This study objective is to investigate the information seeking behavior for sanitary ware product specific to the Thai market. KEYWORDS: Thai sanitary ware market / online information seeking behavior / digital channel engagement / online marketing / sanitary ware purchase decisions. This opportunity will make the company the first digital channel manager in the Thai sanitary ware market.
At the end of this study, the model of online search behavior for sanitary products specific to the Thai market will be developed. As a result, sanitation companies can make use of the proposed model as a guideline to tailor online advertising campaigns to achieve higher sales over the retail channel.
Awareness is the key
Consumer decision journey for sanitary ware product
The brochure and catalog provides some ideas of product design, product specifications and price for the customer to browse and select interesting items on their wish list. However, in terms of product specification information, brochures and catalogs can only provide information up to the product dimension, if the customer is interested in the product drawing or detailed specifications. The last major important source of information is the in-store pamphlet, in addition to the brochures and catalogs you can get from the store.
Secondly, product prices receive information from the brochure, catalog and point of purchase. The customer can get information from brochures and catalogues, store brochures, TVC advertisements, magazines, newspapers and internet channels.
Google Search Engine
If a newly built website wants to be crawled by Google's search engine, you can do so by registering the website with Google's webmaster tool. The organized pages will be saved and keep track of what Google called the "Index". When you search for "How to cook salmon steak", Google uses their algorithm to understand what you are searching for, e.g. string theory, spell check, synonym, query comprehension.
Second, Google considers site and page freshness, including date and time in the content will improve the Google search result when users search for specific dates. Google uses this GPS information (user context) and returns the nearest salmon shop to the user. Sixth, Google mixes relevant content such as image, news, maps, video and personal content into a single unified search result and then displays pages according to their ranking to the users.
It is crucial that the website is on the first page of the Google result. According to Danny Goodwin's research, his research showed that the number 1 website has a click-through rate of 36.4 percent. While the second-place website has a click-through rate of 12.5 percent and the 10th-place website has a click-through rate of only 2.2%.
His study showed a similar result, but this time the site that ranked first had a click-through rate of 31.24%. The website that ranked #2 has a CTR of 14.04 percent, while the website that ranked #10 has a CTR of 3.73 percent. Therefore, a business can follow the above steps to optimize the website and achieve higher ranking in Google results.
Consumers Search Behavior
According to these two studies, there is a big gap between the first and the tenth. This huge gap is very essential to the success and failure about online advertising and online brand engagement. Second personas are Replacements, are those whose bathroom is broken and looking for a new bathroom.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Objective
Research tool
Research Approach for keyword finding
Changers think like modernizers, their need for a new toilet is not urgent. Their knowledge of toilets is good and in new toilets we would look for design rather than quality and functionality. Sanitary ware, toilet, toilet price, toilet model, urinal, toilet, fittings, sink, shower, shower stopper, shower head, fence, tiles, toilet tiles, bathroom design, home design, beautiful bathroom, beautiful bathroom design, home decoration , Home Decor Ideas, American Standard, Cotto, Kohler, Boonthavorn, Homepro, GrandHomeMart.
These general keywords will be grouped as sanitary ware generic (direct) keywords such as, sanitary ware, toilet, urinal and faucet.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Product related search behavior
- Looking for bathroom inspiration
- Looking for sanitary ware product
The search intentions were a total of 8 intentions: firstly: users search for bathroom idea, users search for certain sanitary ware product, users search for bathroom tiles, users search for the price of the product, users want to repair toilet, users search for after-sales services, users search for retail promotion and users search for the best toilet brand. Then users start searching for keywords with adjective like beautiful, as shown in Figure 4.2. The fourth search query with the most keywords was 'beautiful bathroom'. The company should post beautiful bathroom photos on their website or social media site and use the appropriate hashtag or 'alt' attribute of the photo.
If the company wants to develop a natural bathroom concept, I advise the company to first investigate what the exact meaning of natural bathroom design is. I would suggest that the company closely monitors search behavior to catch the upcoming adjective. As the research shows, a small, beautiful bathroom was the trend between November 2013 and October 2014.
This search purpose was straightforward; users know exactly what they want and the keywords they are looking for. As a company, the company should develop a website and social media site with specific details about the sanitary ware product using the search keywords in Figure 4.3. Keywords are sanitary equipment in Thai and synonym for sanitary equipment also in Thai (in green horizontal line), sink, clothesline, shower, toilet seat cover, urinal, faucet, shower stopper (complete set), shower stopper (mirror), bidet (automatic toilet), shower cabin, bathroom mirror, shower mirror screen and jacuzzi tub.
Currently, sanitary ware companies in the Thai market are selling every sub-category of sanitary ware such as faucet, sink. The keywords "Sanitary" and its synonym have been searched the most in this subcategory. According to the study, it showed that the main keywords 'sanitary' was searched along with the brand as shown in figure 4.4.
สุขภัณฑ์
- Looking for toilet tile
- Asking for sanitary ware’s price
- Want to fix toilet
- Searching for after sale services
- Looking for retail promotion
- Asking for the best brand
- Sanitary ware brand search behavior
- Retail Store search behavior
From the graph above, considering the keyword 'sanitary ware' alone, an average of 3,600 searches were made monthly. The pattern also exists with sanitary ware synonymously 'குக்க்குக்கு' as shown in figure 4.5. However, the sanitary ware company, if interested, can start monitoring the trend of product line for child.
As users want to make a new bathroom, they may also want new sanitary ware for their new bathroom. As a company, it would be nice for a sanitary ware company to offer sanitary ware products to this group of customers while they are looking for information. Another feature was requesting the price of sanitary ware by combining the word brand into the search query, as shown in green in Figure 4.7.
According to the business model, every company in the Thai sanitary ware market is selling products through resellers. In the forum, there were few comments and answers in the forum saying the strength and weakness of each sanitary ware in the Thailand market such as Cotto, American Standard. Sanitary ware companies that failed to handle consumer criticism would result in bad publicity.
This section shows the result of existing sanitary ware brands in the Thai market on how well they performed in Google search engine. If the plumbing companies create an online campaign and link the campaign back to the company's official website, then the click-through rate for the brand, whether increasing or decreasing, would be an indication of the success or failure of the campaign. For the product sold in the Homepro store are furniture, appliances, kitchens and all kinds of sanitary products.
The sanitary ware companies sell sanitary ware products in these retail stores, which Homepro considers a general home store, while Boonthavorn and GrandHomeMart are toilet specialists, said Suphap Phokham, American Standard product manager. Therefore, if the sanitary ware company associates the brand with the retail store or advertises the brand by optimizing the web content using retail store keywords.
CONCLUSION
Summary
In product-related search intent, there are some important results that show that users are searching for products using generic product keywords like "bathroom", "toilet". Sometimes users who are eager to know the brand, therefore they search for the product and followed by the brand name like 'sanitary ware American Standard', 'sanitary ware Kohler' and etc. Therefore, I suggest the company to improve the website content using the keywords and adjective that was discovered in this study.
Within the product-related search intent, there are some small but precise search queries like “what is the best sanitary ware brand”. If it was bad publicity, users complained about the product quality over the Internet, then it will seriously affect the next purchase decision due to the fact that word of mouth was the most influential source of information. Therefore, my proposal is that the company should create the public management plan for handheld this kind of online consumer activities.
The research shows how often users searched with branded keywords such as 'American Standard', 'Cotto'. The result shows that Cotto as the market leader has the highest search rate, followed by American Standard, the second leader in the Thai sanitary ware market. According to the American Standard's standard merchandising activity, the activity is intended to encourage consumers to visit the brand area in the store by creating the better brand advertisements in the store's showroom.
The study shows that retailer search had two times higher search than product related search. My suggestion is to encourage the brands to carry out indirect advertising using the wide reputation of retailer brand. To summarize, each individual search intent occurs along the consumer decision journey by David Court, Dave Elzinga, Susan Mulder and Ole Jørgen Vetvik.
Suggestion
Limitation
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A B2B’S Selection Criteria
APPENDIX B What Is the Best Sanitary Ware Brand’s Forum
