'The key to marketing is developing customer sensitivity'

Samatcha, 36, has a bachelor's degree in political science (international relations) from Chulalongkorn University, a master's in politics and international relations from  Nottingham University in the UK, and a master's in political international relations and economy from Warwick University, also in the UK.

He started his career at the Thai Trade Centre in London and returned to Thailand to become an account executive at the Hill & Knowlton public relations agency, a subsidiary of J Walter Thompson. A year after that, he worked in the marketing-communications department for Nike (Thailand) and then applied for a senior marketing manager position at Sansiri.

"I never though I would be a marketing man. My dream was always to  become an ambassador. But with my experience at the Thai Trade Centre, I realised that I don't want to be part of a state agency. Therefore, I shifted my focus to the private sector," he said.

Initially, Samatcha was not sure which career would be right for

him, but his tenure at the international sports-accessories company Nike introduced him to the joys of marketing.

"I learnt to work with professionals and got to the heart of marketing. Most people understand marketing concepts but don't realise that the key to marketing is developing customer sensitivity and creating products to match customer requirements," he said.

Samatcha used his experience to build the Sansiri brand, a company that had expertise in developing luxury condominiums at the time he joined.

Samatcha said his boss, Srettha Thavisin, the president of Sansiri, asked him to promote the company beyond the image of a luxury-condominium developer.

The company aimed to develop all kinds of residential projects and to enter the detached-housing market in a bid to compete with market leader Land & Houses.

"I knew the task was difficult but I took it on as a challenge," he said.

Samatcha began by studying Sansiri's target customers, and communicating with the company's architects, construction team and marketing department to understand the company's products.

Meanwhile, he studied the  competition, especially the products of Land & Houses.

Armed with information from his research and inputs from the management team, Samatcha created a marketing campaign targeting customers who prefer a private and unique lifestyle. This differed significantly from the market leader's campaign, which focused on residential projects for the masses.

Sansiri now has four successful brands for detached-housing and two for condominiums.

"Although Sansiri is not currently a market leader in terms of sales, I believe the company has established its brand in the mind of home-buyers. Anyone looking for a residence, visits our projects before taking a decision," he said.