The security of tomorrow's Thailand

I attended a small Australian Chamber of Commerce luncheon today about the ‘certainty and uncertainty of Thai politics’, presented by the Editor-in-Chief of the Bangkok Post/Post Today - what’s for certain is that I am even more confused!

I sat next to Natchaon, a young Thai woman who is currently completing her second masters degree. Khun Natchaon is studying consumer behaviour specifically relating to home and personal security (random!). Some of her interim findings were interesting from a sociological perspective…

Over this way ‘luck’ and ‘karma’ provide ways for Thais to order and explain life’s events. If, for instance, you are hit by a motorbike on your way to work, a traditional Thai would explain it as an imbalance of bad karma – doing too many bad things, or not enough of the good. To counter this imbalance, many Thais ‘make merit’ by giving to the poor, helping monks etc. It’s all part of the social fabric over here.

Despite this, Khun Natchaon found respondents to have differing attitudes to personal and home security, largely based along generational lines.

Those up to the age of 30 tended to be more inclined to purchase personal security products. Those aged over 30 were not so inclined to purchase products like home CCTV or electronic access, as they believe an instance of home robbery (‘bad luck’) is an uncontrollable occurrence directly resulting from their own karma inaction, thus a bad way to spend their money.

Why is this interesting?

It shows that for good or bad, Thailand’s next generation (middle class and up) are changing the way Thai’s frame their lives. The next generation are becoming more proactive in taking control of their life, which will no doubt flow into issues of politics and democracy, consumerism, the relevance of Buddhism, the family unit, socialism vs capitalism, and the monarchy.

Thailand will be very different in twenty years time…

Face

Face is a funny thing.

Back home, the word face commonly means the outer-front-side of someone’s head, some of which are quite nice to look at. In Asia, it is a misty mystifying social veil of beauty, frustration and humour.

Beauty in the sense that the concept of ‘face’ and ‘saving face’ is so culturally intricate, thus difficult to understand and at times exclusive. You just can't help but admire the social pillar.

Frustration in the sense that its unspoken language can be excruciating at times to navigate. Why hasn’t he returned my emails? Why do they have such dark tinted windows on their BMW? Why say the bus would take 4hrs, when it always takes 16?

Humour, well sometimes you just need to sit back and smile. For example, I’ve been meeting weekly about a forward sponsorship strategy with a whole bunch of the bank’s VPs and execs. Every week, this important-looking dude walks in, is wai’d profusely by those in attendance, sits in an remote part of the boardroom, doesn’t say anything, then leaves after 5-10 minutes.

Reason? All for face I reckon. It’s important to show respect in meetings by turning up in person (as opposed to just sending apologies). It’s also not necessary to contribute to a meeting if you’re not an important cog, and it’s cool to send a minion there on your behalf to report back to you. It's also cool to just leave after 5 minutes without contributing.

With all due reflection, every country and sub-culture has its own language of face. At home, you never visit someone for a meal empty-handed. Or you always remember to return a shout at the pub.

It’s quite an introspective human behavior really, fascinatingly manifested differently across every culture. The world is quite charming, isn’t it?

It would be interesting to know what variations of ‘face’ you see where you live, or what circles you hang in?? Rural, city, European, beach, work, gay, sports clubs, shopping, politics…

Thailand PR tip #1

Need to big-up a customer letter or some other ad/web copy?

Chuck something in about the royal family.