Brand equity of handicraft SME in Thailand

• Main Authors: Nik Mat, Nik Kamariah, Marangkun, Weerawan
• Other Authors: Ismail, Dahlan
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: ASEAN Universities Consortium of Enterpreneurship Education (AUCEE) 2010
• Subjects: HB Economic Theory
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/2976/1/Pages_from_The_First_Seminar_on._Entrepreneurship_and_Social_Development_in_Asean11166.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/2976/

This paper proposes a brand equity model for the handicraft SME in Thailand. The impetus for embarking on this study is the imbalance between the growth of handicraft export market with the small number of branding for handicraft product produced by SMEs in Thailand.Brand equity is regarded as a very important concept in business practice as well as in academic research because marketers can gain competitive advantages through strong brands. (Aaker, 1998; Keller,1993, 2000). Since 2001, handicraft industry has become a major SME project under the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) program. Thus, in 2006, there were over two million (2,274,525) SMEs in the whole of Thailand, contributing to 70% to the employment sector (Annual Report of Office of Small and Medium Enterprises, Promotion, 2006). SMEs are major contributors to Thailand's economy especially in increasing export market to counter the increase ofthe import.SME contribute 40% to the country's GDP. Although the collaboration between the government and private sectors eflciently increase the development of the marketing of Thai handicrafts,which in turn increases the volumes and export values of Thai handicrafts products, regrettably,the SME handicrafts are still facing market positioning problems such as branding and brand loyalty. Additionally, to examine the relationships between factors proposed in the research model, constructs are either adapted or developed from past studies. It is hoped that the proposed model could answer the research questions and problems in handicraft SMEs in Thailand.