Abstract
Hand made knives of Namnoi, a village of songkhla Province, have been famous since the
former time. In the reigns of King Rama IV and Rama V of Chakri Dynasty the knives made in
Namnoi were jointly exhibited in various kinds of festivals. Currently the number of hand made
knives of Namnoi is decreasingly limited with only 2 remaining producers due to the market
limitation. However, it is quite possible to promote the products by using the marketing strategy to
upgrade its brand name as an OTOP product because the target customers are the agriculturists who
use steel knives like a big cutting knife, a rubber ripping knife, a tobacco-slicing knife etc. In 2004
the estimation of the knives sold in Songkhla Province reached a value of 17.5 million bath where
as a number of households in Songkhla in 2004 were 150,053 and 57.21% of which bought knives.
The market volume of the products was in a high marketing share compared to the production
potential of the knife makers in Namnoi. The main factor influencing the knife purchasing of the
agriculturists depends on the knife quality, style and property such as its sharp edge, strength,
durability, durable edge etc while other factors like prices or competitors have only a little
influence. In general, the knife market is quite a free trading activity. There is no monopoly of knife
maker or distributor, which easily enables the introduction of the products into the market.Thus the
knives can be displayed for sales at Sunday markets, Fresh food markets etc, the most popular
places where the agriculturists prefer to buy the knives. Moreover, knives can be sold by vendors
walking from house to house or even displayed for sale in community shops. According to the
factors mentioned, the knives in other provinces or regions can easily and conveniently be
transported to the markets in Songkhla, such as the knives from the central region called “Arunyik
Knife” or those from the Northern East like “Korat Knife”. So it is quite obvious that the marketing
factors are not likely to be a problem. The result of the study indicates that its real problematic cause
is an internal management procedure of the Namnoi Knife makers which still need the initial
improvement of knife making ability to continuously serve the demand of the market. This is quite
an essential issue for the whole group of knife makers. The procedure of product distribution are
gradually use accompanied with the product advertisement and exhibitions which finally will enable
the Namnoi hand-made knives to become a product of OTOP
Keywords
: Feasible Marketing Namnoi knives
