B2C MARKETING PLAN
Focusing on camera category for Le Bao Minh Joint Stock Investment Company
Thi Minh Trang Le
Bachelor´s Thesis February 2016 Degree Programme in International Business
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
Tampere University of Applied Sciences Degree programme in International Business Option of Marketing
Thi Minh Trang Le B2C marketing plan
Focusing on camera category for Le Bao Minh Joint Stock Investment Company Bachelor's thesis 66 pages, appendices 10 pages
February 2016
The main objective for this thesis was to find out effective marketing strategies related to camera product category for Le Bao Minh Joint Stock Investment Company to attract customers choosing Canon cameras sold by the company. The thesis purpose was to create a detailed marketing plan to replace ineffective and unstructured current marketing plan of the company.
To fulfil the objective, the collection of both secondary and primary data was performed.
Secondary data was collected mainly through published books, e-books and online academic writing; combined with the data and statistics provided by the case company.
Primary data was gathered by two ways: customer survey; and interviews with company Marketing manager and one Business planning staff. Customer survey was conducted in both online and paper forms with the participation of 207 suitable respondents.
The thesis consisted of three main parts. The first part was theoretical framework; which was supported by secondary data the author collected from different sources. The second part was to analyze customer survey by presenting graphs and explanations to obtain primary data. The third part was to answer the main objective by developing a detailed marketing plan for the case company based on the structure of theoretical framework.
Internal and external situational analysis, SWOT, customer and competitor evaluation as well as marketing mix were focused in this part.
Based on the marketing plan, a list of recommendations was presented at the end of the thesis. The results of this thesis will be utilized by the case company to conduct a marketing plan in 2016.
Key words: marketing plan, customer survey, promotion, Vietnamese market, competitive advantage
CONTENTS
1 COMPANY INTRODUCTION ... 5
2 RESEARCH PLAN ... 6
2.1 Background information of thesis topic ... 6
2.2 Thesis objectives and purposes ... 7
2.3 Main concepts and theories applied in the thesis ... 7
2.3.1 Marketing and marketing plan ... 7
2.3.2 Internal situational analysis ... 9
2.3.3 External situational analysis ... 10
2.3.4 SWOT analysis ... 13
2.3.5 Customer analysis ... 14
2.3.6 Competitor analysis ... 15
2.3.7 Marketing mix ... 16
2.3.8 Marketing research ... 18
2.4 Data collection and data ... 18
2.4.1 Types of data ... 18
2.4.2 Methods of data collection ... 19
2.4.3 Data analysis ... 21
2.5 Thesis process ... 21
3 ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER SURVEY ... 23
3.1 Basic information and structure of the survey ... 23
3.2 Survey analysis ... 24
4 MARKETING PLAN FOR LE BAO MINH ... 36
4.1 Internal situational analysis ... 36
4.1.1 Mission ... 36
4.1.2 Company resources ... 36
4.2 External situational analysis ... 38
4.2.1 Porter’s five force factors ... 38
4.2.2 PESTEL analysis ... 41
4.3 SWOT analysis ... 46
4.4 Customer analysis ... 47
4.4.1 Market segmentation ... 47
4.4.2 Market targeting ... 49
4.5 Competitor analysis ... 49
4.6 Marketing mix ... 54
4.6.1 Product ... 54
4.6.2 Price... 55
4.6.3 Place ... 56
4.6.4 Promotion ... 56
5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION ... 59
REFERENCES ... 62
APPENDICES ... 67
Appendix 1. Interview with marketing manager of Le Bao Minh ... 67
Appendix 2. Interview with Le Bao Minh staff from Business planning department ... 68
Appendix 3. Customer survey ... 69
Appendix 4. Analysis of answers ... 70
1 COMPANY INTRODUCTION
Le Bao Minh Joint Stock Investment Company was established in August 1997 with the aim of becoming one of the leading businesses specialized in offering reputable and highly qualified office equipment to Vietnamese market. Canon Corporation is a leading Japanese multinational corporation specialized in manufacturing imaging solutions;
including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, printers, scanners and projectors. With the prediction of Canon’s enormous potential development in developing countries, combined with national reform policies, since 2003, Le Bao Minh has determined to modify its objectives and partnered with the Corporation to become an exclusive and authorized distributor for Canon products in Vietnamese market.
Many different Canon products, with the support of Le Bao Minh, have been distributed to variety of retail companies among different regions in Vietnam. From a small infamous enterprise, the company has currently expanded its distribution network in 64 provinces with more than 400 agencies to ensure Canon products can be delivered to customers in the quickest and most effective way. Combining with distributing products, Le Bao Minh has operated various warranty centres with friendly high staff expertise and affordable price so that all Canon customers, regardless where they purchase the products can contact when their products have technical problems. The company itself has also determined to launch several own stores in six most developed provinces to directly serve its potential customers.
After thirteen years co-operating together and actively improving operational strategies, both the company and Canon Corporation have successfully gained strong positions in the market. While Canon has gradually become a favourite brand among Vietnamese people, customers cannot ignore the reliability of Le Bao Minh when deciding where to buy Canon products with high quality.
2 RESEARCH PLAN
2.1 Background information of thesis topic
This thesis is about conducting a B-2-C marketing plan focusing on camera product category for Le Bao Minh Joint Stock Investment Company.
The author completed five-month internship as a marketing trainee and was accepted to write Bachelor’s thesis for Le Bao Minh Joint Stock Company - a Vietnamese exclusive distributor of Canon Corporation. Besides distributing Canon products to many retailers around Vietnam, the company has also opened its own showrooms as well as co-operating with Canon Corporation to develop their stores called Canon Image Square in six different Vietnamese cities and provinces so that sell Canon products directly to customers.
However, because customers has already been familiar with purchasing products from retail companies, not many of them notices that the company has its own stores; which results in low sales revenue generated from those stores.
Among different product categories, camera is one of the most popular and important product categories Le Bao Minh and Canon focus on. The demand of camera usage among Vietnamese people has increased significantly recently; as a result, there has been the appearance of many strong competitors in the market. In addition, the appearance of camera products shipped directly from Japanese and other foreign markets with lower price in Vietnamese electronic supermarkets and stores has risen substantially; which leads to the reduction of Le Bao Minh’s camera overall sales revenue, both in B2B and B2C markets.
In spite of it, most of Le Bao Minh’s marketing strategies for camera product category at the moment are based on discount programs; which brings two main problems. Firstly, discount is not an effective way to boost the sales in long term, especially when the market becomes very competitive. Secondly, too much discount can lead to the dissatisfaction from retail stores- B2B customers who also sell Canon cameras distributed by Le Bao Minh.
Besides that, the company’s discount rate still cannot compete effectively with much cheaper products shipped from other foreign markets. The company should apply other
different marketing strategies to strengthen this category; at the same time, do not make other main customers - B2B customers feel being threatened.
Therefore, as a student studying international business specialized in marketing and as a five-month marketing trainee for Le Bao Minh, the author decided to create a marketing plan focusing on camera product category with the aim of increasing purchasing power of Canon cameras sold directly by Le Bao Minh’s stores among B2C customers.
2.2 Thesis objectives and purposes
The main objective for this thesis is to answer the question: “What are effective marketing strategies for Le Bao Minh to attract customers choosing Canon cameras sold by the company and maintain long term customer relationship with them?” The thesis purpose is to create a detailed and structured marketing plan instead of quite unstructured current marketing plan to find out suitable marketing strategies for the company.
In order to answer to the main objective, a customer survey (Appendix 3) is conducted to understand the background information of Canon camera’s current customers as well as collecting customers’ feedback to develop an effective marketing plan. Besides that, small interviews with company marketing manager and business staff (Appendix 1 & 2) are also implemented to receive ideas and opinions directly from company members. A marketing plan is launched later based on the survey result, analysis of interview and the author’s own experiences.
2.3 Main concepts and theories applied in the thesis
2.3.1 Marketing and marketing plan
Kotler, Amstrong, Ang, Leong, Tam and Hon-Ming (2009, 4-5) defined marketing as a process of creating value for customers and maintaining long term relationship with them to receive value for the company in return. Tanner and Raymond (2012, 8) also quoted the definition by AMA and said that the process of performing four main components
“creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging” products to bring value for customers of a company is called marketing. Value is identified as the benefits customers receive when purchasing products and those benefits are applicable to their needs.
Regardless the benefits one product promises to deliver, if it does not meet the requirement of customers, that product still cannot create any value. (Tanner & Raymond 2012, 10.)
Woods (2003)’s definition cited by Vrontis and Thrassou (2006, 134) described marketing plan as a process of analyzing market situation, setting objectives and strategies and implementing them; and finally assessing marketing actions based on targeted objectives.
According to the information given by different sources (Federal Highway Administration 2007, 10-11; Fisher 2009, 6-25; Kotler et al. 2009, 577-586), the definition of a marketing plan can also be described as a combination of several main components as below.
- Executive summary: a short paragraph to inform the reader about what the plan is trying to present. Executive summary should be the first part of a marketing plan;
however, it is said to be the most logical to write after the completion of first plan draft.
- Company overview: The company background and key activities are mentioned briefly in this part. List of objectives the company wants to achieve should also be presented.
- Situation analysis: Claudiu, Andrei and Gabriela (2011, 731) defined situation analysis as a process of obtaining and analyzing both company’s resources and different components of market environment. Internal and external situation related to the company as well as SWOT analysis are examined in this section.
- Market analysis: This section consists of two main parts: customer analysis and competitor analysis; which will be discussed specifically later.
- Marketing strategy: Mongay (2006, 4-5) quoted the definition from Jain (1993) to define marketing strategy as the process of utilizing company’s own strengths to differentiate it from competitors and satisfy customers better than competitors do. The marketing strategy used in this thesis is the marketing mix - 4Ps.
- Financial plan: The ultimate goal of investing in marketing is to make the return on company’s sales revenue and profit in a short or long term. As a result, a plan should give the readers the overall budget for performing marketing strategies.
- Implementation plan and control: This section outlines the schedule and the progress to implement marketing tasks and activities as well as how to assess the effectiveness of marketing strategies and the possibility of achieving targeted objectives.
In spite of mentioning as parts of marketing plan, this thesis does not include financial plan;
and implementation plan and control due to the main objective of the thesis. The major components of a marketing plan used in this thesis are explained further below.
2.3.2 Internal situational analysis
Before starting to conduct any effective marketing plan, the company firstly needs to analyze their own internal situation to find out their strengths and weaknesses. Among different internal factors, the first component taken into consideration in this thesis is mission. According to Millard (2010, 1) and Papulova (2014, 13), a statement representing the reason why an organization or a firm exists is called a mission. Among huge number of competitors offering relatively similar products and service, mission statement is what helps a company differentiates itself from others. Dermol (2012, 892) quoted the information from Lešnik (2008) and Williams (2008) to conclude that the effectiveness of strategy performance, internal communications as well as company’s management could be enhanced by having a specific mission statement. After collecting opinions from different authors, mission statement can be claimed as the first very important part when analyzing internal situational analysis of a marketing plan.
The second important component that needs to be discussed when figuring out internal situation of an organization is company resource. This thesis only focuses on three major resource components based on the writing of Lovelock, Wirtz & Chew (2009, 68) and West, Ford & Ibrahim (2006, 87). The authors divided an organization’s resources into financial, human labour and know-how; and physical assets. In terms of financial assets, the
company has strong financial assets when the liquidity is high. In case of human labour and know-how, the factor deciding the strength of a company’s human resource is employee’s expertise and ability to work effectively. The final type of resources – physical assets includes new buildings with modern equipment and machinery. (Lovelock et al 2009, 68;
West et al. 2006, 87.)
2.3.3 External situational analysis
Along with internal situation, a company needs to have enough information related to external environment to make a marketing plan more realistic. In this thesis, the analysis of external factors is based on two widely used concepts called Porter’s five force factors – for external micro-environmental analysis; and PESTLE analysis – for external macro- environmental analysis.
Porter’s five force factors
Porter’s five force factors analysis are said to be vital for creating a successful marketing plan. It helps a company to analyze the attractiveness of an industry and understand business pressure it can face within that industry as well as finding out the business domain which can have either positively or negatively significant impact on its operation. (Cadle, Paul & Turner 2010, 7.)
FIGURE 1. Porter’s five force factors. Adapted from Whalley (2010, 21)
Based on figure 1, each of five force factor in Porter’s method is analyzed in more detailed way.
- Rivalry among existing competitors: The level of competition and competitors’
actions affect the operation and success of a company. The organization needs to determine their position within the market as well as which companies hold the strongest power among various number of rivalries (Cadle et al. 2010, 7).
- Threat of new entrants: A company needs to identify potential level of new entrants into the market to decide which marketing strategies should be launched. A market is considered to have high barrier to entry when it requires new firms to invest large amount of investment and know-how (Cadle et al. 2010, 7). The higher the market barrier is, the more difficult for start-up businesses to compete with existing ones.
- Threat of substitute products or services: Substitution is defined as an action of replacing products within a market by other products belonging to another market but provide similar functionality and values (The UK chemicals stakeholder forum 2010, 3). The threat of substitute products or service tends to be high when consumer switch cost is low; and these products have cheaper price than products in the industry while their quality and performance is similar or even better (Team FME 2013, 22).
- Bargaining power of buyers: The bargaining power of buyers can have crucial impact on the profitability of a business. The company will face many problems when customers can easily switch to other products due to a variety of choices with similar quality and price in the industry as well as low switch costs. The more desirable a brand is, the less power of customers have to influence on that brand (Cadle et al. 2010, 8).
- Bargaining power of suppliers: High bargaining power of suppliers might affect a company negatively. When suppliers have strong effect on the business, they would have the ability to raise the price of their material and products regardless the volume of sales. They also can reduce the quantity of products available in the market when their bargaining power is significant. (Team FME 2013, 23.)
PESTLE analysis
PESTLE is claimed to be a common tool to identify and analyze key external factors – important factors which create opportunities and threats for the company; and affect the success of marketing plan. There are some other external areas that are added into other variations of PESTEL analysis such as ecological, ethical and educational; however, this essay only focuses on six common factors mentioned below.
- Political factor: Analyses the stability of political environment and the possibility of changes in government’s political decisions such as tax policy, economic intervention, and trading agreements (Cadle et al. 2010, 3). A country’s health and the quality of infrastructure as well as the consideration on level of educating and training company workforce are influenced by political decisions (Oxford University Press 2007, 1).
- Economical factor: Includes variety of issues such as interest rate, level of inflation, exchange rate, GDP and taxation; which decides the level of economic growth and market confidence of an economy (Keung Ho 2014, 6480; Cadle et al. 2010, 4). To illustrate, the increase in interest rate might result in the reduction of company investment due to higher costs of loaning.
- Social factor: All factors related to the culture of the society where a business operates belong to social factor. There are various factors which affects the development of a firm; including language, demographic issues, consumer behaviour, living standard, gender, the population and level of education (Keung Ho 2014, 6480).
- Technological factor: Discusses the trend and development of technology and innovations. Technological trend and development are worth analyzing because if a business recognizes the potential benefits of a new technology later than its competitors, it could lose competitive advantages over its opponents.
- Legal factor: While political factors mainly discuss attitudes and approaches of political parties, legal factors are related to governmental law and regulations. There are different types of law including consumer laws, competition laws, employment laws, and health and safety laws (Oxford University Press 2007, 2). The analysis of political and legal factor is combined together in one single part in this thesis.
- Environmental factor: A list of problems related to natural environment is included in environmental factor such as the concern of global warming, pollution and the
packaging of products (Cadle et al 2010, 5). This factor has become more and more important because the number of people concerns about environment has substantially increased recently. A company can take into consideration the use of environmental friendly products or packages to satisfy customers’ environmental concern.
2.3.4 SWOT analysis
The combination of internal and external factors mentioned above leads to SWOT analysis.
SWOT is a business technique that helps a company to make decision on strategies and performances of product offerings. Analyzing SWOT means the analysis of four main factors: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. (Gasporotti 2009, 97.). SWOT is a tool that helps the business to summarize all different aspects of internal and external environment; as a result, it is very necessary to be included when conducting a marketing plan for the case company.
FIGURE 2. SWOT analysis. Adapted from Kotler et al. (2009, 47-48) & Team FME (2013, 6-9).
The analysis of these four elements is discussed below based on the information collected from Kotler et al. (2009, 47-48) and Team FME (2013, 6-9).
- Strengths: internal factors such as company’s capabilities and resources which can positively support the achievement of organization objectives.
- Weaknesses: internal limitations and negative internal factors that can prevent an organization to achieve its objectives and goals.
- Opportunities: external factors and trends of which a company can take advantage to enhance its performances.
- Threats: external factors and trends which can create challenges and hinder the performance of a company.
2.3.5 Customer analysis
As described before, marketing is a long-term process of creating value to satisfy needs and demands of customers. Therefore, the examination of target customers’ behaviour is inevitable when developing a marketing plan.
There is a variety of buyers with different wants, resources, location and attitudes within a large market. A company’s assignment is to segment the market – dividing the large market into smaller groups of customers who have the similar unique needs and characteristics to create products, services and marketing programs suiting them better (Kotler et al. 2009, 166; Lovelock at al. 2009, 60). Major segmentation methods to divide customers into small groups are outlined in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1. Segmentation methods. Adapted from Kotler et al. (2009, 167-172) and Burnett (2008, 36-39).
Geographic segmentation Nations, states, regions, countries or cities
Demographic segmentation Age, gender, family size, family life cycle, income, occupation, education Psychographic segmentation
Social class, attitudes, perception, motives, personality
Behavioural segmentation Occasions, benefits, user and usage rate,
loyalty status
The next step following market segmentation is to decide which and how many segments a business wants to target. Target market is a market segment an organization decides to
select in homogeneous market after evaluating different segmentation variables (Lovelock et al 2009, 60). Targeting helps a company to deliver its marketing strategies effectively without wasting time and costs on other segments besides targeted ones. According to Kotler et al (2009, 176-181) and Baker (2003, 277), a business can determine the number of target markets based on four different strategies (table 2).
TABLE 2. Targeting strategies. Adapted from Kotler et al (2009, 176-181) & Baker (2003, 277)
Undifferentiated or mass marketing
Ignore the differences in market segments and decide to target the whole market with the same marketing strategies.
Differentiated marketing
Target several potential market segments and create different marketing strategies for each of target market.
Concentrated or niche marketing
-Target one or a few smaller segments which might be ignored by larger competitors.
-Suitable for companies with limited resources.
Micro marketing
Local marketing: Based on the needs of local customer groups and Individual (custom) marketing: Based on the needs of each individual customer.
2.3.6 Competitor analysis
The consecutive step of conducting a marketing plan that should not be ignored is competitor analysis. According to Czepiel and Kerin (2012, 1-2), to formulate effective and successful marketing strategies, a business needs to know enough about its rivalries to predict what actions its competitors would do in a particular situation. The understanding of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses can bring opportunities for a business to stand out within target markets (Lovelock et al 2009, 68). Based on competitor analysis, a company can create the differentiation and determine its positioning in customers’ mind. Baker (2003, 279) described positioning as a process of designing image of a brand or a product so that customers can know what that brand or product can offer them and what the
differences it has compared to other brands. When a business can create the differentiation and positioning, it will gain what every single company pursues: competitive advantage.
2.3.7 Marketing mix
After analyzing information related to competitors and identify the positioning of the business, an effective marketing plan cannot miss the next step – formulating marketing strategies. The business needs to deliver and communicate its chosen position to target customers; which is supported by the analysis of marketing mix (Kotler et al. 2009, 189).
Baker (2003, 287) quoted the definition from Mc Carthy (2001) to describe marketing mix as a group of marketing tools including 4Ps – product, price, place and promotion that a company uses to achieve its objectives within target segments. An effective marketing mix is made when the company can offer its products with benefits and values that solve customers’ problems while spending low cost, communicate these benefits in an effective way; and enable for customers to purchase the products easily (Baker 2003, 289).
Product
According to Kotler et al. (2009, 200), product is anything that a business can offer to users to satisfy their needs and wants; including physical products, services, events, places, organizations or ideas. To create a product or service that can bring the highest value for customers, a business and its marketers need to analyze their products or services in three levels: Core benefit, actual product and augmented product (Kotler 2009, 200; Burnett 2008, 153-154).
FIGURE 3. Levels of product. Adapted from Kotler (2009, 200) & Burnett (2008, 153-154)
Price
The second important element of a marketing mix is price – the amount of money customers have to pay for purchasing a product or service (Kotler et al. 260). Burnett (2008, 227) claimed that a business needs to understand that not all customers want to pay the similar prices because they might not be interested in the same products, distribution channels or promotional campaigns like others. As a result, different pricing strategies need to be taken into consideration when deciding suitable price for target customers; which will be described more specifically in Chapter 3.
Place
A supply chain includes “upstream” – working with suppliers of raw materials or expertises for creating products; and “downstream” – working with distribution channels. In the element “Place”, the focus of a supply chain is mainly “downstream” side – how to work effectively with distribution channels so that customers can access to company’s products conveniently. (Kotler et al. 307.) According to Whalley (2010, 91), a business needs to decide whether to use direct or indirect channel for the delivery of products and determine the types and the number of intermediaries if needed.
Augmented product Actual product
Core benefit
• Delivery and credit
• Installation and warranty
• After sale service
• Brand name, quality and features
• Design and packaging
• The most basic benefit a product can deliver
Promotion
Kayode (2014, 9) defined promotion or marketing communication as the process of sharing the information, concepts and values of company’s product or service to customers by the use of four main components: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relation. The consideration of all four components can result in effective marketing strategies for attracting more target customers to recognize and purchase company’s products.
2.3.8 Marketing research
To create a successful marketing plan, the role of marketing research cannot be deniable.
The latest information about the market, competitors, customers as well as the newest marketing theories and concepts need to be updated to ensure the effectiveness of marketing strategies and programs. These kinds of “reliable, valid, timely, relevant and current” information can be obtained through marketing research (Baker 2003, 172). Based on the definition from American Marketing Association (2004), marketing research is a method that helps the marketers and company connect with customers by utilizing the group of information. This group of information is collected, analyzed and used to identify company problems, threats and opportunities and to create the most effective solutions and marketing strategies. According to Proctor and Jamieson (2012, 19), the use of marketing research can reduce some of business risks because the larger amount of relevant information can bring more accurate decisions and solutions for the business.
2.4 Data collection and data
2.4.1 Types of data
Secondary data is the data already collected by someone else for some other research purposes; but utilized by the company for current research purposes and problems. In more detailed, secondary data has been already available in various sources such as internal data within the firm, libraries, government publication or current common source with enormous amount of data – internet. (Smith & Albaum 2010, 37-38; Hague 2006, 59-61.) According to Smith and Albaum (2010, 30) and Baker (2003, 175), the cost and time of searching secondary data are normally less than making a totally new research to obtain data. In this thesis, secondary data is mostly used to support the literature needed to develop a marketing plan; which is mainly taken from published books, e-books and online academic writing. Information and statistics related to Vietnamese market, competitors and customers from online sources are used in conducting a marketing plan, too. Besides that, the thesis also utilizes the data provided by the case company.
Primary data is the data collected by the researcher himself based on various methods such as interviews, focus groups or questionnaires to achieve the purpose of a current research project. The research of primary data is executed when the secondary data sources cannot contribute to solve research problems. (Baker 2003, 177.)
2.4.2 Methods of data collection
Quantitative research method is the use of techniques including surveys, interviews, questionnaires and observation to collect numerical statistics from customers (Baker 2003, 177). The research technique applied in this thesis is customer survey. The author decided to make a survey aimed at current customers of Canon cameras, including both those buying Canon cameras from Le Bao Minh and those buying from other sources to figure out their background and behaviour. The survey was made in both paper and online form.
Receiving the support from marketing manager of Le Bao Minh, paper form was placed in company booths at three different events occurred in December 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho and Binh Duong. As support of paper form, online form was sent to members of Vietnamese popular photography communities and Facebook groups to increase the number of respondents.
Qualitative research method is the use of techniques including focus groups, depth discussions and observation to collect information about people’s attitudes and ways of behaviour. This method aims to make the respondents express true feelings and opinions towards a product and service based on unstructured or semi-unstructured interview approach (Hooley et al. 2004, 188; Hague 2006, 75-76.). The qualitative data of this thesis was collected through the interview with Marketing manager and Business planning staff of Le Bao Minh Company on 28th December 2015. The interview with company’s marketing manager was made to understand better company’s marketing activities since September 2015 after I had finished my practical training at the end of August. Besides that, it would be effective to know opinions about strengths and weaknesses of products and services from a person who directly plan marketing strategies for the company. The second interview was with an employee from Business planning department who has been responsible for planning targeted sales revenue and has worked for Le Bao Minh for approximately four years. She herself is also a loyal customer of not only cameras but also other Canon’s products. The list of interview questions is presented in Appendix 1 and 2 while the results are used directly through the analysis of different thesis parts.
Observation: According to Shukla (2008, 49), there is still strong debate until now among different researchers and marketing experts about where observation technique belongs to – quantitative and qualitative. In this thesis, observation is classified as a part of both quantitative and qualitative research method. Rather than truly communicating with customers to gather essential data, observation is mostly dependent on the researcher’s ability of observing (Shukla 2008, 49). According to Hooley, Saunders and Piercy (2004, 190), observation method is essential when customers could not or are not willing to give accurate replies to research questions. There are some types of customer behaviour that cannot be answered accurately by direct questioning because the respondents might not remember their own unconscious behaviour and actions. There are also many questions from researcher that the respondents do not feel comfortable to answer; which could cause incorrect results and wrong research results.
The author decided to use her observation during five month working as a trainer in Le Bao Minh to provide additional data for supporting this thesis. The data – which is ensured to be
as objective as possible - is taken from the author’s own experiences, the feedback from customers and other company’s employees as well as what the author observed by herself.
2.4.3 Data analysis
In case of quantitative data, after receiving completed survey from respondents, the answers need to be checked and edited to ensure all the responses are compatible with questions.
Then, the questionnaires are coded numerically and stored in computer software depending on the choice and complexity of the research. The raw data collected from customer survey in this thesis is stored in form of Excel file; and calculated by using tabulation and cross- tabulation (Appendix 4). The results are then analysed and a group of graphs are created to explain survey results in more understandable way. (Hague 2006, 150-152.)
The analysis of qualitative data is generated from the transcript of interview conducted with marketing manager and business staff of Le Bao Minh. The whole transcript is firstly read through to identify key important words and sentences. After that, the mind-map is made to bring the researcher a general view of information from the interview. The final step is to analyze the mind-map and summarizing the results in a written form.
2.5 Thesis process
Chapter 3 firstly presents basic information and structure of customer survey using to obtain primary data. Then, the survey results are discussed based on the graphs and explanations.
Chapter 4 develops a marketing plan for Le Bao Minh based on the concept and theory mentioned in Chapter 2 and the survey results in Chapter 3. The literature supporting a marketing plan will be also analyzed more specifically in Chapter 4.
Finally, Chapter 5 is for list of recommendations and conclusion from the author about the most suitable marketing strategies for Le Bao Minh to attract customers to choose company’s cameras over competitors.
3 ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER SURVEY
3.1 Basic information and structure of the survey
To create an effective marketing plan based on the understanding of customers’ needs, a survey is launched to target all Canon cameras’ customers. The preparation of questionnaire list in both paper and online form by Vietnamese language; as well as the final permission from the company to support the performance of survey were completed at the beginning of December. Paper form was sent to Marketing department of Le Bao Minh and customers coming to company’s booth were asked to fill in the survey when the company participated in different events in three cities/ provinces: Ho Chi Minh City – 12th December, Can Tho – 21st December and Binh Duong – 22nd December 2015. Along with paper form, online survey performance was conducted from the middle of December until the end of December. The respondents of online form were mainly from Vietnamese popular photography communities and Facebook groups. Finally, 259 responses from both paper and online form were collected with 207 responses being suitable with the aim of the survey. The survey and results were then translated to English to present in this thesis.
The questionnaire includes 11 questions (Appendix 3); customers are only allowed to choose the most suitable choice in 10 first questions while in the last question – about Le Bao Minh, they can choose as many answers as they want. The first question is to find out if the respondent is applicable to the survey by asking whether they use Canon camera or not. If the respondent answers Yes, they can continue the second question; and they can skip all following questions if their answer is No. The second and third question is about basic background of the participants, including gender and age. The following questions are related to Canon cameras - types of Canon camera the respondents bought, their main purpose of purchase, reasons why they choose Canon over other brands, their possibility of buying any other Canon products beside cameras; and the location of purchase. In ninth question, the respondents are required to rate the importance of several basic elements when deciding a place to by camera from 1 to 5, 1 is the most important and 5 is the least important. The tenth question asks major sources the respondents use to find out about the product before buying. The final question is about the awareness level of the respondents
about Le Bao Minh’s operating activities. All the information provided by the respondents is kept anonymous.
3.2 Survey analysis
Background information
The background information of the respondents is presented based on their gender and age.
As can be seen in Figure 4, the large proportion of respondents was male with 60% while the female respondents were slightly lower with the percentage of 40%. Camera users through the survey are also divided into four different age groups with the highest percentage 41% from the age between 18 and 24; the rate of 30%, 23% and 6% are from the respondents below 18 years old, from 25 to 34; and 35 years old or older respectively (figure 5). To conclude, majority of Canon camera users from the survey was teenagers and young adults, especially male customers. This result is applicable to Le Bao Minh and Canon’s traditional main target groups in Vietnamese market. Men, especially young generation normally have more interest and accept new technology, including cameras more quickly.
FIGURE 4. Gender of the respondents.
60%
40%
Gender of the respondents
Male Female
N = 207
FIGURE 5. Age of the respondents.
Types of camera purchased
There are four fundamental camera types Canon has produced and offered to customers.
Figure 6 shows the types of Canon camera the respondents bought: the majority of them purchased DSLR camera with 50%, the second favorite type was PowerShot with 31% and the third choice was IXUS which held the percentage of 18%. Mirrorless was the least favorite choice of the respondents with only 1%.
FIGURE 6. Types of Canon camera the respondents purchased.
30%
41%
23%
6%
Age of the respondents
Below 18 18 – 24 25 – 34 35+
N = 207
31%
18%
50%
1%
Types of camera purchased
PowerShot IXUS DSLR Mirrorless
N = 207
The choice of Canon camera types is analyzed further depending each gender and age group.
Figure 7 presents types of Canon camera purchased by each gender. PowerShot camera was preferred by female respondents while more than half of male respondents chose DSLR camera to spend their money. There was relatively equal percentage of IXUS camera usage between male and female customers.
FIGURE 7. Types of Canon camera the respondents purchased based on gender.
As can be seen in Figure 8, in terms of age group, PowerShot was the most favorite choice among the teenagers below 18 years old; and seniors from 35 years old and above with 40% and 38% respectively. Similarly to PowerShot, IXUS camera was also chosen the most by two age groups mentioned above with 24% for both. In contrast, more than half of respondents from the age between 18 and 34 years old preferred buying DSLR camera.
23%
18%
58%
1%
41%
19%
38%
2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
PowerShot IXUS DSLR Mirrorless
Male Female
N = 207
Types of camera purchased by gender
FIGURE 8. Types of Canon camera the respondents purchased based on age group.
The survey results based on gender and age group are suitable with the objectives of Canon in Vietnamese market. PowerShot and IXUS with interesting features and attractive design are easy-to-use cameras Canon originally produces to aim at those who only need cameras for entertainment with basic knowledge related to camera techniques. Teenagers and seniors, especially female customers normally have these kinds of characteristics; that is why they tend to prefer choosing PowerShot and IXUS cameras. In opposite, DSLR cameras which contain more complex specifications mainly attract amateur and professional photographers – Vietnamese young adults, especially male customers.
Purpose of buying camera
There were an outstanding percentage of the respondents buying cameras due to their photographing hobby – more than half of the respondents. The second aim of camera purchase was to start amateur photographing career with 24%. The purpose of pursuing professional photographing career held the percentage of 9% while the least choices held 6% and 5% of respondents with the answer: camera is essential for current jobs; and buying camera as a gift to other people (figure 9).
40%
24% 28%
38%
24%
16% 13%
24%
34%
58% 59%
38%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Below 18 18 - 24 25 -34 35+
PowerShot IXUS DSLR
Types of camera purchased by age group
N = 207
FIGURE 9. Purpose of buying camera.
There is interesting statistics when analyzing further the purpose of purchase based on age group. (figure 10). A majority of respondents below 18 years old bought cameras due to their hobby with the percentage up to 94% while only 6% of them thought of buying cameras to start amateur photographer career. There was no respondent from this group choosing other purposes besides two main purposes mentioned. This result is not difficult to understand due to the fact that customers from this age group are still very young and mostly have not planned about their future career yet. Instead of seriously planning to pursue photography career or purchasing cameras for their official job, they tend to consider photography as an interesting hobby to do in their free time. Furthermore, they mostly have not worked yet to have their own strong finance to purchase cameras as a gift for others.
The age group from 18 to 24 years old mainly bought cameras for their hobby – 51% and for amateur photography career – 36%. Quite similarly to the age group 18 – 24, the respondents from 25 to 34 years old also purchased cameras for hobby – 30% and amateur photography purpose – 25%. However, the percentage of buying camera due to hobby decreased among this group and there was an increase in the use of camera for professional career with 19%. Most of people from this age group have already finished high school or the university and started to work. As a result, they have begun to make serious decisions on their future job; that is why the percentage of purchasing cameras due to career tends to increase among this group.
56%
24%
9% 6% 5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Photographing hobby
Amateur photographing
career
Professional photographing
career
Essential for job
Gift to others
Purpose of buying camera
The final age group – 35 years old and older – with stronger personal finance and stable career mostly purchased cameras for professional usage and as a gift with 31% equally.
FIGURE 10. Purpose of buying camera based on age group.
Reasons of purchasing Canon cameras
Figure 11 shows statistics related to why the respondents chose to buy Canon cameras over other brands. The highest choice was due to Canon brand itself with 40% and the following reason was the quality of Canon product with 33%. 18% of the respondents chose Canon cameras because they could have variety of product choices with nice design. Only 7% and 2% of respondents purchased Canon camera due to the price and the simplicity of products.
After a long period actively developing in the market, Canon brand has gained the popularity in terms of cameras in Vietnam. Canon is often the first choice of camera users due to brand awareness, its quality as well as the variety of products. However, in terms of price, Canon is still more expensive compared to several other brands such as Panasonic and Samsung; which can answer why only 7% of the respondents chose Canon due to the price.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Hobby Amateur Professional Essential for job
A gift
Below 18 18 - 24 25 -34 35+
Purpose of purchase by age group
N = 207
FIGURE 10. Reasons why the respondents bought Canon cameras.
Demand of Canon’s camera users for other Canon’s product categories
As can be seen in Figure 11, most of the respondents – 74% did not have the demand or did not think of buying any other Canon products besides cameras. 25% of the respondents concerned or bought Canon printers while only 1% of them concerned about scanners.
Another answer placed in this question was photocopier with only one respondent. Most of the respondents are young generations and they are unable to purchase expensive and unnecessary products such as photocopiers. Printer is normally a favorite choice among camera users because many of photographers enjoy printing their own photos for keeping;
and the price range of Canon printers is very variable. For instance, a small convenient printer called Selphy CP900 only costs around 3,300,000 VND (around 140 euro) (Canon, 2016).
40%
33%
7%
18%
2%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
The brand Product quality
Suitable price Variety of choices with
nice design
Easy-to-use products
Reasons of buying Canon camera
FIGURE 11. Demand for other Canon products besides camera.
The choice of location to purchase camera
Figure 12 depicts several major locations Vietnamese customers often decide to buy their camera products. Among the respondents of the survey, approximately half of them chose poplar electronic supermarkets such as Nguyen Kim, Cho Lon and Phong Vu to buy their cameras. The second favorite choice was from online shops such as Lazada or online sales from individuals with 20%. The rest of respondents relied on Canon Image Square stores, events and exhibitions; and Le Bao Minh showrooms to buy their product. Only 1% of respondents purchased camera directly from foreign markets. Large electronic supermarkets have built very strong position in Vietnamese customers’ mind; therefore they are not easy to be replaced by other kinds of camera stores including Le Bao Minh and Canon stores. These supermarkets sell different reliable electronic product types and brands from both Vietnamese and foreign markets with moderate price and professional delivery service. Besides that, the demand in internet usage has increased substantially because nowadays not only urban areas but also most of regions around Vietnam have ability to access to internet easily (Ernst & Young, 28). Vietnamese people have currently accepted the convenience of online shopping; as a result, online shops such as Lazada are becoming favorite choices for customers, especially young generation.
25%
1%
74%
Demand of other Canon products
Printer Scanner Not at all
N = 207
FIGURE 12. Locations of purchase.
Table 3 shows the rate of importance in several elements when the respondents decided to choose a place for buying camera with 1 is the most important and 5 is the least important.
Interestingly, among seven different elements, warranty and support service ranked the first position with the percentage of 75% as the most important element. The following ranks belonged to the product quality with 52% and price with 43% of respondents as the most important element. As can be seen, although Vietnamese people tend to prefer cheap price of products, they still concern about product quality. Promotion activities launched by the company they purchased cameras was next important element with 37% for 1 and 39% for 2. Another interesting statistics obtained from this survey was the relatively balanced demand of physical stores and online shopping system. Although there is an increase in the number of customers using online shopping system for convenience, many customers still feel better if the company has their own stores at the same time to visit and try the products.
The final element - delivery service held the percentage of 33% for 1 and 35% for 2.
12% 10%
43%
2%
20%
12% 1%
0%
10%5%
15%20%
25%30%
35%40%
45%50%
Locations of purchase
TABLE 3. The rate of importance in each feature when the respondents chose a place to buy cameras (1 = most important, 5 = least important).
Features 1 2 3 4 5 Total
Product quality 108 (52%)
90 (44%)
9 (4%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
207 (100%)
Cheap price 89
(43%)
82 (40%)
31 (15%)
5 (2%)
0 (0%)
207 (100%) Promotion activities 76
(37%)
81 (39%)
42 (20%)
8 (4%)
0 (0%)
207 (100%) Delivery service 69
(33%)
73 (35%)
63 (31%)
2 (1%)
0 (0%)
207 (100%) Warranty/ Support service 156
(75%)
49 (24%)
2 (1%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
207 (100%) Online shopping system 53
(26%)
79 (38%)
54 (26%)
12 (6%)
9 (4%)
207 (100%) Physical stores 56
(27%)
83 (40%)
54 (26%)
12 (6%)
2 (1%)
207 (100%)
Sources to find product information before purchasing
As can be seen in Figure 13, the most important source the respondents chose to rely on when making buying decision was from their friends or relatives with the rate of 28%. The following reliable source with 21% and 18% respectively were from photography forums and groups; and from company websites and social media pages. Online advertisement and camera events were the following reliable sources with 11% while traditional source of information such as TV, newspaper and public advertisements received low percentage.
FIGURE 13. Sources to find product information before purchasing.
Looking in more detailed way based on age group, the most important source of information for the ages below 18 and above 34 years old was from the recommendation of their relatives and friends with 29% and 31% respectively. The recommendation from close people was also a reliable source for young people from 18 to 34 years old; however, there was an increase in the use of company websites and photography forums among these two age groups. The percentage of the respondents using photography forums to find out about products was especially high in the age between 18 and 24 years old with 28%. As can be seen, most of the respondent sources for information are from the recommendation of close people or reliable parties such as forums instead of company’s own advertisements.
Vietnamese people are usually said to respect and try to keep close relationships with each other (Meyer, Tran & Nguyen 2006, 21). It is not rare to see three or even four generations living together under the same roof when visiting Vietnam. Therefore, they are more likely to follow other people’s opinions in many issues including shopping, especially if those people have close relationship with them. Teenagers are often affected by their parents’
decisions or their friends while seniors above 34 years old with slower technology update tend to believe in their children and friends’ advices. Besides that, young adults between 18 and 34 years old with more access to internet also search for the recommendations from famous websites and forums along with opinions from their close people.
1% 4% 6%
11%
18% 21%
11%
28%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Where to find product information
FIGURE 14. Sources to find product information before purchasing based on age group.
Le Bao Minh in customers’ mind
Figure 15 shows the awareness level of the respondents about Le Bao Minh to analyze the popularity of company. As can be seen, among 264 replies, nearly half of the respondents answered that they did not have any idea about what Le Bao Minh stands for. 33% of the respondents acknowledged Le Bao Minh as an exclusive distributor of Canon; while the warranty service and chain of company stores were still lack of awareness from the respondents with only 13% and 12% respectively.
FIGURE 15. The awareness level of the respondents about Le Bao Minh
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Below 18 18 - 24 25 -34 35+
Finding information by age group
33%
13%
12%
42%
Awareness about Le Bao Minh
Canon’s distributor Canon’s product warranty service Stores selling Canon products
I have no idea
N = 264
4 MARKETING PLAN FOR LE BAO MINH
This part of the thesis is to present a detailed marketing plan based on the structure of an effective marketing plan which has already been mentioned in theoretical framework of Chapter 2. The survey result in Chapter 3, the information gained from the interviews with two employees of Le Bao Minh as well as secondary research will also be used to support the plan.
4.1 Internal situational analysis
The first part of a marketing plan excluding executive summary and company overview is the analysis of internal situation; which includes two major elements: mission and company resources. The analysis is mainly based on the interview with Le Bao Minh staffs and the author’s own experiences when doing practical training at the company.
4.1.1 Mission
Le Bao Minh’s mission is to collaborate with a foreign reputable company - Canon Corporation to provide imaging products such as cameras, printers, photocopiers and fax machines with the best quality and the most perfect after-sale services to Vietnamese consumers. The company’s ultimate goal is to ensure all Vietnamese customers can quickly access the newest technological products as well as easily purchasing them regardless their location.
4.1.2 Company resources
Le Bao Minh’s total sales revenue has maintained quite consistently from year to year; and the company has become one of strong Vietnamese’s businesses that attract the investment of both foreign and domestic enterprises. The salary of company’s employees has improved
positively recent years; for example 8-10 millions VND per month (350-400 euro) for marketing staffs; which is considered relatively high with a Vietnamese company. During more than ten years co-operating with Canon, Le Bao Minh has always enabled to pay employee salary as well as other expenses in time.
Le Bao Minh has developed its own branches in six large provinces in Vietnam. The most important and also main branch of the company is Ho Chi Minh branch with two office buildings, one showroom and three modern stores which are co-operated with Canon Corporation. Another successful branch is Hanoi with one office building, one own showroom and two co-operating stores. Danang, Binh Duong and Can Tho branches have also been developed and gained positive responses from customers. Finally, Long An, a potential branch, has been actively expanded and it promised to become one of company’s crucial branches in 2016. All the office buildings, showrooms and stores have still been in good condition with modern equipment and machinery.
The total number of official employees in the organization is approximately 400 employees from all of six branches. The company staffs who have necessary skills and experiences related to their position are one of the most integral resources that brought the current success of Le Bao Minh. The company has organized various monthly training classes to improve the expertise of its staffs; for example, training about new products for sales people and marketers, training for technical staffs, training about how to develop personal skills as well as cultural behavior in workplace. With the friendly and caring environment, there are many employees who have worked more than five years for the company.
Besides three different types of company resources mentioned in theoretical framework, brand name is also an important component of resources that should not be forgotten.
American Marketing Association described a brand as “a name, term, design, symbol or any other features” to help a company distinguish itself from other competitors. A good brand name can create many kinds of emotion such as trust, speed, status, confidence or durability of company’s products; and it is claimed to create a big difference in the success of an organization (Shimp 2010, 71). After nineteen years being active in the market, Le Bao Minh brand has been considered as a reliable brand in Vietnam, especially in the field
of imaging and optical products. Customers feel secured when they notice a Canon product which is distributed and guaranteed by Le Bao Minh – an exclusive distributor of Canon in Vietnamese market. This result can undoubtedly be said to be a successful achievement of the company. In spite of it, many of Vietnamese customers only acknowledge Le Bao Minh brand as a distributor of Canon’s products; but not as a seller. According to the customer survey in Chapter 3, among 264 replies, large percentage of the respondents - 42% had no idea what Le Bao Minh stands for; and only 12% of the respondents knew that the company has a chain of showrooms and stores. This is one of the major reasons why sales revenue from company’s showrooms and stores is still low.
4.2 External situational analysis
Following the structure in theoretical framework, external situational analysis comes after the evaluation of internal situation with two components: Porter’s five force factors – for external micro-environmental analysis; and PESTEL analysis – for external macro- environmental analysis.
4.2.1 Porter’s five force factors
Rivalry among existing competitors
The level of competition within camera industry in Vietnam is considered to be high. To examine more specifically the competitive level and the position of Le Bao Minh in the market, the company’s major competitors are divided into two cases.
- Manufacturing businesses: Le Bao Minh only sells and distributes cameras produced by Canon. Nikon Corporation – an old popular camera company has always been a major strong competitor of Canon; and this brand is also very famous and reliable in Vietnamese’s consumer eyes. Besides Nikon, several other newer brands including
Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are also favourite ones in Vietnam. However, in general, among very competitive industry, the position of Canon in this market can be considered to be strong and stable with the highest share among digital camera brands from 2010 until present.
- Importing and purchasing businesses: As a seller of camera products, Le Bao Minh also has to compete with an enormous number of large and small electronic supermarkets and camera stores which import and sell different kinds of camera brands, including Canon. Excluding a part of camera stores which are B2B customers of the company, there are still various popular stores with lower price, more diversity of camera brands and attractive promotion campaigns that Le Bao Minh has to compete.
Although the Canon camera brand holds strong position in the market, a chain of company showrooms and stores still receive a little concern from consumers.
Threat of new entrants
The camera industry is generally considered to have moderate barrier to entry in Vietnamese market. The market does not require start-up enterprises with enormous amount of capital investment and know-how; however, it does not mean small entrepreneurs can easily enter the market with low capital investment. Nonetheless, since 1999, and especially since joining World Trade Organization, Vietnam government has created more equal business environment; which brought better opportunities and support for entrepreneurs (Xinhua, 2012; Meyer et al 2006, 9). More and more digital camera brands have appeared in Vietnamese market with various innovative features and designs;
at the same time, more and more camera stores have been launched with attractive price and relatively good quality; which made the threat of new entrants have recently been high in the industry. In spite of it, Canon brand and the company have still gained a moderate number of loyal customers; which is their strongest competitive advantage that new competitors cannot compete easily
