Marketing strategy for Asia food ingredient company in launching non-dairy creamer 20112015

i

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP.HCM UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY SOLWAYS BRUSSELS SCHOOL

MBAVB3

PHAN BẢO THỦY TRÂN

MARKETING STRATEGY FOR ASIA FOOD

INGREDIENT COMPANY IN LAUNCHING

NON-DAIRY CREAMER

2011-2015

MASTER PROJECT

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

HO CHI MINH CITY

2010

iii

COMMITMENT

I’d like to confirm for my thesis and the content was written by myself with information

studied and obtained from reliable sources. I undertake this is my own research project, all

information, data and survey results are true and never announce in any other research

projects.

HoChiMinh City, 11 December 2010

Phan Bao Thuy Tran

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the support and guidance from my tutor,

Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang. I appreciate her dedicated guidance and encouragement to

fulfill this final project. Without her, my project would not have been completed.

My grateful acknowledge is extending to Professors from the Solvay Business School and

Open University of HCMC for all support throughout the whole program. Thanks to Dr.

Tran Anh Tuan, Mrs Bui Phan Bao Tran, Co-director and Co-ordinator of Vietnam￾Belgium program for organizing the program. My thanks are also to Mr. Serge Bywaski,

the enthusiastic co-ordinator, who has been together with us throughout the MBAVB3

course.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Mr Nguyen Thien Truc, General Director of

Asia Food Ingredient, for his advices for my thesis. I also would like to extend my

gratitude to colleagues, Mr Huynh Thanh Lam – Sales Manager in ACC Joint Stock

Company, Ms Dang Ngoc Thuy – Sales Executive in ACC, Mr Le Nguyen Doan Khoi, Mr

Le Duy and many customer of different companies who have spent time answering the

questionnaires to understand the food market.

Last but not least, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my friends in Group 1, my

family for supporting me during past 2 years of the course. Also, my honest gratitude is

conveyed to my best classmate Le Phong Dinh for his encouragement to me and invaluable

assistance in whole process of final project.

v

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AFI is a new start up factory in Vietnam as the pioneer in NDC production, was given

business license in 2008 and located at My Phuoc industrial park in Binh Duong Province.

The company is the joint-venture of ACC and Vinamilk, the first NDC producer in

Vietnam to invest modern technologies from Europe.

Giving the fact that there are huge opportunities in Vietnam for NDC products especially

in instant coffee segmentation, it is the right time for AFI to make an investment in

building the factory to meet the local market demand on NDC which is imported from

oversea so far. As the pioneer in NDC, it is always difficult to penetrate into the market to

build up the brand name and can gain market share from existing imported NDC

competitors. The thesis then goes deeply into analyzing the internal and external

environment of the company to find the best marketing strategies for the company.

The thesis conducts an external environment assessment to figure out the opportunities and

threats. Following the external assessment, an internal environment analysis is conducted

to illustrate the strengths and weakness of the company. The 4Ps strategy is chosen to build

up marketing strategies for AFI based on the assessment of the company‘s SWOT.

Making the thesis more realistic and result-oriented, a customer survey and a depth

interview of top management, salesperson in AFI and ACC have been conducted. The

results of the surveys and information collected are consolidated and refer to the company

SWOT’s analysis to figure out 4Ps strategies and some recommendations have been

suggested to build up marketing strategies for the company.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENT

COMMITMENT........................................................................................................................ i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... iv

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... v

TABLE OF CONTENT........................................................................................................... vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. ix

LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................. x

LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................... xi

INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1

RATIONALE OF THE PROJECT......................................................................................... 1

PROBLEM STATEMENT...................................................................................................... 2

PROJECT OBJECTIVE.......................................................................................................... 2

PROJECT QUESTION............................................................................................................ 2

SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF PROJECT......................................................................... 3

SIGNIFICANT OF THE PROJECT...................................................................................... 3

STUDY METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................... 3

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................................ 3

SAMPLING............................................................................................................................... 4

STRUCTURE OF THE PROJECT........................................................................................ 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 6

1.1 Marketing definition ...................................................................................................6

1.2 Role and function of marketing .................................................................................6

1.3 Target consumer, market segmentation and positioning ........................................7

1.4 Customer buying behavior .........................................................................................8

1.5 Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................10

1.6 SWOT analysis..........................................................................................................11

1.7 External environment analysis.................................................................................11

1.8 Internal environment analysis .................................................................................11

1.9 Strategy Formulation................................................................................................12

CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS OF AFI’S EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ............................ 13

2.1. Introduction of Non-dairy creamer (NDC).............................................................13

vii

2.1.1 Non-dairy creamer definition.................................................................................13

2.1.2 Non-dairy creamer characteristic and its component ............................................13

2.1.3 Non-dairy creamer’s benefits and applications .....................................................14

2.2. Macro environment analysis....................................................................................15

2.2.1 Economic factors ...................................................................................................15

2.2.2 Demographic and income ......................................................................................16

2.2.3 Social-cultural........................................................................................................16

2.2.4 Food industry overview .........................................................................................17

2.2.5 Beverage and drinking overview...........................................................................17

2.2.6 Coffee outlook .......................................................................................................18

2.2.7 SWOT analysis of beverage industry in Vietnam .................................................18

2.3. Micro environment analysis.....................................................................................20

2.3.1 Non-dairy creamer market overview in Vietnam ..................................................20

2.3.2 Competitors analysis..............................................................................................21

2.3.3 Customer analysis..................................................................................................25

2.3.4 Buying behavior.....................................................................................................27

2.3.5 Supplier analysis....................................................................................................28

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF AFI’S INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ............................. 29

3.1. Introduction of AFI...................................................................................................29

3.1.1 AFI history.............................................................................................................29

3.1.2 Stakeholder analysis ..............................................................................................29

3.1.3 Organization structure............................................................................................29

3.1.4 Vision & Mission...................................................................................................31

3.1.5 Competitive advantages.........................................................................................31

3.1.6 Technology ............................................................................................................32

3.1.7 SWOT analysis......................................................................................................33

CHAPTER 4: MARKETING S TRATEGY FOR AFI’S NDC PRODUCT..................... 36

4.1 Company Goal...........................................................................................................36

4.2 Marketing objectives.................................................................................................36

4.2.1 Break-even point....................................................................................................36

4.2.2 Short-term..............................................................................................................36

4.2.3 Long-term ..............................................................................................................36

viii

4.3 Marketing strategy formulation ..............................................................................37

4.3.1 Cost leadership.......................................................................................................37

4.3.2 Brand strategy........................................................................................................38

4.3.3 Market segment......................................................................................................38

4.3.4 Target market strategy ...........................................................................................39

4.3.5 Positioning strategy................................................................................................39

4.4 Marketing program ..................................................................................................40

4.4.1 Product strategy .....................................................................................................40

4.4.2 Price strategy..........................................................................................................40

4.4.3 Distribution strategy ..............................................................................................42

4.4.4 Promotion strategy.................................................................................................43

4.5 Budget and Implementation plan ............................................................................46

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................ 49

APPENDIX.............................................................................................................................. 50