Time to Wake Up on the ASEAN Market

Irwin See
Jul 30
2 min read

Why One-Size-Fits-All Thinking No Longer Works in Southeast Asia

The ASEAN region—comprising 10 countries and over 650 million people—is one of the world’s most dynamic and fast-growing markets. Yet too many businesses treat ASEAN like one homogenous block, rolling out identical products, pricing, and strategies across Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and beyond.

That’s not just lazy. It’s expensive.

It’s time to wake up.

To succeed in ASEAN, companies must learn to navigate three hard truths: segmentation, pricing, and the trade-off between quality and quantity.

1. Segmentation Realities: 10 Markets, Not One

ASEAN is not a single market—it’s a region of micro-economies.

Indonesia’s urban middle class wants aspirational, tech-integrated services. But go to a secondary city in the Philippines, and buying behavior is based on community trust and daily affordability. In Vietnam, you might see Gen Z consumers leapfrogging to premium digital brands, while rural Thailand remains cautious and relationship-driven.

Segment your approach not just by country, but by:

Urban vs rural
Income class
Age & tech adoption
Cultural drivers

Cookie-cutter strategies don’t work here. Hyper-localization wins.

2. Pricing Strategy: Value Is Relative

Pricing in ASEAN is not simply about being “affordable.” It’s about understanding perceived value, which changes by market.

In Singapore, customers may pay more for efficiency and reliability. In Indonesia or the Philippines, pricing must account for purchasing frequency (daily vs monthly), informal competition, and sensitivity to economic shifts.

Consider this: A Singaporean SaaS firm tried to enter Vietnam with its original pricing—$150/month per license. Sales stalled. Why? It was priced like a Western product in a market with local alternatives at $20–30/month. When the firm launched a tiered pricing model, revenue tripled in 6 months.

Smart pricing = contextual pricing. Be flexible. Test and adjust.

3. Quality vs Quantity: Know What to Trade

ASEAN consumers are not always choosing between bad and good. They’re choosing between what’s good enough and what’s worth paying more for.

Trying to sell a premium imported product to a mass market with budget constraints? You'll lose. But offer a mid-tier product with reliability, after-sales support, and a strong brand promise? You may hit the sweet spot.

The same logic applies in B2B. Not every business needs the top-tier software. Some want “just enough” to function, with responsive support and the option to scale.

Don’t oversell premium. Sell practical, scalable value.

Final Thought: Wake Up or Get Left Behind

The ASEAN market rewards businesses that listen, localize, and let go of assumptions. The era of “copy-paste expansion” is over. Now is the time to rethink your ASEAN playbook:

Segment deeper.
Price smarter.
Match value to reality.

ASEAN is full of opportunity—but only for those awake enough to see it.

About Us

Curt & Co Pte Ltd is a consulting company started amongst a group of business owners who were looking for a consulting company themselves for advice !

Our offices and our focus markets are in Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. With clients ranging from 1 man operating SMEs to listed companies, we are proud to have helped our clients across different industries gain market entry into the South East Asian region.