Domestic customers' perceived value toward Thai cultural products

Abstract

As Thai cultural identity is one of the remarkable assets in Thai culture and has gained wider attention, there is a growing trend for the market to capture domestic customers' behavior. This study investigates consumers' value perceptions and their intentions to purchase Thai cultural products by extending the theory of consumption value through four values that influence perceived value of product attitude, which also affect purchase intention and customer satisfaction. Online Survey data from 412 people in Thailand were used to test the hypotheses, and content analysis of 9 in-depth interviewees was used to understand the product's perceptions better.

The results indicated that four values (i.e., functional, social, emotional, and social responsibility) positively affect Thai cultural product purchase intention and customer satisfaction. Social responsibility is a significant value that people perceive and highly appreciate. Social value is highly perceived but hard to evaluate. People under 25 years old perceived social value as less than those over 56 years old as well as regular customers perceived this value as more than the non-frequent buyer. Functional value is the most significant value that people evaluate, especially quality and uniqueness, but they are less practical. Appearance and craftmanship of products is the most mentioned value but different experience and taste highly affect how respondents perceive emotional value. Males, LGTBQ, and the older generation focus on uniqueness and craftsmanship. In contrast, female and younger age groups tend to focus on product function. The findings offer implications for practitioners and policymakers in designing strategies that encourage people to purchase Thai cultural products. Companies should design strategies that apply product function with emotional-related value to improve social value using modern design and engaging content, such as storytelling, based on each product's background. Launching a campaign and focus on communication plan could be excellent tool to promote the products' selling point.