OFF CAMPUS DIVISION THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLTON Course level: BSc Business Management Module title: Dissertation Module code: BAM6001 Level HE6 Credits 40 Assignment title: A study on the pros and cons of direct marketing at Amazing Group Date issued Date due in Extension date agreed Actual submission date 23 Dec 2022 01 May 2023 01 May 2023 Interim mark awarded (This mark is subject to internal and external moderation) General Comments: (brief comments on the performance) (Detailed comments will be provided on the feedback sheets) For Student Use: Student Number: 2124775 IMPORTANT: 1. All completed assignments must be accompanied by this front cover sheet when submitted 2. Students are required to submit their work through TurnitUK via moodle to ensure the originality of their work. All references must be fully cited in Harvard notation.
Plagiarism in any form will result in severe penalties. Extension request form (up to 14 calendar days only) available from the BUHCMC Centre office. Requests for extensions for periods longer than 14 calendar days must be made using the University‘s Mitigating Circumstances Regulations and Procedures. Students who fail to submit assessments by the specified date will be subject to the following penalties: ● Up to 7 calendar days late = 10 marks subtracted but if the assignment would normally gain a pass mark, then the final mark to be no lower than the pass mark for the assignment.
● More than 7 calendar days late = will be counted as non-submission and no marks will be recorded. Declaration By submitting this assignment to the TurnitinUK you are confirming that you have read the University policy on plagiarism and that the work presented here is your own, and you acknowledge that the University uses plagiarism detection software. Student Signature PHAM NGUYEN MY NGOC Date 01 May 2023 DISSERTATION A STUDY OF THE PROS AND CONS OF DIRECT MARKETING AT AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION: AMAZING GROUP JOINT STOCK COMPANY IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM Assignment number: One Weight: 75% Assignment length: 10749 words Student name: Pham Nguyen My Ngoc Email: pnn2ocd@bolto.uk Student ID: 2124775 Module Tutor: Dr. David Ratcliffe Supervisor: Dr.
Anupam Mazumdar Date of submission 1st MAY, 2023 A STUDY OF THE PROS AND CONS OF DIRECT MARKETING AT AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION: AMAZING GROUP JOINT STOCK COMPANY IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM Table of Contents Declaration .11 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 The role of marketing .2 The role of direct marketing .4 The decision components of direct marketing executions .5 The advantages of direct marketing .6 The disadvantages of direct marketing .7 Educational organizations in Vietnam .8 Conclusion for chapter 2.2 Adopted Research Philosophy .3 Adopted Research Paradigm .3 Adopted Research Approach.4 Adopted Research Methods .5 Adopted Research Strategy .6 Data Collection Instruments Applied to this study .7 Sampling and Sampling Techniques .8 Data Analysis Techniques .10 Summary of Chapter 3. 36 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .2 Characteristics of the participants .3 Application of Thematic Analysis .4 Data Analysis and Discussion .5 Summary of Chapter 4 .2 Summary of results .5 Conclusion of Chapter 5. 60 Appendix 1: Amazing Glocal Camp. 60 Appendix 2: Interview Questions.
62 Appendix 3: Interview Transcriptions. 63 Appendix 4: The Table Application of Thematic Analysis Table. 79 Table Table 1: Characteristics of Participants 39 Figures Figure 1: Importance of the List in Generating Response (Roberts and Berger, 1989) 22 Figure 2: The research Onion Framework (Saunders, Thornhill and Lewis, 2009) 28 Figure 3: The basic sampling techniques (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2012) Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 4: The organizational chart of Amazing Group 39 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am happy and would like to express my gratitude to Dr.
Anupam Mazumdar, who has supervised me during my period of dissertation. Throughout this research, he has been extremely supportive in directing me to my own research path and hinting at some initiatives to generate ideas for performing the study. I would also prefer to say ―thank you‖ to the University of Bolton and the International Training Institute of the University of Banking in Ho Chi Minh City for their assistance. David Ratcliffe, in particular, for his help with overview knowledge in my dissertation, and Dr.
Huong Dien Pham, who has served as my faculty adviser in the university lecture hall for four years. I'm also grateful for the support from Amazing Group's employees in cooperating with me to participate in the interviews on the pros and cons of Amazing Group's direct marketing. Thanks especially to Miss Hao Nguyen who is the Chief Marketing Officer and Marketing Department‘s staffs for the assistance with related documents of Amazing and their participationsin the interviews. Above all, I am grateful to my family in Vietnam.
Recognizing the value of education, my parents have been supportive and have done whatever they could aid in my academic and personal growth.They are responsible for whatever success I have in my life. Any success in my life belongs to them. Moral support from my sisters, brother, and friends is also very important to me. Thank you so much to everyone.
ABSTRACT Recognizing that direct marketing is critical in developing solid relationships with clients in order to promote new products/services and accomplish sales in the meanwhile. The author of this university student thesis conducted an empirical research of the benefits and drawbacks of direct marketing at Amazing Group, a Vietnamese educational institution. This research has three main parts: the first is a review of the literature on direct marketing; the second is a survey of the advantages and downsides of direct marketing done at Amazing Group by conducting semi-structured interviews with people who are familiar with marketing in the firm; and the final part is to propose recommendations for strengthening direct marketing methods based on observations and discussions from interviews. Key words: advantages, disadvantages, direct marketing, Amazing Group, educational institutions CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 An overview of Amazing Group Joint Stock Company Education is one of the quickest-expanding sectors in emerging countries such as Vietnam and there are more opportunities to collaborate with foreign educational institutions.
Amazing Group Joint Stock Company specializing in education - is an English and skills training organization established in 2015 with the mission of preparing Vietnamese students to be global citizens with identities. At Amazing Group, they uphold the spirit of "Think global, act for the locals" (Amazing Group, 2015). Therefore, the organization wishes to encourage, train and upgrade Vietnamese students to become "Global Citizens". These are individuals who have a global component in their thinking, perception, knowledge, and capacity, as well as a local component in their identity, comprehension, and positive action.
According to the Amazing Group‘s official website, Amazing School, Amazing Me, and Amazing Home are the three training branches of Amazing Group. Each training branch is responsible for the following items, all of which aim to aid in the preparation of a global citizen's identity needs: - English, as an international language, is essential for achieving international integration trained by Amazing School. - Skills are the building blocks for integrating, adapting, and positioning yourself in society which is trained by Amazing Me. - English practice environment and skills are to transform what has been learned and practiced into a strong foundation of life, habits, and values training by Amazing Home.
Regarding the marketing strategies of Amazing Group, they theoretically analyze the market products equivalent to their products using SWOT and 7Ps analysis. A more concrete example of the summer camp program "Glocal Camp Amazing USA " - is one of the programs created at Amazing Group in February 2023 (in Appendix 1), which will be held at the end of June this year. Marketers use SWOT in conjunction with the 7Ps to understand the current state of the market. related summer camp programs of partners in the education market in Vietnam.
At the same time, marketers at Amazing Group created a comparison table to compare Amazing Group's summer camp program with other summer camps on the market. In particular, differences in process, target audience, or price differences between summer camp programs are prime examples. Through this, marketers can identify existing and potential problems about this summer camp program of Amazing Group to make reasonable suggestions, and improve and highlight strengths and differences of the program at Amazing Group. In order for information about the summer camp program to reach customers and partners, direct marketing is used by them through forms such as email marketing and telemarketing.2 An overview of Direct Marketing Direct Marketing, according to Karaxha, Tolaj, and Abazi (2016), is crucial for creating solid relationships with clients in order to present new products and services while also generating revenue.
In 1961, the concept of the term "direct marketing" was coined by an American pioneer whose name Lester Wunderman. Besides, Derek Holder had a vision in 1982 when direct marketing was still the domain of consumer mail-order businesses and three or four specialized agencies (Housden and Thomas, 2012). He was among the first to identify direct marketing as a crucial stand-alone discipline, and as a result, he pioneered the Diploma in Direct Marketing, which led to the development of the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM), which has helped over 100,000 marketers improve their skills. Direct Marketing solves the problem of general marketing that it can create a dialogue with smaller groups of customers and address individual needs.
The Direct Marketing Association's most generally accepted meaning of direct marketing is an interactive marketing system in which one or more advertising media are used to elicit a quantifiable reaction or transaction at any place (Storholm and Friedman, 1989). In 1992, Bauer and Miglautsch's research indicated some problems with the prevailing definition and they redefine direct marketing as a relational marketing method incorporating information feedback and control at the personal level through direct response advertising with tracking codes. Direct marketing uses a number of approaches, such as e-mails, phone calls, fairs, and festivals, to engage directly with clients while being relatively flexible and offering fast responses.3 Direct marketing in Amazing Group Due to the emergence of consumers' need for more personalized and separate services for each target customer which demands modern methods of Product Marketing should be applied (Matviiets and Kipen, 2021). As a result, employing direct marketing, which has new ways of individual sales, plays a specific part in the growth of marketing operations of the Amazing Group company.
The transition from mass to personalized involves significant changes in modern business, according to Matviiets and Kipen (2021), particularly in the company's style of communication with its customers via email. Realizing that direct marketing is more than just the sale of goods or services; it is also a powerful tool for communicating with potential customers, which aids in the development of long-term personal relationships with the company. It is the pivotal motivation for doing research on the pros and cons of direct marketing at Amazing Group.4 Problem Statement A trend of marketing-related studies has revealed in recent years that direct marketing is not without flaws, despite rapid direct - marketers and sales growth. According to one survey, the selling of damaged items is fairly widespread (Storholm and Friedman, 1989).
According to another one, a large number of customers regard direct marketing solicitations to be a nuisance or a violation of privacy (Krafft, Arden, and Verhoef, 2017). Furthermore, increased industry firm competition has resulted in a flood of direct marketing solicitations to consumers (Schwadel, 1988). Additionally, there have been numerous research regarding direct marketing methods or direct marketing performance, but there have been few studies in Vietnam that address the advantages and drawbacks dimensions of direct marketing at educational institutions.