Dr Sittiporn Dadas, president of the Network Promotional Office, said yesterday that this golden opportunity did not occur often. The World Cup is a time when fans concentrate on football matches every day over one month, either at home or in public places like restaurants and beer gardens.

He said that this was makers of food, snacks and beverages consumed while watching the games should capitalise on the opportunity. Many people also want products related to the competition. Therefore, SMEs in this field can generate huge sales if they play their cards right.

Yet, most SMEs do not have strong backup systems, resulting in inconsistent quality control of products and services, which can kill their brands.

Sittiporn said that SMEs had to make sure they have good operating systems including production, logistics and service systems instead of simply accelerating production to meet high demand.

He suggested that start-up SMEs should associate their products and services with the World Cup in order to draw consumers' attention. One example is to post stickers of countries in the competition on packaging.

However, they must make sure they don't use symbols that break the World Cup's licensing agreements. The price of the products should be cheaper than usual.

SMEs should also have a specific customer targets, exploit the right advertising media for them and set strategies to reach their audience rather than spend a huge budget on mass media advertising such as television.

Also useful is knowing the target customers' behaviour, including such their lifestyles, what restaurants they like to visit and where they go for entertainment. After that, the SMEs must approach these places to arrange co-promotions together.

This includes providing product samples for their customers, which is a good strategy to build awareness.

Petrol stations, beer gardens and traditional neighbourhood shops are also useful for spreading the word.

Phusit Phensiri, executive vice president of Nano Search Co Ltd, said fashion products like clothing, caps and key chains are the easiest products to associate with the World Cup.

The marketing trend during the World Cup this year, however, is different from four years ago as it clashes with the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of HM the King accession to the throne.

Therefore, any advertising that pays respect to the King and hitches onto World Cup fever could have bright future.

He suggested that products relying on specific national football teams could flop if the teams fall out of the competition.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation