I was searching for another funny Thai advertisements that I think are good and there are plenty of them available on the Web. However, many of them were advertising same comapnies (Bangkok Insurance co., Thai Health Promotion (Public), etc.) Just for the sake of reliefing the boredom from such repetitive pattern of finding a humorous Thai advertisement and analyzing/commeting on them, I decided to think of back in the days when I was living in Thailand from the marketing perspective. I realized that one of the most common marketing strategy most foreigners living in Thailand (including myself) was bargaining.
Bargaining in Thailand is one of the most crucial marketing strategy any foreign individuals require in order to not feel frustrated after you purchase cheap goods/services a few times higher than their NORMAL prices. normal prices I am talking about here is the market price usual Thai people pay for goods and services. Those “rip-offs” does not really happen in supermarkets (or at least definitely not in convinience stores such as Seven-Elevens) but mostly nearby tourists attraction places as well as (night/day daily/weekly) street markets.
From the experience, Thai sellers in markets without proper price tags set on products tends to offer in average of five times higher price than usual to foreigners who are mainly there for touring purpose – In fact, in some cases they tag the foreigners’ price but sell them at the normal price to Thai people or at least to those who seem to have lived for awhile in Thailand (speaking in Thai, fashion trends and so on).
There are certain tips on how to not get ripped off in such markets that I have figured from the experience;
- More Thai you speak, better (Pronounciation of Thai you speak is the key to strengthen your bargaining power exponentially)
- Be confident on the availability of those products/services at an acceptable price. Take your time looking around other shops as well – In most cases there are many other sellers who have the exact same items you desire to purchase but they will often offer different prices. So approach them as if you had cheaper offers from other sellers.
- Guess the minimum price of products and suggest the price first despite some experience on Thai market is required.
- Do NOT offence the sellers by being rude during any market transactions
- Be a loyal customer of a seller – even the street marketers know the importance of Customer Relationship Management
- Be humorous while negotiating for the price – creating pleasant atmosphere always helps during any kind of communication
- Minimize the appearance as a tourist and pretned you have been living there for a few years.
- Be friendly at all times – maybe just take a photo with them
Those were just some of the techniques to bargain in markets in Thailand that comes into my mind for now. I will be very happy to hear some of your opinions/ comments on them!
*Here is a link to another website that contains a typical conversation between a foreigner and a Thai seller in markets (quite funny) – http://www.1stopchiangmai.com/how_to/bargain/