Platform and Marketing Strategy for Wearables Market in Thailand

There is a strong trend of wearables across the world. There are several both existing and new players emulating this market opportunity. In this research, several analysis tools including Grant (Grant, 2010)’s competing in the present, preparing for the future, PEST,SWOT, Hofstede model (The Hofstede Centre, 2016), perception map and 4Ps (Kotler,Keller, Ang, Leong, & Tan, 2012) are implemented. Besides the analysis of strategies and marketing execution, recommendations are also provided based on marketing and platform strategies (Geoffrey Parker, 2013). It was found out that Thai’s running is booming and there have been a cruel fight among wearables providers for a few years. Thailand economy and government policy are moderately friendly to exercising market. Thai people are highly collective and feminine society while technology is on the rise. The result of the perception map analysis shows that among competitors of wearables, Garmin’s brand is perceived as the best functionality whereas Apple is perceived as stylish and good quality. According to these results, it is recommended that Garmin should implement influencers such as famous athletes, sport-lifestyle celebrity and bloggers to promote Garmin’s products and brand. Besides marketing strategy, platform strategy is also highly recommended because the platform strategy equip Garmin with distinctive and sustainable position in this market.