DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAMOND ISLAND AND THE MARKETING ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It is a pleasure to thank all of those who gave us the possibility to complete this project First, we owe our deeply gratitude to all the professors who gave us invaluable encouragement and knowledge during two years at Solvay Brussels School and HCMC Open University Then, we would like to express our best gratitude to our tutor, Mr Serge Bywalski and Prof Alain Van Den Eynde for all their support; inspiration and encouragement as well as discerning advices, during the months it took us to complete this project We are really appreciate the great support of Ms Nguyen Thanh Thuy – Marketing Manager of Diamond Island in providing us many valuable information that help us fulfill this project with real statistic value and information We would like to express our best gratitude to our family for all the love, encouragement and sacrifices they made for us Lastly, we offer our regards and blessings to all of those who supported us in any respect during the completion of the project CONTENT PART 1: DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAMOND ISLAND AND THE MARKETING & ADVERTISING STRATEGIES I A BOUT DIAMOND ISLAND PROJECT & THE INVESTOR Di amond Island Project B TA II M ARKETING & ADVERTISING STRATEGIES IN THE PAST Pr e-launch Period : 2008 – early 2009 a Th e Objectives b P R Strategy c P R Campaign La unching: June 2009 – 2010 a Th e Objectives: b Ta rget Audience – Demographic: 10 c M essage to Deliver 10 d P R & Marketing Strategy 11 e M arketing Campaign 11 Af ter Launch: 2011 -2012 14 a Th e Objectives 14 b M essage to Deliver 14 c M arketing Campaign 14 III DI AMOND ISLAND PROJECT – THE PUBLIC RELATIONS CRISIS 21 PART 2: ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT POSITION AND SITUATION 22 I IN DUSTRY ANALYSIS 22 Re al Estate Market in Vietnam 22 Fo recast of the Economy and Real Estate Market in II C USTOMER ANALYSIS 26 W ho are the customers W hat do customers do with the product W here do they buy the product W hy do don t they buy III C OMPETITIOR ANALYSIS 29 Th e Unique Selling Propositions of Diamond )sland Co mpetitive Powers IV B RAND ANALYSIS 35 Br and )dentity Prism Cu rrent Brand Awareness V DI AMOND ISLAND PROJECT ANALYSIS – SWOT 39 St rength 39 W eakness 39 O pportunities 39 Th reats 39 PART 3: NEW MARKETING AND ADVERTISING PLAN FOR YEAR 2013 – 2015 41 I Pr oblem summary 41 II N ew marketing and advertising plan for year 2013-2015 41 O bjective: 2013-2015 42 M arketing Campaign 42 a C RM system developing 42 b Di stribution system developing 43 c Cr isis management 44 d A dvertising 45 e Di gital marketing 50 f M arketing Schedule 53 g C onclusion 54 TABLE Table 1: The rates of USPs of each project: 30 Table 2: Diamond Island – SWOT Analysis: 40 Table 3: Marketing schedule: 53 DIAMOND ISLAND GETTING THROUGH THE DIFFICULT TIME OF REAL ESTATE MARKET IN VIETNAM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Diamond Island is an only island located at District 2, next to the new strategic urban area, Thu Thiem, a new finance and administration center, taking minutes to the center of Ho Chi Minh City The projects will include approximately 1076 apartments, 24 sky villas ad 144 hotel rooms Diamond Island was developed and excuted by Binh Thien An Property Joint Stock Company The company was established under business license issued by Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment on December 12, 2005 Diamond Island’s mission is to bring every of its resident to the most amazing experiences with a top living style in an ideal living environment, where outstanding architecture and top luxurious facilities are blended with romantic landscape, prosperous fengshui, and humane resident community It was launched in June 2009 and become an impression point of urban architecture with the international stature within Ho Chi Minh City particularly and in Vietnam Diamond Island generally has a good marketing strategy and campaign They have created a strong and recognizable brand identity with Diamond Island as the project with luxury apartments and sky villas and BTA as the Reputable developer and manager They’ve also built up awareness and adorability of a high-class community at Diamond Island in near future With luxury events, the message to deliver is that Diamond Island is a thriving place for living with the ideal community for intellectual and successful people It also has the privilege to have an elite community of being successful and top notch in society However, from 2011 to 2012, after PR crisis happened and the real estate value started the downward trend, Diamond Island had to face to a lot of difficulties and challenges to get through and reach proposed target business Recommended marketing strategy in 2013 will focus on great location with fresh air and green environment as well as increase Diamond Island brand value by environment responsibilities and activities In 2014, strategy will focus on ideal and unique fengshui location of Diamond Island to attract effectively target customers Improving crisis management process and developing CRM and distribution systems may increase opportunities to explore the huge potential market, and then enrich target customer data and support sale team and brokers could reach successfully to prospect With this recommended marketing campaign using suitable marketing strategy and effective marketing tools such as events, social media, E-news…would help Diamond Island overcome through the difficult time of real estate market in Vietnam PART 1: DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAMOND ISLAND AND THE MARKETING & ADVERTISING STRATEGIES I ABOUT DIAMOND ISLAND PROJECT & THE INVESTOR Diamond Island Project Diamond Islands is a high quality residential apartment development with river access and view The projects will include approximately 1076 apartments, 24 sky villas ad 144 hotel rooms Total build space is approximately 300,000 sqm (Construction Floor Area CFA) Diamond Islands also consists of high class commercial and service center (including restaurant, supermarkets, retail stores, cinemas, swimming pools, marina, etc.) and a kindergarten, which is targeted to provide the best facilities for residents of Diamond Islands It comprises of zones name Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, Zone D and Zone E Each zone will be built once after another, starting with Zone B in 2008 Total construction floor area of this Zone B is 67038 sqm Some development data of Diamond Islands: • Site Area: 79944 m2 • Area within setback lines: 48032 m2 • Allowable Gross Floor Area: 215600 m2 (does not include car parks, etc) • Maximum number of floor per tower: 29 floors • Car park requirements: 1.1 covered car parks/dwelling units (minimum 1094 lots) Diamond Islands is bounded by Thanh My Loi quarter in the East, the Giong Ong To River and Thu Thiem quarter in the West, the Sai Gon River and Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in the South and An Phu Quarter in the North With this unique location, Diamond Islands can be easily accessed via water traffic such as water taxies and river ferries to and from the city It is located of a hectare island with a beautiful landscape setting, the island provides a natural exclusivity and yet is still very close to the center of Ho Chi Minh City Being surrounded by Sai Gon and Giong Ong To Rivers in district 2, the green forest and clean water here make the location highly desirable with regards to Feng Shui The island is just like a diamond inside a dragon due to Saigon River shape is just like the Dragon outline Geomancer appreciate such location is the most unique and rare to find, and supposed to provide wealth and growth for people living in This hence gives the Feng Shui to the whole project in particular, unlike the competitors' when buyers can only create Feng Shui inside their apartments Additionally, the island is located among important traffic systems such as Thu Thiem Tunnel and the East West Highway, Thu Thiem Bridge, District Bridge, District Bridge, Phu My Bridge, Ho Chi Minh - Long Thanh - Giau Day highway Therefore transportation access to and from the island is extremely easy The architect approach for this project is based on the following concepts: • Porosity: Creating a porous atmosphere in all scales of the project, and open facade for natural ventilation and taking advantage of the river breeze With voids, double height living rooms, terraces and louvers the concept of porosity is achieved Each residential cluster is made of towers which are pulled apart, creating open corridors and maximizing the exterior views and privacy • Elevated Green Mound: A two stories high structure with sloped edges creates the appearance of a green mound and at the same time hides all parking, MEP and infrastructure areas • Urban concept of an archipelago: The entire island is treated as an urban island within the context of a larger development of additional islands • Mountain shaped skyline: With the tallest towers at the south side the towers' height descents towards the north side on a two - to four floor modules • Sky villas: Because of the lack of ground area, the villas are located at the top of the towers with one villa at each individual tower Each villa is to have maximum river views and a private swimming pool • Green belt: At the perimeter of the island with the aim of preserving the natural vegetation Riverside leisure facilities: Small yacht harbor along the west side of the island on the Giong Ong To River Diamond Island also aims to create a luxury living condition for its inhabitants Before the zoning of the project, the wind was studied with NASA equipment for a year to segment the wind before allocating buildings Careful studies have also been done from the style studies and product concept test to make sure Diamond Island is a luxury resident project in term of iconic architecture and interior design, and with exclusive community for top notch Vietnamese people who value the new luxury living style concept Customers have the choice and the opportunity to actively participate in the design, look and feel of their home They desire their home to be personal, unique and tasteful as well as communicate a message about what is important to them The project has all facilities and services from the finishing of the home for customers to daily living needs such as free secretarial service, highest security, community style development programs such as regular meetings, training for adult and children as classy behaviors, etc This enables customers to benefit from living in a community of both wealthy and classy people, and daily networking for both life and work The project combines a range of finest quality apartments in the guise of a city resort, and provides excellent living conditions to enrich the life essence of its most fortunate residents Combined with the calming riverside environment and relaxing lush landscaping, that underlines the natural beauty of the island, the Diamond Island development is positioned as the safest of investments readied to appreciate in value through time The exquisite living conditions have been carefully considered to ensure all needs are satisfied for the privilege residents The premium facilities include those to support leisure activities such as the unique Princess Marina Yacht Club, a professional standard gymnasium, and the star Health and Beauty Spa Support facilities include the international standard kindergarten, general and specialist shopping, dental and healthcare clinics, secretarial services, and international property management to ensure the seamless integration of state of the art back of house activities, and highest security assurance The external environments are as equally inviting as the luxurious apartments themselves The landscapes have been carefully crafted as a living green belt that envelops and welcome all to visit in peace and relax For the business and social minds there are intimate spaces within the landscape for entertaining and to create special community activities and networking opportunities The lucky children will enjoy the excellent living conditions, with ample space for play inside and out within the gardens and fresh air, plus benefit from growing and developing among this privilege and elite community BTA Binh Thien An Property Joint Stock Company is the investor of Diamond Island Project The company was established under business license issued by Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment on December 12, 2005 To develop and execute the project, the company has set up a new legal entity which is Diamond Island Development one member limited company on March 25, 2008 It is planned that once BTA obtains Land use Rights it will contribute it into charter capital of Diamond Island Development The cost related to the project will accordingly be transferred to DID BTA Investment Management Vietnam Co Ltd, a professional project management company shall provide general management services, administrative support and sales & marketing services for the project The number of employees of BTA Property at December 31, 2006 and 2007 and August 31, 2008 was 3, and 11 respectively The number of employees of BTA Investment Management at December 31, 2006 and 2007 and August 31, 2008 was 1, 11 and 37 respectively II MARKETING & ADVERTISING STRATEGIES IN THE PAST Pre-launch Period : 2008 – early 2009 a The Objectives: The objective in this period of pre-launch is to create the brand awareness for Diamond Island b PR Strategy: Focus on the unique location of Diamond Island and the special investment on the project to create the most luxury apartments in Ho Chi Minh City c PR Campaign: HO CHI MINH CITY WILL HAVE DIAMOND ISLAND Diamond Island - a luxury housing project - will be built on an hectare island near the Sai Gon River This project is invested and managed by Binh Thien An Co with the capital of 300 million USD ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION FOR DIAMOND ISLAND (Source: vnexpress - Excitement grows about Diamond Island project in Sai Gon) To find the most efficient solution for Diamond Project, BTA invested million USD in the International Architect Contest with contestants come from famous architecture firms around the world including Arata Isozaki, Wood Head, AS&P and PTW The winner finally awarded to a German architecture, Arata Isozaki only came second place however he was chosen for the project because BTA thought his style is fit for this particular project (Asian style with Fengshui) Launching: June 2009 – 2010 a The Objectives:  Create a strong and recognizable brand identity: The objective is creating a strong and recognizable brand identity with Diamond Island as the project with luxury apartments and sky villas and BTA as the reputable developer and manager The goal of this stage is to reach minimum 80% of target customer's awareness in the time of month after this communications stage was launched  Build credibility: Show off all superiorities of Diamond Island compared to competitions such as the Lancaster, Southern Palace, Raffles Residence, Sailing Tower All target customer information and negotiated order sale support process should be noted in detail After each campaign sales stage CRM software system will automatically calculate the data enter into the software and release the statistical report Based on the reported data the management will adjust sale targets if necessary Based on revised business objectives marketing strategy will be adjusted to suit the current situation in order to attract the target audience effectively b Distribution system developing: Marketing activities were well implemented yet; the distribution network to generate appropriate prospects is not mentioned ready Diamond Island has a direct sale team of 10 sale persons and 70% of the deals were from direct sale team Around 10% of the Diamond Island resident is from internal staffs of the Kusto Corporation The sales agents were not planned and managed correctly so there are only 20% of the sales from the agent and most of them are from Hanoi and other provinces Therefore, develop and extend distribution network is an effective way to increase sale target Figure: Diamond Island Distribution System Diamond Island should build a good relationship with the brokers, in conjunction with other companies with the same target customer background to maximize sales efficiency and intermediate support them in various forms such as: advertising, offer document, updated regularly Sales agent network should be well trained to attract right buyers (cash-holding entrepreneurs, rich yet not very social exposure guys…) The demographic target market only concentrates in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi so it reduces opportunities to explore other huge markets such as Central Area, Highland Area, Mekong Delta Area… Diamond Island should a specific market research to prepare an effective communication plan for those potential markets Good development and management of effective sale teams and agent in the potential market is the best approach at this time in order to increase sale target c Crisis management: Since end 2010, prospective buyers are all concerned on the unfinished podium that may adverse effecting to the living environment The delay of the hand-over date from November 30th, 2011 and Mar 30th, 2012 and finally the hand-over date has not been firm yet Beside that, Diamond Island Project has been closed for months in order to be investigated about different constructing to the original registered architectural design and layout Also, the product delivery performance, especially in public facilities, infrastructure and landscape has not improved in long time It makes existing and target customer also not believe anymore on the vision and mission that Diamond Island has tried to propose Figure: Crisis management process Therefore, a detailed plan that describes the various actions should be well prepared to apply during critical situations or crisis:  Be prepared for a broad range of crisis by developing a crisis portfolio in both predictable and unpredictable case  Develop the list of businesses in which the institution is engaged such as journalist association, cadastral central…   Form a multi-departmental crisis management team and make sure that team is trained to handle the series of broad ranging and unanticipated crises Systematically review and learn from the crisis experiments: for example building good relationship with journalists d Advertising: Events- Sponsorship: All these events will focus on green landscape, fresh environment and ideal fengshui to emphasize the strength of Diamond Island location With these events, the message also is Diamond Island is not only a luxury community but also a high responsibility community in environment protection  Fengshui conferences and exhibitions: Numbers play a big role in feng shui considerations Many clients have also expressed interest in the number 8, which in Chinese sounds like 'fortune', so apartments on the 8th or 16th floor seem to hold interest for some buyers Therefore, we can choose an apartment on 8th floor and decor the interior with five essential elements of fengshui which incluce metal, wood, water, fire and earth to attract customers Figure: Fengshui conferences and exhibitions (Source: Internet) (Source: Robb Report Magazine)  Press Conference: Diamond Island establishes The Preservation And Development Of Green Landscape In City Foundation to emphasize responsibilities of Diamond Island for environment protection (Source: Website environmentfuture.com)  Charity auctions: A fengshui antiques sale by public charity auction is one of the most exciting, effective and rewarding methods of increasing Diamond Island brand value All revenue is obtained from those auction will be contributed to the preservation and development of green landscape in city foundation (Source: Website Vatphamphongthuy.com)  “100 businessman plant trees to protect environment” event: 100 businessman include current businessman live in Diamond Island and other famous businessman will be invited to join this event to plant trees around Diamond Island landscape (Source: Thanhnien Newspaper) Print ads- TV programs:  Fengshui for modern and luxury living: (Source: Fengshui for modern living book of Stephen Skinner)  Fresh and green environment: (Source: Internet) (Source: Website daokimcuong.com.vn) Public Relation: Both editorial and advertorial are used to transfer the fengshui and green environment messages to target customer through newspaper and online newspaper such as Doanhnhan newspaper, Doanh nhatre newspaper, Golf magazine, Saigon Time Online newspaper… (Source: Internet) e Digital marketing: Weekly E-new/ E-brochure: Each week an E-Newsletter is produced with hot information about real estate market, information about events, promotion program or a selection of hot properties for sale This is emailed to target customer database who collected from the event, website…This is an effective tool to introduce properties to eventual buyers (Source: Own design) In addition, the E-Brochure goes to all people who have registered with daokimcuong.com.vn or on social media, platform, receive property information This is effectively reaching a targeted audience, and achieves good results Email marketing/SMS marketing: Using email or SMS to send promotion information, weekly e-news, e-brochure, or event information It’s an easy and quickly tool to reach to the target customer and helps to build loyalty, trust, and brand awareness Recipient responses to email marketing messages can be measured through open-up and click-through tracking The analysis can be further extended to measure actual sales or membership conversions Based on this real data, companies can make more informed decisions in marketing strategy to more closely match the needs and preferences of target customer Email marketing process (Source: Website lwgsocialmediamarketing.com) Social media: Social media is a key ingredient of our everyday life from Facebook and Twitter to Linked, Youtube, blogging, and more According to Vietnamsurvey Company, 54,3% of Vietnam internet user using social network (Source: Website lwgsocialmediamarketing.com) Development and management pages or account on Facebook, Twitter, Linked, Youtube, Flickr… will increase communication for Diamond Island brand awareness and often, improved customer service These social media tools usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself Additionally, these social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for Diamond Island to implement marketing campaigns f Marketing schedule: Table 3: Marketing Schedule Campaign CRM system development Distribution system development Improving Crisis management Event/ Sponsorship  Living environment Event/ Sponsorship  Fengshui Print ad/TV program Public Relation Weekly E-news/e-brochure Email/SMS Social Media 2013 10 11 12 2014 10 11 12 g Conclusion: From 2011 to 2012, after PR crisis happened and the real estate value started the downward trend, Diamond Island had to face to a lot of difficulties and challenges to get through and reach proposed target business Marketing strategy in 2013 will focus on great location with fresh air and green environment as well as increase Diamond Island brand value by environment activities and responsibilities In 2014, strategy will focus on ideal and unique fengshui location of Diamond Island to attract effectively target customers Improving crisis management process and developing CRM and distribution systems may increase opportunities to explore the huge potential market, and then enrich target customer data and support sale team and brokers 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