Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries
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How Thai OEMs can shift to ODMs by learning from the home appliance experience of consumers in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
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Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries
- 1. Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries How Thai OEMs can shift to ODMs by learning from the home appliance experience of consumers in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Words by Sawyer J. Lahr, Adisorn Supawatanakul Disclaimer: All photos and quotes are derived from fieldwork or submitted by participants. All quotations are verbatim - word-for-word.
- 2. Project Scope As a result of a publicly funded design research study conducted by Teak Research founder Adisorn Supawatanakul in partnership with Chokeanand Bussracumpakorn and commissioned by The Electrical Institute of Thailand, the study identified four cues of product quality for middle-income CLMV consumers when making product purchase decisions as well as four emerging roles of home appliances, both of which can be used to help shift OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) in Thailand to become more like ODM (Original Design Manufacturers) through human-centered design or design based on consumers values, beliefs, and behaviors. Private & Confidential | Mulberry Grove CBD | 2
- 3. I know that appliances are wasteful and consume a lot of electricity, but for convenience sake, I have them. Nowadays, society has progressed a lot. If you don’t have it, you’re behind the times - Mona (Laos). “ As CLMV countries progress toward further economic and infrastructural development, the poor regulation of product quality and imports, lack of consumer protections, and weak utility infrastructure combine to make electrical appliances very much a necessary evil. Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries | 3
- 4. While appliance use CLMV countries remains more or less a necessary evil, electrically-powered home appliances do improve quality of life by fulfilling four major roles in consumers everyday lives: infrastructural, time-saving, well-being, and recreation. Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries | 4 surge-protected outlets, built-in backup battery Infrastructural rice-cookers, blow dryers, clothing irons, electric stoves Time-saving fans, air coolers, air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, and water heaters, Well-being televisions, stereos, karaoke machines, hot plates, and convection ovens Recreational | 4
- 5. “ Based on the label, I should get the energy efficiency advertised, but the electricity here is not stable. Whenever the electrical current is weak, the air conditioner just eats electricity” - Prak (Cambodia) “ Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries New infrastructural equipment designs could focus on how to help stabilize the unstable electrical current in countries. We might consider how a new infrastructural might store electricity safely so that consumers can continue using their appliances as normal. | 5
- 6. If my shirt isn’t ironed, I can’t leave the house. Nowadays people iron their shirts. If I don’t use the shirt right away, I don’t iron it because when I’m about to wear it, I have to iron it again. - Kita (Laos)“ Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries New time-saving appliance designs could focus on how to help consumers save time in more ways. For example, rice cookers don’t require monitoring and, therefore, can be run in the background while people do other activities like watch T.V. | 6
- 7. “ When I turn on the air conditioning, I also turn on the fan to help the room cool faster. Once the temperatures is okay, I turn off the fan. I didn’t install air conditioning in the living room because it’s too big and has too many places for the air to escape.” - Song (Cambodia) “ Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries New well-being appliance designs could focus on how to more efficiently manage temperature or heat absorption. For example, air coolers could be designed with dual functionality; a humidifying air cooler which can absorb humidity and decrease temperature. | 7
- 8. Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries New recreational appliance designs could focus on better integrating their use with their function. For example, televisions, stereos, and karaoke machines could be designed to be more mobile so that they can be used anywhere in the house close to other activities. | 8 Right now, I’m working a lot. I don’t have a lot of time. After work, I get home and want to take a break and watch T.V. I don’t want to waste time doing this and that. - Nga (Vietnam) “
- 9. In summary, our findings suggest that OEM businesses should design new home appliance products by asking themselves, how might we design products that support quality of life in the home? Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries 1. Design infrastructural equipment such as surge-protectors to focus on how to help stabilize the unstable electrical current in CLMV countries 2. Design time-saving appliances to focus on how to help consumers save time in more ways and enables users to set it and forget so they can enjoy more leisure time 3. Design well-being appliances to more efficiently manage temperature or heat absorption in the home rather than just cool and circulate air. 4. Design recreational appliances to better integrate their use with their function by offering new features or products that support in-home recreational activities. | 9
- 10. With a new KPI based on what CLMV consumers value in their appliances, Thai OEMs might also work in partnership with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar to improve electrical utility infrastructure in major cities where it is the weakest. Home Appliance Use among Middle-Income Consumers in CLMV Countries | 10
Editor's Notes
- home appliance consumers in CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam) seek a better quality of life by adopting modern appliances as their societies progress toward further economic and infrastructural development. the home appliance industry in these CLMV countries is reaching a point of saturation in that the sheer number of brands both legitimate and counterfeit, imported and domestically produced have made decision-making for consumers more difficult.
- New infrastructural equipment designs could focus on how to help stabilize the unstable electrical current in countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar where these unstable currents can cause electrical shock or appliances to break. Engineers and designers might consider how a new infrastructural wall-fitting might store electricity safely in small quantities in case of drops in electrical current or power outages so that consumers could continue using their appliances as normal until power returns or electrical currents return to normal. While there are products such as air coolers that have backup batteries, OEMs might consider how to generate electricity in the home using the infrastructure of the home in order to power appliances that currently rely on municipal sources. “If my shirt isn’t ironed, I can’t leave the house. Nowadays people iron their shirts. If I don’t use the shirt right away, I don’t iron it because when I’m about to wear it, I have to iron it again.” - Kita (Laos)
- New time-saving appliance designs could focus on how to help consumers save time in more ways or do more in the time they are using the appliance. For example, rice cookers don’t require monitoring and therefore, can be run in the background while people do other activities like watch T.V. OEM engineers and designers might consider how rice cookers could be indicate more accurately the time it takes to cook various types of rice based on the variety (white, brown, red, purple). One might design a countdown to the time of completion so people can better plan their meal preparation or how long of a T.V. show they can watch. The excess heat from steam might be captured in some way to use to steam another food like fish in a tray designed to stack on top and attach to the top of the rice cooker. “When I turn on the air conditioning, I also turn on the fan to help the room cool faster. Once the temperatures is okay, I turn off the fan. I didn’t install air conditioning in the living room because it’s too big and has too many places for the air to escape.” - Song (Cambodia)
- New well-being appliance designs could focus on how to more efficiently manage temperature or heat absorption in the home considering the subtropical climate. For example, air coolers could be designed with the dual function of a humidifier so as to absorb humidity from the air which has the effect of decreasing temperature. The water drawn from the humid air could be recirculated into a refrigerating chamber where the water could be cooled. Or instead of refrigerating the recirculated water, the water might be cooled by an intake vent that pulls outside air across the water to cool it. To reduce energy consumption, refrigerators and freezers might act as a room cooler by periodically releasing a burst of cool air into the room without lowering the temperature of the freezer or refrigerator and therefore cooling down the room to offset the heat created by the powering of the freezer unit. “Right now, I’m working a lot. I don’t have a lot of time. After work, I get home and want to take a break and watch T.V.. I don’t want to waste time doing this and that. Having home appliances saves me a lot of time.” - Nga (Vietnam)
- New recreation appliance designs could focus on changing the interaction with the various appliances or better integrating their use with their function. For example, televisions, stereos, and karaoke machines could be designed to be more mobile so that they can be used anywhere in the house wherever the activity is happening in order allow people to multi-task. One might experiment with battery-power (rechargeable or non-rechargeable), bluetooth technology, and wireless connectivity between devices with or without wireless internet. A hot pot used for entertaining family and friends for dinner might be designed as a more interactive and engaging cooking surface where more than one pot could be heated at the same time or other food could be cooking concurrently. The hot pot might be designed to have removable compartments that fold out to hold veggies and meat or broil another item of meat below the hot pot burner at the same time the pot is boiling. “When I last moved, I had to give special attention to buying appliances for my kitchen first because it’s something that is necessary. It took over a year until I had everything. Next year, I think I will will upgrade my refrigerator. I want one that’s a little more up-to-date. If I had the money, I would’ve upgraded right away, but, before, I really didn’t have the money” - Nga & Bien (Vietnam)