which involves creating a mission that will help the company differentiate the product (Thailand) from other competitors. TAT s mission focuses on transforming the company into a professional and high standard tourism organization, with projects that are at an international level and with employees that have expertise in the field (Appendix A). Therefore, the mission addresses both external as well as internal actions, leveraging the overall performance. TAT realized that in order to reach its mission, tourism marketing strategy and system have to move beyond local and Asian markets reaching a global scale. This will offer the company both financial benefits as well as competitive advantage. TAT s objectives focus on building a good image for Thailand and improve its economic situation. One of its objectives addresses the global recognition of its marketing strategies, by stakeholders worldwide. For example, in 2010 TAT was given the PATA (Pacific Asia Tourism Association) Golden award for Marketing Primary Government Destination 7. This proves its commitment to international standards. TAT acknowledges through its objectives, the importance of both domestic as well as external publics, in other words Thai people and foreigners. Attracting foreign customers will enable the economy to grow and increase the number of investments, which will later create job opportunities for local business and Thai people. One of the consequences such an approach will show is an overall improvement of the quality of life in Thailand. In reaching its objectives, the domestic public can be a valuable resource for the company, as it can help at increasing the brand awareness and bring additional financial incomes. As it was shown above, the mission, vision and objectives of the company are built around the idea of creating competitive advantage, generate economic growth and succeed in operating at an international level. 7 News Room Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2011.PATA Travel Mart 2011 Thailand Media Briefing. [online] Available at: < 2011&catid=9%3Apresentations&Itemid=81> [Accessed 15 July 2012]. 52

53 Like other countries, Thailand possesses both positive as well as negative characteristics, which bring not only advantages but also disadvantages to the country. TAT, who is responsible for promoting tourism both inside and outside the country, is affected by how people see the country in general. This is why it makes continuous efforts to promote positive comments and try to correct the negative ones, so that it becomes successful in encouraging people to travel more in Thailand. As a result, this will improve the country s economic situation and leverage the brand awareness. In a nutshell, because of its intangible and unique product, TAT has to use an untraditional marketing approach, addressing people s perceptions and trying to mould on a long term, an optimistic image of the overall country. As said earlier, the nation brand reflects people s perceptions and TAT has to give them the opportunity of expressing themselves in connection to the country. The collaborative nature of the process can also be applied for social media communication platforms, which are going to be analysed later in the paper. Both for nation branding as well as social media platforms, meaning is created as a result of people exchanging information, impressions about a specific topic. 3.2.Building a nation brand In this part, the first focus will be on how to build a successful nation brand using different tools. The critical stance brings forward the need of going beyond understanding and interpreting reality, towards creating change and by reviewing best practices from this field, the paper will later portray possible improvement suggestions. The dimensions of nation branding will be explained, emphasizing the most relevant one for this study, which is the tourism dimension. However, all the other dimensions are also going to be mentioned, showing how they can affect the company. Later, a SWOT analysis will be applied in order to help TAT to develop a suitable strategy. In the last part, the scope will be narrowed down to the domestic market and the strategy built by TAT to raise the brand awareness among Thai people. This chapter aims at presenting how important the tourism dimension is to Thailand s nation brand and how TAT can use it to leverage the brand awareness for local people. 53

54 Tools for building a successful brand Nowadays, many countries around the world are trying to embed the nation branding concept in their strategy. However, not every country can succeed in doing this. Before knowing how to create a successful brand, one should first understand the factors influencing people s perceptions of that country. Fan (2006) suggests that a person s perception of the country is based on numerous factors, such as personal experience, education of knowledge, the holder or the user of product manufactured in that particular country, the image of the country perceived through mass-media and stereotypes. Moving on with the process of developing a flourishing nation brand, a SWOT analysis must be first conducted, in order to know which element might affect or benefit the country. Kotler and Gertner (2002) divide the SWOT analysis into two separate parts: strengths and weaknesses for analysing the internal factors of the country and opportunities and threats for understanding the external factors outside the country. For the internal factors, they include size of domestic markets or access to regional trade area. For the external factors, it requires carrying out an environment analysis, which will reveal the opportunities and threats as well as information about the current competitors. During the strategic process, there are several requirements that have to be met for tailoring the strategic plan according to the desired goals and objectives. Anholt (2006) and Đorđević (2008) both agree upon the idea of being creative and innovative. When it comes to branding, no matter what your product or service is, it should differentiate itself from other products or services. Even for a product like a country, there are numerous similar destinations on the global market and a nation must therefore make an effort to differentiate itself from other countries. For example, organizations that are responsible for managing a nation can create innovation groups, which can generate innovative ideas. These ideas can then be taken into by companies or other groups that have a direct interest and they can tailor them to address specific goals. The more successful a country is in differentiating itself from other competitors and be innovative, the more likely it is for companies coming from that country to be successful on the global market (Đorđević 2008). 54

55 As stated earlier, a nation brand has unique characteristics which other types of branding do not possess. A nation brand is not owned by a sole group of people, like for example the government. On the contrary, it is owned by different groups of stakeholders. Therefore, a common vision has to exist among different stakeholders, such as the government, citizens and businesses (Kotler & Gertner 2002). To succeed in branding a nation, a country needs to collaborate with each stakeholder, show creativity, an understanding of both the internal and external environment and monitor the sustainability of the chosen strategy. Building a nation brand involves showing strategic management knowledge and the way the strategic plan is conceived has to differentiate a country and offer it a unique position on the market Dimensions of nation branding Two well-known organizations offered an overview regarding the dimensions of nation branding. Both organizations present similar types of models, with small differences. a. Dimension of nation branding (Placebrands 2003) The first model comes from Placebrands, part of PlacemarkSoluntion Inc., which is a service company providing support and solutions to the tourism and hospitality industry and destinations development including resorts, cities to nations. The dimensions of nation branding are divided into six categories (Figure 9). Đorđević (2008) also gave a more in-depth explanation by offering details about each dimension. 55

56 Figure 9: Dimensions of nation branding (Placebrands) Source: Placebrands (2003) i. Tourism It is the world s fourth largest export industry. It is the most visible aspect of a country brand because it receives considerable financial support from the government, and is therefore the main marketing tool at the national level. ii. Export Brand Within the global market, there is a constant struggle to increase share of exports. Export brands represent an important mark for each and every country. iii. Investment The rate of inward investments is also an issue in the global economy because of numerous advantages they bring: positive competition, increased quality standards, a flow of skills, knowledge and information between countries, increased employment, technological advances and innovations. 56

57 iv. Foreign and domestic policies Nations are also judged in accordance with the foreign and domestic policies that their leaders initiate. Foreign and domestic policies must be coordinated so that they would invigorate the national brand (Frost 2004) v. People It is also important to identify people s internal and external perceptions or images and the differences between them, which eventually will have to be corrected. vi. Culture and Heritage Culture is linked to the country itself. It is reassuring because it links the country s past with its present. Culture is also enriching as it deals with non-commercial activities. Moreover, it is dignifying since it shows the spiritual and intellectual qualities of a country s people and institutions. b. Country Brand Index Similar to Placebrands, FutureBrand is another firm, part of McCann Worldgroup, which builds a model regarding dimensions of nation branding. Its significant contribution, the Country Brand Index (CBI), has caught a lot of attentions from public and media. The company initiated a global study of country brand strengths since From the latest report, over 113 nations were included in the research. Looking at the Country Brand Index, it offers five key dimensions that make up a country brand (Figure 10): 57

58 Figure 10: Dimensions of Country Brand Index Source: Country Brand Index (FutureBrand 2011) i. Value System It is a dimension at the root of so many others. It is the foundation for a country brand s essence which evolves slowly, just as the long-term cultural, political and social factors that comprise it. ii. Quality of Life Quality of Life represents a country s ability to offer gainful employment, affordable and comfortable housing, an accessible and competitive education and overall security to its citizens. iii. Good for Business The dimension includes the attributes: Regulatory Environment, Skilled Workforce, Advanced Technology and Investment Climate all factors that lead to a more holistically strong and attractive business environment. 58

59 iv. Heritage and Culture It reflects the ability of a nation to communicate its cultural assets fully and positively from history and language to art and cultural attractions. Heritage and Culture also reflects a nation s commitment to responsible infrastructural projects that support travel and tourism, in the process fuelling arts, literature and sports. v. Tourism The economics of tourism connects a country s ability to provide accessible, affordable options for holiday-makers and business visitors alike. The media s coverage of a nation s economic and political standing can also play a major role in tourism. In both models, the tourism dimension is highly emphasized. This indicates that it plays a considerable role in nation branding. In the following section, more information about tourism are going to be offered, for a better understanding of how to use this dimension in branding and maximize the outcome Types of Tourism In 1994, the United Nations classified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics: a. Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country travelling only within this country b. Inbound tourism, involving non-residents travelling in the given country c. Outbound tourism, involving residents travelling in another country 59

60 Domestic tourism United Nations (1994) define the term domestic as its original marketing connotations, that is, it refers to residents traveling within their own country (p.5). A domestic trip has as main destination the traveller s country of residence, while an outbound trip refers to the space outside the country s borders. While outbound tourism provides a great number of benefits to the nation, the positive and significant effect of domestic tourism should never be neglected. Mustafa (2012) quoted the Manila Declaration of 1980, stating that domestic tourism generates an improvement in the national economy through a redistribution of the national income. It also expands the awareness of common interests and provides the development of activities favourable to the country s economy. Moreover, domestic tourism has a great role in increasing tourism investments and tourist expenditures, decreasing the rates of unemployment, development of natural areas since they form a suitable recreation place for families, decreasing seasonality and enhancing social bonds through visiting friends and relatives. Nevertheless, Skanavis and Sakellari (2011) discuss about this upturn of research interest in domestic tourism for developing countries. They underpin a well-established stream of research focused on developed countries because of three main factors: the size, growth and economic value of domestic tourism can drive a country s development. Moreover, the ability to continuously supply the seasonality of international tourism arrival is also significant. The last factor emphasizes the importance of peripheral regions. In conclusion, domestic tourism can enfold numerous opportunities for the business environment, contributing at the overall growth of a specific area (destination). 60

61 TAT: emphasizing tourism in nation branding TAT is a tourism company and looking at its profile, it can be said that, from the above models, only the Tourism dimension is applicable. However, the other dimensions can also influence the company s strategy, acting as influencers that can either jeopardize or reveal opportunities for the company s plans and actions. Looking at the dimensions, they can be grouped into categories that have similar characteristics or address the same issues (Table 1). Related to economic aspects, the two models identify three dimensions: in the model by Placebrands, Investment and Export Brand, while in the Country Brand Index, there is the Good for Business. These three dimensions address the external factors that can influence a country with direct internal consequences. When the export or business opportunities grow, the foreign capital increases and the overall economic situation of the country is improving. This will reflect in a better quality of life and more job opportunities for the domestic public (Mustafa 2012). Table 1: Categories of Nation Brand Dimensions Source: Own creation For TAT, a public institution that receives funds from the government, the overall economic situation of the country is vital. The organization needs to invest money in creating projects that will increase the number of visitors and if there are no financial funds that will support such actions, this will jeopardize these plans. For example, due to the flood crisis at the end of 2011, the export dramatically dropped especially in the fourth quarter of the year (between October and 61

62 December). As a result, Thailand has a balance of trade deficit 8. Such events directly affect TAT, as it also contributes at the economic situation of the country, because tourism represents an important factor in the country s economy (Anholt 2006). The next category of dimensions, Foreign and Domestic Policies (Placebrands) and Quality of life (Country Brand Index) refers to the more internal aspects of a country, because they include factors like rules, regulations and life standard. Basically, inside a country people are constrained by social and political norms, which influence for example, the educational or safety prospects for each individual. Overall, the Thai government has an open foreign policy to every country. The main goal is to strengthen the cooperation and strategic partnership with countries that play important roles in global affairs. Moreover, the government aims at building confidence among foreign countries and access at the public level by promoting correct understanding and confidence in Thailand s politics and economy. These strategies are to maintain Thailand s good image as well as support people-to-people contact with foreign countries to promote positive attitudes toward Thailand and the Thai people among their public and governments and the international community 9. This shows that the Thai government is also aware of the importance of country branding to the development of the country. The third set of dimensions, People (Placebrands) and Value System (Country Brand Index), refers to the essence that defines a country, its people and the existing perceptions about it. Thailand is often called the "land of smiles", and rightly because smiling and friendly people. However, there are also negative aspects about the country, especially because of corruption and political unrest. Thailand has had a long history of corruption embedded in the Thai society. The types of corruption range from extortion to bribery. Even giving gifts to high officials has become common and accepted among Thai people Ministry of Commerce, Statistics of International Trade of Thailand. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 March 2012]. 9 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kingdom of Thailand, Foreign Policy. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 17 July 2012]. 10 Business Anti-Corruption Portal, Snapshot of the Thailand Country Profile. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 17 July 2012]. 62

63 Moreover, since 2008, there have also been political tensions inside the country 11 12, which led to a tourism decrease. TAT acknowledged the need to implement better strategies to manage external forces in order to help minimise their effect on tourism. Therefore, the Tourism Intelligence Unit and Crisis Communication Centre (TIC) was formed and it became a large part of the TAT s new proactive approach, designed at opening the communication lines between Thailand and the international community over national developments or situations 13. Negative factors such as the previous mentioned ones can also influence the domestic public s perception of the company, especially because TAT is part of the government. The next category includes, in both models, the dimension of Culture and Heritage. It is also important for TAT, because it refers to how a nation communicates its cultural assets. Such assets become drivers for creating tourism packages, offering unique characteristics that draw the tourists attention. There were several times when TAT promoted its activities by using a special and unique Thai cultural characteristic as its selling point. Svetasreni, TAT s Governor, explained about the strategy in 2012, saying that we plan to use it to enhance our unique selling propositions our culture, heritage, Buddhist traditions and way of life and our popular festivals to attract both first-time and repeat visitors 14. For example, in 2011, TAT also launched a new guidebook and website, designed specifically for special interest travellers wishing to visit the region s most prominent UNESCO World Heritage Sites, using Thailand as a hub and launching pad. It advertised the country s heritage sites, such as Historic City of Ayutthaya Thailand faces threat of yellow-shirt counter-protest, BBC News, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 20 March 2012]. 12 Horn, J., Thailand Tourism Devastated by Political Unrest. Time World, [online] Available at: < 20 March 2012]. 13 Weston, J., TAT Introduce New balanced Marketing Strategy for Pattaya Daily News, [online] Available at: < %E2%80%98balanced%E2%80%99-marketing-strategy-for-2011/> [Accessed 10 April 2012]. 14 News Room Tourism Authority of Thailand, International Tourism Bourse (ITB 2012) Amazing Thailand Networking Lunch. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 April 2012]. 15 News Room Tourism Authority of Thailand, TAT Introduces Cultural Heritage Routes of Southeast Asia. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 April 2012]. 63

64 The last category, Tourism is the most relevant one for this case, especially because of the profile of the company. For Thailand, tourism is a major driver for the country s economy (Anholt 2006). In 2010, the country generated almost one trillion baht revenue from tourism (Table 2): Table 2: Income divided on types of tourism Source: Department of Tourism 16 The revenue from internal tourism in 2010, coming from all people who travelled inside the country (both foreigners as well as Thai) increased significantly, compared with the previous year. According to the seventh annual FutureBrand Country Brand Index , Thailand ranked number 7 in terms of tourism brand image. It was also ranked Number 1 in terms of Value for Money. Thailand was also among the top 10 for key attributes; such as, Food, Beaches, Nightlife, Shopping, and Accommodation. TAT acknowledged this result and committed to maintaining this standard in order for Thailand to become one of the best countries for travelling. Ngaorungsi, Deputy Governor for International Marketing in Asia and South Pacific regions, stated that For Brand Image, the TAT will continue to reinforce the essence of the Thailand 16 Department of Tourism, 2011.Tourism in Thailand 2010 statistics. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 April 2012]. 17 FutureBrand, Country Brand Index [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 March 2012]. 64

65 brand, <<Amazing Thailand Always Amazes You>>, with Authenticity, Value for Money, and Hospitality 18. Looking at the domestic tourism, which is also the focus of this paper, the above table brings forward a significant change from The table shows that the total number visitors increased with more that 20% and the revenue doubled. This indicates an increasing interest from TAT in exploring the domestic market. In order to create a successful brand, a company should first analyse the environment which can be done by carrying out a SWOT analysis. This will identify its strengths and weaknesses and in the same time, discover the threats and opportunities around the company. For TAT, the results of such an analysis will help the organization at reinforcing its marketing strategy. a. Strengths To build a successful nation brand, a person s perception of the country is prominent. Thailand is famous for its destinations from various reasons, such as the nature of Thai people, natural beauty, cheap price and delicious food (Figure 8). These positive perceptions of people can be an advantage for TAT to attract more tourists to visit the country. On the other hand, a strong domestic market is also very important. In order to create a healthy country brand, local people must feel attached to their own country as well. TAT tries to encourage Thai people to travel more in the country, which was also suggested by the Governor: I would like to invite the Thai people to travel within the country because domestic tourism is very important as foreign tourist arrival can be affected by local crisis (Appendix A, p. 5). Looking at the population size, Thailand has more than 60 million people, which can be a significant resource for the company. Tailoring a strategy for the domestic market can offer the possibility of attracting huge financial income, maybe even more that what the foreign visitors are contributing. However, the financial benefits are not the only outcome from building a strategy for the domestic market. If Thai people become more aware of what their country s 18 News Room Tourism Authority of Thailand, ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012 (ATF 2012) Thailand Media Briefing. [online] Available at: < atf-2012&catid=9%3apresentations&itemid=81> [Accessed 12 April 2012]. 65

66 advantages are, they can represent the country overseas, encouraging other people to travel through the word of mouth. b. Weaknesses While a positive perception gives an advantage to TAT, a negative perception can be a great obstacle as well. As it was mentioned earlier, many people associate Thailand with its sex industry. A bad image of Thailand can result in a decreasing number of tourists visiting the country. Other weaknesses can come from natural disasters, such as flooding or earthquakes. For example, in Thailand, at the end of 2006, there was a huge tsunami, whipping off almost the entire south-western coast (Birkland et al. 2006). c. Opportunities Nearby countries branding campaigns can bring opportunities for tourism in Thailand. In the past few years, several Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore also promoted their country through tourism. Both Malaysia, Truly Asia 19 and Your Singapore 20 campaigns were launched to boost tourism market in their own country. For example, TAT can take advantage of people travelling in nearby countries by promoting joint packages which allow tourists to make a tour that covers more than one country. d. Threats Looking at the external environment, the biggest threat for TAT is the global financial crisis during 2008 and This reflects in people spending less money on travelling aboard. However, it can also be an opportunity, because TAT can attract more Thai customers, convincing them to travel inside the country. Carrying out a SWOT analysis will reveal information about the internal as well as the external environment. Such data will influence the way the strategy is developed. Nevertheless, the 19 Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia Truly Asia. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 19 July 2012]. 20 Singapore Tourism Board, Your Singapore. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 19 July 2012]. 66

67 strategy for nation branding has to have a high level of creativity. TAT s campaign Amazing Thailand consists of a themed message that is built in an interesting way, with words that are easily remembered and recognized (Choibamroong 2008). After the campaign was launched in 1998, it generated after one year almost US 40 million showing its success (Roll 2006). It presented different aspects of Thailand that did not resemble other destinations. Amazing can be applied for many interesting places or activities in Thailand: tourists are amazed by the grand royal palace, breath-taking beaches and other natural site, exotic food, shockingly low prices of products and service, incredible Thai hospitality and the possibility of experimenting exotic things that are different from people s home environment or daily lives (Nuttavuthisit 2007). However, even though the message is highly creative, Thailand is also facing problems and obstacles regarding nation branding. Choibamroong (2008) states that Thailand has a vague image and brand which can be problematic in convincing people to visit or decide to invest in Thailand. This problem is rooted from adverse publicity and inconsistent messages presented by mass media. Another problem is suggested by Thongtep (2012) 21, who mentions Martin Sorrell, WPP s founder and CEO, the world's largest advertising and marketing services group, who agrees that Thailand has too much fragmentation of the nation branding process. Several major marketing campaigns are run by key government bodies. The audience can get confused if the message is fragmented, even though it is easy to remember and build in an attractive manner. The message is not uniform and it can create differences in the way the audience perceives the brand. It is difficult for people to recall what Thailand really stands for. Sorrell suggested that Thailand needs a clear, single message through integration of the country's branding, and that the government should use world events to showcase the Kingdom. Anholt (2006) also explains that there are many developing countries whose brands heavily rely on tourism. Tourism has become the only source of revenue which has the potential to lift such place subsistence levels. It is the single source of information from where people gather their information about it. This will make the country very vulnerable. If the tourism brand declines, it 21 Thongtep, W., Kingdom needs single message, long-term brand vision: WPP. The Nation, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 20 March 2012]. 67

68 is difficult for people outside the country to believe that such a country can be a good destination for living, working, investing or buying products from. Therefore, a nation brand needs expansion in order to lessen the exposure of the place to risk. For Thailand, Changsorn (2010) quotes Temporal, an author and adviser to many governments and corporations, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Intel and Marks and Spencer, arguing that there is no main brand strategy to manage the perception of people outside the country. He said that "people are talking about Thailand, but Thailand doesn't talk about itself 22. He also emphasized that although the Amazing Thailand campaign is well-known, Thailand needs more than the promotion of tourism. Concrete efforts are required to promote the country's brand and the brands of its products, to help attract talent and foreign direct investment. Looking at TAT s current marketing plan, its objectives are to increase the nation brand awareness among Thai people. In 2010, TAT launched five main marketing strategies to improve the domestic tourism situation (Appendix A). These strategies form guidelines for the company s actions, underlining the areas of interest: a. Building a trend for tourism to become a part of life b. Promoting linkage tourism c. Creating a perception of the areas uniqueness d. Campaigning for tourism with awareness in its value and preserving tourist attractions e. Promoting tourism in the dimension of learning From the marketing plan for the domestic tourism, it can be noticed that TAT has tried to build the brand by including all areas from the country, showing that each place has a unique beauty and everybody should explore Thailand as much as possible. TAT s marketing plan revealed a strong intention to increase the nation brand awareness for Thai people acknowledging that this segment is as important as any other for the company and it should be explored more in the future. The growing interest also involves building a strong communication, which is going to be 22 Changsorn, P., Thailand needs brand management. The Nation, [online] Available at: < html> [Accessed 12 April 2012]. 68

69 shown in the next chapters, revealing traditional as well as innovative channels used by TAT to reach its audience. Due to the nature of the product that it wants to promote, TAT has to consider numerous and diverse aspects, from political issues to people s mentality. As a direct consequence, it has to go beyond making simple flyers or promotional materials and try to improve the overall image of the country, going against stereotypes and trying to maintain a leader position in the international nation brand rankings. Moreover, through the two models presented above, it also became visible that a nation brand does not refer only to tourism, having other dimensions that are equally relevant in the process of building a brand. Overall, each nation brand dimension has an impact on the other, being interlinked. Moreover, the tourism dimension is not the only component for a successful nation brand mix, requiring a symbiosis of different factors. Especially for the tourism industry, the general situation of the country has a direct influence on the field. From political turmoil to the worldwide economic crisis, these are all factors that can make the tourism industry become more vulnerable. The multidimensionality of this process makes it even harder for TAT to succeed in creating a successful nation brand, as it has to address concomitantly different factors and still improve the tourism industry as a whole. Additionally, as shown above, the branding problem which Thailand is currently facing is based on two main ideas: firstly, a high degree of reliance on the tourism dimensions and secondly, a fragmented concept for the nation brand. These problems represent challenges that the Thai government has to overcome in order to create a strong nation brand. 69

70 3.3 Targeting the Audience This chapter will focus on the procedure of choosing the right target audiences so that the communication process will be more convenient and effective. Firstly, a definition of the organization s stakeholder groups is going to be given, in order to classify the target audience. After classifying the stakeholder groups, the next step will be to segment the market according to different needs and characteristics of each group of customers in order to better serve each target audience s desires. This kind of approach has a strong business oriented nature, which will take the discourse from a more subjective interpretation towards a critical argumentation. When building a brand, the target audience has to be identified in order to select the appropriate target group for branding a certain product. This applies to nation branding as well, in order to select the right target audience, an organization should identify all its stakeholders Stakeholders In the academic environment, there are numerous definitions given for the stakeholder concept. Stanford Research Institute was the first group giving a definition in 1963: those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist (Friedman & Miles 2006, p. 5). Another example is Freeman s (2004) definition those groups who are vital to the survival and success of the corporation (p. 58). One of most referred to definitions for the stakeholder concept is the one provided by Freeman (1984): a stakeholder is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization s purpose and objectives (p. 46). Friedman and Miles (2006) explain how stakeholders can be classified, stating that the most common way is by observing the relationship between them and the organization. The most important aspect when classifying a group of stakeholders is to define how crucial this certain group of stakeholders is to the achievement of corporate objectives. 70

71 Both Freeman (2004) as well as Friedman and Miles (2006) created a stakeholder map which is composed of similar groups of stakeholders. Friedman and Miles (2006) created the following classification: a. Shareholders b. Customers c. Employees d. Suppliers and distributors e. Local communities f. Competitors g. Government h. The media i. The nature environment j. Academics Freeman (2004) sketched the stakeholder groups, putting together a map, as shown in Figure 11. He mentions that stakeholder groups are represented by circles at the end of the spokes emanating from the firm. Figure 11: Stakeholder map Source: Freeman (1984, p. 55) 71

72 It can be observed that both stakeholder classifications are very similar to each other. Each classification encloses the important and significant groups of people who are crucial to the achievement of the organization s goals and objectives Stakeholders in the tourism market Both Sheehan (2007) and Pike (2005) explain the complexity of the tourism industry. It involves a various group of stakeholders who have different interests in the market. Therefore, the first step in classifying stakeholders in this particular market is to identify which stakeholder groups are likely and unlikely to participate in the tourism development process (Byrd & Gustke 2011). Leisen and Sautter (1999) adapted Freeman s stakeholder map and applied it to the tourism market (Figure 12). Figure 12: Tourism stakeholder map Source: Leisen & Sautter (1999, p. 315) In the figure above, it can be seen that the common stakeholders in every type of business are competitors, government, employees or customers (tourists). Accordingly, they play an 72

73 important role in the tourism market. However, there are two categories, which are more emphasized in the tourism market: local business and residents. This is because the tourism business aims at creating products (destinations) that require a high degree of synchronization between the business environment and residents. For example, when a tourism agency promotes a specific area in its holiday packages, it will directly affect both the local business as well as the residents from that area, creating new opportunities or on the contrary, threats. However, it should be noticed that tourism stakeholders may differ in their organisational size and resources and their ability to discuss how they segment a market varies (Tkaczynski, Rundle-Thiele & Beaumount 2008). As a consequence, a diverse perspective over different stakeholder groups has to be carefully taken consideration as their interests are not solely touristic (Leisen & Sautter1999) Market segmentation Once the stakeholder groups are identified, the next step is to divide them according to their similar needs and therefore communicate with each target audience effectively. There are two interesting definitions of what market segmentation is. The first definition states that marketing segmentation consists of taking the total heterogeneous market for a product and dividing it into several sub-markets or segments, each of which tends to be homogeneous in all significant aspect (Bisht et al. 2010, p. 36). The second given definition emphasizes a specific group of stakeholders, that of customers: marketing segmentation is the process of splitting customers, or potential customers in a market into different groups or segments (McDonald & Dunbar 2004, p. 34). The interesting aspect in both definitions is that market segmentation involves a process of dividing customers based on similar characteristics, identifying people who have the same needs and be able to tailor the product or service according to their requirements. From a corporate perspective, customer segmentation can help an organization to be more effective and focus all available resources towards specific target. This can also be time efficient and cost effective for developing strategic options. 73

74 The purpose of market segmentation is to design a market offering (product) which is more compatible with the needs of customers in each market segment (Bennett & Strydom 2001) Market segmentation for tourism To segment the tourism market, one can apply the market segmentation variables for general product and service. Bennette and Strydom (2001) list the general bases and variables for segmenting travel and tourism markets and they include: a. Socio-economic and Demographic variables: age, education, gender, income, family size, family life cycle, social class, home ownership, race or ethnic group and occupation. These variables are still the most commonly used methods for segmenting travel and tourism markets, owing to the relative ease of acquiring understanding and applying the data. b. Product-related variables: recreation activity, equipment type, volume usage, brand loyalty, benefit expectations, length of stay, transportation mode, experience preferences, participation patterns. These variables are applicable to specific cases, differing from one situation, product or service to another. c. Psychographic variables: personality traits, lifestyle, attitudes, interests, options, motivation. The most popular form is lifestyle segmentation which concentrates on: how people spend their free time, their interest, the view they have of themselves and the world around them. d. Geographic variables: region, market area, urban, suburban, rural, city size, population density. These considerations are very important to travel and tourism markets because much of the attractiveness of a tourist destination is based on contrasting cultures, climates or scenery. 74

75 e. Purpose-of-trip variables: regular business travel, business travel related to meeting and conferences, incentive travel, visiting friends and relatives, vacation-touring, outdoor, resort, visits to theme park, event and exhibition. It is a practical segmentation in the travel and tourism industry. It often begins with a careful analysis of the purposes for which customers travel and use products and services. f. Behavioural segmentation: occasions, benefit sought, usage rates, user status, loyalty. In travel and tourism marketing, the focus is mainly in usage rates and benefit sought. Looking at the classification given above, two unique aspects can be identified: purpose of trip and product-related variables. These two groups address the specificity of the industry itself. The first one refers to the consumer behaviour regarding travelling, which is an important aspect when creating products and services for tourism. The organization has to gather information about how customers actually relate to travelling and decide, for example upon the optimal type (business or pleasure) for their packages. The second set of variables, product-related, help the organization at tailoring each product according to a given context. For example, each holiday package has to have an exclusive characteristic, which will attract the customer s attention and enable the buying decision. The customer has to feel that he or she is going to have a unique experience by buying for example a holiday package, because it can select custom made options and make the most out of it Defining TAT s market To make a graphic representation of TAT s stakeholder map, both Freeman (1984) and Leisen and Sautter s (1999) models can be applied. The first one, by Freeman (1984) is a more general and universally accepted classification, offering a broad overview of all the groups around a company. However, to make a more accurate and relevant map, which will represent TAT and the involved parties around it, Leisen and Sautter s model (1999) brings additional information about the tourism market. 75

76 By combining the two models, the paper will gain both a more broad perspective over stakeholders as well as a customized map for the tourism industry, with a focus on the domestic market. Even though it is a niche market, by applying these models, in-depth data will reveal an accurate and detailed perspective regarding stakeholders. This way, TAT will have a thoroughly developed map with all the groups that affect or are affected by the organization and prioritize them according to the strategy. Figure 13: TAT stakeholder map Source: Own creation One of the main targets for TAT is customers, also known as tourists. For the domestic market, Thai people living in Thailand are the major customers. It can also include Thai people living outside the country as well. TAT s Governor stated that domestic travel by Thai tourists will help at improving the overall economic situation of the country (Appendix A). Directly linked to customers is the local business, which supports the development of the tourism market. The most famous and successful event in Thailand is the Discovery Thailand fair which is held three times a year. At this fair, there will be over a thousand exhibition booths from various exhibitors such as hotels, travel agents, airlines, car rentals, and restaurants (Appendix 76

77 A). Such an event can both encourage the local business as well as offer the opportunity for TAT to collaborate with partners from the local market. Even though TAT has monopoly over the internal market, meaning that it is the only company promoting domestic tourism in Thailand, it has to pay attention to competitors outside the country that might attract Thai tourists. For instance, the Korean culture, food or entertainment business which has a great influence among young Thai people, might trigger them to travel in South Korea and this can be a big threat for a company 23. In the residents category, people who are living in the tourist attraction areas can be an example. As it was mentioned earlier, these groups of people are directly affected by TAT. By living in promoting areas, it can bring them both advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, TAT should have a special departments communicating with local residents. Media is one of the most powerful stakeholder groups. There were many times when TAT promoted domestic tourism among Thai people through mass media. Media becomes a main communication channel for TAT in connecting with their current and potential customers. In the same time, media can influence other stakeholders by presenting positive and negative aspect of the company, exercising its agenda-setting function (McCombs & Shaw 1972). After the political turmoil in the country in 2010, TAT launched the Hug Thailand national campaign under a slogan Hug Thailand to heal your weariness in July the same year. The objective was to motivate Thai people to resume domestic tourism despite the chaotic political situation. The campaign included TV commercial, print media and billboards 24. Another stakeholder group are the NGOs. A non-governmental organization focuses on the company s ethic, moral and corporate social responsibility activities. Although it does not have a direct influence on the company, it can indirectly affect TAT by supporting or destroying the company s reputation. TAT has to conduct its business in an ethical manner in order to present a positive image of the company. For example, TAT launched its Corporate Social Responsibility s project called Green Island Project KohSamui in The purpose was to 23 Chosun Media, Thai Tourists Make Beeline for Korea. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 24 Campaignbrief, Hug Thailand and Thailand will hug you. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 77

78 protect and preserve the environment in Samui Island 25. TAT invited many stakeholder groups to join this project including NGOs. This activity showed that TAT is aware the importance of NGO, making them part of its activities. For internal stakeholders, employees are one of the most important groups. They are the key factor to help TAT accomplishing its goal. Employees include from top management level to entry level working for the domestic market. TAT acknowledges the significance of these people even in the overall mission, emphasising that one of its goals is to improve the competence of its employees (Appendix A). TAT aims at encouraging its staff to become marketing professionals so that the company can lift up its standards to an international level. Another vital internal stakeholder group refers to the shareholders. As TAT is a public organization, it is supported by the Thai government. The Thai government is the sole shareholders of the company therefore, the overall situation of the country directly affects TAT s budget, as also indicated in the previous section. Looking at the market segmentation, TAT segments its target audiences mainly on psychographic variables. This includes lifestyle, attitudes and interests towards tourism. Each group of people has different preferences in travelling and relaxing, especially in the tourism industry where each tourist attraction and place suits different interests of people. For example, TAT collaborated with local tour agencies to sell a water rafting holiday package in the Northern part of Thailand. The target group were people who are fond of adventurous activities 26. Another example can be seen from the Thailand Golf & Dive Expo 2012 event in May At this fair, products and services related to diving and golf were introduced to people who like these types of activities. Purpose-of-trip variables are closely related to psychographic variables. They focus on different purposes for travelling, such as events or exhibitions. For the past ten years, TAT and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports have organized the Pattaya International Music Festival, 25 Walailak University, Tourism stakeholders pursue Green Island status for Samui Island. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 July 2012]. 26 Thailandday, 2011.I-4 MTB + Elephant Riding + White Water Rafting Adventure. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 27 Apimonton, P., Wonder deals at domestic fair. TTR weekly, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 78

79 which promotes the tourism industry of Pattaya city. 150,000 Thai participants generate over 1,000 million baht each year. In 2012, it is became part of the government-initiated Miracle Year of Amazing Thailand project, which aims at boosting the tourism industry and tourist revenue According to Chawawisuttikoon, a former employee of TAT (Appendix B), TAT does not emphasize the demographic variables, such as age or gender. TAT believes that tourism should be an activity that everyone can enjoy and participate. If the company were to segment the market into just a few groups of people, it would limit the target audience and this can bring a disadvantage to the company. TAT s overall objectives are to attract local people to travel more inside the country despite their different backgrounds, interests, lifestyles or behaviours. As a result, the company organized a variety of events, activities and touristic attractions to serve everybody s needs and desires. It can be seen that for the domestic market, TAT addresses its stakeholders equally, considering each group of people important in reaching the company s objectives. TAT organized a variety of activities and events to cover and reach out to every group of stakeholders. As each target group has different behaviours and needs, TAT has to choose different communication channels for an effective result. 28 Chaichalearmmongkol, N., TAT expects 150,000 visitors at Pattaya International Music Festival NNT [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 29 Pattaya Daily News, R U Ready? Pattaya International Music Festival Has Arrived. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 79

80 3.4. Communication channels This chapter will present how to select an appropriate communication channel that suits the chosen target audience, particularly in the tourism market. It will enable the organization to communicate with the target audience effectively and improve its communication strategy. It is again a practical approach with arguments that present a more objective standpoint. As each target group has a varied background, behaviour, lifestyle and needs, a way to approach each of them is therefore different. To reach the target audience successfully, the right communication channels have to be selected Types of communication According to Thitthongkam, Walsh and Banchapattanasakda (2010), communication can be categorized into five major types: a. Mass communication or the ways of passing information to a large number of people. b. Wireless communication which does not involve passing signals through electrical or telephone wires, for example mobile phones or internet (Summers 2000). c. Written communication d. Spoken communication which involves both speakers and senders (Richards 1993). e. Nonverbal communication related to communication through gestures, eye and body language (Usunier 1996). The same authors also categorize communication channels for tourism industry as follows: a. Internal communication Internal communication includes all communication activities that exist within a tourism organization. It can be oral, written, face-to-face, virtual, or in groups inside the organization. It includes building up the ideas and setting up certain guidelines to follow. Moreover, it can be a 80

81 way of building a good relationship between employees inside the tourism organization (Chong 2007). b. External communication External communication is when people engage in speaking face-to-face with tourists or customers (Samovar & Porter 2004). External communication can also be the written message like quotes coming from an important or legendary person, or advertising billboard that can give information about the tourism organization and products. Other types of communication were suggested by Kotler, Bowen and Makens (2003). They divide the channels into two types. a. Personal communication channels These channels involve two or more people communicating with each other, face-to-face, person to audience, over the telephone, or via mail. They are effective because they enable personal addressing and feedback. Personal sources of information are often sought before someone purchases a travel package, select a restaurant, or stay at a hotel. Companies can take several steps in putting personal communication channels to work. For example, they can use as promotion tool, well-known people or companies, that can be their presenter or sell their products and in turn influence others to buy. b. Nonpersonal communication channels Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback. They include media and events. Using mass media often affects buyers indirectly through a two-step flow of communication. In the process, messages are first transmitted from mass media such as television, radio or magazine to opinion leaders and then flow to less active population. Therefore, mass media is not as direct and powerful as opinion leaders who carry messages to less exposed receivers. The two categories presented above refer to different perspective of how a company can build and manage its communication. For example, the first classification argues about the target of the 81

82 message, which can be either internal or external. The company has to build messages both for the external as well as the internal public, using different channels. The second classification does not address the target of the message, but rather how to reach the external public, through personal or nonpersonal communication. It does not distinguish the between the internal and external public, but it differentiates the means used to reach, for example customers Communication channels in tourism market Today, when people from around the world can connect within few seconds or a mouth click through the fast-growing technologies, it enhances more choices for communication channels not only offline but also online (Kania 2000). Therefore, both communication channels are going to be highlighted in relation to tourism Offline channels Kotler, Bowen and Makens (2003) argue about how an organization that is doing tourism communicates with its customers. The most popular communication channels in this market are media and events. Media consists of three main types: broadcast media (radio and television), print media (newspaper, magazines or direct mail) and display media (billboards, signs and posters). Events are another important way of transmitting messages to the target audiences. Press conferences, grand openings, public tours, or other events are examples of activities undertaken by the public relation department. Nuttavuthisit (2007) also agrees upon using events as one of the communication channels. He explained that events are an interactive activity which helps the company in communicating a desired image or place brand to its target groups. This not only creates a strong awareness but also influences people over a period of time. Through offline channels, organizations in tourism can choose to communicate with their stakeholders in a personal way through events or in a more nonpersonal way, through mass media. 82

83 Online channels The development of electronic commerce now offers opportunities for collaborative marketing tourism destinations. The potential to create virtual co-operation exists, whereby potential tourists can browse a destination through websites of individual facilities and develop a coherent picture of the destination experience on offer. This is because customers benefit from such channels by gaining immediate gratification of their requests, multiple choices, accurate and upto-date information, and an easy-to-use interface. Moreover, an interactive website provides a good opportunity for the multiple suppliers involved in a tourism destination to fashion together uniquely the specific components of a destination offer, which are sought by individual visitors. (Morgan, Pritchard & Pride 2004) Nevertheless, Web 2.0. is particularly vital to online channel. The reason is that it has crossed over the traditional communication channel such as broadcast media, where target audiences can only consume the content. Web 2.0. enhances collaboration and sharing of information between the company and its stakeholders (Isacsson & Gretzel 2011). The virtual channels become more and more visible in tourism organization s communication strategy. With more than 1 billion people using social networking sites worldwide 30, companies realized their opportunity to reach out to other countries. Nowadays, tourist destinations can benefit from the online channels by developing a coherent position in the marketplace, increasing their market share by getting closer to both actual and potential customers, and subsequently by ensuring the delivery of high levels of customer satisfaction. In order to understand how these tools can be used for improving an organization s communication strategy, more detailed information are going to be illustrated in the following section. The information will create a map, showing what social media are and going through specific tactics and tools that a company can use to include them in their business strategy. 30 Digitalbuzz, Infographic: Social Media Statistics For [online] Available at: < [Accessed 19 July 2012]. 83

84 Reaching out to TAT s audience In order to reach every target audience effectively, a communication strategy should include both personal and nonpersonal communication channels. Especially for TAT, its publics are composed of diversified groups of people. Therefore, the company has to cover different ways of communication. TAT invested a considerable amount of money in promoting domestic tourism through various types of communication channels. An example of personal communication is the call centre established by TAT in both Thai and English. This was done to help tourists to get updated with information about tourism directly from the company itself 31. Inaugurated in 2009, the service gave visitors the possibility of contacting TAT via telephone and/ or internet. The information available covers a variety of categories, such as touristic attractions, accommodation and weather. Moreover, customers can lodge a complaint to a company as well. This provides an effective communication channel for TAT since it enables personal addressing and feedback. Looking at the nonpersonal communication channels, TAT s promoting activities are directed towards two main channels: offline and online. Through offline channels, the major activities organized by TAT are events and fairs. There are several events for promoting domestic tourism launched each year around the country. For example, the Amazing I-san Fair in 2010 was an event organized to encourage Thai people to travel in the North-eastern part of the country (Appendix A). On other occasions, TAT advertised its activities by using well-known people to attract customers. The Nowhere Else is Newer project was made for promoting the different travelling styles of the Central Region, such as travelling with the family or backpacking travelling. TAT invited actors and celebrities to share their experiences about new touristic attractions in this region (Appendix A). Media, another offline channel, is the most appropriate way to reach a large number of customers (Smith 2005). TAT uses various media channels to communicate with its customers. The Hug 31 The Goverment Public Relations Department, TAT Hotline Internet Call Center. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 84

85 Thailand campaign was promoted through broadcast and display media in July Its television commercials were broadcasted on both national and local television channels. Billboard advertisements were also used in this campaign 32. Using the radio, TAT introduced The East-West Corridor Tourism Route project to encourage more linkage tourism with the neighbouring countries. This campaign was promoted on the MCOT radio station (Appendix A). For print media, TAT has been publishing its monthly tourist magazine called Osotho since At present, it is the oldest tourist magazine which has the highest sales volume in Thailand with over 100,000 copies sold each month 33. TAT also promoted its campaigns in other tourism magazines. For example, it has a special column entitled Various Styles of Tours in the Central Region for promoting tourism in central part of Thailand in the Postcard: Travel by Budget magazine (Appendix A). In the same time, online channels have become an important communication channel for TAT as numerous present and potential customers search information through websites and social media. In 2003, TAT launched its official website 34 to expand its communication channels with its customers due to the rapid growth of the virtual world. In the present, its official website is provided in 26 languages covering its target countries from around the world. For the domestic market, the website 35 is in Thai language so that Thai people can retrieve the latest updates and news from TAT whenever they want. Because of the rising popularity of social media, TAT started its digital activities on social media since 2009 in order to create more channels to connect with customers and strengthen its digital marketing. To focus more on the domestic target groups, TAT created two main pages for Facebook and Twitter, under the slogan Amazing Thailand, Always Amazes you They 32 Campaignbrief, Hug Thailand and Thailand will hug you. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 33 Sukjai Thailand, OSOTHO Magazine [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 34 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Amazing Thailand, always amaze you (English version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1April 2012]. 35 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Amazing Thailand, always amaze you (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1April 2012]. 36 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, อะเมสซ งไทยแลนด. [online] Available at: 85

86 give basic information about tourist attraction areas from all over the country and promote the activities launched by the company. Looking at all of its marketing activities and campaigns from both offline and online channels, it can be said that TAT has covered a multitude of different communication channels. Through traditional offline channel, it communicates with its customers more personally and is able to provide more in-depth information. On the other hand, online channels give a convenient and fast way to make information available at any given place or time. It is interesting to point out TAT s commitment in emphasizing and improving its digital media s communication channels, approach also stated by TAT s governor. He agreed to focus more on digital marketing by introducing new technologies and making use of online social network. By communicating with its target customers through this channel, he believed that it will help TAT to become a truly excellent marketing organization (Appendix A). In the following sections, the paper will unfold the company s social network strategies and its current actions. This will show how this type of media can contribute to improving the communication with customers. < [Accessed 1April 2012]. 37 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1April 2012]. 86

87 3.5. Social media: general Information In the business environment of today, companies discover more and more that social media offer them new communication tools and practices for building or enforcing their business strategy. As Reid (2009) states, companies are using these tools to boost their performance and they are doing this at lower costs and despite the danger of losing control over information. The internet and mobile technologies are going to revolutionize the world similar to how the invention of printing, writing and telephone did in the past (Shepherd 2011). Therefore, social media engagement can no longer be ignored, as there is too much to be gained (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). This section aims at presenting a general overview about social media, pointing out some of the definitions given by academics, listing main characteristics and categorizing types of social media. These topics will generate insight in the field, showing how these new communication tools evolved and what their particularities are. After the theoretical concepts will have been pointed out, a general presentation of TAT s social media tools is going to be sketched, embracing all digital channels, both the ones used for the international as well as domestic public. This general perspective is necessary in order to frame the organization s approach in relation to these new communication tools and enable the research to focus on the domestic public, in the next section Definition and evolution In order to understand this revolutionary field, a definition has to be provided. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) suggest that, before understanding what social media are and what they include, some boundaries have to be set between the term and the apparently identical concepts of Web 2.0. and User Generated Content. According to the mentioned authors, Web 2.0. is a term that appeared in 2004 and described the way software developers and end-users started to utilize the World Wide Web. This new approach was different because content and applications were no longer generated by individuals, but they were rather a result of users collaborating. Web 2.0. offered the technological means that helped social media to develop. 87

88 Discussing about User Generated Content (UGC), Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) argue that it represents the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media (p. 61). They continue by pointing out three main requirements for UGC: the first one is that the content has to be published on a public website or on a social network available to a selected group of people; secondly, it has to show creative intention and thirdly it has to have been created outside of professional routines and practices. After framing the field of Social Media, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) agree on the following definition: Social media is a group of internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0. and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content (p. 61). Although the definition offers a very general perspective, it includes specific concepts and technical terms that require having previous knowledge about the field. Schmidt and Ralph (2011) approach the term from a more generic angle, stating that: Social medias are online technologies that allow people to connect in a variety of ways (p. 38). Although the definition explains the primary functionality of social media, it is too broad and it does not offer a complete description. Montalvo (2011) gives a more detailed explanation for social media: Social media are fundamentally scalable communications technologies that turn Internet-based communications, (i.e., smart phones, PCs, tablet computers, portable media players, etc.) into an interactive dialogue platform (p. 91). Looking at the authors mentioned above, it can be said that social media offer communication platforms on which users can interact, communicate and exchange information. The uniqueness of these platforms is that they offer the possibility of creating content as a consequence of online communication between users. The content generated is original and enables new discussions to emerge. 88

89 Characteristics After defining social media and observing how these new communication platforms evolved, the main characteristics will be pointed out, in order to better comprehend how they function. This will enable, later in the paper, a better understanding of how these tools have to be used and the advantages they can offer, in relation to nation branding. A very distinct aspect of social media is that they allow horizontal cooperation between players (Aguiton & Cardon 2007). This is an innovative aspect that offers the possibility of creating content between users, despite their different background or position inside the company. Social media are built as a non-linear concept, based on the idea of communicating from many to many and not from one to many. In other words, social media create a participatory society, in which more people get the chance to create content at a very fast rate (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Social media cannot be controlled but they can be influenced, using the right tools (Safko & Brake 2009). There are more than 200 social media sites, each offering a means to communicate (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). The same authors point out that anybody can use social media, whether they use it because of business or personal reasons. Social media do not take into consideration geographic location, culture, race or religion. Moreover, these tools can be applied in any type of company, regardless of the size and profile. As a marketing tool, companies have to focus on how they apply social media in an effective way. From a brand perspective, social media changed the mass communication approach to a person to person communication (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011; Aguiton & Cardon 2007). Basically, social media offer free access, which means that there are no boundaries for users to join and use the services. When discussing about the free aspect of social media in the corporate environment, Kosk (2011) quotes Lisa Cole, director of Marketing for PSA Security, who believes that it is very important to have dedicated resources to write blogs and push information out. Hence, when companies use social media, they have to allocate human resources to monitor the exchange of information inside and outside the organization. It is an area that can be characterized as labourintensive (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). 89

90 Free access to social media also gives the possibility for users to join or leave the network in an uncontrolled manner. Social media represent a fast changing environment, in which preferences vary frequently. Users can easily join or leave social platforms, according to their personal tastes or simply because that specific platform is no longer popular among users. Most social networks are free to join and the only requirement is for the individual to complete a profile with a valid address (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). In favour of using social media, the same authors emphasize that one of the most important uses is that of data collection. It enables them to gather information without being geographically bounded. They allow the company to find out what their present and potential customers believe about the company and address any areas of misunderstanding. Yost (2010), Schmidt and Ralph (2011) argue that it is of extreme importance for companies to select the right tools that will serve their purpose. As stated above, there are numerous tools and in order to succeed, every situation has to be approached individually and accordingly. In a nutshell, social media stand for free and uncontrolled exchange of information and users create meaning and content while communicating. This exchange makes the longevity of the user s experience to vary and it becomes impossible to remove published information. For companies, it means they have to both carefully prepare their messages as well as to allocate resources for managing these tools Misconceptions about social media Deciding to approach social media can be done from wrong reasons as well. Numerous times, companies use social media in an abusive marketing manner and according to Kosk (2011), this is one of the biggest mistakes in using these tools. Companies do not distinguish anymore the difference between overwhelming the customers with advertisements and being informative. Using social media as another channel through which it can sell its products is not an approach that will generate more customers. On the contrary, it will demotivate the user. An informative approach will give the user the possibility of accessing information about the company, in a voluntary manner and without being bombarded with commercial ads. 90

91 Agresta, Bough and Miletsky (2011) also emphasise a series of misconceptions about social media. Firstly, most of the times, companies believe that social media are cheap, which is a misconception. Companies have to earn the right to be part of a conversation and to remain in it. And in a lot of respects, earning that right is far more expensive than just paying for the right to be there (p. 27). Secondly, social media do not have to be considered as additional ad space for the company to use. Even if advertisements are posted on social networks such as Facebook, these are one way messages and one of the core characteristics of social media is that it enables conversations between users. Thirdly, social media campaigns are not sporadic episodes that the company can use in order to boost its presence on the market. Such campaigns to not have a beginning or an ending and they should have an on-going participation. The results are therefore not immediate but rather long termed Types of Social Media Social media gather under the same umbrella different types of tools. Each tool has specific characteristics that need to be acknowledged, before deciding which is going to be the best choice for a given situation. However, Aguiton and Cardon (2007) consider that it has become difficult to categorize and differentiate the range of services that social media cover. Schmidt and Ralph (2011) agree on four types of social media: a. Social Networks or Online Communities Social networks or online communities include sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn and they give users the opportunity to create a profile (account) that will enable them to generate new sites within their personal page. Such platforms support the exchange of information, video and/ or photo sharing. 91

92 b. Blogs Blogs are both publication and communication tools. Bloggers produce specific content in order to reach others and to start a conversation with them (Aguiton & Cardon 2007, p. 54).Schmidt and Ralph (2011) compare blogs to online diaries that are not space limited and can be accessed by people who have an interest in a specific subject at a due time. Individuals that use blogs, also known as bloggers, have to be actively involved in the relationship with their public (audience). They have to be as persuasive as possible, in order to catch the attention of other users and make them comment about their posts (Aguiton & Cardon 2007). Therefore, the exchange of information is built according to the feedback given by the audience and the blogger himself/ herself. c. MicroBlogs Unlike blogs, microblogs are tools used to publish information as soon as possible or even while events are taking place and this is done in a limited space that consists of 140 characters. One of the most popular microblogs is Twitter. When a person receives a message or update on twitter it is known as a tweet. It is instantaneous communication (Schmidt & Ralph 2011, p. 39). d. RSS Really Simple Syndication Really Simple Syndication is a tool that can help the user to filter the information available on social media. It can alert the user about specific topics he/ she is interested in, scanning all available information and selecting them (Yost 2010). Compared to Schmidt and Ralph (2011), Reed (2009) distinguishes three different areas regarding social technology: social media, social networking and social web. Discussing about social networking, he offers the following definition: networks of individuals who come together to make connections with each other and only grant access to their content for that purpose (p. 39). If social networking refers to the process of connecting individuals and creating content with the purpose of increasing their network, social media relates to the production of content by users 92

93 that is accessible and searchable by all (Reid 2009, p. 39). Therefore, the difference between the two terms is that social media refers to an unconditional access to content. The social web refers to the way in which an entity organizes its identity, connections, and content throughout the internet (Reid 2009, p. 39). Companies build their brand through online conversations and attract their customers by building communities of users. Reid s (2009) classification brings an interesting perspective over these revolutionary tools, by not including social networks in the same category as social media. However, a social network such as Facebook has to be included in the social media category as well, because it is not only a network of individuals, but it also supports the creation of content, available to all. This perspective is also suggested by Schmidt and Ralph (2011), as it was portrayed above. Similar to Schmidt and Ralph s (2011) classification, Safko and Brake (2009) break social media into 15 categories: social networking, publish, photo, audio, video, microblogging, live casting, virtual worlds, gaming, productivity applications, aggregators, RSS, search mobile and interpersonal. However, not all these categories can serve the organization s objectives. The main goal is to understand the needs, wants and desires of the target audiences. In the next section, more information will be given about Facebook and Twitter that will point out specific characteristics and how to actually use them Social media tools for TAT Looking at TAT s official website, it can be seen that not only are the social media links visible, but they also cover a considerable amount of space on the home page. This indicates that the company has a particular interest in these tools and it is actively involved in exploring them. However, such a statement cannot be done without first observing how the company engaged in using social media. 93

94 At a first glance, TAT has a multitude of social platforms directly linked to its website, among which: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube 38. These tools represent technologies that allow the company to stay connected to its customers, both existing as well as potential. For example, on their Facebook page 39, the company regularly posts pictures and comments related to their events and users have the opportunity of replying back to the message and develop an interactive dialogue. This dialogue is enriched continuously, through the users interactions, who share photos, express their feelings about an event or even the organization itself, offer links that they find useful and recommend it to their group of friends, by sharing the post. During the PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Hub City Forum, which took place on January 30 th 2012, TAT s Governor, Svetasreni had a presentation about the challenges that the organization detected for the future. One of the topics discussed was the importance of using digital media in order to communicate in a timely manner with the most up-to-date, correct, and relevant information 40. Based on his statement, the organization acknowledges the importance of using social media as communication tools that link it to the audience, proving transparency and commitment to its publics. From the above statements, it can be argued that for TAT, social media represent communication platforms on which the organization as well as its users are actively involved, creating content, offering both sides the opportunity of being updated with the latest information. At a closer look at TAT s website, all users have the opportunity to share the content via any social media tool, linking it to its personal profile. There are more than 300 social platforms listed on the site and even if the company is not present on all platforms, the content of the website can be shared by any visitor through its personal account. Therefore, by clicking the Share button and choosing the social platform on which the user has an account, the content can be accessed by the entire list of connections that specific user has. 38 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Amazing Thailand, always amaze you (English version). [online] Available at: < > [Accessed 1April 2012]. 39 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, Amazing Thailand [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1April 2012]. 40 Tourism Authority of Thailand, PATA Hub City Forum-Bangkok [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 94

95 By applying the categories of social media discussed previously, in the social networks and online communities category, the company has two official Facebook pages, one in Thai 41 and one in English 42, on which it not only communicates with its audience, but also uses photo and video sharing features. For example, in the video gallery, TAT posted a video to celebrate the King s 82 nd anniversary, on December 5 th In 2012, TAT launched a campaign for photo sharing, Miracle Me, to encourage smartphone and social media users to participate 44 and the platforms that cover the event are Facebook and Twitter. The campaign aims at providing a photo sharing centre for users, where they can post pictures with what the miracle of Thailand represents for them. The campaign started in March and ended in June and TAT is going to use some of the materials for promotional purposes. According to Safko and Brake s (2009) classification of social media, photo or video sharing form separate categories of social media, but in the above examples it can be seen that the company combined these features with the services offered by the social network. LinkedIn is another example of a social network. TAT also has a profile on this site, but it is not an active account, having no connections and without any recent activities 45. In the community section on TAT s website, visitors can find a blogosphere created by the company for travellers: If you have or are currently on a Thailand adventure that you would like to share with others, you can start your own blog here! A blog is also a great way to keep a personal journal throughout your travels in Thailand! 46. Users have to create a profile and the content they post can show the company what their interests are and how other users interact 41 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, อะเมสซ งไทยแลนด. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 3April 2012]. 42 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, Amazing Thailand. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 3 April 2012]. 43 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, King 82nd Birthday Anniversary. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 44 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Miracle Me, The Showcase of Miracle Thailand Year. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 45 TAT s LinkedIn, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 46 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Blog. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 95

96 with each other, enabling discussions. These blogs form travelling itineraries, which mark impressions and suggestions about Thailand. From the third category presented by Schmidt and Ralph (2011), TAT selected Twitter as a microblogging tool. The company has two official pages, one in English 47 and one in Thai 48. On these pages, TAT offers information about events that are going to take place or that are taking place while the message is being posted. For example, for the opening of the Songkran Splendours 2012, TAT tweeted that: Sukjai is now at the grand opening of Songkran Splendours 2012 at Wat Pho. The event is presided by TAT's Governor 49. This is an example of instantaneous communication, where the news feed is done while the event is taking place. For the Really Simple Syndication tool, TAT has a section on its website, dedicated to people who want to receive updates about the company: RSS feed is like a news alert for a website; for example, whenever new content is added to the web page, subscribers to that RSS feed will be informed about sections of the site that have been updated! 50. When an individual decides to subscribe for RSS, it has to decide on which type of news it wants to receive updates, for example: hotel deals, Thailand latest feature, tour and packages deals etc. As presented above, TAT has a multitude of social media tools interlinked on its official website, all having distinct characteristics. Firstly, social media enable the creation of content at a very fast rate. For example, on its Facebook page, on March 30 th, TAT posted a picture with a location from PhangNga, asking people what are they doing in the weekend and recommending them this destination as a holiday retreat: Good Morning Friday!! Where would you like to travel with your gang this weekend? Here is PhangNga, Thailand 51. In less than a day, almost 100 people commented, sharing 47 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (English version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 5 April 2012]. 48 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 5April 2012]. 49 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 50 Tourism Authority of Thailand, RSS Feed. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 17 July 2012]. 51 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, [online] Available at: < pe=1&theater> [Accessed 5 April 2012]. 96

97 impressions and expressing their feelings. Additional, more than 1300 people decided to click Like on the comment, expressing this way their approval for the posted message. This is an example of a fast rate communication exchange that started from a question through which TAT wanted to reach its audience and it rapidly responded. Another characteristic regarding social media is that it does not take into consideration location, culture, race or religion. For example, on its Twitter account, TAT asked its followers if they know Thai games, offering a link with a short history of popular games, such as Mon Son Pha, KrataiKhaDiao, Tang Te or KaFakKhai 52. The information is in English and the followers that replied had different nationalities. Both aspects show that social media does not have geographical or cultural boundaries. TAT wanted to present its followers a unique aspect of the Thai culture and the message was received positively. Even though the reaction coming from the audience did not have the scale taken by the message posted on Facebook, which was presented above, it is still interesting to see the universal applicability of these tools. Social media give the opportunity of creating person to person communication. TAT hosts on its website a forum, where people can log in and discuss freely about any topic. On this forum, there is also information about the user, the date when it created the profile and the number of posts. Anybody can reply to a message and bring additional information about a topic, share opinions or see the profile of a specific user. For example, on this forum, there are topics such as: price bargaining, Bangkok airport, car rentals or general facts about the country 53. Taking into consideration the company s profile, which is tourism, these topics are extremely useful for travellers and they offer valuable insight in the personal experiences of other travellers. TAT s variety of social media tools can also help the company at gathering data. In 2010, the company agreed to: Develop website together with its contents by means of integrating information gathered from the TAT s 50 websites database so as to enable a truly centralized database (Appendix A, p. 85). A centralized database can offer the possibility of accessing a considerable amount of data, without being geographically bounded. However, 52 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 5 April 2012]. 53 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Forum. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 8 April 2012]. 97

98 having such a large database of websites can also represent a problem for the user, not knowing which of these sources to use, when searching information about the company. Handling social media also requires allocating human resources. Looking at TAT s organization chart (Appendix A) it can be seen that the company has a Marketing Communication department, which is in charge of advertising, public relations as well as tourism services (information, promotional materials). However, in December 2011, TAT decided to contract a marketing consultancy company for advice on the strategic plan and building tourism in the region. The agency, Marketing Eye, is the most recognized Australian consultancy company, with a creative team, specialized in technology, social media and public relations 54. This suggests that TAT is focused on reinforcing their marketing strategy, building partnerships with companies that have expertise in the field of social media and strategic planning. If TAT s Facebook page is extremely interactive, the Twitter page 55, on the other hand is overloaded with advertising materials. Most of the tweets give information about upcoming events, showing a very commercial and advertising approach that can demotivate the user. However, this tendency is not prominent, because there are also a large number of messages that aim at enabling communication. For example, on April 12 th 2012, TAT posted a link with information about tsunami tests that were carried out in Thailand. The source comes from CNN and TAT added the following message: Now the situation of Tsunami in Thailand is back to normal. Keep in touch with the news everybody 56. More will be discussed about Twitter in Chapter , embracing all the specific characteristics of this social platform. All the above tools offer the possibility of reaching the audience and enabling conversation, which is one of the main features for social media. Customers can interact with other customers, they can read about their personal experiences or update with the latest information about the company. On the other hand, TAT has the opportunity to understand the customers preferences 54 Marketing Eye, Tourism authority of Thailand appoints Marketing Eye - Julie Schoneveld. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 55 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (English version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 56 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 98

99 and gather massive amount of data, which can later on be used to improve the existing business strategy. Looking at TAT s overall usage of digital media, an active interest can be identified just by simply pointing out the multitude of platforms used. However, this does not mean that the company is successful in approaching these virtual tools. This will be revealed after narrowing down the focus to understand the role of social media in the business strategy and explore their influence potential in raising the nation brand awareness for the domestic public How to use Social Media? This section aims at exposing a business angle of social media, emphasizing how these tools can be used in the overall business strategy, satisfying diverse purposes. Driven by the hermeneutical influence, the information available on these platforms is going to be interpreted in order to understand the company s approach to digital platforms. However, the argumentation is going to have a critical orientation, which will later aid at forming pertinent and business oriented suggestions. The focus is going to be on two main tools: Facebook and Twitter, as these are also the main channels used by TAT and they therefore address the purpose of the paper. In general, social media can be used for marketing reasons, whether it is related to products, services or companies. However, these revolutionary tools also require new tactics and approaches (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). For example, social networking sites can reveal buying intentions and therefore techniques specifically designed to deal with this aspect have to be identified (Casteleyn, Mottart & Rutten 2009). Regardless of how successful these tools are, they are revolutionary and need to have scale in order to enable all the aspects they include. Therefore, social media efforts should be combined with traditional marketing activities in order to gain volume (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky2011). 99

100 Facebook Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 in his sophomore year at Harvard. It served as a social medium for students to interact. In less than a month, more than half of the student body registered (Safko & Brake 2009, p. 453). Casteleyn, Mottart and Rutten (2009) define Facebook as follows: Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves (p. 439). Facebook offers the possibility for users to connect with friends and acquaintances through their personal account. The process itself is called friending and it has the purpose of creating communities by sharing information between members. The main purpose of this platform is for socializing (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). The decision of joining a social network is always social rather than commercial (Safko & Brake 2009). Social networks allow users to build and make public their personalities to groups of people they are connected to. However, once the message is published, it becomes the property of Facebook and it even if it is deleted, the information remains available on the site (Reid 2009). Schmidt & Ralph (2011) argue that from a corporate perspective, there are over 1,5 million businesses that have already joined the network. As a company it is important to be connected and updated with all that happens in the market and Facebook is an international social network with options for translating the site and its information into various languages (p. 39). Individuals can follow the events organized by the company and be updated with the latest information from their Facebook page. They can also rate the content presented on the site by clicking the like symbol on the specific page (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). The same authors mention that besides its informative functionality, Facebook can also be used as a advertising tool, to market special products, remind customers of what they can buy or promote special offers. It can act as a reminder of what customers can actually buy or get from a company. Nevertheless, it can also gather feedback from individuals that are still not customers 100

101 and discover why they did not choose the company. Basically, this tool supports an exchange of information, sending and receiving input both from existing as well as potential customers. The community created on Facebook has to be properly understood and respected by the company. Supporting engagement on Facebook, means committing resources and embracing a large palette of communication tools, from games to simple polls or quizzes to co-creation (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). As said in the previous section, even though social networks are free to join, it does not imply that they are free to administrate. Companies have to dedicate human resources to monitor and update with the information that is exchanged on these platforms. When using Facebook, companies have to also take into consideration the costs of the promotion. Members are not forbidden to post negative information about a company and this can happen even if a specific company has not joined the site yet. Therefore, not having a Facebook account does not mean that people are not talking about the company (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). When using Facebook, the content has to be real, relevant and valuable. The company does not have to spam users with unnecessary promotional information. People will form groups around the brand in order to be updated with useful information and not to be assaulted by advertising materials every minute (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011) Twitter Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service that allows its users to send and receive brief (140 characters or less) text-based, micropost instant messages that are referred to as Tweets (Safko & Brake 2009, p. 264). It is a phenomenon that debuted at a faster rate than other platforms and because of this, users discover the best practices while using it (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Unlike Facebook, MicroBlogs often allow individuals to join but some, like Twitter, allow you to access Tweets without even joining (Schmidt & Ralph 2011, p. 42). 101

102 At the beginning, businesses decided to approach Twitter to use it as a free marketing research service and for feedback on products and services (Safko & Brake 2009). However, Twitter can also be used as an advertising tool. It can generate discussions around products or services and even create a community of followers that act as ambassadors for the company s events or promotions. Twitters can also be used to gather information about the competition and what customers are saying about them (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). By creating a fun, positive and useful content around your brand will increase the probability of people following back (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Another positive aspect mentioned by the same authors is that it can enable real-time conversation and response faster than other platforms. Users can engage in multiple conversations that have different groups of users, unlike Facebook, where there is a group with higher chances of unleashing a chained reaction. One of the drawbacks for Twitter is that a large amount of information can be useless. Users connect their Facebook account to Twitter and post a large amount of details, which have only a personal and individualistic value (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). Yost (2010) believes that Twitter has an unique characteristic, because it supports numerous technologies and applications, like photo and video sharing, and a tweet can reach all the users, including the ones that are not following the specific company, through the use of RTs (Re- Tweeting). However, when companies decide to use Twitter in their communication strategy, the message has to be innovative and has to draw the attention of other members. Otherwise, people will stop following the company and decide not to update with information related to the company (Schmidt & Ralph 2011; Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Twitter gives the opportunity for users to post a message at any given time about what they are feeling. From a brand perspective this is valuable information, giving a company the opportunity of gaining insight about the culture it is hoping to communicate with (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). 102

103 The user also has to be transparent. If a company uses Twitter as a brand site, it has to offer links, so that users can easily access more information about the company. It is also recommended to follow back the users that are following the organization, confirming that it is truly a bidirectional communication stream (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Looking at the two communication tools presented above, there are differences as well as similarities between them. Both of them encourage the uncontrolled exchange of information, allowing users to debate on topics and express themselves freely. From a business perspective, the goal for using social media is to engage people, which will in turn lead towards the desired goal or outcome (Safko & Brake 2009). They offer the company valuable data about its audience, consumer preferences or competitors. Comparing the two platforms, Facebook aims at connecting people, offering a virtual space for users to meet and chat with acquaintances, therefore having a strong communicative feature. Twitter, on the other hand, serves the need to access immediate news feed, having a more informative nature. The message is posted in real time, acting as an agenda with the possibility of gathering feedback. Companies publish details about events, offers external links that are related to specific topics and give the chance for users to form clusters around specific areas in which they are interested. Given the functionality differences, the message has to be built accordingly TAT on Facebook and Twitter After applying some of the social media characteristics in TAT s case, the paper is going to zoom the research lens on two main tools: Facebook and Twitter. These two tools are the main channels used by the company and they offer abundant information for an analysis to be carried out. This approach will enable the research to reveal in-depth features of the two mentioned tools and how they can actually be used form a corporate perspective. Looking at TAT s overall approach to social media, it becomes interesting to understand why the company opted for Facebook and Twitter. For this, it is necessary to first observe the consumer behaviour in Thailand regarding social media platforms, what are the most used tools among users and observe if the company s decisions correspond to the market s requirements. 103

104 At a more general level, comparing the total population with the number of internet users, it can be seen that the ratio has increased considerably in the last ten years (Table 3). This increase proves a growing interest of the overall population in the internet services. Table 3: Internet Usage and Population Statistics Source: Internet World Stats (2010) 57 Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, according to Nielsen, a global leader in measurement and information, Thailand is ranked 4 th, Singapore being the first one in terms of internet penetration (Figure14). Figure14: Incidence of using the internet Source: Nielsen (2012) Internet World Stats, Thailand Internet usage, broadband and telecommunications reports. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 3 April 2012]. 104

105 In Thailand, social media are becoming more and more popular, not only because they offer twoway communication platforms, but also because they have become innovative tools for businesses. According to Boonnoon (2010), in 2009, Thailand had the highest growth rate in the world for Internet users participating in social media or social networks. The same author quotes Kapook.com's managing director, Minsiri, who believes that the popularity has grown because social media offer the possibility of creating not only closer, but also personalized communication. They also allow developers to create applications offering users new services, especially games or quizzes. From the social networking sites, Facebook has had an impressive growth in the last two years. From July 2010 to Jan 2011, the number of users has almost doubled (Figure 15). Figure15: Thailand Social Network Trends in 2011 Source: Blog Asia (2011) 59 In 2010, Thailand became Facebook's second highest growing market in the world, with over 150,000 new accounts created every week (Boonnoon, 2010). It is impressive how this digital tool boomed on this market in such a short period of time. Socialbakers, a global social media and digital analytics company with customers in 75 countries representing every continent, states in one of their reports about digital media and habits attitudes 58 Nielsen, 2012.Incidence of using the internet [online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 59 Search Blog Asia, Thailand Social Network Trends in [online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 105

106 of Southeast Asian Consumers, that there are more than 14 million Facebook users in Thailand, placing it on number 16 in the ranking of all Facebook statistics by Country (Table 4). Table 4: Facebook Statistics by Country Source: Socialbakers (2012) 60 Socialbakers also analysed the age distribution of Facebook usage in Thailand, revealing that it is most popular among people between 18 and 34 years old (Figure 16). According to Kania (2000), this category of people uses the internet to find information and they are familiar to the online services. 60 Socialbakers, Facebook Statistics by Country. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 13 April 2012]. 106

107 Figure 16: User age distribution on Facebook in Thailand Source: Socialbakers (2012) 61 If Facebook has an impressive popularity among Thai users, for Twitter, the situation is different. In 2011 there were almost one million users in Thailand 62.This is a niche platform, but with a promising growth potential. According to Russell (2011), even though the number of users is incomparably smaller than Facebook, this tool has been actively explored by public figures, as politicians or journalists. Twitter allows them to publish short messages with updated or even live activities. Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, like for example Philippines, where 32% of the population uses Twitter, Thailand still has a long journey ahead in exploring the potential of this micro blogging tool 63. At the beginning of 2012, Thailand was the first country to approve the censorship policy on Twitter. Hodal (2012), from the English newspaper The Guardian 64, reported that Thailand has some of the toughest censorship rules in the world and that this new restriction gave the government another opportunity to control the exchange of information between users. A tweet 61 Socialbakers, Thailand Facebook Statistics. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 13 April 2012]. 62 9tana, [Infographic] สถ ต การใช Twitter ของคนไทยในป 2011 และ20 อ นด บของคนท ม ผ ต ดตามมากท ส ดในไทย!. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 July 2012]. 63 Nielsen, Southeast Asian Digital Consumer Habits and Trends. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 64 Hodal, K Thailand backs Twitter censorship policy, The Guardian. [online] Available at: < 10 June 2012]. 107

108 can therefore be deleted if it contains negative remarks regarding, for example the monarchy. Such policies can be a major drawback in the evolution of Twitter on the Thai market. Such a restriction contravenes one of social media s main characteristics, which is to enable uncontrolled communication. It also addresses another unique characteristic of social media, referring to the fact that users can even decide upon the rules. If certain services condition the user s participation, this can generate negative reactions and members can send requests for improvement or suggestions for a better user experience on the specific platform (Aguiton & Cardon 2007). From the above data, it can be suggested that the consumer behaviour in Thailand shows a rapid increase in relation to Facebook. Twitter is just starting to be explored, but can be severely affected by the implementation of the new censorship regulations. Looking at the two platforms, they have to be approached according to their functionality but also the consumer behaviour. TAT has to understand the domestic public s needs when using these tools, to maximize the result. TAT s Governor argued that the tourists behaviour has changed towards consuming information from online sources and the company has to adapt (Appendix A). Firstly, for Facebook, TAT has a main page, Amazing Thailand 65 on which the company constantly updates information, pictures or videos. There are several links on the page including Twitter accounts, main website, but not to their main Thai Facebook page, Tourism in Thailand 66, which is for the domestic public. Looking at the Thai page, most of the information on the site can be translated also in English, as the network offers such a possibility. Comparing the two pages, Amazing Thailand presents activities that go back to 2009, while the Tourism in Thailand page was created in November The content presented on the pages was appreciated differently: for the main page, the total number of Likes exceeds , while for the Thai one, the total number is around Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, Amazing Thailand. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 16 April 2012]. 66 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, อะเมสซ งไทยแลนด. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 16 April 2012]. 108

109 A very interesting aspect for both pages is that users comment or post information both in Thai as well as in English, regardless of the page they are accessing. The language barrier basically does not influence the user s choice for which source to access. However, the Amazing Thailand page presents a higher degree of activity from users, being also present on Facebook for more than two years. Being a socialization platform, Facebook allows direct interaction between users. For TAT this represents an opportunity to get closer to its audience, by participating and getting involved in the information exchange carried out on their platform. An on-going communication can reveal data about not only personal preferences, but also what people actually know about the country. On March 22 nd, TAT posted a picture of a place in Thailand 67 and asked its audience to guess where that place was. The company also gave a travelling magazine as a prize, for three lucky winners, thus motivating participation. To the message posted, almost 180 users commented, trying to guess the location and all of the respondents where Thai. Such an approach can allow the company to have an interactive presence, enforce the relationship with its audience and discover how much Thai people are aware of the places inside their country. This type of post is not a singular event, as the company posted similar messages on several occasions. Through the features presented by Facebook, TAT can build real and creative messages, which can attract the users attention and generate insight in the domestic public s knowledge about Thailand. Besides encouraging the exchange of information, TAT uses Facebook as an advertising tool as well. For example, on April 10 th, it posted a link on the Thai page 68 from YouTube with a video referring to the Miracle me campaign. The post aimed at reminding Thai people to join the campaign and post pictures taken around Thailand that express, for each of them, the true beauty of the country. As mentioned in the previous sections, TAT s product is the country itself, trying to encourage people to travel inside the borders, exploring different regions, each having its unique aspects. TAT also uses Facebook to promote events, creating a public agenda for users to access and get information about the location, the time when it is going to take place and what it consists of. In 67 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, อะเมสซ งไทยแลนด [online] Available at: < [Accessed 16 April 2012]. 68 Ibid 109

110 2012, from January to June, the company promoted via Facebook around 44 events, consisting mostly of festivals, but also expositions or fairs 69. The number of events organized is impressive, indicating an active involvement of the company in the public space. For all campaigns undertaken by TAT, there is a specific website and/ or social platform dedicated for it. An example, which was also mentioned earlier in the paper is the campaign Mr For it, TAT created a website 70, Twitter account 71 and Facebook page 72. Because it is one of the most important campaigns, the multitude of channels used can be somehow justified. However, the user can become confused by the large amount of pages or accounts, not knowing which one to access in order to get the desired information and it can also become redundant, demotivating the user. For the second digital platform used by the company, Twitter, there are two main accounts, one in 73 and one in 74. If in Facebook s case, the user had to be connected to the platform in order to access the page, for Twitter the information is available without being logged on. This offers the information presented on the page a high degree of visibility, being available for both users and non-users. Comparing the two has around 7000 followers, while one has more than followers. Compared to Facebook, where the total amount of likes given was higher on the English site, for Twitter, the situation is reversed. This becomes even more interesting, taking into consideration the accessibility of the information. In other words, by following a specific account on Twitter, the user states its specific interest in the information presented, otherwise accessible without having to be connected. The interest of the domestic public in TAT s Twitter account also supports the statement made above about the 69 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, Events.[online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 70 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Mr [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 71 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, Mr [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 72 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, Mr [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 73 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (English version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 5 April 2012]. 74 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 5 April 2012]. 110

111 increase in the service s popularity among Thai people. However, similar to Facebook, TAT created for Twitter several pages, dedicated to promote events and campaigns. TAT can attract and group users that are interested in travelling or tourism. This can be done by presenting a real and innovative message. On April 19 th, TAT tweeted that the company s mascot, which has a blog 75, posted a new story, offering the link to that website 76. Such a post triggers the followers attention, making them curious about what the news is. Sukjai, TAT s mascot, has a blog (in Thai) with updated information about the latest events at which he participated and practical data about Thailand. Through Twitter, TAT was able to announce in real time when the story was published, making people react faster. TAT also uses Twitter to give information about events, posting contact details and links for users to access, if they need to find out more about the venue. Posting telephone numbers for contact makes the company to appear more visible. Overall, from the data presented above, TAT uses Twitter and Facebook to promote events, but also to reach its audience and show them the travelling potential of Thailand. It is actively involved in communicating with the users and offering them as many information as possible. Nevertheless, the large number of pages and accounts can create confusion among members, when searching for data. In addition, the current censorship policies can also become a significant drawback in enhancing the potential for Twitter. This section shed light on how the company makes use of its main social platforms, observing how the approach differs for each tool. It also revealed the domestic public s presence on these platforms proving that it is more oriented towards Facebook than Twitter, which was also presented in the consumer behaviour statistics. 75 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Sukjai Thailand. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 29 March 2012]. 76 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 6 April 2012]. 111

112 3.7. Integrating Social Media in the Business Strategy After understanding what social media are and how to use tools such as Facebook and Twitter, this section will address the topic of how to actually integrate these tools in the business strategy. For this, several tactics and tools will be brought into discussion, in order to have different perspectives of how the integration process has to be done. When a company decides to embed social media in its business strategy, it should also take into consideration all actions that could improve the outcome of its activities. For example, Kosk (2011) believes that even if someone posts a negative message about the company, this should be treated as an opportunity to address a problem. Engaging into an open discussion will allow the company to get closer to the customers and show an open attitude. Safko and Brake (2009) listed a series of rules that have to be taken into consideration when dealing with social media: a. Rule One: Social media is all about enabling conversations among the company s audience or market. b. Rule Two: the conversations cannot be controlled with social media, but they can be influenced. c. Rule Three: Influence is the bedrock on which all economically viable relationships are built. These rules reflect some of the main tactics applicable for social media and they can act as guidelines when approaching these revolutionary tools of communication. By exploring TAT s business strategy, its current approach will become more visible and it will represent, later in the paper, the bedrock for possible improvement suggestions. 112

113 Tactics and tools A company should first assess how important social media are for the internal and external operations. Rizzo and Kim (2005) suggest that strategy development has to begin by carrying out a SWOT analysis, looking at the organization's internal strengths and weakness as well as its external opportunities and threats. Montalvo (2011) gives as examples of internal weaknesses and strengths, the continuous feedback gained from monitoring social media and the organization s ability to anticipate where the industry is heading and become a trendsetter. He then continues by arguing that the legal aspects regarding the company s involvement in social media can be considered an external threat or opportunity. Some geographical areas also present specific characteristics that can be considered as opportunities or threats in using social media. Planning a social media strategy and managing its execution is not easy and like the environment itself, can't be done in a linear fashion (Gilman 2011, p. 22). He then states some steps that should be followed when embedding social media in the company s business strategy. He names these steps: ABC s in social media: assess, brand, cultivate and define. The first step according to Gilman s (2011) ABC s is to assess the company s needs. In this stage, the company has to analyse how it is communicating with its customers and if it has personnel that actually knows how to work with these tools. The company has to decide whether or not it has a suitable profile for engaging social media. After assessing the needs of the company, social media has to be included in the existing communication activities. This merger has to correspond with the brand, otherwise a revision of the current approach has to be done, decide on how to improve. Each company has to choose the social media tools suited to its profile. As mentioned before in the paper, it is important to choose the right social media tools and this is a hard task for the company (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). Depending on what the company does and what it wants to achieve, it can either decide to limit its social media activities to one site or gain more visibility by joining several virtual platforms (Kosk 2011). 113

114 The third step is to cultivate a culture of social media engagement. At this stage, the company has to learn how to use social media at all levels. This means that a constant update is needed regarding all information around the company, whether it is directly impacting it or not. Social media should not be used as another means of transmitting one way messages about the company. Social media accounts have to be managed by the company s staff. The information posted has to be accurate and the image that is promoted has to be overall agreed in the company. Time has to be allocated to updating information and reinforcing the web presence of the company in the virtual world, tying it to the daily operation and activities (Kosk 2011). The last step in engaging social media is to define how the company is going to present itself on the virtual platforms. Sometimes, companies start communicating more than needed. A bombastic start will leave the company without a future strategy and its presence in the social media space is going to be shortened. Therefore, a constant and balanced involvement is recommended. Managing social media implies using virtual platforms and combining them with different marketing tools that will help the organization reach its objectives, such as raising brand awareness and/ or maintaining brand reputation. It enables the company to anticipate future trends and needs and therefore be one step ahead of its competitors (Montalvo 2011). Discussing about social media implementation, Schmidt and Ralph (2011) summarize a list of key facts that have to be taken into consideration: a. Define the marketing goals and decide what resources are needed for managing social media b. Analyse which of these resources are used by the company and who is using them c. Decide upon how to use it: to create buzz, to offer specials or to train? All in all, social media implementation requires the company to revise its goals and resources and embed these tools in daily activities. Once present in the virtual space, a company has to monitor, manage and foresee the exchange on information that is taking place around it. 114

115 Creating Content Social media are virtual platforms that allow message posting. From a corporate perspective, organizations can use these tools from marketing reasons and at the core of the process is the message. Creating content in a creative manner is a significant aspect in building the business strategy. Content creativity is also needed in building unique business strategies. Creativity is necessary when collaborating with others on the virtues of social media and maintaining engagement (Montalvo 2011, p. 94). Safko and Brake (2009) argue that content consists of: a. Products and services promoted on the Internet. b. Expertise of the package, often to complement the company s products and services. c. Things the company allows or encourages the audience to contribute; and d. Conversations about the company s content that it enables, influences, and archives. Basically, content refers to everything that defines a company, from its products to randomly posted information. It is all that the company wants to communicate to its audience, both from the current context as well as the desired position, the direction towards which the company is heading. Fundamentally, content in general and especially the one created through social media has to be original, draw the attention of the receiver and therefore trigger the desired reaction. There are numerous opportunities for creative in social media activities, especially because it is an ongoing conversation that can reveal possible questions or topics to be taken into consideration. The message has to be repeated, but not in a literal manner, because of the conversational nature of the platforms (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Safko and Brake (2009) made the ACCESS model, which was developed by Content Connections and is used by consultants and project directors at that company as a methodology for helping clients create and promote their content (p. 717). The name is an acronym for: Audience, Concept, Competition, Execution, Social Media, and Sales Viability. a. Audience. This category is also important when engaging into social media. However, in this field, the reaction has to be faster and the relationship with the audience is a 115

116 factor of success. In analysing the audience, the same principles presented in the previous section (Chapter ) can be applied. b. Concept. Every business has a main idea that characterizes the unique features it has to offer the audience. In building a community, the content created also has a concept or even several concepts, depending on the needs it is addressing. It is important to define the concept and decide how broad the community should be. If the community is too broad, the company might not succeed in creating one. c. Competition. One of the processes that define any business action is that of understanding the competition. This involves identifying the unique aspects that a company has to offer in comparison with other competitors. It is a matter of not only knowing who the competitors are, but rather understanding them through the eyes of their audience. d. Execution. The success of the concept conceived is the execution. This has to respect the initial statement and the promises made along with it. If it does not rise to this level, a gap is created between what the company initially prospected and what it actually did. e. Social Media. In creating a concept, a company attempts to draw the attention of a large number of people and social media is essential to realize this. However, at an initial stage, the content has to attract, as said before, the right amount of people. Through conversations that are carried out inside the community, the content is enriched and tailored according to the desired goals. The audience s engagement enables the company to adjust to the context and gradually improve. f. Sales Viability. Implementing social media in the business strategy involves a commercial translation of the outcome. This means that, regardless of the size of the community or the number of viewers, the company has to increase its profitability. All the efforts made in creating, implementing and sustaining social media channels have to lead to an economical increase for the company. Content can engage people in different ways. The users can become co-producers or content contributors, comment on the posted content, recommend it to friends or colleagues, read it or simply ignore the content (Safko & Brake 2009). 116

117 All in all, content should be thoroughly organized and monitored in order to increase the possible outcome and further convert these actions into financial benefits Raising awareness One area in which social media can be actively used is building brand awareness. Brand awareness is the consumers' knowledge of a brand's existence or in general, the proportion of consumers who know of the brand (Montalvo 2011, p. 92). Brand awareness is also a competitive advantage, because it is hard to replicate and it can offer uniqueness to a product, service or to the overall organization. Building brand awareness requires having diverse competencies. When dealing with social media, knowledge about strategy development is needed, gathering huge amounts of data and using them in a creative and collective manner. Social branding or developing brand awareness through social media entails maintaining a visible company sponsored presence on social networking platforms (Montalvo 2011, p. 92). Linked to brand awareness is the brand reputation. This is an intangible asset that can also represent a competitive advantage for the company. Social media management entails monitoring, identifying, and mitigating risks to the brand's reputation that may develop on social media platforms (p. 92). Earlier in the paper it was mentioned that negative messages, which are posted on social media, have to be considered opportunities for the company to address specific issues. Such actions request the company to carry out prior monitoring and management around the exchange of information Creating Communities around the brand Communities are very different from one another regarding their purpose and membership, going from very hostile to very collaborative groups (Kane et al. 2009). Safko and Brake (2009) offer a very broad but explicit definition of the concept of community: A social network, trusted network, virtual community, e-community, or online community is a group of people who interact through newsletters, blogs, comments, 117

118 telephone, , and instant messages, and who use text, audio, photographs, and video for social, professional, and educational purposes (p. 47). Through social media, users can post messages and make the content public. They discover cooperative opportunities by making the individual content public (Aguiton & Cardon 2007). This way, individuals with common interests have the opportunity to come together without knowing each other and being linked only by mutual interests (Montalvo 2011; Aguiton & Cardon 2007). Such individuals create communities and the decision of joining such a group depends on whether it is useful or not (Reid 2009). Aguiton and Cardon (2007) characterize the relationship between users as weak ties, which can generate only an instrumental intimacy between members. Despite this weakness, the exchange of information and the density of the networks are growing and becoming larger. Boyd and Heer (2006) agree that at the core of each social network is the relational nature between users. The possibility of creating content and along with it communicating one s identity facilitates the creation of interpersonal relations between individuals. They can also come together as a result of a posted message on a certain social network. It is a dynamic process and inter-individual relations between users are dense, active, frequent and very horizontal (Aguiton & Cardon 2007, p. 55).On the other hand, microblogging lets those who participate create small, intimate communities that are centered on topics such as politics, technology, or medical issues (Safko & Brake 2009 p. 263). Each member of a community can be considered a potential customer for the company. From this perspective, social networks such as Facebook become valuable tools that can generate insight regarding consumer behaviour and possible trends (Casteleyn, Mottart & Rutten 2009). Developing and managing networks can build trust among the members, who share information between them, and generate more sales (Safko & Brake 2009). If communities can be seen as tools that a company can use in order to achieve its goals, it is necessary to know how to manage them and maximize the outcome. 118

119 How to manage a community Recent studies suggest that company-built communities often fail because they address more the needs of the company than those of the community (Safko & Brake 2009). In communities, not all individuals have to be active, but rather form a cluster of members that can then influence the rest. It is similar to a chained reaction, carrying a message from a more compact group to the rest of the members and then towards the external environment. In massive relational services, such as social networks, it is important that there is a high degree of individual participation, even if not everyone decides to collaborate (Aguiton & Cardon 2007). A problematic aspect of communities surfaces when a quantitative research is carried out. This is because the representative nature of the individuals that joined the group can be questioned (Casteleyn, Mottart & Rutten 2009). In addition, users can join a social network, but shortly after decide not to log in anymore, however without cancelling the account. This means that the number of active users is more important than the total number of users and identifying them is also a challenge (Schmidt & Ralph 2011). Kane et al. (2009) agree that social media increase the power of communities as they allow a fast organization, members being able to react extremely fast and without being, for example geographically bounded. Secondly, the author mentions that social media encourage deep relationships, as for example in the case of patients that come together to discuss about a disease. This last aspect comes as a contradiction to Aguiton and Cardon s (2007) perception of weak ties. However, in this case, it can be seen as a deepening of the relationship s specificity. To engage in social media management demands knowledge about the community members, such as use frequency, density of the network and characteristics (Schmidt & Ralph, 2011). Companies have to post or tweet messages on social platforms in order to increase the brand s visibility. This will enable a positive relationship with the members of the community that is built around the brand (Montalvo 2011). Having a strong community does not necessarily mean a large community. This means for example, that counting the number of members on the company s Facebook page is not a proper criterion for analysing a community. If the purpose of a company is to do advertising, then a lot 119

120 of traffic is needed. However, if the company wants to create exposure for a product or service, than it has to understand the audience, which might differ from one community to another (Safko & Brake 2009). A company s social media team should monitor the communities existing around and outside the organization. It has to engage in actively communicating with individuals and be the first ones to react in care of a crisis (Kane et al. 2009). All in all, the literature revised above analysed ways of approaching and embracing social media from a business perspective. The business strategy revised some of the steps that have to be taken when dealing with social media tools. This section also emphasized the importance of building content for the strategic process and building communities around the brand. All these concepts were brought into discussion to show that, if used properly, social media can increase the brand awareness and bring the audience closer to the company, creating competitive advantage. This is extremely important for a company, creating connections and networks of customers that will further discuss about the brand reaching potential new customers TAT s digital media strategy In the following section, the paper is going to bring forward TAT s current strategy regarding social media, thus getting closer to the purpose of the paper. In other words, to explore the potential of social media in raising the nation brand awareness among Thai people, the present approach towards digital media has to be revealed. This means to understand how the company is embracing these tools, and how it uses them to get closer to the audience and encourage communication. In Chapter , a SWOT analysis was carried out for developing a successful nation brand. The process has to also be undertaken here, focusing on social media. Such an analysis is needed for any strategic intent and it reveals factors that are both internal as well as external. Looking at TAT, the internal factors that can become a strength for the company, refer to the huge amount of data that it can gather from the discussions between users. This will help the company become a trendsetter, anticipating people s preferences regarding travelling. The 120

121 Governor stated that the tourists behaviour regarding the search for information has changed and the organization has acknowledged this (Appendix A). However, even though a need for enhancing the communication channels was identified, the company still has to have the necessary resources and expertise to approach social media. According to Kathleen Tan, AirAsia's regional head of commercial marketing, who was interviewed by Kositchotethana for the Bangkok Post, TAT s management is conservative, old fashioned and it needs a big change 77. She continued by saying that TAT has to consider the growing segment of Generation X and Y travellers and it has to address them properly, using social media. She argues that today, most of the customers are on the internet and TAT should explore the possibilities given by social media. The management s lack of experience regarding digital media was also suggested by Chawawisuttikoon, TAT s former employee, during the discussion (Appendix B). He argued that the employees to not know how to handle social media, as most of them have no experience in the field. This is a weakness for the company, as it does not have personnel that can properly understand, develop and implement a social media strategy. For the external environment, one of the threats the company has to face is the censorship rules implemented by the government. By implementing the censorship rules on Twitter, the government limits any action the user might take on this platform. Therefore, as Aguiton and Cardon (2007) also stated, the user might decide to stop using that digital tool, feeling controlled. TAT is a public company, financed by the government and such rules affect it directly, questioning its credibility in front of the audience. If, according to Safko and Brake (2009), social media refer to enabling conversations and the ability of influencing the conversation, rather than controlling it, censorship policies question the basic functionality rules of these tools. This threat affects TAT s social media strategy, by distancing the audience from the company and jeopardizing its decision to actually use the platforms. Without any audience, the company cannot communicate its message and create a more personalized bound. For opportunities, the rapid growth in social media usage among Thai people can offer TAT the perfect scenario to explore the possibilities of these communication tools. As shown earlier, 77 Kositchotethana, B Time for a tourism tune-up. Bangkok Post [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 121

122 Facebook has had an impressive boom in the last two years and by building a strong presence on this platform, TAT is rising to the audience s expectations. Looking at Gilman s (2011) ABC s model, the first step in developing a strategy is to assess the company s needs. As a tourism company, TAT has to diversify the communication channels used to address its public and gain as much visibility as possible. This is particularly important in raising the nation s brand awareness, making Thai people travel more inside the country. However, the company does not have the required knowledge to use social media effectively. Chawawisuttikoon, the former employee, stated that the company is functioning under an archaic structure, with management that has been around since the company s foundation and because of this, an external specialized company (Marketing Eye) was named in charge of handling the marketing strategy (Appendix B). According to Joanna Cooke, TAT s head of consumer marketing, who was interviewed by the English magazine The drum 78, the campaign objectives for 2012 are to increase the digital media database, raise awareness and enlarge the number of fans for the Facebook page. She also mentioned that developing the social media communication is of extreme importance for the company. Therefore, by contracting a specialized company, TAT assesses the company s needs, acknowledging that it does not have the necessary expertise and it dedicates resources to the development of a strong social media presence. The next step in developing a social media strategy is to create an alignment between the brand and the communication tools used. TAT has gone through a continuous process of adapting the brand to the market s needs and desires. As also mentioned earlier, the company focused on building an emotional marketing approach, trying to get closer to its audience and creating a product that belongs to the people (Appendix A). By using social media, TAT can become more visible for its audience, confirming its commitment to building a brand for the people. The desire to gain visibility can explain the multitude of pages the company has. However, the presence on multiple pages can also be a drawback for the company, making it become too vague, lacking consistency. This is also one of the problems for the brand itself, as it has a vague presence, having too many concepts promoted at the same time (Choibamroong 2008). 78 The drum, Tourism Authority of Thailand unveils new digital campaign with Fox Kalomaski Crossing. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 8 May 2012]. 122

123 Pornwasin (2011) argues that TAT not only significantly increased the budget for the online exercises, but it also encouraged the staff to perform routine activities online. The communication between TAT s offices is done through online channels, trying to make the employees adjust to the new communication tools. By implementing new working practices among employees, TAT is cultivating a culture for the company, changing the way employees communicate internally and initiating them in the use of online channels. In section , the paper pointed out the main digital tools used by TAT, thus revealing a focus on Twitter and Facebook. The virtual presence is also the last step in the ABC model and it refers as well to the company s commitment to the use of social media, emphasizing the importance of a gradual and consistent presence. TAT s multitude of Facebook pages can be both positively as well as negatively interpreted. Firstly, by creating a Facebook page and/ or Twitter account for most of their campaigns increases the visibility of the company and the message can reach more people. Moreover, the result can be augmented by combining the virtual efforts with traditional marketing techniques. However, campaigns represent sporadic episodes and TAT should use social media on a regular basis. For example, for the The storyteller and the adorable city ( คนเล าเร องเม องน าร ก ) campaign from 2011, the Facebook page 79 presents a decrease in the online activity. The exchange of information has significantly lowered after the campaign finished, showing that users accessed the page to get information about the event. Although TAT has a main Facebook page for the domestic public, it still shows an overall dispersed presence on the platform, because of these numerous, episodic and campaign driven pages. TAT embraced social media, implementing these tools at different levels inside the company, both internally as well as externally. Embedding social media implied a structure change inside the company, externalizing the online services to a company that had expertise in the field. It also urged the TAT to become more visible, being present on several platforms. However, the message seems too fragmented, presenting multiple slogans, thus creating confusion among users. 79 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook page, คนเล าเร องเม องน าร ก. [online] Available at: < > [Accessed 29 May 2012]. 123

124 Regardless of the platform used, TAT s online actions are, according to Safko and Brake (2009), content. Its travelling packages, events, posts, they all represent the lines, shades and colours that form a painting. For the overall strategy of the company, creativity is of great importance. Having an intangible product, TAT bases its attractiveness on the communication with its audience and the packages built that reflect the present as well as future trends of the market. For the international market, TAT is ranked 7 for tourism according to the FutureBrand Country Brand Index Taking into consideration that it is the only institution responsible for promoting the country, it is directly responsible for keeping and improving this ranking. The success of the promoted content can also be supported by the high ranking it has worldwide, due to tourism. For the domestic market, TAT aims at raising the number of Thai tourists, by making them more aware of each area s advantages. To achieve this, on all online tools used, TAT has to present unique and interesting content, so that it can trigger the desired reaction. For example, in 2011, TAT launched a campaign called The storyteller and the adorable city ( คนเล าเร องเม องน าร ก ) 81, which aimed at promoting the advantages of group travelling. According to TAT s e-journal, after analysing the travelling behaviour of Thai people, it observed that most of the tourists make the decision to travel by themselves, as individuals The campaign promoted several parts of the country and by collaborating with almost 40 travelling agencies, it created holiday packages at low prices. Travellers had to send a story about their journey and the top 10 stories received money for travelling and the stories were going to be published. On the Facebook page 82, there are numerous pictures of different regions in Thailand, with the winners of the competition, promotional videos, as well as the e-magazine for the campaign. All these are done in an attractive manner, so that the user becomes engrossed about the topic. The interesting aspect of this campaign is that the content is enriched together with the users, which can become co-producers or content contributors. By contributing with travelling stories, users can add to the campaign, helping the company attract more people. The collaborative aspect is also one of the main features for social media. 80 FutureBrand, Country Brand Index [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 March 2012]. 81 etat Journal Blog, หน งส อ คนเล าเร องเม องน าร ก. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 82 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook page, 2011.คนเล าเร องเม องน าร ก. [online] Available at: < > [Accessed 29 May 2012]. 124

125 Looking at the ACCESS model, some of the factors are more relevant for the given research area than others. For example, the competition factor is not important on the local market, as TAT is the only institution in charge of tourism affairs. The factor becomes important when looking at other nearby countries that are more actively involved in the use of social media, as for example Philippines. Such countries can influence Thai people to travel outside the country. From this perspective, TAT has to be aware of how other countries make use of social media in handling tourism. Sales viability is also important for TAT in constructing its content, as it aims at leveraging the overall economy of Thailand and becoming a considerable contributor to the country s situation (Appendix A). However, it does not refer to the individual financial benefits, but rather to the country in general. It focuses more on using social media to make people aware of Thailand s tourism potential, inviting them to travel in all areas, rather than promoting travelling deals. Of course there are also considerable individualistic economic interests at stake, but its duty as an official institution is to become the spokesman for all local travelling agencies and other tourism institutions, improve Thailand s image, both inside as well as outside the borders. One of the most important factors for TAT is the audience. This is because of its profile and as said earlier, it targets an intangible product, with a high emotional and subjective aspect. Therefore, the content build on social platforms has to create a bound between the organization and the audience and it has to trigger the desire to travel and know more about Thailand. To any reaction coming from the audience, the company has to react faster than it would on traditional communication channels. By doing so, it can overcome some potential problems and identify the weak points of its content. The concept, or the core message that the company wants to communicate through social media, is different in TAT s case, according to the purpose that specific page or account serve. For example, for its Thai Twitter account 83, the concept is an open invitation for Thai people to travel inside the country. The name of the account is Go2Thailand, thus compressing the basic idea of the company s objective regarding domestic tourism in this name. Nevertheless, the multitude 83 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, 2010.AmazingThailand (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 20 April 2012]. 125

126 of pages and accounts used by TAT appears again as a problem, because the concept is be too broad (fragmented) and it cannot create a community around it (Safko and Brake 2009). The execution step is important when looking back at what TAT initially prospected and if it actually did according to what it planned. However, this step has to be questioned repeatedly, as the social media involvement has to be done in an on-going manner. The content has to be adjusted continuously, so that it can reach more people, enlarging its audience. The quantitative research in this paper is going to analyse the execution step, gathering information about the public s perception and exploring how it complements the initial objectives set for social media. Sritama (2011) argues that one of TAT s main goals is to promote the domestic tourism and make people more aware of Thailand s travelling opportunities, this way boosting local business too. In order to increase the domestic tourism, TAT has to make Thai people more aware of the country and brand awareness is one of the main areas in which social media can be used. The more people know about Thailand s tourism, the bigger the change of them actually travelling in different regions. For example, TAT created a campaign for the domestic public, in which people had to go on a webpage 84, select their favourite region from Thailand, explain why they liked it and then connect to the personal Facebook page. The campaign, called GetlikeGetgoing, aimed at awarding the best stories with a holiday package in the region they liked. Through this project, TAT aimed at promoting all regions from the country and motivating people to travel, by offering them the chance to explore Thailand, become more aware of the travelling potential. On all its social platforms, TAT can observe people communicating between them and such discourses can bring valuable insight in the consumer s behaviour and expectations. In order to raise the brand awareness, such discussions have to be analysed, grouping massive amount of data and transforming them into actions, business strategies. In raising brand awareness, an important aspect is building and managing a community. For TAT, the community represents all users that interact on their digital platforms, posting pictures, 84 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Get Like Get Going. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 April 2012]. 126

127 leaving comments or re-tweeting its messages. Such groups of people existed even before the company joined the virtual world and it has to acknowledge that users are going to choose them for diverse purposes, like for example travelling advice, meeting other tourists, get information about an event or play one of the applications developed by the company. Because users do not physically interact on such platforms, coming from different geographical locations, they come together based on personal preferences and common interests, topics. However, by communicating on the platform, interpersonal relations can develop. In 2011, TAT created a campaign to promote sustainable tourism, called New Heart Thailand. In May, the company launched a contest in which people had to take pictures with the page s mascot, a green heart, present at different locations around the country. The pictures were uploaded on Facebook 85 and users posted comments. To these comments, TAT replied, showing that it actively participated at the creation and enhancement of communication. Such examples indicate TAT is exploring the social feature of the network, getting involved in what people from the community are talking and showing it is going beyond commercial interests. Through Facebook, which is mainly focused on social aspects, TAT has the opportunity of reaching the audience and by communicating with it, gathers valuable data about its perceptions. Looking at the Thai Facebook page 86, it is constantly updated with information and the company s involvement in supporting communication cannot be questioned. In April 2012, there are more than 90 messages posted by the company and to most of them users replied. The community on the Thai page is extremely interactive and forms a cluster for the domestic market. On both Twitter pages, all posts coming from the company are dome on both accounts: English and Thai. Therefore, if TAT tweets information about an event, the data is going to be present on both accounts. Twitter has a predominant informative nature and communities are not as involved in exchanging information as they are on Facebook. However, one of the advantages for Twitter is that the content can become more visible if other users decide to re-tweet the 85 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook page, 2011.เท ยวห วใจใหม เม องไทยย งย น. [online] Available at: < > [Accessed 25 April 2012]. 86 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, 2010.อะเมสซ งไทยแลนด. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 25April 2012]. 127

128 message. On the Thai page 87 most of the posts have been re-tweeted by users and some of them have replied back. TAT mostly tweets about upcoming events and such information can deepen the relationship between its community members, gathering people that are interested in the company s events or travelling in Thailand. TAT posts messages daily and even more than once a day, giving users updated news feed with events in which TAT is involved. This section analysed TAT s current strategy regarding social media, bringing valuable insight in how the company organized its resources to approach the virtual world. Understanding its current approach and revising some of the steps given as best practice in this field, can the paper explore possible suggestions for the company. Additionally, knowledge about content and online communities was given, in order to see on one hand, how the company built its message and on the other hand how communities formed on Facebook and Twitter. This showed the importance of the two concepts in building awareness for the organization. Communities and content help TAT to create a distinctive presence and become more attractive. Social media and nation branding both focus on community, people that actually own the nation and have to understand its unique characteristics. Together with the research that is going to be carried out for the domestic market, the paper has the possibility of exploring social media s potential to increase the nation brand awareness. It can also reveal possible suggestions that can help TAT improve its current approach and enhance the outcome. 87 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Twitter, AmazingThailand (Thai version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 26 April 2012]. 128

129 3.8. How to measure Social Media Impact? Measuring social media success is a difficult task, especially when looking at these tools as a separate part. A more proper approach should consider taking a step back and capturing the broader goals, which can be measured by using traditional tools. It is also important to define what success actually means for the company (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). Earlier in this paper, it was stated that social media engagement is a decision companies should embrace, to achieve their marketing goals. However, Duboff and Wilkerson (2010) suggest that not everyone should invest in social media. Without underestimating the opportunities social media can create for the brand, they believe a prior analysis has to be carried out. Kosk (2011) discusses about tracking the productivity of social media efforts using a quote from Roy Brachfeld, president of NAS Security Systems. According to him, an effective way of asking customers about the success of a social media program is by simply finding out how did they hear about the company. Direct questioning can reveal the outcome of the undertaken social media strategy. Quantitative research can reveal information about consumer behaviour, numbers that can measure the outcome of the strategy (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011).In evaluating the impact of a social media strategy, the use of data plays a key role. Social media generate massive amounts of information, suited for analytical decision making. Data can both ease fact-based decisions as well as offer quantitative data which can be further analysed and interpreted. Graphics or reports can offer the company valuable data and it can enable managers to evaluate the strategy s outcome (Montalvo 2011). Chaney (2009) gives another example of a measurement tool, which is Google Analytics. It is a free tool that offers reports regarding sales and conversations, as well as understanding consumer behaviour in the use of specific websites. For example, Google Content Analytics offers the possibility of observing how long do users stay connected on the website and when they decide to convert to other websites. It shows if customers are pleased with the information found or on the contrary it does not address their needs. Additionally, it can show what customers are 129

130 actually doing and if they decide to download, for example, advertising materials. In other words, it addresses the engagement and actions taken by users on specific sites. For Twitter accounts, there is a tool called Tweetstats. It is a tool that accesses tweets to analyse the total amount of daily tweets and the number of replies received for the message. Such a tool can be used especially if a company wants to looks at the competition and compare numbers. However, it does not give in depth information about for example, consumer behaviour Measuring TAT s social media involvement Reviewing some of the tools used in measuring social media s impact, it was indicated that it is necessary to first decide upon the desired outcome. Differently put, a company should first decide what it actually wants to find out and then select the proper tool. For the given study, after analysing the secondary data in the former sections, to build a more critical argumentation that will go beyond understanding reality towards enabling change, the paper is going to carry out a quantitative study to assess the company s social media success. Tools like Google Analytics or Tweetstats offer indications of the information flow on the platforms or the message ratio. Such an analysis can be appropriate to observe the data traffic on the platforms and discover if the online interaction can be carried on smoothly. This however, is not the aim of this paper. Such tools cannot offer data about how people perceive the company s digital strategy, which may include topics such as: perception of the overall brand concept, page content or interest in the nation brand. The purpose of the survey is to collect data about the public perception of the activities taken by TAT in the virtual space. The positive and negative aspects of the quantitative research method have already been discussed in Chapter 2.2. According to the authors mentioned above, quantitative studies are a proper method in the social media field, especially for data that address the consumer behaviour. 88 Fisher, L., The Best Free Social Media Tracking Tools You Should Know About. The Next Web. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 April 2012]. 130

131 4. Results of the quantitative study In this section, the overall picture of the findings will be first presented to show the general results of the survey according to each category. Later, the results of cross tabulation and correlation coefficient will be illustrated to present the positive or negative results which will be discussed in detailed in the following chapters. This overview is not going to present any arguments, as they are going to be presented in the discussion part (Part 5). 4.1.Structure of the survey As stated earlier, the survey consists of six different categories. In this part, the purpose of each category will be explained. The first category, travelling behaviour aims at finding general information about how often and where do respondents travel. It will also help to filter the eligible respondents who travel inside the country. Moreover, to link with social media, one of the major topics in this paper, it is important to know whether respondents use social media as one of the tools in searching travelling information or not. Looking at the internet usage behaviour, the purpose is to find out how actively do people use the internet and how many social websites accounts they have. This will determine the level of internet engagement and the users presence in the virtual world, whether or not they are familiar with these tools and have multiple accounts. The knowledge about TAT s social media category will first filter respondents who know the company before proceeding to the next question. Later, it will narrow down the scope of questions to the knowledge about TAT s social media activities (Facebook and Twitter) and opinion about their content. This will provide useful information about the success of its activities and the ability in increasing the nation brand awareness among the domestic public on digital platforms. 131

132 The next category is knowledge about TAT s branding. The purpose is to find out how successful TAT is in embedding its brand in the domestic public s mind and what its impression towards the brand is. As each respondent has a different background, some of them may not understand or be familiar with the meaning of the word brand. A question has to be asked in a simple language which everybody can understand in the same manner. According to Rosengren and Dahlén (2006), the slogan is created to activate the brand in the mind of the consumers. It tells the consumer what the brand is about. In other words, the term slogan can be seen as the representative of the company s brand and this is the reason for choosing this term in question 13 (Appendix C). Later, the general opinion about TAT will be highlighted in order to find out what is the respondents impression of the company. This will present whether they have a positive or a negative opinion about the company. In the last part of the survey, general information about each respondent will be asked such as age and gender. These demographic information can be one of factors influencing each respondent s choice for answers. 4.2.Presentation of the results a. Demographics During the three weeks of distribution, 284 surveys were distributed, from which 267 respondents completed the entire survey and 17 respondents partially completed the survey. From 267 respondents, 81% are females while male respondents account for 18%. For the age variables, the biggest age group is between 24 and 30, which constitutes over 75%. The respondents between 18 and 30 years old come on the second place with 13%. The rest of the groups are between 31 and 40 and more than 40 years old, which represent 8% and respectively 3%. 132

133 b. Travelling behaviour Figure 17: The channels where respondents search the travelling information (Question 3: When you travel, where do you get your information from (multiple choice)? Source: Appendix E From figure 17, almost 65% of the respondents use online channels in searching travelling information. These online channels include websites, online forums and social networks. From the offline channels category, tourism fairs are the most popular, summing 10% of the total answers. Similarly, other channels such as, magazine and friends represent 10%. The number of respondents choosing TV as their channel makes up with 9% while the least chosen channel is travelling brochure, which constitutes 7%. c. Internet usage behaviour Regarding the social websites account, every respondent (100%) has a Facebook account as the questionnaire was distributed through this channel. The second most popular account is Youtube with over 65%. Respondents who have a Twitter account comprise almost 50%. Pinterest and LinkedIn came in the fourth and fifth place with 19% and 17% respectively. Other social website accounts as for example Instagram accounts for 10%. 133

134 d. Knowledge about TAT s social media Figure 18: The knowledge about the presence of TAT (Question 6: Do you know TAT <<Tourism Authority of Thailand = การท องเท ยวแห งประเทศไทย (ททท.)>>)? Source: Appendix E Figure 18 shows the percentage of respondents who are aware of TAT s existence. It can be seen clearly that all respondents know who TAT is. For TAT s Facebook page, 31% of respondents know that TAT has a Facebook page while almost 70% of respondents do not know the page. From 82 respondents who know about TAT s Facebook page, more than 55% of these respondents have not clicked the like button. On the other hand, 42% of them have clicked like while 2% chose the no answer option. When the respondents were asked to describe TAT s Facebook page, 45 out of 82 respondents do not check the information on its page, which represents a ratio of 56%. The positive comments towards TAT s Facebook page comprise 60%. This includes eager to travel more inside the country, be able to obtain more information about Thailand and interesting content, which account for 26%, 19% and 15% respectively. Only 6% of the respondents have negative opinions such as, feeling discouraged to travel more inside the country and feeling bored about TAT s Facebook page. Looking at TAT s Twitter account, over 95% of the respondents do not know about TAT s Twitter account while only 3% of them know about it. From 8 respondents who know TAT s 134

135 Twitter page, only 20% of them follow it. On the contrary, the percentage of respondents who do not follow TAT s Twitter account is 70%. Other 10% select no answer choice. Regarding respondents opinions about TAT s Twitter account, 70% of the respondents choose no answer and do not check the information on this account. The respondents think that this Twitter account helps them to learn more about Thailand and give them the information about the company, which contribute 30% equally. Other positive comments such as interesting content and that it encourages them to travel more inside the country make up with 20% each. e. Knowledge about TAT s branding Figure 19: The recognition of TAT s branding (Question 13: Do you remember any slogan used by TAT in promoting tourism?) Source: Appendix E According to figure 19, 40% of the respondents remember TAT s slogan while almost 60% do not remember its slogan used in promoting tourism. 135

136 Figure 20: TAT s slogan (Question 13: Please state one of the TAT s slogans<<both English and Thai>>) Source: Appendix E In figure 20 appears that Amazing Thailand is the most popular slogan, which represents 42% from 104 respondents. 40% of the respondents state Unseen Thailand, which makes it the second most well-known slogan. 14% of the respondents mention other slogans such as, Travel with a new heart for a sustainable Thailand, Hug Thailand, Thais travel in Thailand, Let s take a break and, Travelling in Thailand can do every month. Looking at the impression of the respondents towards TAT s slogan, more than 60% of the respondents think that its slogan is easy to memorize. The percentage of respondents who consider TAT s slogan to be popular sums 13%, while 11% of them think that it is an interesting slogan. For a negative impression about the slogan, 4% of respondents think that the slogan is not clear while 6% of respondents mentioned that the slogan is too old and boring. 136

137 f. General opinion about TAT For the overall impression of the respondents towards TAT, it can be seen that almost half of the respondents have neither positive nor negative impression on the company (40%). Similarly, the positive impression towards TAT contributes 40% as well. Over 15% of the respondents choose not to provide any comments about the company, whereas only 3% of the respondents have a negative impression on the company. g. Correlation and Cross-tabulation Results The first correlation analyses whether the knowledge about TAT s Facebook page has an influence on the decision to click Like on such a page. Table 5: Correlation for the Facebook page Source: Appendix F From the table, it can be seen that more than half of respondents who know TAT s Facebook have not clicked Like on its page while 42.5% of them have done it. For a correlation coefficient, these variables have a medium positive correlation. This means that the decision to click like depends on the respondent s knowledge of the page s existence. 137

138 Table 6: Correlation for Twitter Source: Appendix F The table above shows that only a quarter of respondents who know TAT s Twitter page have decided to follow its account. This means that the majority of respondents (75%) do not follow its Twitter page even though they know that the company has one. The size of the correlation is slightly less than the previous variables with the result of almost 0.5. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a connection between these variables. Looking at the third set of variables, the purpose is to find out whether or not the knowledge about TAT is related to the nation brand awareness. Table 7: Correlation for brand awareness Source: Appendix F 138

139 The table shows that almost 60% of respondents who know TAT do not recognize any slogan of the company. Therefore, the result of correlation has a positive dependence but there is no correlation between these two variables. It can be argued that the knowledge about the nation brand does not depend on the knowledge about the company. The fourth and fifth sets of variables reveal the relation between the knowledge about TAT s Facebook page and Twitter account and the nation brand awareness. Table 8: Correlation for nation brand awareness and Facebook Source: Appendix F According to the table 8, over 70% of the respondents can remember TAT s slogan but do not know that TAT has a Facebook page. It can be seen that the respondents remember TAT s slogan even though they do not know the company s existence on Facebook. On the contrary, more than 30% of the respondents who know TAT s Facebook page cannot state the company s slogan. As a consequence, the correlation coefficient shows a very small negative dependence which means that these set of variables has no correlation. 139

140 Table 9: Correlation for nation brand awareness and Twitter Source: Appendix F Similar to the previous findings, almost 100% of respondents who remember the slogan are the ones who do not know about TAT s Twitter page. On the other hand, the percentage of respondents who know TAT s Twitter page but cannot state the slogan represent 75%. A correlation coefficient shows a small size of negative correlation. Therefore, it can be seen that there is also no correlation between these variables. Looking at the last two sets of variables, it can be suggested that the knowledge of the company s slogan is not related to the knowledge about the company s activities on social media. The last set of data presents a cross-tabulation which aims at discovering the relationship between the impression about TAT s slogan and the overall impression about the company (Table 10). 140

141 Table 10: Cross-tabulation for opinion about the company and slogan Source: Appendix G According to the results, more than half of respondents (52%) who have a positive impression about the slogan also have a positive impression about the company as well. Only 1% of respondents with positive comments on the slogan dislike TAT. Looking at respondents who have a negative impression about the slogan, 63% of them neither like nor dislike the company. Almost half of respondents have a positive impression about the company despite the fact that they have a negative impression about the slogan Based on the results presented above, the next section is going to build an argumentation, addressing the problem statement. The results are going to be complemented by the discussion carried out using the secondary data, composing a more objective and critical discourse. 141

142 5. Discussion In the discussion part, the primary and secondary data will be used to build the argumentation. By combining these data, the analysis can question the arguments already pointed out in previous sections or bring new perspectives for the study. After revealing these information, suggestions and recommendations will be presented for a possible improvement of TAT s digital media strategy in the future. This part is divided into six chapters (Figure 21) and it offers business oriented arguments. After having understood and revised some of the best practices in the fields of nation branding and social media, the paper now has a more accentuated critical feature, with the purpose of revealing practical suggestion for the company. Figure 21: Structure of the discussion Source: Own creation 142

143 5.1.Creating a link between the company and the brand In the following section, the arguments brought into discussion are going to argue about TAT being more visible as a brand or as a company. In order to guide the study towards the problem statement, it is necessary to first explore, from a corporate perspective, the relation between the nation brand and TAT. Specifically, the company is going to be put under the spotlight and explore its potential in not only representing but becoming a nation brand. Guided by the business approach and the critical stance, the outcome of this section is going to act as an indicator for the company regarding its present position on the market. In the survey, there are three questions conducted with a focus on the general opinion about the organization and knowledge referring to TAT s branding actions (Appendix C). Firstly, it becomes interesting to mention about the impressive popularity this company has among Thai people. From all respondents questioned, there is a 100% ratio of positive answers. Judging the results, the company is highly visible on the domestic market. As mentioned in most of the previous sections, TAT is the only public authority responsible for promoting Thailand both internally as well as externally and it has been doing this for more than 50 years. Having a long history that supports its presence on the market, TAT also has an important competitive advantage on the national market, that of being the only competitor. It is an organization that serves as a reference for any tourism and branding activities regarding Thailand, which can explain its immense popularity. Moreover, another argument which can reinforce TAT s visibility is that it is a public institution directly financed by the Thai Government, making it part of the public organizational chart. However, the results of the question regarding people s knowledge about the company do not express the nature of this relationship. For this, the respondents were asked to express their opinion about the company, using a Likert scale. The results showed that 40% of the respondents (Appendix D) neither like nor dislike the company, while only 2% strongly like it. Even though the company is highly known by the public, the survey shows a general neutral opinion among people. This shows a lack of involvement coming from the public and the company should 143

144 therefore highlight its relationship with the audience, taking measures that will turn the balance again into its favour. According to Leisen and Sautter s (1999) stakeholder map, presented also in Chapter , tourists have an important role for companies in the tourism market and this group should not be ignored. As Kotler and Gertner (2002) mention, the nation brand can influence people s decision regarding, especially for the given case, travelling. Being the only competitor on the market, people should be able to remember its slogan in the same proportion as they remember the company itself. If the nation brand is constructed and belongs by and to the people (Fan 2006), the slogan for the brand is a concept created by TAT. It is therefore its responsibility to assure people can associate the slogan to the company itself. This is maybe one of the few aspects of nation branding that can actually be decided and controlled by the organization. On the other hand, looking at the branding activities taken by TAT and people s knowledge about the company, a correlation was made between these two variables (Table 7). The results of the correlation test show there is a slightly positive relationship between them, but no association exists. Therefore, the respondents knowledge about the company does not depend on what notions they have about the nation brand itself. Analysing only the question regarding people s knowledge of the nation brand, the pie chart (Appendix E) shows that more than half of the respondents do not remember any slogan promoted by TAT and are therefore unaware of the nation brand. Such a high ratio also indicates a low level of nation brand awareness from Thai people. TAT can be considered as a highly visible company, but on the domestic market, its public does not associate it with the nation brand. In other words, from a corporate perspective, the success of the nation brand becomes questionable. TAT should make additional efforts in creating a link between the organization and the brand. Even though the company has a long tradition, people do not seem to remember that it also represents the brand. However, the result of the survey can also be influenced by the terminology used, which can be a problem. For example, by using terms such as slogan, the respondents are required to have knowledge about the branding field. Otherwise, there is a high risk for them not to understand the meaning of the question and 144

145 randomly answer. How the questions were built can sometimes create confusion among the respondents, or even misunderstanding the given question (Ghauri & Grønhaug 2005). The reason why respondents did not associate the company with the brand is hard to identify. In Table 10, two sets of data were cross-tabulated in order to identify what people thought about both the company and the slogan. Linking these two questions, the answers show that over 70% of the respondents who like the company, decided to choose the no answer option concerning their opinion about the slogan. Nevertheless, in the same figure, more than 60% of the respondents who have a neutral opinion about the company do not like the slogan. The high percentage questions the objectivity of the respondents that neither like nor dislike TAT. In other words, because the survey was done about TAT, people might have felt uneasy to answer negatively regarding the overall impression about the company. This is also suggested by the extremely small ratio of people who have a negative impression about the company. Taking a step back and looking at one of the main theories regarding corporate identity, Balmer s (1999) AC 2 ID Test can be applied in the present study, arguing that nation brands also have multiple identities, as several perspectives of the brand that have to be taken into consideration. This approach is especially valid in TAT s case, as the organization is responsible for creating the content for the brand. In order to address the problems identified by the research and pointed out above, it has to understand that there are multiple identities of the brand that coexist, especially for a nation brand which belongs to the public and the message is created by the company accordingly. 145

146 Figure 22: AC 2 ID Test Source: Balmer (1999), p. 17 Looking at the five dimensions of the AC 2 ID Test, the problem occurs when there is a incongruence between them, for example the conceived and the desired identity. The conceived identity refers to the stakeholder s perception, while the desired identity refers to the vision of the company (Balmer 1999). In TAT s case, it can be applied for the nation brand, looking at the audience s perception and what the company strives for. As a company, TAT has a huge popularity among on the domestic market. However, people to not have a clear image of what the brand is and moreover, show a low interest in it. The company s vision aims at becoming an excellent organization in tourism marketing. This involves creating a successful brand concept and having a strong relationship with the community. As mentioned earlier, TAT has gone through considerable efforts in promoting the Thai culture and making the domestic public aware of the country s travelling potential. Even if the overall public perception is positive, direction also indicated by the quantitative study, the public seems not to be strongly committed to the brand, having a low interest. Such an indication points towards a misfit between the company s mission and the conceived identity. 146

147 In a nutshell, TAT should strengthen this connection to make people aware of the fact that it is not only a public institution which has been present on the market for a very long time, but also the promoter for the nation brand. It is true that it does not own the brand, as it is an intangible and collective concept, but it is responsible for the slogan and how the country is promoted. The task becomes even more difficult, because of its long history, which can make people lose their interest in the company. Even though this chapter does not address the social media strategy, the findings of the survey indicated a problem at the corporate level, which can have a direct influence on the digital activities undertaken by the company. Additionally it offers a broader framework to the discussion, presenting a business approach to nation branding. 5.2.Amazing Thailand, always amazes you? The focus of this section is going to be on how the nation brand is perceived by the selected respondents. This implies pinpointing what the main slogans are and exploring the respondents opinion about them. At this stage of the process it becomes interesting to analyse the extent to which the company succeeded in reaching the public s expectations in building a concept for the brand. The structure of the survey included two questions that addressed brand perception (Appendix C). To begin with, respondents were asked to name a brand slogan that they could recall. According to figure 20, answers can be divided into two main categories, with almost equal percentages. Therefore, the most popular slogans are: Amazing Thailand and Unseen Thailand. The first one, Amazing Thailand was analysed in Chapter , mentioning that it is one of the most popular slogans among people. Even though the company decided to change it, due to the public s reaction, the slogan remained representative until the present, when it is being used for both international as well as domestic tourism Tourism Authority of Thailand, Amazing Thailand, always amaze you (English version). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 5 July 2012]. 147

148 The second slogan, Unseen Thailand represents an awareness campaign made by TAT in Davis (2003) mentions that the purpose of the program was to replace the Amazing Thailand campaign, which was considered to be old. The prospect for the Unseen Thailand project was to launch it both internally as well as externally. This campaign had a similar objective to the Amazing Thailand project, that of raising the awareness about different regions in Thailand that can offer the domestic public a chance to travel inside the borders and discover new and less touristic areas across the country (Appendix I). To promote the campaign, TAT decided to organize numerous public relations events, such as TV programs, radio shows, advertising spots and billboard ads on public transportation or venues. Most of these events are also organized today, only that additionally, to strengthen the relationship with its public and gather data about its needs and desires, TAT also uses social media platforms, which can save considerable amount of time and generate more input about the consumer behaviour (Appendix A). However, this slogan was later replaced by the first mentioned one, due to a significant demand coming from the public. Nonetheless, as the survey shows, the Unseen Thailand campaign had a strong impact on the public, as almost half of the respondents mentioned it. Going back to the slogans mentioned by people (Figure 20), it can be seen that the level of fragmentation is high. As previously mentioned by Sorrell, who was interviewed by Thongtep (2012), in Thailand s case the brand process is too fragmented, as there are multiple campaigns organized and the message is not clear. This was also reflected in the results of the survey, as the general opinion is divided in more than seven categories, which shows that the brand knowledge is not strong. For the domestic market, people cannot recall a single, strongly impregnated message. TAT should reposition itself on the market, with a strong and singular message, so that people can become more aware of the brand. For example, using social media can offer significant help at disseminating the message among both the existing community as well as the potential users. To achieve this, the message presented on the social platforms has to be repeated (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011), not literally, but in an interactive and attractive manner, so that users can go beyond mare memorizing of the brand towards understanding the values it stands for, the concept behind it. 148

149 Pointing back at the survey, respondents were also asked to state their opinion about the slogan. The majority of subjects have a positive impression regarding the slogan, stating that it is easy to memorize (62%), popular (13%) and interesting (11%) (Appendix D). At the other end, only 4% of the subjects think it is not clear. Similar to the knowledge about the company, the brand has a high level of agreement from the audience. However, the results presented above can come as a contradiction to the fragmented knowledge about the brand. More precisely, even though people do not have a clear image of the brand, they agree with the concept, regardless of what that is. Such an argument can then point the discussion towards the degree of objectivity the respondents have while answering. This can be influenced by the options given as answers, which can frame and limit the subject s choices. Even though there is also the Other option, the respondent might feel uncomfortable to use it. An interesting aspect in exploring the brand perception is that most of the people agreed that the slogan is easy to memorize, which can also have a negative connotation. The concept has to firstly be appealing to the public so that people can easily memorize it, but such an answer does not give any information about how people actually feel about the content of the brand itself. For example, even though it is easy to memorize, people can also think that the concept is boring and does not suit the nation brand. TAT has to refine the branding process, so that people have a clear and singular perception of the brand. This will enable it to improve its strategy and align the objectives to the branding concept. For a nation brand, people not only have to know the slogan, but understand the values and principles of the brand, what it stands for. It is a long term process that requires considerable amount of effort and involvement from the company. 149

150 5.3.Aiming at the right community for the brand The scope of this chapter is to reveal the relevance of virtual communities size in judging the success of digital media activities. As shown also in Chapter , the size of the community can differ according to the objectives the company has set off, for example whether social media tools serve advertising needs or help it increase the brand awareness. Later, it will shift the focus to a particular group of people who play an important role in the community and indicate the success of digital media activities. From the findings of the correlation, it can be seen that the number of respondents who know the company s social media accounts and actually clicked Like or Follow on the pages are unrelated (Table 5; Table 6). More than half of respondents who know about TAT s social media involvement did not become part of that community. Therefore the link between the actual community and the involvement in that community are not compatible. The number of Likes or Follows is not the same as the actual community. For this case, there are more people observing the community than the presented number. As mentioned earlier in the Chapter , having a strong community does not necessarily mean a large community. To evaluate the success of the company in building a community does not depend on the number of members in that community. Moreover, according to Schmidt and Ralph (2011), there are some cases in which users join a community, but shortly after decide not to log in anymore without cancelling the account. Therefore, the number of people in the community is not the prior criteria for identifying the actual involvement of members in that community as users can easily join or leave social platforms whenever they want. Additionally, based on the results of the survey, TAT should never neglect these inactive social media users. They may not reveal themselves as members but they might monitor the company s activities on social media. Therefore, the main challenge for TAT is to keep current members continuously active and determine them to get involved in the community. Consequently, it also has to attract potential members who might not yet be actively involved on the company s digital pages, but are aware of them and periodically update. 150

151 As mentioned earlier, social media should not be used for a one-way communication (Gilman 2011) since the characteristic of this platform enhances an interactive and two-way communication between the company and its audiences. Therefore, TAT has to cultivate the nature of this channel, increase the level of engagement with its target group and make it more visible. For example, the company developed in 2011 a mobile application that serves as a live chat centre for both international as well as domestic tourists 90. The application is available for all smartphones owners and it is free of charge. Through the application, a person can directly ask TAT representatives questions about events and festivals, provincial information, attractions etc. Such an action can increase the size of the community created around the brand, as it has a higher visibility and information is accessible to any user. To enhance the public s participation, TAT should also develop other applications, such as games. According to Promsuk (2012), one of the main reasons Thai people use digital tools such as Facebook is for the game feature 91. TAT also has to focus on constantly improving the relationship with its audience, by answering to its needs. For this, on its official website, TAT has a satisfaction survey dedicated to its website appearance and usage where users are asked about the effectiveness of the website. However, the link for it is not visible enough for users to notice and give feedback to the company. In order to access it, visitors have to scan in detail the page, as there is no graphic or text sign that can draw the attention. After agreeing that the size of the community is not an efficient criterion to decide how successful the company is on digital platforms, it becomes interesting to explore if TAT addressed the right group of people. Looking at the statistics of Facebook users in Thailand (Figure 16), the majority of users are between years old. The findings of the survey show a similar result, with almost 90% of the respondents being between years old (Appendix E). According to Kania (2000), Generation Y are those who were born between early 1980s and the late 1990s (between 13 and 30 years old). She mentions that this group of people are called The Net Generation since they grew up with computer technology both at home and at school. As a 90 itunes, TAT Contactcenter [online] Available at: < 1672/id ?mt=8> [Accessed 10 July 2012]. 91 Promsuk, Y. 2012, The Big Hit of Social Media in Thailand, ASEAN-Korea Centre, [Online], Available at: < 20 July 2012]. 151

152 result, they spend more time online than other generations and should be the main target group for the company s digital activities. As stated earlier, Kathleen Tan, AirAsia's regional head of commercial marketing, once suggested that TAT should pay attention to the growing segment of Generation Y and improve the way they communicate with them 92. Regarding this specific segment, the survey shows that more than half of the respondents do not have knowledge about the nation brand and that social media have no influence in this particular area. Basically, the approach for this specific target group presents two problems: firstly, social media do not seem to be efficiently used in increasing the level of brand awareness and secondly, this category of people seems to also have an overall low level of brand knowledge. Even though almost all the respondents come from generation Y, which is considered to the core user of social platform services, it is indicated that TAT did not succeed in determining the community to use the platforms for nation brand purposes. This means that they yet have to explore the awareness potential of social media in connection to this category of people. It was also shown (Figure 15) that for the Thai market, digital tools such as Facebook or Twitter have been actively used only for the past two years and therefore it is a growing and relatively new area of interest. For example, from 18 million internet users in Thailand, 14 million of them have a Facebook account which represents 77% of Thai internet users. For Twitter, in 2011 there were almost one million users in Thailand 93. Taking this into consideration, TAT can be placed at the beginning of a long process, in which it will have to both generate more interest regarding nation branding and also do this through communication channels that have a large exposure and popularity, such as social media. This process is especially applicable in the case of Generation Y, which already has a strong presence and knowledge about these platforms. One of the biggest challenges for TAT in encouraging the social media engagement consists of the censorship rules for both Facebook and Twitter. For example, Safko and Brake (2009) explain that the censorship policy on Twitter implemented since 2012 can have a great effect on 92 Kositchotethana, B Time for a tourism tune-up. Bangkok Post [online] Available at: < [Accessed 1 May 2012]. 93 9tana, [Infographic] สถ ต การใช Twitter ของคนไทยในป 2011 และ20 อ นด บของคนท ม ผ ต ดตามมากท ส ดในไทย!. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 July 2012]. 152

153 Thai users. Due to the control of the content in the conversation, the Twitter user s freedom of speech can be questioned and it can also influence the decision of Thai people to use Twitter. Besides the relatively new interest in social media in Thailand, the low engagement from the community can also raise the problem of how the content is organized on virtual pages. This will be further discussed in the next section. In conclusion, the success of the community s engagement does not rely on the number of the members as there can be hidden or inactive users due to the characteristic of these platforms. As a result, TAT has to improve the relationship with its current and potential community members by enhancing more interactive and two-way communication. This will not only reinforce the relationship with its current audiences but will also attract new audiences. Such target groups can for example include Generation Y, which can be a key factor to the company s digital media success, as it is the core users of such services. It is therefore important for TAT to address them properly and trigger their interest for the nation brand, making them more aware of the unique features it embodies. 5.4.Enhancing the social media presence The purpose of this section is to explore improvement suggestions for TAT s digital media presence. To be successful in the virtual space, the company has to continuously scan the environment for new services that appear on the market and that capture considerable amount of attention from the public. This will allow the organization to have a dynamic and updated presence which answers to the customers needs. Schmidt and Ralph (2011) characterize the virtual environment as a very emergent one, in which preferences vary and a company has to be present on the platforms that are popular, even though it requires a considerable investment, both financial as well as human. In order to improve the outcome of its social media activities, it is extremely important for TAT to select the right tools that serves their purpose (Yost 2010; Schmidt & Ralph 2011). This means that being present on the right channel at the right time will give a company more 153

154 opportunities in reaching its audience and increase the level of nation brand awareness by making it more visible. In the survey, respondents were also asked to mention the platforms on which they presently have an account (Appendix D). The results revealed potential channels which can help TAT to improve its digital media strategy, pinpointing tools that it might not currently use, but have a raising popularity among users. For example, almost 70% of the respondents have a YouTube account which can be an important source for TAT in raising the nation brand awareness among Thai social media users. Currently, TAT has its own YouTube channel 94 where most of the videos provided are in English as the main focus is on the international market. As a consequence, this channel cannot reach the domestic market effectively, as it is not customized for this audience. According to the users preferences revealed by the survey s results, TAT should emphasize and focus more on this channel to address Thai people. Additionally, in Figure 15 it can be seen that YouTube is placed second in the Thai Social Network Trends, right after Facebook, with a considerable growth in TAT could for example, launch more activities for Thai people on its channel or add advertising videos also used in mass media. It can also gather videos from people travelling inside Thailand and offer individual experiences in the form of an audio-visual blog, with real and authentic experiences. Another interesting and rising social platform in Thailand which should not be ignored is Instagram. It is a free photo sharing program launched in October 2010 that allows users to take a photo and share it on a variety of social network websites such as, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr 95. From the results of a survey, many respondents mentioned that they also use Instagram. According to Zocial Rank, a social media ranking and statistics engine, there are almost 300,000 Thai users with over 11 million uploaded pictures. Its huge popularity was generated in less than two years One of the company s campaigns, My miracle Thailand, which was also brought into discussion earlier in the paper, was launched to encourage smartphone and social media 94 Tourism Authority of Thailand s official YouTube channel, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 July 2012]. 95 Instagram Inc. 2012, Official Website, [online] Available at: < [Accessed 15 July 2012]. 96 ZocialRank, 2012.Thailand instagram statistics. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 9 July 2012]. 97 Zocialinc, 2012.Thais and Instagram (the latest photo sharing service in the social media world). [online] Available at: < [Accessed 9 July 2012]. 154

155 users to share their photo that express the miracle of Thailand from their own view 98. Through this campaign, people can share their pictures through Instagram and other social network services. As Instagram is one of the most remarkable social network services in Thailand with a fast-growing rate of users, this can be a suggestion for TAT to improve its digital media approach by using this service with other future campaigns. As the digital world never stops and keeps growing all the times, TAT has to adapt and respond to these changes as soon as possible so that it can maintain its target audience and create competitive advantage. 5.5.Prospects for nation branding on social media In this section, Thai internet users general perception about TAT s social media activities will be discussed, showing how visible their social websites are and what do people think about the content. This part aims at presenting suggestions for TAT to improve the content on digital media and therefore raise the nation brand awareness among social media users. Looking at the Facebook page, the results of the survey point towards a quite visible presence as more than 30% of people know the page. On the contrary, for Twitter more than 95% of the respondents do not know that TAT has an account (Appendix E). The level of knowledge about its Twitter account is dramatically low. However, this situation can also be influenced by the fact that the questionnaire was posted on Facebook and therefore it might not have reached Twitter but more Facebook users. For example, the research was able to identify users that have only a Facebook or Facebook and Twitter account, but not those that have only a Twitter account. Moving forward towards the opinion about the content in the case of TAT s Facebook and Twitter page, the findings show a positive opinion of the users towards its pages. Respondents think that the activities on these pages encourages them to travel more inside the country (26%) and become eager to learn more about their own country (15%) (Appendix D). Both Facebook 98 Tourism Authority of Thailand, Miracle Me, The Showcase of Miracle Thailand Year. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 July 2012] 155

156 and Twitter pages leave an overall good impression among the social media users. The interesting aspect is that most of the positive impressions are pointed towards the desire to travel more inside the country, which is one of the main objectives for TAT (Appendix A). The messages posted on these pages had the desired outcome of making Thai tourists become more interested in travelling inside the country. However, the ratio is still fairly low and does not represent the majority. Most subjects state that they do not check the information on these pages, even though they are aware of their existence (Appendix D). Therefore, the overall interest in the content presented on Facebook and Twitter is low. As the study aims at exploring the potential of social media in raising the nation brand awareness, for the survey, correlations were made to assess whether brand knowledge is associated to the awareness about TAT s social media activities. Correlations were done for both Facebook and Twitter and registered a slightly negative coefficient (Table 8; Table 9, indicating that there is no connection between these two variables. According to the results, more than 70% of respondents who remember the brand, do not know about the company s Facebook page. Similarly, only 25% of respondents who know about TAT s Twitter account can also recall the nation brand. Therefore, the contribution of Facebook and Twitter to the nation brand awareness can be questioned. However, such a result can be influenced by various aspects. Similar to the brand concept, the presence on the social platforms is also fragmented. As shown earlier, on Facebook there are numerous pages created by the company. Each page has a different concept which focuses on a different topic or for the same concept even more than one page is created. For example, 7 Greens page was created to promote a campaign for sustainable travelling by encouraging people to be environmentally friendly tourists 99. Another similar campaign called Travel with a new heart for a sustainable Thailand also focus on a sustainable travelling among Thai people 100. It can be seen that even though the concepts of these pages have a very similar idea, they are presented on two separate pages. Such an approach can create confusion for users, as they both do not know which page to refer to and also cannot link the concept to the brand. 99 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook, Greens ท องเท ยวสดใสใส ใจส งแวดล อม. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 July 2012]. 100 Tourism Authority of Thailand s Facebook page, เท ยวห วใจใหม เม องไทยย งย น. [online] Available at: < [Accessed 10 July 2012]. 156

157 Since there are too many different themes, the audience might not be able to associate with any concept because they do not know which the main one is. In order to overcome this fragmented presence in the virtual space, TAT should centralize all its Facebook and Twitter pages, so that users can easily access information. Such an action was taken for the company s official website (Appendix A), where the information from more than 50 pages were centralized to create a more user friendly experience for the page s visitors. Such an approach can also be applied for Facebook and Twitter, creating a hub, where the company presents all its events and information, so that users can clearly see the link between all these initiatives. It is of course necessary to present a creative and appealing concept for each campaign, so that people become interested in TAT s events, but through a centralized presentation of information it can assure the user he or she has updated data regarding the company. By having such a fragmented presence, the users might not even get the chance to actually find out the latest information, as there is no indication to where it actually is placed. This however, does not mean that the company cannot create a separate page for a campaign. This can of course be done and it will even bring more visibility, but it has to be linked to the main page, so if users want to find out more about that specific campaign, they can easily access the link posted on the main page. Going back to Gilman s (2011) ABC s model, the situation presented above can be placed in the last part of the process, which refers to the way TAT defines its presence in the virtual world. It has to create a balanced involvement, which allows it to gather significant input from its audience and reinforce its presence on the platforms. All in all, in TAT s case the influence social media have in strengthening the nation brand presence for the domestic market is low, even though the general opinion about the message is fairly positive. Moreover, the concept seems too fragmented, presenting a large number of pagesthat does not create a single and organized image for the company, which was also revealed in the way the nation brand was created. 157

158 5.6.The successful recipe: social media and traditional marketing efforts The arguments brought into discussion in the previous sections present the relationship between nation branding and social media from the audience s perspective and with a corporate focus. It was indicated that social media do not have strong influence on the level of nation brand awareness, but the general impression about the actions taken in the virtual space is positive. Even if the impact of these tools is not significant, there is no suggestion of a negative or deconstructive influence. Moreover, social platforms are a growing field in Thailand and are yet starting to be explored. The findings of the questionnaire reveal an agreement form the public for both the nation brand concept as well as the content presented on the social web pages. In Chapter were given numerous examples of messages posted by TAT and how people engaged in an open discussion. These examples indicate an active participation of the audience, which is also one of the main functionalities of these tools. Therefore, the overall assembly suggests an efficient approach to this communication channel and a considerable effort from the company to create and sustain the virtual presence. However, regardless of how successful TAT is in raising the brand awareness among the domestic public, it cannot be stated that social media are the only contributory factors, as they are not the only channels in reaching the audiences. Traditional marketing activities such as, events and mass media have also been used to promote the nation brand. What is more, due to the fact that the brand itself was created more than 15 years old, the brand might have been embedded in Thai people s mind before the birth of Facebook and Twitter. Social media campaigns are not singular acts performed in isolation. The actions taken on these channels have to subscribe to the overall brand objectives set by the company (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). TAT aims at creating a connection between the customers and the brand and this process involves both online as well as offline activities. The research was done for the online communities and compared to Thailand s entire population, the internet users represent only 26% (Table 3). In order to increase the level of nation brand 158

159 awareness, TAT has to also focus on reaching people who are not present in the virtual space. Even though this is not the focus of the paper, it can be mentioned that by the use of traditional marketing tools, the company can reach the offline audience. From this perspective, traditional marketing can offer TAT the possibility of reaching the majority of the country s population. Complementary, social media has a stronger collaborative focus, which offers the possibility of actually communicating with the audience, setting new action trends and plan ahead. These tools can amplify traditional marketing, not replace it (Cohen & Bodnar 2012). The advantage in using social media is that they are time and cost efficient as they offer the possibility of disseminating the message at a very fast rate. The transmission of messages can be compared to a chained reaction that does not take place only in the virtual space but also offline, though the word-ofmouth (Agresta, Bough & Miletsky 2011). TAT showed a growing interest regarding the domestic market, as it has a considerable potential for improving and strengthening the nation brand (Appendix A). The survey presented that more than 30% of the subjects travel only inside Thailand (Appendix D). This percentage indicates that the domestic market is an important segment and it should be taken into consideration. Most of the actions taken for the domestic market focused on promoting different regions around the country, emphasizing the unique features they can offer. Events were also organized in these regions to attract more people. However, by using social channels, TAT was able to inform people all over the country, which would otherwise be geographically unreachable. Nevertheless, social platforms are not used only for advertising purposes, but also for general information. The examples enlisted in the previous sections marked facts about the Thai culture, gastronomy or history which contribute at generating awareness about the country. In a nutshell, for raising the brand awareness of the domestic market, TAT should not neglect traditional marketing and combine it with social media tools that can create a more effective communication mix. However, it should focus on reorganizing the fragmented perception that people now have about the nation brand, constructing a singular message presented on all channels accordingly. 159

160 6. Conclusion This study brought in the centre of attention social media s potential in raising the nation brand awareness for the domestic market. Based on an exploratory approach, the problem statement was constructed as follows: How can the Tourism Authority of Thailand improve its social media strategy, in order to raise nation brand awareness among the domestic public? Firstly, looking at Thailand, the paper showed it has both negative as well as positive characteristics. As a country with diverse customs and influences, it strives to battle against existing stereotypes and promote its unique cultural heritage. TAT, the public institution that is responsible for creating a concept for the country has the difficult task of changing existing and deep embedded negative perceptions both internally as well as externally. Its main goal is to improve the country s economic situation and leverage the brand awareness of the country, according to international standards. While enfolding the area of nation branding, it was discovered that there are several dimensions to be addressed, apart from tourism. Nation branding involves the business potential of a country, quality of life or cultural heritage. However, the core dimension promoted by TAT is tourism, which also has a strong contribution to the country s economic development. The SWOT analysis carried out for TAT s nation branding strategy revealed that external economic threats such as the worldwide economic crisis reinforce the approach towards the domestic public, as the number of Thai tourists is growing. In an instable economic environment, people are not determined to travel abroad and choose to travel inside the country. To reach its stakeholders, TAT uses a variety of channels, from TV commercials to events. According to the data collected, the company has a growing interest is using digital media as a communication platform to reach its publics. Referring to social media, in order to build apposite suggestions, it was firstly necessary to understand the current situation, both from an internal as well as an external perspective. More 160

161 precisely, by looking at the way TAT built the strategy for the online environment and how successful this approach actually is, the research then pinpointed best practices and strategic disfunctionalities. Its current approach to social platforms, presented by the data in this paper, indicate that TAT is committed to using social media as a new communication channel for reaching its audience. They did not only reveal an active interest but also a considerable involvement, incorporating these tools in the strategic plan. TAT s social media engagement cannot be ignored as it has invested both financial as well as human resources in creating and improving the digital media presence and it has done this in a constant manner, not as a project based approach. Lacking expertise in the field, it externalized the process to an authorized and more experienced company, in order to maximize the outcome of the strategy. Looking at Facebook and Twitter, which are the main digital tools used, the users behaviour indicated a higher degree of preference more towards the first mentioned platform. However, to better understand how the digital strategy is perceived by the public, a quantitative study was carried out, revealing possible decision directions for the company. The survey indicated that as a company, TAT is highly visible, whereas as a brand, the respondents showed a low level of awareness and they did not link it to the company. Even though the brand itself does not belong to the organization, as it is a collective representation, the concept created for the brand is made by TAT. This does not have a strong presence among the domestic public and additionally it is highly fragmented. Regarding the brand concept, the data generated by the research and the analysis done for the secondary data pointed towards the need of a repositioning, making it clearer and presenting a singular message. This does not imply a change of the current brand, but rather a repositioning on the market, linking all activities to it so that it becomes more visible, creating an alignment in people s perception of the concept. Exploring the degree of success the current digital strategy has, it was shown that for the community s engagement, the number of users is not a valid criterion. As digital media offers the possibility of a two-way communication, it is important for TAT to not only reinforce the relationship with its current audiences but also attract new audiences. The survey revealed a potential target group, Generation Y, which TAT should address, as it is highly accustomed to the use of social platforms and its presence in the virtual world is significant. TAT has to 161

162 determine its publics to connect with the brand, find information about it and at the same time use digital media to explore the brand in an interactive manner. The public s perception of the current media approach is mostly positive, but the level of awareness about the company s online activities is low. As also indicated by the general opinion about the nation brand, the presence on Facebook and Twitter is fragmented, presenting a large number of pages that does not create a single and organized image for the company. The upfront and abundant approach to social media can be inappropriate to start with and a more gradual involvement can bring more advantages. TAT should revise its digital media strategy, organizing and defining its digital presence (Figure 23). This will include subordinating all pages to the main official one, therefore improving the user experience and creating a more transparent information flow. All the actions taken by TAT have to address the community and constantly improve the relationship with users by engaging in the exchange of information and tailor the message according to its preferences. This includes for example engaging in new platforms that represent a growing interest, such as YouTube. However, one of the most difficult tasks for TAT is to trigger the interest of the domestic public in the nation brand. As the survey showed, apart from the digital media activities, respondents are not aware of what the nation brand is. Raising awareness in an effective manner involves approaching a communication mix that embraces both traditional as well as untraditional marketing efforts. Social media cannot be judged as a separate factor and their influence has to be analysed together with other activities taken for this. The steps presented above are summed up in figure below (Figure 23). 162

163 Figure 23: Suggested process for TAT Source: Own creation It also has to bear in mind that best practices form the social media field have to be taken into consideration as guidelines, not as mandatory action directives. These are Western communication tools and the way they have to see them has to be adapted to the Thai context. Due to the theory of science used, this paper was able to both an academic as well as practical (business oriented) value. The academic value of this research is oriented towards two aspects, by contributing to both a better understanding of how nation branding is used in the organizational environment as well as the consumer behaviour of Thai social media users in relation to nation branding. The academic value was enabled by the hermeneutical influence, which pointed towards understanding and interpreting reality. The practical value of the research will allow the company to maximize the outcome of their current strategy and explore the true potential of these overly debated channels, which are social media. The arguments brought had a strong critical nature, as it offered not only quantifiable data, but also went beyond interpreting reality, towards producing change, in the form of future improvement suggestions. 163