Bangkok--12 Jan--Verve
COTTON USA is set to further expand its market and reinforce consumer’s awareness and confidence in the COTTON USA Mark through a proactive 2011 marketing plan that centers around two key marketing strategies: continued effort to build COTTON USA Mark Awareness among consumers and provision of support and benefits to the Thai textile and garment industry entrepreneurs who are partnered as COTTON USA Licensees. The plan follows findings from the latest COTTON USA Mark Tracking Survey, which suggested an increase in the awareness of COTTON USA Mark among Thai consumers and an upward trend of the Mark’s influence on Thai consumer’s buying decisions.
According to Mr. Kraipob Pangsapa, COTTON USA Thailand Representative, Thai consumers are paying more attention to properties of the clothes they choose to wear, including quality, wearing comfort, and the value for their money, as well as friendliness to the environment. They are willing to pay more for better quality products, and consequently, their awareness and recognition of COTTON USA Mark kept increasing. This was confirmed by findings from the latest COTTON USA Mark Tracking Survey, which revealed that COTTON USA Mark awareness among general population has risen to 39%, from 26% in 2007, and especially among female respondents aged 25-34 years old, the awareness increased significantly from 32% in 2007 to 54% in 2009.
“COTTON USA highly recognizes the importance of the Thai market and have been marketing COTTON USA Mark consistently over the past 14 years,” said Mr. Kraipob. “A special emphasis was given to raising consumer awareness of the mark, benefits of 100% natural cotton, as well as favorable attributes of quality products made mainly from US cotton. The mark awareness reinforcement was aimed at both the consumers in general and a key target group of women in the age range of 25-34 years old with household income of 20,000 Baht or more. These campaigns run in parallel with a continued series of proactive marketing activities organized for the Thai textile and garment industries.”
With a total marketing budget of 17 million Baht, COTTON USA will in 2011 maintain a good balance of continued activities for both ends of the market through its ‘Demand Pull — Supply Push’ strategy. From the ‘Demand Pull’ side, the focus will be on expanding and reinforcing consumer awareness of COTTON USA Mark. Above-the-line marketing will be used, such as production of TV commercials for greater awareness of the Mark, while consumer awareness of cotton’s attributes and benefits of cotton fabrics will expectedly be broadened through below-the-line activities, including the 2011 COTTON USA Design Challenge as the sixth straight annual event in the series. This annual design challenge provides a space for young talents in Thailand to demonstrate their potential in design and production skills, as well as to compete for trips to the USA, which they could broaden their experience in professional fashion design. The main criteria of 2011 COTTON USA Design Challenge is to design ‘Ready-to-wear’ and ‘Ready-to-wear Couture’ garments with the ‘Hollywood Movie Inspired’ concept using 100% cotton fabrics as the only fabric.
From the other end of ‘Supply Push’, COTTON USA has organized events for licensees with a key emphasis on expanding support and benefits for them. COTTON USA will continue to coordinate between manufacturers and distributors of products made from US cotton through COTTON USA Supply Chain Marketing (SCM) programs that provide the opportunity for Thai manufacturers to meet with foreign buyers. Past SCM programs organized by COTTON USA included COTTON USA Buyers Tour to Vietnam in 2007 and 2008, COTTON USA Buyers Tour to Indonesia in 2009, and most recently, COTTON USA Yarn Buyers Tour to Thailand in 2010, during which Thai manufacturers met with buyers from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and neighboring Southeast Asian countries. In addition to introducing new buyers to Thai manufacturers through these SCM programs, COTTON USA has organized seminars to provide the textile and garment industries in Thailand about new industry innovations from Cotton Incorporated. With the knowledge and updates gained from these seminars, Thai textile and garment manufacturers could improve the quality of their 100% cotton products to be better with those available in the global market. For instance, 4x4 MAN by S’Fare, a menswear collection that features NATURAL STRETCH?, which is Cotton Incorporated’s latest technology of 100% quality cotton fabric that offers increased flexibility for more comfortable body movement. The 4x4 Man by S’Fare was the first collection from a Thai brand to integrate this technology.
“COTTON USA has set a target to have 2-4 new licensees in Thailand in 2011, expectedly 1-2 brands of garment and 1-2 textile manufacturers. COTTON USA Thailand currently has 44 licensees, divided into 22 brands and 22 textile manufacturers,” Mr. Kraipob revealed.
“As a result of our proactive marketing efforts over the past years,” he continued, “we spotted a trend where consumption of products made from cotton kept rising in Thailand, as seen from a survey finding that 40% of the respondents said COTTON USA hangtag influenced their buying decision. In particular, 41% of the general population and 47% of female respondents aged 25-34 years old agreed that the hangtag was important on their decision to buy. As for male respondents, 38% of them would likely buy products that carry the hangtag.”
In 2009, 5.8 million COTTON USA hangtags were attached to products sold in Thailand, and the figures are estimated to have risen to 6.38 million in 2010. The total number of COTTON USA hangtags attached to products in 2010 is currently in process of auditing and will be available as official figures around the beginning of 2011. With the marketing plan set for 2011, COTTON USA expects to increase attachment of the hangtag by 10% to seven million pieces per year.
Global production of natural cotton during the crop year 2009/10 totaled 22.1 million metric tons, with the five largest producers being China, India, USA, Pakistan, and Brazil. It is estimated that combined export volume of natural cotton worldwide amounted to 7.75 million metric tons. Among the exporting nations, USA continued to take the lead as the world’s largest cotton exporter with a share of 33.8%, followed by India (18.4%), Uzbekistan (10.7%), Australia (5.9%), and Brazil (4.6%).
“According to USDA’s projection, US cotton production during the crop year 2010/11 will grow to 3.977 million metric tons, an increase of 1.323 million metric tons or 49.85% from 2.654 million metric tons produced in 2009/10. In Thailand, the popularity of natural cotton from USA will likely continue among manufacturers, as reflected by the total of 130,659 metric tons of natural cotton imported from the US in 2010/11 for production of garment and home textiles. The import volume accounted for 37% of 354,000 metric tons of cotton imported into Thailand in 2010/11,” Mr. Kraipob concluded.
COTTON USA Mark Tracking Survey is conducted once every two years to measure the performance and consumer’s perception towards COTTON USA Mark against its major competitive brands. In the most recent survey conducted in 2009, the sample size was 500 Bangkok residents within the age range of 15-54 years old and with a household income of over 20,000 Baht per month. The sample was divided into two groups: core target of female respondents aged 25-34 years old and general population of both male and female respondents aged 15-54 years old.
The sixth COTTON USA Design Challenge will be held in 2011 with the concept of “Hollywood Movie Inspired”. It is a platform for young Thai designers to show their talents through fashion design creations inspired by the silver screen, in a competition for scholarships and a “US Cotton Fashion Inspired Trip”. The annual design challenge is open for entries until January 31 and the final-round competition will take place on April 29. Winner announcement to be made on Cotton Day, mid of May 2011. Interested individuals can ask for an application form from a participating advisor in their faculty or download the file from Facebook page of COTTON USA Design Challenge Thailand.