MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HOCHIMINH CITY TỐNG THỊ MỸ HẰNG COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR NUMBER 1 STRAWBERRY ENERGY DRINK MASTER’S THESIS In Business Administration Ology code: 60. NGUYỄN THỊ MAI TRANG Ho Chi Minh City 2010 i Acknowledgement Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my tutor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for all her guidance, valuable advices, comments and suggestions when I was conducting the survey and writing my dissertation. Thank you for sparing time to review my report even though it was a tight schedule for you and me.
I am sincerely grateful to all the survey respondents and interviewees who have take precious time off to allow me to conduct the study and gain insights into consumer perception and response. I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to all my friends and family for their unwavering support and faith in me. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone else who has helped me in one way or another in making this project possible. Thank you so much.
th Ho Chi Minh City, Oct 25 , 2010 Tong Thi My Hang i TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgement.i LIST OF FIGURES.vi LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF GRAPHS. Rationale of the project. Scope and limitation.
Structure of the project. The role of Marketing Communications. Developing Effective Communications. Identify the Target Audience.
Determine the Communication Objectives. Brand Purchase Intention. Design the Communications. Select the Communications Channels.
Personal communications channels. Non-personal communications channels. Establishing the Total Marketing Communication Budget. Percentage-of-sales method.
Competitive-parity method. Objective-and-task method. Deciding on the Marketing Communications Mix. Public relations and publicity.
Events and experiences. Measuring communication results. Manage integrated marketing communications. Advertising media trend.
Overall about Number 1 Strawberry. Background of energy drink. Number 1 Strawberry’s SWOT analysis. Number 1 Strawberry communication.
Research result analysis. Energy Drink Consumption. Energy Drink Awareness. Energy Drink consumption.
Energy Drink Awareness. 360 DEGREE COMMUNICATION PLAN. Communication tasks and objectives. Consumer & Target Groups.
Consumer’s shopping habit. Consumer’s Media Consumption. Communication channel selection. 62 Limitations of Research Methodology.63 APPENDIX 2: GUIDELINE FOR FOCUS GROUP.65 APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR SURVEY.67 APPENDIX 4: SOME PICTURES OF FOCUS GROUPS.72 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.
Integrating Marketing Communications to Build Brand Equity. Steps in Developing Effective Communications. Structure of energy drink of Tan Hiep Phat Group. Number 1 Strawberry’s Pack Type.
Number 1 Strawberry’s Television Commercial (TVC). The process of developing 360 degree communication plan. Number 1 Strawberry’s key competitors. 47 7 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.
Number of title by genre. Top websites in Vietnam. Reason influencing the consumption of energy drink. Criteria for choosing/buying soft or energy drink.
Profile of heavy energy drink. Profile of light energy drink. Campaign flow strategy. 51 v LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1.
Category Spends by year. Share of Spending by brand in energy and soft drink. Total industry spend by medium. Last listened to radio by city.
Total number of dot.vn domain names in Vietnam (‘000). Age groups of respondents. Profile – Education of respondents. Drinking energy drink.
How often do you buy/drink energy drink. Brand of Energy Drink awareness. Advertising elements help in making purchase decision. Media spend by brand.
Rationale of the project Nowadays, Vietnam has become a very attractive market for both international and domestic players. Demand for soft drinks or energy drink in Vietnam is very high and the current production still cannot satisfy demand. It is expected that in next period, the market of soft drink or energy drink in Vietnam will continue to maintain its strong growth. Category Spends by year Source: Kantar Vietnam (TNS) According to the above graph, the energy and soft drink grew year by year, especially in 2009.
The growth is 94% (from $ 8,218,000 in 2008 to $ 15,926,000 in 2009). In this year, the market beverage industry growth in Vietnam became more competitive in terms of the number of players entering or competing for market share. Both old and new brands need a lot of marketing supports as well as communication strategies in order to make them stand out from competitors. The 1 spending in energy drink has been growing up.
There are two multinational giants which are the leading soft drink or energy drink producers in Vietnam: Coca-Cola Beverage Vietnam and PepsiCo Inc. Along with the international leaders (Sting, Samurai, Red-bull, Lipovitan, Coke, Pepsi, etc), several local brands are working hard to capture a market composed of youngsters. From 2007 to 2009, the Number 1 Energy Drink of Tan Hiep Phat Group has been dominating spending versus Sting, Samurai and the carbonated soft drink players like Coke and Pepsi. Share of Spending by brand in energy and soft drink Source: Kantar Vietnam (TNS) Within the Number 1 Energy Drink portfolio (Number 1 Regular, Number Chino, Number 1 Strawberry), communication activities for Number 1 Strawberry is still very low since its launch while Sting Strawberry is clearly the hero brand within its portfolio (Sting Gold, Sting Sport, Sting Strawberry, Sting Kiwi lemon, and Sting ginseng).
Therefore, there are many opportunities for Number 1 Strawberry to dominate in Southern markets through high mass media awareness focusing on the core strawberry drinker base. 2 Under existing circumstances, there is a need to build up Number 1 Strawberry as a strong brand and create brand relevance for the consumer by a 360 degree communication plan. This project topic was designed to achieve the aim of understanding for energy drink consumption as well as the consumer’s recognition of Number 1 Strawberry brand among others in energy drink industry and then develop an effective communication strategy. Problem statement Number 1 Strawberry is one of variants of Energy Drink portfolio of Tan Hiep Phat Group, beside Number 1 Regular and Number 1 Chino.
However, it has not contributed much on volume sales of total energy drink category. Moreover, since its first launch at the end of 2006, there are not many communication activities to support the brand while strawberry is considered as the new fashionable and potential flavor for volume share and the demand for energy drink in Vietnam is still high. Besides, brand awareness reflects the presence of the brand in consumer’s mind. Number 1 Strawberry has a low awareness compared to its Sting Strawberry direct competitor.
According to the Tan Hiep Phat Group’s data, the brand awareness of Number 1 Strawberry is 8% and top of mind index is 2. It means that target consumers of Number 1 Strawberry are not aware of its benefits. Therefore, Number 1 Strawberry needs a new communication strategy to re-new its image and attack in Sting users and carbonated soft drink as well. Project objectives Although Number 1 Strawberry has been launched for a long time (since 2006), its awareness is not good because of poor marketing activities.
Therefore, the objective of the project is to create the awareness of Number 1 Strawberry amongst its target audience through building an integrated marketing communication plan, 360 degree communication plan, for Number 1 Strawberry that fits to the business and marketing objectives of Tan Hiep Phat Group. Methodology The data used for the analysis includes the secondary data and the primary data. The primary data was conducted with qualitative research together with quantitative research. Qualitative method In this research, the focus group was used to explore consumers’ ideas, feeling about energy drink in general and Number 1 Strawberry brand in particular.
The focus group was consisted of 14 young people from 15-20 years of age in Ho Chi Minh city. They are young, dynamic, and often drinker of soft drink or energy drink with their friends. Quantitative method After the focus group discussion, a questionnaire was designed to find out and measure the habit in communication as well as the media channel of target audience. The survey was rolled out with a sample size of 150 respondents in urban district of Ho Chi Minh city.
Data source The secondary data was collected from some reports of Kantar Vietnam (the new brand name of TNS Media), magazines, journals, articles and internet (Wikipedia, Youtube, etc. Secondary data can be namely as overall information of the soft drink and energy drink industry and market share. Scope and limitation This paper focuses mainly on media strategy. In the broad sense, media means marketing communication tools like advertising, publicity, personal selling, sales promotion.
In the narrow sense, media means the individual vehicles within the types, e., television, print, radio, and interactive. Due to time constrain, the project 4 explored the communication strategy for Number 1 Strawberry Energy Drink, basing on these mass media tools (television, print, radio and interactive). Concerning the methodology research, there is some limitation. The most important limitation of research is that the findings cannot be directly generalized to the larger population being studied or for whom a communication plan is being designed.
Moreover, due to time and cost constraint, the data and focus group was rolled out in urban districts of Ho Chi Minh city. Structure of the project The project is organized as following: - Chapter 1 introduces the project. This chapter includes the rationale of the project, problem statement, project objectives, scope and limitation, data sources, and structure of the project. - Chapter 2 consists of a comprehensive literature review of some basic concepts of marketing communication, steps in developing effective communication, integrated marketing communication and media trend.
Basing on the literature review, this chapter develops communication plan model. - Chapter 3 gives an overview of Number 1 Strawberry and analyses data, current situation and key findings. - Chapter 4 identifies communication strategy and develops a suitable communication plan for Number 1 Strawberry. LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter introduces the general theory foundation about marketing communications and steps in developing effective communications.
The role of Marketing Communications Kotler (2003) states that marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remind consumers – directly or indirectly – about the products and brands that they sell. In a sense, marketing communications represent the “voice” of the brand and are a means by which it can establish a dialogue and build relationships with consumers. Keller (2001) points out that marketing communications represent the voice of a brand and the means by which companies can establish a dialogue with consumers concerning their product offerings. That is, marketing communication may provide the means for developing strong, customer-based brand equity (Keller 2003).
Furthermore, marketing communications help the firm in eliciting favorable responses from customers (Duncan 1998). Marketing communications allow companies to link their brands to other people, places, events, brands, experiences, feelings, and things. Marketing communications can contribute to brand equity by establishing the brand in memory and crafting a brand image. In addition, Keller (2003) notes that the firm's marketing communications contribute to brand equity.
That is, effective communication enables the formations of brand awareness and a positive brand image. In turn, these forms trigger the differentiated responses that constitute brand equity. Following Schultz (2004), marketing communication strategy is defined as a set of processes that include the planning, development, execution, and evaluation of coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand communications programs over time with consumers, customers, prospects, employees, associates, and other targeted, 6 relevant external and internal audiences. Therefore, effective communication plan is an integral part of an effective brand equity strategy.
Integrating Marketing Communications to Build Brand Equity Advertising Brand Sales awareness promotion Brand Events & image experience Marketing Brand Communications Equity Program Brand Public relations responses & publicity Brand Personal relationships selling Direct marketing Source: Kotler, Philip (2003), Marketing Management, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. shows marketing communications activities contribute to brand equity in many ways: by creating awareness of the brand; linking the right associations to the brand image in consumers’ memory; eliciting positive brand judgments or feelings; and/or facilitating a stronger consumer – brand connection. In other words, marketing communication can build brand equity and drive brand sales.