Business Strategy Through Human-Centered Market Research

In Thailand’s diverse and culturally nuanced market, traditional market research methods often provide only a partial view of consumer decision-making. While surveys, interviews, and online studies can reveal surface-level opinions, they rarely capture the deeper motivations that influence Thai consumers, factors such as family influence, social expectations, reluctance to express disagreement, or decision patterns that shift between offline and online contexts.

For organisations that need meaningful insights to shape product development, marketing strategy, or long-term customer experience, market research must extend beyond standard tools. It must observe real behaviours, uncover context, and understand the human factors that influence choices in everyday life.

Standard market research tools have value, but they also show clear limitations when used in a culturally complex market like Thailand. Common gaps include:

• Consumers may claim to prioritise product quality, while real purchase decisions are driven by recommendations from family or close peers.
• Many say promotions are not important, yet behavioural observation reveals they buy only during discount periods.
• Users report that a product is easy to use, but behavioural studies show confusion or workarounds that they never verbally expressed.

These inconsistencies reflect a cultural reality: Thai consumers often avoid conflict, hesitate to disappoint the interviewer, and prefer socially safe responses. As a result, research relying solely on stated answers often captures only part of the truth. 

Consumer Understanding

Teak Research focuses on uncovering consumer motivations, lived experiences, and situational contexts, not just canned opinions collected from questionnaires. This approach brings visibility to the emotional, social, and cultural factors behind each decision.

Our Human-Centred Market Research combines anthropological thinking, contextual immersion, and non-directive interviewing. These methods allow us to uncover what consumers worry about, what they hesitate to express, and how family dynamics shape decisions across categories.

Innovation Development

Turning market research insights into innovation, concepts, and new experiences.
 

Many organisations gather extensive market research data but struggle to translate it into actionable innovation. Without understanding which insights matter most, valuable opportunities remain unused.
 

Teak Research’s innovation development service focuses on transforming deep insights into testable concepts using design thinking and co-creation. By involving consumers from the early stages, we ensure the ideas and prototypes developed reflect real needs and practical expectations.
 

Our team of designers and researchers work together to convert insights into tangible outputs—product concepts, service design directions, or improved customer experiences.

Research Execution

High-quality fieldwork across Thailand by a trained in-house research team. 

Fieldwork quality is the foundation of effective market research. However, traditional research agencies often rely heavily on outsourced moderators, which increases the risk of missing nuances, losing insights, or misinterpreting context.
 

Teak Research uses an in-house field team trained in ethnography, design research, and behavioural observation. This ensures every detail—from recruitment, moderating, contextual observation, to data decoding—is accurate and culturally grounded.

Teak Research believes that impactful market research must go beyond stated answers to uncover motivations, values, and cultural dynamics that drive behaviour. Our Human-Centred Design Research integrates anthropological methods, qualitative depth, and innovation-focused interpretation.

Key research capabilities include

1.Ethnographic Research and Real-World Behaviour Observation

By observing in homes, workplaces, and actual usage environments, we uncover unspoken concerns, unnoticed frustrations, and family or social influences that shape decisions.  

2. Co-Creation Workshops with Consumers 

Co-creation accelerates the translation of market research into business opportunities. When consumers co-develop ideas with the team, concepts become more relevant and grounded.

3. Cultural Context Research

Thai cultural norms, values, hierarchy, and communication styles influence almost every aspect of decision-making. Understanding cultural context prevents misinterpretation—especially for global brands using Western research frameworks.

4. User Journey Mapping from Actual Behaviour

Real-world journey mapping reveals friction points, decision triggers, and emotional shifts across the entire process from the first moment of need to post-purchase behaviour.

Example: Real Behaviour Uncovered Through Market Research

In a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) project concerning the energy drink category, initial assumptions suggested that the primary challenge was competition from coffee drinking, pulling white-collar consumers away from energy drinks. However, a mobile ethnography diary study focused on this white-collar segment revealed different underlying drivers:

• a deliberate practice of incorporating water consumption into their daily routine
• a clear interest in lower-sugar beverage options to manage their calorie intake
• a persistent need for a functional lift, as they were still actively seeking energy from consuming energy drinks

Once the product portfolio and marketing strategy were redesigned to address these emotional and contextual factors—such as launching a low-calorie sugar-free flavoured energy soda drink beverage—sales and market share with this key demographic increased significantly.

This example illustrates how behaviour-focused market research can uncover opportunities that traditional tools overlook.

Teak Research does more than deliver insights. We help organisations convert them into innovation. Our team includes designers and anthropologists who understand how to apply insight across product development, service design, and experience optimisation.

Because we conduct fieldwork and moderation with our in-house research team, insights remain intact throughout the process and are interpreted with deep cultural understanding. In an era where data is abundant but actionable insight is scarce, this approach ensures clarity, accuracy, and strategic relevance.

If your organisation needs market research that goes deeper, captures real behaviour, and leads to immediate action, our team can help define a research direction that aligns with your goals in the Thai market.