The objectives of this study are to explore the nature of the Thai Trade Mission : its characteristics, its composition, its regulations, etc., to investigate the role of the Trade Mission as marketing communicator, to evaluate the role of the Trade Mission through comparison between the Trade Mission participants and non-participants, and to identify problems concerning the role of the Mission that have impact on export and to make recommendations to those concerned both in the public and private sectors. The study limited itself to garment exportation from the year 1986 to 1987 and concentrated only on the outgoing mission. The method used was a survey research with the stratified sampling technique. The samples used in this study were divided into 2 groups : the participants and the non-participants of the Trade Mission both of which were in the Thailand's Exporters : Selected List of 1987. The total population of the participants (54 companies) was asked individually to give an interview. They were those who had been to the three markets : Australia, Europe, and Japan. Thirty-seven managers answered the interviewed questionnaires whereas 36 exporters out of 54 randomly chosen non-participant companies answered the other set of interviewed questionnaire. The research results are as follow. Not every supplier or exporter is entitled to join in the tour of the Trade Mission. The Trade Mission members must be in the so-called Thailand's Exporters :Selected List (yearly published) of the Department of Export Promotion. The qualifications of those to be in the "Selected List" as specified by the Executive Board of the Department of Commercial Relations are credit standing as certified by the private sector: commercial banks, and by the Government, and the Bank of Thailand; value of exports; years of exporting experience ; membership of any association relating to exportation or supported by the Board of Investment (BOI); interest, participation, and cooperation with the activities of the Department of Export Promotion; company profile and exportability of products. The hypotheses in this research are as follow: 1. No significant difference in export growth rate between the Trade Mission participants and non-participants. 2. No significant difference in export growth rate between smaller size (under 10 million baht capital) and bigger size (over 10 million baht capital) companies after the trip. 3. No significant difference in export growth rate between smaller size companies which participated and did not participate in the Trade Mission. 4. No significance difference export growth rate between bigger size companies which participated and did not participant in the Trade Mission. 5. No significant difference in perception of the role of Trade Mission as effective marketing communicator between smaller and bigger business in terms of trustworthiness, (sincerity; helpfulness) expertise, (co-ordination with the Thai Trade Center and authoritativeness) government-guarantor). 6. No significant difference in priority ranking among Trade Mission participation regarding the endorsement credibility of the Trade Mission, the quality of the product, the pricing of the product, the company profile and past performance, the product design, the publications/product samples demonstrated to customers, etc.
The research results reveal that 1. There is no significant difference in export growth rate between the Trade Mission participation and non-participants (significant level = 0.05) 2. There is no significant difference in export growth rate between the smaller size and bigger companies after the trip (significant level = 0.05) 3. There is a significant difference in export growth rate between smaller size companies which participates and did not participate in the Trade Mission. (significant level = 0.05) 4. There is no significant difference in export growth rate between bigger size companies which participated and did not participate in the Trade Mission (significant level = 0.05) 5. There is no significant difference in priority ranking among Trade Mission goers regarding factors affecting exportation. The first rank is the quality of product and raw material. The second one is the price of the product and the third one is the punctual delivery of product. (significant level = 0.05). There is no mentioning of the endorsement credibility of the Trade Mission as of prime importance but this factor can be considered an important supplement. From the research a conclusion can be made that Trade Mission participation is one of major sales promotion techniques that contribute to the success of garment exportation particularly for smaller size companies as evidenced in sales growth rate that is significantly different between the participants and non-participants. Nonetheless, there are some suggestions from those involved to increase the effectiveness of Trade Mission. Among major suggestions are the improvement of information on marketing, finance and banking; tariff and duty and legal regulations; and also setting up of intelligence unit for special information; coordination and joint-planning among exporters. Department of Export Promotion, and Thai Trade Centers aboard in public relations activities and customer appointments; co-operation between the private and public and public sectors in solving the quota problems and in finding new non-quota markets.
