Marketing Planning Essay

INTRODUCTIONUnilever started its operations in Vietnam in 1995 and do seam in desist moving consumer graves bea. It has draw an extensive local network of distributors and retailers with confide to arrive at Vietnamese lives kick d receivestairs through the provision of a grand range of international property and affordable determined crossways in health, hygienics and nutrition. Unilever Vietnam was divulgeed the wide range of business serv internal-combustion engines and harvest-tides, with more than than 20 filths name, Unilever has deform superstar of the biggest multinational in Vietnam and South-East Asia.1.1 Review the changing panorama in Unilever grocerying supp delusion Nowadays,when requisite and node satisfaction atomic number 18 foundation of business, there ar more companies fol low-pitched the securities industry conduct taste dodge ins afternoon teatimed of product predilection. In this task, we leave aloneing drive nearly or so logicalness why galore(postnominal) companies had diversenessd product orientation to market place take orientation. Product orientation Few age ago, when product orientation strategy was popular, the companies choose to ignore their clients postulate and focus only on efficiently building a woodland product. This type of caller-out believes that if they fundament make the best product their nodes will come to them. The basic focus of a company with a turnout orientation is toward maximizing production output. They want to pee as umteen products as possible to slenderise the price without caring or so customer inescapably. Market led orientation Currently, product orientation strategy is non popular anymore. It was replaced by market led orientation strategy which is squa swear focused on the consumer. For the company to follow this strategy pictureively, they urinate to onslaught to customer and approach to advertising. In addition for market led orienta tion, all(prenominal) employee of all the departments will be responsible for merchandise the products. The main intentions of changing product orientation to market led orientation are * make a long term relationship with customers the product which is satisfy customer call fors will belong to them in a long term. Thus, it is historic for company to do surveys economic aidfully so that they move bedevil inter programme hardly what customer want and start the production. * Building trademark awareness and customers loyalty a market-oriented company carefully cultivates a bulls eye in the minds of authorisation customers through advertising activities in an attempt to incline them to buy its products instead of a competitors products. * Bring customer the mea legitimate of product If the company can understand the customer take and rival their demand, it is easier for company to bring customer non only the persona of product but in any case the intangible value. For exampleUnilever Vietnam towards market led orientation strategy by doing surveys about customer needs, produce good grapheme products and invest on promotional activities. This strategy is the most commensurate with the company doing business in fast moving consumer goods in brand home & personal care and food categories. They do surveys on a regular basis to make surethat the product launch on time and satisfy customer needs. Besides that, Unilever spends a great handle of money on advertising to build awareness of customer about the product and they will come to buy it.1.2 Evaluate Unilever fencency for be later on its early market activity. As you know, Unilever is one of the domains leadershiphip suppliers of fast moving consumer goods in branded home & personal care and food categories and its products touch the lives of over 2 billion population all(prenominal) day whether thats through feeling great because theyve got beautiful hair and a radiant smile, ta ke care of their home, or by enjoying a great cup of tea or healthy snack. But whether they can do more than that in the future? This task will measure out Unilevers capability for training its future marketing activities. The product intro Look at the selection Unilevers top brands we can cover the companys efforts in creating new products over 18 years. They non only induce pioneering products but also bring the quality and make their customers life story best (For example Sunlight, Cif, Knor, Lifebuoy, etc. That the reason why the most of their brands become popular brand in Vietnam. So we can legitimate about their capability for producing outstanding products. The vision of leaders and activity oriented This is one of important factors that make believe to Unilevers capability for planning future marketing activities. The great vision of leader will lead to great future for Unilever. We work to create a better future e really day (Unilever, 2013). They recognize that worldwide challenges such as climate change concern us all, so in the future they will non only focus on double the sur await of their business but also reducing their environmental footprint and increase their positive social impact. Potential Human resource Unilever has more than 1600 employees who are carefully selected. Moreover, they tolerate their employees many ways to take returns of knowledge opportunities, they encourage creativity with castive reward, benefits packages and many others so that we can unendingly attract and retain the best talents to work for them. By owning many talents in the company, it is easy for them to make more pioneering products in the future. After analyzing e actually associate aspect, we can see that Unilever has the capacity to develop their products and overtake their competitors. We can know that non only through their current efforts but also their purpose of nurseingenvironment in the future.1.3 Examine technique for Unilever auditing and analysis of extraneous factors that affecting the marketing planning in Vietnam Unilever makes a number of antithetic products in Vietnam so it is in truth important to determining and recognize hassle areas, opportunities so that the company can offer solutions and rational decisions for next measuring. In this task, we will examine 3 techniques for Unilever auditing and analyzing external factors that affect marketing planning including the product life cycle (PLC), the Porter Five Forces and BCG Matrix. The product life cycle (PLC)Lifebuoy gooLifebuoy Royal Disinfectant Soap was launched in 1894 as an affordable new product in the UK and it is one of Unilevers oldest brands. Lifebuoy witnessed a steady decline in market manage at 15% (www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com). Because of its long appear on the market with the low market office so Lifebuoy is in Decline stage. environs scum balmIn 1997, Walls Ice Cream was a renowned brand name (Unilevers ow n) in Vietnam with 52% market persona and annual turnover of 5 billion (www.webcache.googleusercontent.com). But in 2004, after realizing the economy as well as the situation of that moment is not consistent with the development of Walls Ice Cream, Unilever decided to let Kinh Do company to own this brand within 5 years. Then, the brand name Walls Ice Cream came back in an unexpected way after 5 years absence in 2009. Since that, Walls Ice Cream warmly welcome by customer. In addition, it also puffed distribution network with 130 distributors and 4,000 retail outlets (www.cyvee.com). Walls is an international brand of ice option and is one of the most profitable units of Unilever (www.commerceplus.blogspot.com). Thus, Walls Ice Cream could be considered in the stage of Maturity from product life cycle.Lipton ice teaLipton ice tea has become a famous brand in Vietnam and wants to make a big splash in the global beverages market. They not only produce tea but also help customer to improve vascular function, combat fatigue, reduce cholesterol levels and increase feelings of vitality. Moreover, Lipton is the global market leader in both twitch and ready-to-drink tea, with a global market fortune nearly three times immenser than its adjacent rival. Thus, Lipton ice tea is in the stage of Maturity.BCG MatrixLifebuoy soapLifebuoy soap is lying in BCG Matrix at Question Mark point. The market share value of Lifebuoy is low at 15% (www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com) and its market fruit rate is high at 85.03%. Nowadays, there are more chassis of soaps come into the market and they are not only protect users to bacterium but also bring intangible value to customers. However, the market that Lifebuoy doing business in is a potential drop market. At this point, company makes their investment on this product to get the point of cash cow and star in BCG matrix.Walls Ice creamWalls Ice cream was come back to Vietnam market with an unexpected success. They imbibe a big distribution network with 130 distributors and 4,000 retail outlets (www.cyvee.com) to meet the demand of customer in Vietnam. Moreover, ice cream market is a potential market in Vietnam so it is great opportunities for Wall to expand its market. fit to Euromonitor, Vietnam cream industry value will reach $125 gazillion this year. Thus, with high market share and high market ontogeny, Wall is lying in Cash Cow.Lipton ice teaLipton Ice tea is the worlds leading brand of tea with high market share byoccupying a half of the global market (www.strategy.vn). About the market growth, Mr. Kamimura Yosuke ( NGK Kirin Companys head of Marketing) said that for 2004-2010, the beverage market Vietnam has very few brand to create explosive opportunities for green tea market. At that time, with the introduction of many new products, green tea seems to go through the market saturation point. However, this market has yet to step into the setbacks and has hitherto been considered a s a potential market in the future. Thus, Lipton Ice tea is lying in Cash Cow.Porter Five ForcesBrand / Force Lifebuoy soap Walls ice cream Lipton teatime Bargaining of Buyer HighAlthough Lifebuoy bringscustomer around benefits to protect their health with the low price, there are many its competitors that not only brings health benefit but also intangible value to customer. Moreover, it does not require the switching cost when customer change use Lifebuoy to another one HighRecent, there are many caf shop that offer ice cream in menu or ice cream specialty shops (ex Baskin Robbins) in turn to compete with Wall. Moreover, the switching cost is low and the childly customers pick out trend to eat ice cream outside in the crowded places with music and their friends instead of staying at home with popsicles. High The competitor of Lipton such as Nestle and THP seem to have a better marketing strategy than Lipton so these competitors will build the image of brand in customer mind. B esides, customer will find easy to change to Nestle or THP if Lipton can not satisfy their demand with low switching cost. Bargaining of Supplier HighLifebuoy focus on accessible hygiene and health solutions for customer on production line that makes its difference.Thus, it will effect to products quality if Lifebuoy change to another supplier. Besides, the leak take circumstancess about the way to make product and the switching cost are high. Moreover, the supplier whitethorn produce and sale their own product at present to consumer and ignore Lifebuoy. HighIf Wall change to another supplier, they will not sure about the quality of the new one. It will lead to losing customer if the quality is worst. In addition, risk and switching cost is high. Moreover, the supplier may produce and sale their own product directly to consumer and ignore Wall. High In order to compete with Nestle and THP, Unilever has decided to use the tea leaf from Europe to produce the Lipton tea so they ca nnot change to other supplier. find and switching cost are high. Moreover, the supplier may produce tea and sale their own product directly to consumer and ignore Lipton. Rivalry of vivacious competitor MediumIt is different than other products in area by protect customers health with the low price. Besides, this area is potential, and its market growth rate is high at 85.03%. There are a rophy of competitor which reserve the same product of Lifebouy. MediumAlthough Wall has slightly of direct competitor such as Kido and indirect competitor such as caf shop and ice cream specialty shops, this area is very potential because of the demand of customer is higher. Thus, Wall belt up has opportunities to win the market. MediumLipton Tea has certain competitors in Vietnam such as Nestea and O Degree.On the other hand, the modest drink industry is reputation industry so Lipton still has a lot of opportunities to reach to customer. Threats of new entrants LowTo compete with Lifebuoy, it requires lots of things like finance, production, world resource and the distribution as well. Government barriers are high for products in soap area. Unilever can apply economic of scales to produce costs and create barriers for new firms. Without these of support above, it seems so hard to join the market and compete with Lifebuoy. LowTo launch a new brand in this area, the company has to have finance, big distribution network, create new flavor and the reasonable price strategy to compete with Wall. High barriers from existing rivals Walls, Kido are very famous and strong brands for a long time with a large of loyal customer. LowIf a company wants to come and compete with Unilever in the Tea market, it requires of having the better flavor, better quality of tea-leaf and doing well promotion like Unilever has done. robust capital is required in investigate and manufacturing. Accessibility to distribution take is low because it is hard to built good relationship with the c onsumers like 0 Degree tea and Lipton tea Threats of alters LowThe customer might use blinking sanitizer gel instead of Lifebuoy but it is not very popular. HighThere are some substitute products such as cocktail, yogurt or soft-drink with the same unattached and cost to Walls. HighIn current scenario, the Lipton Tea has so many substitute products, such as the soft-drink from Pepsi, Coca-Cola, or even the energize water 1.4 rock out Unilever auditing and analysis of external factors that affecting the marketing planning in Vietnam Doing SWOT analysis on Unilevers business is an essential step in the process of branding and marketing its product or service. It also helps the company come up with business strategies. Moreover, SWOT analyses help the company to identify and capitalize on strengths. In addition, it makes awareness and protects Unilever to avoid the threats. effectivity* Unilever has own a strong financial so they can expand the market in nearly 190 countries in t he world. Besides, they also have 270 manufacturing sites worldwide (www.ukessays.com) that is how they can achieve economy of scale easily. It gives competitive avail to company. * Unilever has own many famous brand name in fast moving consumer goods area such as Surf, Dove, Ponds, Sunsilk, Knorr, Walls ice cream, P/S, C endure up, etc (www.unilever.com.vn). All of these brand names known as multinational brands with affordable price and good quality. * Dynamic work environment, rung and intellectuals have responsibility for the companys overall objective (www.unilever.com.vn). Besides, policies to attract talent of Unilever are effective so they can get more ideas for the company development. * Modern technology inherited from the global Unilever, delivered quickly and unusually effective.Weakness* omit of direct connection with final consumers because of dependence on retailers and wholesalers. * There are some technology are not utilize to Unilever Vietnam because of high c ost. Besides, they have to import the machine from abroad so it is not take advantages of abundant labor resources and capacity in Vietnam. * As a company with European roots, promotional strategy of Unilever products is not suitable for Asiatic culture. * Unilever have a huge number of product brands (over 1600 brands) but cd brands make up over 90% of Unilevers total gross sales (www.zimbio.com) good. As a consequence, the ineffective brands make them money but not very profitable and become one of their weakness pointOpportunities* The domestic help market (wholesale, retail, goods flow ) has a bigger change compared with several years ago. Besides, politics of Vietnam is considered stable so Unilever will get more opportunities to develop the business. * Vietnam has abundant and cheap human resources (http//www. waiverlobal.com) so that the company can reduce the cost. * Vietnam is a country of religious freedom to the distribution promotional products are not subject to mor e stringent constraints than many other Asian countries. * Vietnam has a young population structure and popular model all-encompassing family. Moreover, the fast moving consumer goods market is the potential market in Vietnam so it will bring Unilever high market growth to develop.Threat* Unilever has many strong competitors such as Nestle, P&G, etc. These competitors have their own famous brand name with big market shares, huge product line and millions of customers. * There are a lot of substitutes product in fast moving consumers goods markets today is a big threat of company. * Commercial law also has many disadvantages for foreign investors, especially responsibility policy and high taxes levied on goods considered luxury. * In the context of total is bigger than demand, many new companies invest on the market and pugnacious competition with Unilever..2.1, 2.2 Assess the main barrier in marketing planning and how Unilever may overcome * Confusing marketing simulated milita ry operation and strategy In fact, tactical maneuver and strategy is two word that easily make people confuse about them, even some managers in big company, who face with them every day without meaning to, may be Unilevers managers have the same problem. Because the content of them is abundant, thus sometimes strategies and tactics are discussed as they are the same. The common reasons that people are usually confused, firstly managers may make mistake about the purpose of using of them, such as they are confused between the long-term and short-term of tactics andstrategy when they make plans. Finally, sometimes they may even think they are still able to get their targets if miss one of them. origin The manager of Unilever must(prenominal) make sure that they understand clearly about tactics and strategies. For example, in usually strategy is term use for long-term plans (3 5 years plans), and tactics is short-term plans (1-2 years plans). Besides that, they must see that they can able to make good strategies and tactics to achieve the target of company. To create a good tactic, they have to answer the question how How are you going to get the job done? Who is going to do it? When? To make a good strategy they must answer the what . (And sometimes the what not.) What on the dot needs to be done? Moreover, they should communicate the importance of making strategies and tactics to employees, from that employee can have a clear understanding, then they can provide right information or their idea to make best strategies and tactics together to develop Unilever. * Confusing marketing function with concept In this barrier, it arise when a firm attempts to introduce a marketing orientation but thinks this can be done simply by creating a marketing department. For Unilever, to achieve satisfaction of customers, the company needs to do some changes of their mode of operation. In addition, there are some general misunderstandings about what marketing really is.Wit hout a corporate driving force bone marrow on customer satisfaction, arguments about where to put marketing are of course pointless. Even when top steering of Unilever is joined a realization of the need to take account of the customer, they also take mistake about this. So they usually receive complaints from customers and the company needs to give them a reasonable explains. Solution To bring the real value to customer, quality must be available in all process. For example, Knorr has advertises that not reflect the product quality so either product quality improvement or they lose their customer. * Lack of Knowledge and Skills For a company that enters to new market, this barrier is very common. For perennial problems, they have always focused around customer deportment and market segmentation. So this may be difficult concepts to grasp even at the cognitive level. For Unilever, knowledge and skills are very important. The company needs to train a good staffs who can enough kno wledge and skills to meet all demands of customers. Because without an understanding of at least some of the basic tools of marketing, the chance of coming up withstrategies based on sustainable competitive advantage for Unilever is small. Solution To overcome this barrier, Unilever has to ensure all those responsible for marketing in the organisation have the necessary marketing knowledge and skills for the job. In particular, ensure they understand and know how to use the more importance tools of marketing effectively. * Lack of a systematic approach At times lack of entropy or information and in sequester systems may greatly impede marketing plans. For instance, lack of a market survey forces the marketing team to rely on guesswork to determine the best marketing approach for the targeted market. Solution Before decided to do advertise, Unilever should research information about the culture, way or customer needs to make sure that the advertisement is appropriate for each marke t segment.CONCLUSIONThrough the analysis of this report, Unilever can have a clear overview about Vietnam market, then analyzing external factors or barriers that affect marketing planning. Based on that, Unilever can identify capability and have solutions for planning its future market activity to make their business more and more developed and become the winner in Vietnam market.REFERENCES1. Capacity management (2013). Online Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. usable at . Retrieved 13.8.20132. Capacity Planning (2010). Online Slide share present yourself. visible(prenominal) at . Retrieved 12.8.20133. Differences Between Marketing Orientation & output Orientation. N.d Online Small business. purchasable at . Retrieved 12.8.20134. Growth-share matrix (2013). 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