The Threefold Mission of Asst. Prof. Dr. Ek Pattharatanakul: Reviving Thailand Post and Marketing with the 5 Ms to Sustain Business

"When the digital wave disrupts the world, how can traditional businesses adapt to survive?" This question may be a nightmare for many organizations, but not for

Thailand Post, a legendary organization that has been part of Thai life for 143 years. It has not only resisted the storm of change but also turned losses of billions into profits of hundreds of millions within just a few years. What lies behind this turnaround that grew against the global transport industry's downward trend? And how can Thai businesses survive as foreign capital penetrates deeply to the doorstep?

Thairath Money

invites you to explore the answers together through the perspective of Asst. Prof. Dr. Ek Pattharatanakul, who wears three hats as a board member and chairman of the strategy, marketing, and communication committee at Thailand Post Co., Ltd.; the president of the Marketing Association of Thailand; and head of the Marketing Department, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Chulalongkorn University. He shares the formula for a "deep" business approach and the strategy of stepping back to leap forward in the AI era. Asst. Prof. Dr. Ek explained that what Thailand Post has done is not just about benchmarking or outperforming itself but about surpassing competitors in the market by several folds. Importantly, this growth contradicts the global postal sector’s general decline. This success is no accident; it stems from highly efficient cost management and turning leftover space in transport vehicles into revenue, such as collaborating with partners to deliver bottled water on existing routes, like the 6ty Degrees brand delivering directly to homes. This not only avoids adding workload or fuel costs but also generates additional income. Elevating the "Postman" network beyond parcel delivery Since Thailand Post is now free from losses, future growth depends on “nutritional vitamins” or creating new S-Curves under the concept that postal workers, now called “Postmen,” must do more than just deliver parcels and letters. This led to the launch of Postman Cloud, which leverages the network of over 20,000 postmen nationwide and their local familiarity to develop a commercial service platform for public and private sectors.

For example, collaborating with the Asset Management Company (BAM) to conduct on-site photos and land condition inspections for those seeking loans, reducing costs for operators and enabling faster access to funding for local residents. Additionally, there is Prompt Post, which fully digitizes document handling to solve classic issues such as market shortages and manually writing lottery postcards. Together with Thairath Group, tens of thousands of postcards were replaced with a single-click digital system through the major campaign “Cheer Football Loudly, Win Prizes Anytime, Anywhere” to predict the 2026 world football champion. This meets customer convenience, business efficiency, and reduces paper waste for society.

Moreover, Thailand Post envisions becoming a key piece for Virtual Banks by leveraging the trust and friendly relationships of postmen to reach elderly or remote-area residents, helping onboard and teach them digital systems—a role no one else can perform as well or as credibly as Thailand Post staff.

Meanwhile, as president of the Marketing Association of Thailand, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ek reflects on the current economic situation, noting that most entrepreneurs no longer ask whether the economy is good or bad, as all are affected by soaring costs such as fuel, plastic, and agricultural fertilizers.

The “5 Ms” strategy to fight economic challenges

What they seek now is “How” to survive. The Marketing Association has taken on the role of a Marketing Accelerator to drive the economy with marketing strategies under the wartime concept of the “5 Ms,” which are:

Accurate (แม่น) – Using Data and AI to target ads precisely at the right place and time.

Appropriate (เหมาะ) – Knowing when to cut 15-30% of unnecessary expenses to reallocate budgets to new initiatives.

Focused (มุ่ง) – Concentrating on the clearest target groups without spreading resources too thinly.

Friendly (มิตร) – Maintaining existing customers through membership systems like Post Family and finding partners to share costs.

• Give (มอบ) – Returning good things to society so business can grow sustainably alongside communities.
• Beyond businesses, the association also prioritizes supporting marketers throughout the system, including building mentorship networks, reskilling marketing faculty to keep up with the changing world beyond old textbooks, preparing welfare systems for retired marketers, creating a Certified Marketer system to guarantee personnel quality, and issuing a Thai marketing code of ethics to protect the profession from fraudulent groups.
• Regarding the incursion of Chinese and Vietnamese brands through various platforms, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ek believes that if Thai entrepreneurs choose to compete on price or product variety, they will lose because those countries’ production costs are massively subsidized by their governments. The only way for Thai brands to survive is to “compete on depth”—deep understanding of Thai culture and consumer behavior, and adding “friendly spirit” in services, such as enabling postmen to source quality community coffee beans to sell in Post Café. This unique charm is difficult for foreign capital to imitate.
• Stepping back one step to see what’s different
• Finally, as head of the Marketing Department at Chulalongkorn University, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ek advises Thai marketers and entrepreneurs in the AI era that although technology excels at data analysis and operational tasks, AI still lacks "humanity and humor," which are uniquely human qualities.

Therefore, new marketers must transform from doers to smart directors and supervisors. The key to survival in this fast-paced world is to “shrink and step back one step.” Reducing ego and detaching from past successes will open perspectives to see new opportunities, tools, and a wider horizon, enabling stable progress forward.

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