Ms. Sireerat Corvanich (center to the right), Vice President - Credit Card Marketing of "KTC" or Krungthai Card Public Company Limited said, "KTC's credit card spending in health and beauty categories from January until September 2022 has been growing significantly particularly in hospital category. As the COVID-19 pandemic situation became more relaxing and the number of infectious patients was reducing, hospitals were ready to treat patients with other diseases while patients came back for services that were delayed during the severe pandemic situation; for example, operations or dental services of which the costs are a bit high. In the beauty category, aesthetic clinics have been continuously growing since they could reopen after the lockdowns, and consumers feel more relieved and went back to use services. Most customers were high-potential purchasers and continuously used services; for example, facial lift-up programs and cosmetic surgery. Moreover, beauty trends have become very popular since they can help boost the self-confidence of customers. Young people are also interested in taking care of their appearance."
"For sports and fitness, spending in this category has been increasing because sporting events could be held after the pandemic situation such as running or cycling races. Data from online running race registration platforms stated that 600 - 700 running races will be held this year. Cardmembers have bought more sports and fitness products for their training. The constantly growing sportswear fashion industry is an important jigsaw piece that influences consumers to buy products for not only their sports activities but also their daily lives so that it causes more buying repetition."
"KTC's strength is the understanding of consumers' behaviors by offering full-service health privileges. Consumers are now concerned more about preventive healthcare and engaging in their health. Also, they tend to take care of their beauty to boost their self-confidence. Moreover, we have focused on expanding the privileges by partnering with more alliances throughout the country in offering discounts, cash backs, and installment payments so that we can reach more customers. The hospital category covers more than 700 alliances from public and private hospitals, medical clinics, dental clinics, and pharmacies. The beauty category includes over 3,000 aesthetic clinics, spas, beauty parlors, and nail salons nationwide. The sports and fitness category covers every sports brand, leading sports shops, large fitness studios, and more than 500 small fitness shops all over the country. In addition, "KTC Sports Group", the community for our cardmembers who love outdoor lifestyles, offered whole-year exercise events for health promotion. There are over 4,000 members. These factors affected the total credit card spending in health and beauty categories to grow 39% to 15,961 million baht from the same period in 2021 and the expenditure grew higher in the industry compared to the overall market. The total credit card spending of the past 9 months grew higher than the market in 4 categories: hospital, beauty, sports, and fitness categories."
Ms. Thidakarn Rujipattanakul, M.D., Deputy Director of Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital and Chief Executive Officer of SAMAWAT HEALTH CO., LTD. remarked, "After the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare trends have been towards prevention aspect such as health check-ups, healthy diets, supplements, exercise to boost immunes and longevity as well as paying more attention in mental health with stress management to reduce the risk of depression and daily stress. Moreover, innovations in technology are improving. It is easier for people to receive medical and health treatment. Treatments can be designed to be more personalized for each patient. Health trends are moving towards more prevention for the future."
"Since the healthcare business is challenged by technologies and COVID-19, hospitals must be flexible to change and adapt. We have the concept of #TotalHealthSolution focusing on early detection and total health solution which are better than treatments. Samitivej Hospitals have always paid attention to combining technologies with medical treatments so people can access medical services easier; for example, Samitivej Virtual Hospital, a 24-hour online medical consultation service; Engage Care, the 24-hour and real-time tracking application for patients with diabetes and high blood pressure by medical specialists; Samitivej Pace, the real-time tracking surgery status application; Samitivej Prompt, the application for online health monitoring process for patients of IPD, and SkinX, the application for skincare consultation, prescriptions and shopping for beauty deals."
"SkinX" is Thailand's most full-service online skincare consultation with the largest number of dermatologists. It is a telemedicine treatment application that has been downloaded more than 400,000 times. It provides services ranging from seeing a doctor, consulting, prescribing medicines, keeping history, and tracking results, and offers fair medicines pricing as well as a prescription drug delivery service to patients' homes. It also sells skin care products by pharmacists (SkinX Store) and beauty package deals from hospitals and clinics (SkinX Super Deal). KTC credit cardmembers will receive various privileges such as getting a 100 baht discount when spending a minimum of 1,000 baht via the app. and using the "KTC100" code and getting a 50%discount when buying beauty deals (maximum value of 3,000 baht, limited to 10 members throughout the campaign). Simply put "KTC50" code at the total payment from December 31, 2022. KTC members can download the SkinX app. at http://bit.ly/SkinXapp In addition, Samitivej Hospitals offers special privileges for KTC Premium cardmembers as a specified condition to be members of the Samitivej First when showing their KTC cards at The First Lounge, Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital or Samitivej Exclusive Lounge, Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital free of charge from February 1 2023 to December 31, 2023."
Dr.Phutthaphong Luangrat, M.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of V-Square Clinic revealed, "In the past, people were often attached to the ideal beauty and thought they would look better if they had plastic surgery done. However, now, people accept the way they look and improve their appearances which boosts more self-confidence. This belief is perfectly matched to V-Square's vision that wants to support people to be more self-confident by providing state-of-the-art technologies and procedures that promote natural looks and are safe for the long run; for example, Botox, Filler, or Face Lift Machine. It is unnecessary to have facial contouring surgery. We have always focused on providing facts, trustworthy information, effective procedures, sincere services, a skillful doctor and practitioner team with valuable prices at our premium clinics, and the best services. V-Square Clinic and KTC have closely joined forces for a long time from the first period of our business. We have often exchanged information and applied it to improve our services. A large number of KTC members have been our clients. Botox, Filler, and Face Lift Programs are popular among them; therefore, V-Square Clinic offers special privileges to KTC credit cardmembers to buy a promotion package of Botera which includes Botox Allergan for 100 units all facial areas, and Ulthera SPT for 400 lines from the normal price at 58,000 baht to only 48,000 baht with 4 months 0% installments payment with no minimum purchase as well as redeeming for cash back without limitation throughout the promotion. Simply register at www.ktc.co.th/beauty (The promotion is from November 1 - 30, 2022. Appointment booking is required before getting the service)."
Mr. Wiradech Padetpol, Co-Founder of Fit-D.com & Fit-D Space Strength Training & Nutrition Specialist, said, "Nowadays, fitness and exercise trends are more diverse; not only jogging in the parks, yoga in studios, or training in fitness centers but also various types of studios or fitness venues, more running or other kinds of sports races. Fit-D Space focuses on every target group from ones who want to improve their fitness capabilities, injured people who need rehabilitation, or people who love to take care of their health and body shapes. We have qualified and experienced staff to design exercise programs to fit customers' needs so that they can achieve their goals, and the most important factor is that these programs must be practical and continuously developed for a longer period."
"Moreover, good nutrition is very important. It is not only for people who want to lose weight but diets are needed to be calculated according to people's daily activities so that they can have more effective exercise, and better body improvement. Their bodies can be fully recovered and reduce the risk of injury from exercise. The Fit-D.com is the information hub about health and fitness that we intended to develop to help customers or the general public access to the data. They can read informative and interesting articles as well as watch different muscle exercises programs and practice along at home for free of charge"
"Lastly, when we experience our body and health transformation, we will enjoy exercising constantly which will impact our sustainable health. This mission is in line with the Burn & Earn Challenge and Tiny Habit Challenge in "KTC Sports Group." These two activities encourage members to set goals by constantly exercising every month and sending their exercise results at least 600 minutes per month. Also, we offer special privileges to KTC credit cardmembers who use the service at Fit-D Space for 0% installment payment with no limit cash back throughout the campaign"
Ms. Sireerat added, "KTC's marketing strategies in health and beauty categories are to focus on an expansion of customer-base. We curate privileges according to the studies of cardmembers spending behavior and purchasing power. As for our upcountry segments, we tap the market through privilege offers from popular shops in the areas, These executions have resulted in an increased spending volume in the health and beauty business. It also accelerated this year's total KTC credit card spending to grow as the company expected. For the last quarter this year, which is festive holidays, KTC is preparing campaigns to meet cardmembers' needs; namely, getting special privileges upon any purchase of health check-up packages from participating hospitals. For the beauty category, we provide "Win Free Beauty Packages," campaign for cardmembers with any minimum spend of 3,000 baht per transaction. Don't miss it! For sports segment, KTC is joining hands with VISA to indulge sports fans with FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022(TM). Enjoy the games and get a gift worth 600 baht from participating Adidas shops upon a minimum purchase of 5,000 baht per transaction on any sportswear and sports equipment with KTC-VISA card."
Source: Krungthai Card
