A STUDY OF XIAOMI’S BRAND IMAGE CONSTRUCTION IN THAILAND: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON THAI TIKTOK USER COMMENTS

Abstract

In a highly mediated social media environment, both brands and users actively participate in the construction of brand meanings, involving both collaboration and contestation. Therefore, examining user-side construction processes is crucial for understanding brand image formation. This study takes 573 user comments from 30 Xiaomi-related videos on TikTok in Thailand as research data. By integrating discourse analysis and appraisal theory, and incorporating the theory of social influence from social psychology, the study explores how Thai consumers construct Xiaomi’s brand image through comment interactions. The findings show that Thai users express their consumption attitudes through discursive resources such as brand comparison, functionality and technological appeal, price, quality, informational interaction, and group identity. Among these, brand comparison is the most prominent, with Xiaomi frequently constructed as a Chinese technology brand characterized by “high cost-performance, technological maturity, and comprehensive functionality.” Judgment and affect are the dominant appraisal types, with an overall positive evaluative tendency, while negative evaluations mainly focus on system stability, as well as problems such as lag, overheating, and battery performance degradation that occur during long-term use of the equipment. Interactive discourses such as rebuttal and opposition, primarily positive experience sharing, and sarcasm or complaints, combined with mechanisms of likes and threaded replies, generate a social proof effect that both reinforces and reshapes brand image. The study further demonstrates that group interaction plays a crucial role in shaping Thai consumers’ perceptions of Xiaomi, contributing to the weakening of the stereotype that “Made in China = low-end products.”