VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY DANG VINH HIEN A MARKETING PLAN FOR LA MER PRODUCTS THROUGH THE CORPORATE SALES CHANNEL Major: Business Administration Major code: 8340101 MASTER’S THESIS HO CHI MINH CITY, January 2024 THIS THESIS IS COMPLETED AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY – VNU-HCM Supervisor: Dr. Pham Ngoc Tram Anh Examiner 1: Dr. Phan Trieu Anh Examiner 2: Dr. Do Khac Xuan Diem This master’s thesis is defended at HCM City University of Technology, VNU- HCM City on 29th January 2024.
Master’s Thesis Committee: 1. Chủ tịch: Dr. Nguyen Vu Quang 2. Le Thi Thanh Xuan 3.
Phản biện 1: Dr. Phan Trieu Anh 4. Phản biện 2: Dr. Do Khac Xuan Diem 5.
Ủy viên: Dr. Pham Ngoc Tram Anh Approval of the Chair of Master’s Thesis Committee and Dean of Faculty of Industrial Management after the thesis being corrected (If any). CHAIR OF THESIS COMMITTEE DEAN OF FACULTY OF INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Independence – Freedom - Happiness THE TASK SHEET OF MASTER’S THESIS Full name: DANG VINH HIEN Student ID: 2171065 Date of birth: 18/01/1998 Place of birth: HCM Major: Business Administration Major ID: 8340101 I. THESIS TITLE (In Vietnamese): KẾ HOẠCH TIẾP THỊ CHO DÒNG SẢN PHẨM LA MER THÔNG QUA KÊNH PHÂN PHỐI CHO DOANH NGHIỆP II.
THESIS TITLE (In English): A MARKETING PLAN FOR LA MER PRODUCTS THROUGH THE CORPORATE SALES CHANNEL. TASKS AND CONTENTS: In this thesis, tasks include: Theoretical foundation for building marketing plan. Current situation of Estee Lauder Companies Vietnam and overview of Vietnam prestige cosmetic market based on internal data. Targets and Goals for La Mer through corporate sales channel.
Application 4Ps in building marketing plan for La Mer through corporate sales channel. Execution plan, tracking performance and risk management. THESIS START DAY: 09/04/2023 V. THESIS COMPLETION DAY: 12/20/2023 VI.
Pham Ngoc Tram Anh Ho Chi Minh City, date 03/06/2024 SUPERVISOR HEAD OF DEPARTMENT (Full name and signature) (Full name and signature) DEAN OF FACULTY OF INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT (Full name and signature) i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to send my sincerest and deepest thanks to Dr. Pham Ngoc Tram Anh - who has always enthusiastically advised and guided me throughout thesis implementation process. My instructor gave extremely useful comments and suggestions that helped my essay become more and more perfect. Sincere thanks to our colleagues at Estee Lauder Companies who are always ready to help support as well as contribute ideas and create the most favorable conditions for me while I am doing thesis.
Sincerely thank the Teachers and Faculty of Industrial Management for their dedicated guidance and imparted extremely valuable knowledge to me throughout the course. Sincerely thank you K2021 - those who have always been by my side helping, sharing useful information and knowledge to me and encouraging me during my study process. Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents who created the conditions that allowed me to participate and complete the course and helped me make the progress I have today. Ho Chi Minh City, December 2023 Dang Vinh Hien ii ABSTRACT Prestige or luxury cosmetic industry is growing very quickly in Vietnam as people's living standards and consumption levels are improving.
Estee Lauder Companies is a corporation that owns many famous cosmetic brands such as Estee Lauder, Clinique, M.C, Bobbi Brown etc. Among the currently owned brands, La Mer is the most high-end cosmetics brand and will be launched in Vietnam in early 2024. This is the second time La Mer products are officially distributed in Vietnam and with experience from the first failure, the company has proposed specific strategies to build up La Mer to become the No. 1 skincare brand in the high-end cosmetics market in Vietnam within the next 2 years.
Corporate sales is one of the three main distribution channels of Estee Lauder Companies Vietnam and the channel lead will build a complete marketing plan based on Alexander Chernev's theory of The Organization of the Marketing Plan and includes the following parts: 1. G-STIC Action Plan: Situation summary, Goal, Tactics, Implementation and Control 3. Exhibits Based on the data provided by internal teams or stakeholders as well as market data available on online information portals, channel lead will build a complete marketing plan for the next 2 years. The marketing plan will be implemented based on a detailed action plan and monitored by tools to ensure the process is still on-track.
In addition, to be able to prepare well for difficulties that may be encountered, the channel lead will also analyze risk assessments and provide solutions for them. iii THE COMMITMENT OF THE THESIS’ AUTHOR I declare that this is my research work. The data and research results in this thesis are truthful and have never been used to defend any academic degree. I hereby declare that all help in carrying out this thesis has been gratefully received and that all information in this thesis has been clearly cited.
Ho Chi Minh City, December 2023 Dang Vinh Hien iv Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of thesis .2 Objective of thesis.3 Scope of thesis .4 Significance of thesis .5 Structure of thesis. 4 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF A MARKETING PLAN .1 Definition of marketing .2 Function of marketing .2 How to build a marketing plan.3 The G-STIC approach to action planning. 20 CHAPTER 3: COMPANY OVERVIEW .1 Overview of ELCVN .2 Cosmetics industry in Vietnam .4 Current business situation. 27 CHAPTER 4: A MARKETING PLAN FOR LA MER PRODUCTS THROUGH CORPORATE SALES CHANNEL .3 G-STIC action plan.
77 CHAPTER 5: RISK ASSESSMENT. 94 vi Table of figures Figure 2. The Organization of the Marketing Plan. Source: adapted from Alexander Chernev, The Marketing Plan Handbook, 6th ed.
The G-STIC Action-Planning Flowchart Source: adapted from Alexander Chernev, Strategic Marketing Management: Theory and Practice (Chicago, IL: Cerebellum Press, 2019). Source: adapted from Boston Consulting Group (2023). Organizational chart of ELCVN. The market share of ELCVN from FY20 Q3 (January 2020) to FY23 Q3 (March 2023).
Contribution of each category for ELCVN market share from FY20 Q3 (January 2020) to FY23 Q3 (March 2023). Brand portfolio of ELC in 2022. Source: THE ESTÉE LAUDER COMPANIES FISCAL 2023 FORM 10-K. Work stream of organizing partnership with new corporate partner.
Work stream of sourcing vendor for workshop. 79 vii Table of Tables Table 4. Goals of Corporate Sales channel for La Mer in FY24 .3 Selling price of La Mer products in Vietnam. Approval levels for discount levels for La Mer.
Discount level for each partner for La Mer. Target of finding new partners for La Mer. Marketing calendar for La Mer in FY24. Marketing calendar for La Mer in FY25.
Targets for marketing campaigns for La Mer in FY24. Communication guideline of corporate sales channel. Corporate partner evaluation form. Process of organizing partnership with a new corporate partner.
Vendor sourcing criteria. Process of sourcing vendor for workshop. P&L simulation for a workshop at a luxury venue for 4 days. Risk assessment of corporate sales activities for La Mer.
85 viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of thesis In recent years, the cosmetics market has become much more vibrant with many famous brands coming from abroad. Not only that, the "made in Vietnam" brands have also made significant changes to "tear apart the cake" of this lucrative market. Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, while most other businesses have difficulty, cosmetics companies have made remarkable developments. As customers spend more time at home, they begin to care for and learn about how to take care of their skin (VTV, 2021).
Therefore, the sales of the total cosmetics industry in Vietnam increased significantly. While small and medium-sized companies are competing fiercely in the mid-range and low-range market segments, in the prestige beauty segment, famous foreign companies are dominating the market like Estée Lauder Companies Inc. According to a report from Beauté Research, a leading provider of prestige beauty market data in Asia, ELC is the third highest-grossing cosmetics group with $17.7 billion in annual sales in 2022, behind Unilever ($25 billion) and L'Oréal ($37 billion). Following ELC are two other large corporations, Procter & Gamble ($14.4 billion) and Shiseido ($9 billion).
Competitors always try to launch new product lines with outstanding features. At the same time, they also expand the distribution of products through different channels such as distribution through retailers (Takashimaya, Cresent, Lotte, etc.), distribution through retail chains (Hasaki, Guardian, Watsons, etc.), distribution through e-commerce channels (Lazada, Shopee, TikTok Shop, etc.), distribution through flagship stores or distribution through corporate sales channel. 1 Corporate sales channel is a distribution channel that, although not new, ELC has not yet paid attention to. The feature of this distribution channel is that it aims directly at the target audience who are employees of other corporations, communicating commercial information through the partners' internal departments such as human resources department, employee engagement department or marketing department.
One of the corporations that has successfully used this distribution channel is Samsung Electronics Co. when sales from this distribution channel account for about 14 - 17% of this business's revenue for 5 years1. Realizing that the demand for prestige cosmetics by corporate employees is great, ELC decided to join the corporate sales distribution channel. By September 2021, ELCVN started to build a corporate sales channel, starting with the website "The Company Store" (shop.
The product portfolio at the time consisted mainly of several hero products from Estee Lauder, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, MAC and Jo Malone London. By the end of 2023, ELCVN will officially distribute La Mer products, a high-end cosmetic brand trusted by many customers around the world. La Mer products will be distributed through all distribution channels in Vietnam, including the corporate sales channel. In the kickoff meeting at the end of 2022, the country manager of ELCVN, Ms.
Tran Diep Lam Giang, set out strategies and goals for each department and distribution channel in 2023. For corporate sales, there are 2 strategies, and 3 main targets need to be implemented in 2023. Regarding the strategy for the corporate sales distribution channel, Ms. Giang emphasized two things.
Firstly, corporate sales channel must approach customers in tier 2 cities with dense population and strong economic development such as Can Tho, Binh Duong, Dong Nai etc. through pop-up events or clearance sales parties. Next, the corporate sales channel must make La 1 Based on internal research, “Corporate Sales Channel Research, updated to 2022, EDM team” 2 Mer products become more popular through continuous branding through activities such as giving out samples, free gifts or organizing minigames. The 3 targets that the corporate sales distribution channel needs to achieve include: (1) Net profit is within 15% of sales, (2) Revenue contribution is 15% of total company revenue and (3) Market share of La Mer is 39% and become top 1 in skincare category.
Against the aforementioned backdrop, this thesis aims to develop "A marketing plan for La Mer products through the corporate sales channel" to achieve those targets.2 Objective of thesis In order to develop a marketing plan for La Mer products through the corporate sales channel, the thesis seeks to address 3 main objectives. The first is to consolidate the relevant marketing knowledge as a foundation to build a marketing plan for the business. Second, this thesis helps to assess the competition landscape of the prestigious cosmetics industry. Third, from the knowledge of marketing and research results of La Mer brand team, this thesis proposes a complete marketing plan for La Mer products through the corporate sales distribution channel.3 Scope of thesis With the ambition to build La Mer into the No.