Trapper Unveils Guide to Malay Market for Ramadan & Raya 2023

In conjunction with the upcoming festive season, Trapper has launched their very first communications playbook titled “Thrive During Ramadan and Raya 2023: A Trapper Malay Segmentation Playbook”. 

Inspired by the common phrase ‘there is more to someone than meets the eye,’ it focuses on decoding the Malay market, with the ultimate goal of helping brands coordinate marketing efforts in order to foster meaningful connections with the Malay market before, during, and even after the month of Ramadan and Raya.

Typically, brands will strive to retrofit their campaigns and brand identities to convey togetherness and familial bonding during this period. Brands with deeper pockets may pull it off through quality production and powerful storylines, while pressure mounts for smaller brands as they vie for their own piece of the Malay market pie.

Amid this year-on-year struggle, the ways in which Malay consumers themselves have evolved are often overlooked. What resonated with the Malay market ten years ago doesn’t quite succeed in pulling the heartstrings of today’s audience.

Previously, Malaysia’s population of over 18 million Malays was generally pigeonholed into three main segments — the semi-affluent-Bangsar bubble group, the working mid-M40 Millennials, and the ‘Malay Grassroots.’ Marketing efforts were thus informed by these segmentations.

The Trapper playbook seeks to update these largely antiquated assumptions.

It provides a renewed perspective into the Malay market of today by introducing six different segments of the Malay market, which are not only easily recognisable and relatable, but also significant and addressable in media.

With this, marketers and brands can gain insight into how they can grow their base of quality consumers and achieve incremental revenue growth.

Additionally, methods of crafting a full-funnel communications approach respective to key persona profiles are clearly illustrated to reflect today’s ever-changing media landscape.

Sue-Anne Lim, CEO of Trapper Group, said, “It is easy to take knowledge about Malay consumers for granted because we could be one of them, be friends with them, or have lived as their neighbours for a lifetime.

It is natural to have distorted views due to personal bias and long-held assumptions. So here we are, taking a step back to gain fresh new perspectives on the largest consumer group in Malaysia – what has changed over the years and, equally importantly, what has NOT changed.”

Teo Chin Wern, Strategy Director who led the project, commented, “Media is becoming a socio-economic connector, augmented by technology. The convergence of the latest technologies with post-pandemic digital norms has resulted in a paradigm shift for the Malay market, even as they remain anchored in traditional culture.

Brands need to be more in tune with these evolutions in order to win over Malaysia’s largest consumer market during the biggest festive shopping occasion of the year.”

“We are extremely grateful for our client’s trust, our group of agencies has experienced tremendous growth in the past year.  Our billings have doubled in the financial year ending 2022, with digital and out-of-home showing strong double-digit growths.

In the same breath, we are highly sensitive to the needs of our people to ensure they continuously find balance and challenge themselves to provide excellent client experience.

We have about 80 staff right now and looking to scale up our core services and explore new opportunity areas,” added Sue-Anne.

Interested parties who wish to capture the hearts (and wallets) of the Malay and Muslim markets can email [email protected] to gain a copy of the playbook.