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Published on December 20, 2007

He wants the company to start building wide awareness through experiential marketing, which attempts to connect consumers with brands in personally relevant and memorable ways.

"We have slightly lost marketing opportunities during the past few years. Like our competitors, we only focused on promotions such as offering discounts and premiums. Therefore, our sales were stable," he said.

Chroong said the company intended to maintain its leading position in the premium-paint market and its second place in the Bt11-billion overall paint market.

Experiential marketing will be a major tool. It will focus on co-marketing with trading partners in all distribution channels, including dealers, modern retailers and real-estate operators.

It will also use display cases to highlight the quality of its products, as well as provide catalogues for customers to choose colours at home instead of waiting in shops.

Chroong said ICI Paints' marketing budget next year would not be much higher than this year's Bt200 million. He said the company just had to change its methods.

Chroong said the economic slowdown had led to only 1-per-cent growth in the overall paint market this year.

The company has generated slightly higher sales.

He estimated that the market next year would grow in line with economic growth at about 3 per cent.

Competition next year is likely to be intense and will be focused on innovation as well as pricing strategy and promotions.

Chroong estimated there would be more than 10 new products in the market.

ICI Paints will focus on its main brand Dulux, a premium colour brand that contributes 50 per cent of its sales.

Yesterday, the company launched its latest product: Dulux Light and Space.

Chroong was formerly CEO of Shell Autoserv for Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Nitida Asawanipont

 The Nation