When it comes to digital age, internet connection is the foundation of how we communicate and search for information. dtac positioned itself as a caring brand, not just for Thais, but for those who want to connect with their loved ones.

And one of the target group is migrant workers and tourists. According to the survey, dtac gained 90% of market shares in this segment, clearly reinforcing its no 1 position in this segment.

We bring you to talk with the marketing team who are responsible for migrant and tourist segment, led by Noi- Lalida Lohachitanond, Head of Migrant and tourist segment and the manager, Tum – Apichard Tinnasulanond.

Multiracial team with shared goal

The team of eight has a mix of races from Burmese, Cambodian and Chinese. It’s not just about language, but also culture and lifestyle that we need to truly understand, aimed at effective communications.

Joe – Kittikhun Kleeliang

He is a Thai national strategist with experience in aviation industry for a couple of years before joining dtac. He is interested in marketing job with scope of market analysis, product development and strategy design.

Arm – Aung aung Htut

He is a Burmese national with three years experience in airlines before moving in dtac early this year. He is overwhelmingly keen on understanding customer needs. And dtac is one of his most admired brands in Thailand.

Eye – Syhor Morn

He is a Cambodian national who was granted the Royal Scholarship under Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Education Project to the Kingdom of Cambodia. He holds a bachelor degree in business tourism from Ramkamhang University. He firstly gets to know dtac when he joined a troop event and finally fell in love with brand. And he wants to deliver the same feelings to other customers too.

Jing – Yongjing Wang

She is a Chinese national with education background in Thailand four years ago. She joined dtac in April with the interest in marketing. She said: “In China, a young lady in her age must get married, but she won’t”.

As the team is entering to its ninth anniversary since the team was established. The most difficult task is how to maintain a leader position amidst intense competition in the industry.

A journey to lead migrant and tourist segment

dtac is the first mover in telcos industry, specifically doing marketing campaign on migrant and tourist segment with the focus on Myanmar, Cambodian and Chinese market in 2011.

We distinguished the special market into two segments – Migrant and Tourist. A majority of migrant workers are from Myanmar and Cambodia. They mostly subscribe postpaid package. While prepaid SIM has gained popularity amongst tourists. The length of stay is around seven to eight days on average per trip. Therefore, a prepaid SIM card or what we called tourist SIM had been created to serve tourist segment, which has grown drastically over the past decade.

To better understand them, we conducted a market research to collect their insights – package offerings, pricing and behavior – to further improve our products and services.

Facebook is another channel that we are able to gain their insights and pain point from their complaints through social media. Arm, Eye and Jing are responsible for dealing with customer complaints with their own language.

Each country has their own culture, which reflects their lifestyle, behavior, attitude and customers needs.

For example, lifestyle of Myanmar migrant workers are very similar to Thais as they expect to live in Thailand for a long run. In contrast, Cambodian generally set a goal of working duration around two to three years to make money in Thailand. Once they achieve the amount of earnings, they will go back to their home country.

Feel like home

To keep informing and engaging with migrant segment, communication plays an important role and language must be first considered and localized with their own language. In addition, tone language must be simplified and informal as they are mostly originally from rural areas.

Every time we launch a new campaign, we also developed our own tools – audio ads – to help vendors giving information to customers, apart from leaflet.

Since the first day we pioneered the market until today, what has made dtac become a market leader in this market is to blend in brand with customer’s slice of life. As an individual living in different environments and far away from their loved ones, helping them to connect with their loved is the ideal thinking for the team to interact proactively and reactively.

“Every touch point” strategy has been created to tap into tourist segment, trying to make a presence in every single path of their journey to Thailand. They will remind of dtac brand before their journey starts through Chinese social media, in-flight advertisement, brand visibility at baggage conveyor blet. Once they land in Thailand, they will be able to purchase dtac tourist SIM easily at the airport and convenient stores nationwide. More importantly, it’s not a SIM card for internet connection, but it also offers a wide range of privileges and discounts related to travel activities, such as madame tussauds Bangkok and GRAB.

Joe said: “Language is probably considered a barrier in some cases, but not for migrant and tourist team. No matter Thai, Burmese, Cambodian or Chinese, we’re dtac giants with shared goal to proactively enhance our presence in this segment.

Special team is glad to get a lot of support from different team at dtac, including sales, brand activation and etc. And that is the way we are striving for – collaboration.