The study of unmet needs of instant tea product in Thai consumers: new opportunities for new product in Thai market

This independent study, “The study of unmet needs of instant tea product in Thai consumers: New opportunities for new product in Thai market”, aims at analyzing market opportunity, consumer’s consumption behavior and at figuring out strategies for the potential new product including distribution channel and promotion, and the suitable brand positioning. The results of the finding will be beneficial to those who are interested in importing or launching new instant tea product to Thailand market.The study is developed based on findings from both primary and secondary data in fields of exploratory and descriptive research, in-depth interview and questionnaire. The result of this study shows that the new kinds of instant tea that customers are interested in are ‘Formulated tea’ for drinking in the morning or before bed time, followed by natural sweetened tea without calories, while instant tea drinkers are interested in tea mocktail and decaffeinated tea. The author suggests that in the first period of launching the product, the new product should focus on increasing brand experience by giving free samples because self-preference is the most important factor in the buying decision process. Moreover, the new product should be publicized through social media in terms of user review since customer tends to believe recommendation from friends and blogger’s review (Dialogue) more than advertising (Persuasion) by mass media. The details of the recommendation for 4P’s are provided in this study. Furthermore, this study also suggests further research on taste test in order to know more which taste Thai consumers prefer. This study has been chosen to be a part of a contemporary topic in applied marketing as it pertains to an “international business”, for the purpose of finding opportunity to bring new product to Thailand market.

本独立研究题为《泰国消费者速溶茶产品未被满足的需求研究：泰国市场新品开发新机遇》，旨在分析市场机遇、消费者消费行为，并挖掘潜在新品开发策略——涵盖分销渠道、推广方案及适配的品牌定位。本研究成果将为有意向向泰国市场进口或推出速溶茶新品的企业提供参考价值。

本研究基于探索性与描述性研究领域的一手及二手数据开展，数据采集方式包括深度访谈与问卷调查。研究结果显示，消费者感兴趣的新型速溶茶品类包括适用于晨起或睡前饮用的调配型茶饮（Formulated tea），其次为无热量天然甜茶；而现有速溶茶饮用者则更关注茶类鸡尾酒与脱因茶。

研究者建议，产品上市初期应通过免费试用来强化品牌体验——因消费者的自我偏好是购买决策过程中的核心影响因素。此外，新品应依托社交媒体以用户评价为核心进行推广：相较于大众媒体的广告（说服式宣传），消费者更信任亲友推荐与博主测评（对话式沟通）。本研究还详细给出了针对营销4P的优化建议。

此外，本研究建议后续可开展口味测试研究，以进一步明确泰国消费者的口味偏好。本研究因聚焦于“国际商务”范畴的应用营销前沿议题，旨在挖掘面向泰国市场的新品开发机遇，故被纳入应用营销当代主题研究板块。