Improving performance of long term dealers a study of sông vàm rice company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business PHAN DUY HIỂN IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF LONG-TERM DEALERS: A STUDY OF SÔNG VÀM RICE COMPANY MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2020 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business PHAN DUY HIỂN IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF LONG-TERM DEALERS: A STUDY OF SÔNG VÀM RICE COMPANY MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr NGUYỄN THỊ MAI TRANG Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2020 Table of Contents Executive Summary Acknowledgements .2 LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES 1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 Sông Vàm Rice company 1.2 Organizational structure of Sông Vàm Rice 1.3Mission of Sông Vàm Rice .9 1.4 Vision of Sông Vàm Rice Problem context 10 2.1 Vietnamese rice industry .10 2.2 Analyzing the competitors of Sông Vàm Rice 11 2.3 Customer segment of Sông Vàm Rice 14 Symptom of Sông Vàm Rice .14 Problem identification 17 4.1 Possible problem 1: Slow in finding new dealers 18 4.2 Possible problem 2: Underperformance of long-term dealers 19 4.3 Possible problem 3: Some dealers stopped cooperation with Sông Vàm Rice by low sales revenues & profits 22 Identifying main problem 24 Problem justification 25 Exploration of causes 28 7.1 Lack of a trade marketing plan 28 7.2 Incentive policy is not enough to boost motivation of dealers 30 7.3 Inefficient training programs for dealers 31 7.4 Lack of modern technology and software to manage performance of sales team and dealers 32 7.5 Identifying main cause 32 Alternative solution 35 8.1 Alternative solution 1: Cooperating with a marketing agency 36 8.2 Alternative solution 2: Recruiting a trade marketing manager 39 8.3 Alternative solution 3: Designing an effective trade marketing package for dealers by using current resources of sales and marketing department 44 8.4 Choosing the most suitable solution for Sông Vàm Rice 48 Action plan of organization 52 10 Conclusion 56 11 Supporting information .57 APPENDIX 61 References .75 Executive Summary Sông Vàm Rice is a company working in the rice industry It was established in 2016, the main business of the company is providing hygiene and speciality rice (products without pesticide residuals) for customers in Ho Chi Minh city The company developed its distribution channel with the strategy: Focusing on cooperating with dealers However, the actual performance of dealers channel in 2019 was lower than the target of CEO This affected sales revenues, profits and relationships between Sông Vàm Rice and its dealers This study used secondary data, primary data of the company to explore the main problem it is facing: “ Underperformance of long-term dealers” In which, the root cause was identified that the company lacked of a trade marketing plan to support long-term dealers Therefore, we proposed three alternative solutions to deal with the main problem by using qualitative research and quantitative research These solutions could help the company improving performance of long-term dealers and build a sustainable relationship with them Acknowledgements I would like to say thank you very much to Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang She is a dedicated teacher Without her encouragements and guidance, I couldn’t complete the THESIS well It was a pleasure for me to be your student in MBA class Besides that, I would like to send my appreciation to other lecturers in ISB who taught me valuable knowledge and lessons in the course I would like to say thank you my family: parents, my younger brother, my aunts and especially my wife who supporting me during MBA course LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Value proposition evaluation between Sông Vàm Rice and other competitors Table 2: Competitive strength assessment between Sông Vàm Rice and other competitors Table 3: Comparing actual performance against target of CEO in 2018 and 2019 Table 4: Performance of types of dealers and sales target of CEO in 2019 Table 5: Reasons to stop cooperation of dealers Table 6: Effectiveness of marketing activities to support a dealer in Binh Thanh district in 2019 Table 7: Incentive policy for dealers of Sông Vàm Rice Table 8: Costs & benefits of solution Table 9: Costs & benefits of solution Table 10: trade marketing packages were created by Orthogonal Design in SPSS Table 11: Part-Worth scaling (Utility) for each factor level Table 12: Relative importance of each attribute Table 13: Costs and benefits of solution Table 14: Action plan of Sông Vàm Rice Table 15: Secondary data collection Table 16: Primary data collection LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Organizational structure of Sông Vàm Rice Figure 2: Sales & marketing department of Sông Vàm Rice in Ho Chi Minh city Figure 3: Strategic group mapping Figure 4: Average sales quantity/channel/month of Sông Vàm Rice from 2017 to 2019 Figure 5: Proportion of each channel in average total sales quantity/month of Sông Vàm Rice in 2019 Figure 6: Comparing average actual performance/month against average target performance/month of CEO for dealers channel in 2017, 2018 and 2019 Figure 7: A diagram of symptom and possible problems of Sông Vàm Rice Figure 8: Value chain of Sông Vàm Rice Figure 9: A model of key factors affecting relationship satisfaction Figure 10: Final cause-effect map of Sông Vàm Rice Figure 11: Trade marketing model Figure 12: New structure of sales and marketing department after recruiting a trade marketing manager Figure 13: Trade Marketing Planning Framework 1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 Sông Vàm Rice company Sông Vàm Rice was established in 2016 with the purpose of business is bringing hygienic rice for customer’s family The main business of Sông Vàm Rice is producing, manufacturing and distributing hygienic and speciality rice Main market of Sông Vàm Rice concentrated on big cities in Vietnam such as Ho Chi Minh city, Ha Noi and Da Nang Initially, the company developed distribution channels in Ho Chi Minh city Beside that, It had built two rice stores, one in Long An province and one in Ho Chi Minh city since 2017 to introduce and display the products to the customers The factory of Sông Vàm Rice is located in Tan Tru district, Long An province In the value chain of Sông Vàm Rice, high quality of materials is one of the most important factor affecting the success of business This could help the company producing high quality rice (rice with purity, color, fragrance and degree of stickiness) and guarantee the hygiene of the product for the customers ( rice without pesticide residuals) Therefore, the company put many efforts to establish a sustainable relationship with farmers in Long An province and Mekong Delta to grow hygienic rice in these areas Agriculture engineers of the company will consult the efficient process to grow rice for the farmers and supervise activities during harvest The company will sign long-term contract with leaders of cooperative farmers groups to buy all paddy when harvest comes, usually the price offered by Sông Vàm Rice for farmers was higher than the price of the market from 500,000 VND/ton This would help the farmers gaining more sustainable benefits Meanwhile, Sông Vàm Rice has a good source of materials to produce high quality rice without pesticide residuals It is a competitive advanatage for the company when comparing with other rivals in the market In the business model of Sông Vàm Rice, the company is not the first-mover in rice brand industry, so CEO chose the strategy: “bestcost provider” to compete in the market It means Sông Vàm Rice provides high quality and hygienic rice (some main characteristics: the purity, color, fragrance, stickiness and without pesticide residuals) with a reasonable price compares to other competitors in the rice industry A strong distribution channel plays a vital role in the success of any companies Instead of competing directly with big competitors such as Hat Ngoc Troi rice, Minh Tam rice in MT (modern trade) channel such as supermarket (Big C, Coopmart, MM supermarket) or big grocery stores (Vinmart, Bach Hoa Xanh, CoopFood), the strategy of Sông Vàm Rice is attacking the potential market in apartment areas or residential areas through cooperating Detail interview content: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH  Time of interview: 8:00, 18 Jan 2020 in Ho Chi Minh city 10:00, 20 Jan 2020 in Long An province Question CEO, Sales Marketing Dealers Sales team employees x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x manager Could you please introduce about x x yourself ? (your name, age, working experience) Can you share with me about rice x industry & current business of Sông Vàm Rice? Could you share your opinion about the symptom: dealers channel can’t achieve target of CEO? The importance of dealer channel in your company? Could you suggest possible problems lead to the symptom? In which, what is the main problem? Could you suggest me possible causes which make the main problem? In which, what is the main cause? What are solutions that the company should to solve the problem? What is the best solution? Why? x x x x What are your favourite programs from x x x x the company when you buy our products?  Duration for each interviewer: 10-30 minutes  Address: Song Vam Rice showroom 887 Ta Quang Buu street, district 8, HCM City Head office of Song Vam Rice in Tan Tru district, Long An province, Vietnam In-depth interview 1:  Interviewer: Phan Duy Hien  Interviewee: Mr Phan Cong Binh  Title: CEO – Sông Vàm Rice  Age: 53  Working experience: more than 30 years in rice industry  Status: currently managing Sông Vàm Rice Phan Duy Hien: Good morning Can you introduce about yourself and your company? Phan Cong Binh: My name is Dung I’m the CEO of Sông Vàm Rice I had more than 30 years experience in rice industry I established Sông Vàm Rice in 2016 Our main business concentrated on providing rice without pesticide residuals for customers Phan Duy Hien: Can you share with me about rice industry and competitive advantage of Sông Vàm Rice? Phan Cong Binh: Rice market is very potential in Vietnam, especially hygienic rice Customers’ concern for fresh food increased quickly over time Many big companies in Vietnam focused on exporting rice without Vietnamese brand Although it could bring high revenues, but the reputation of Vietnamese rice couldn’t enhance in the eyes of foreign customers Initially, we started to build our distribution channel in domestic market Our company invested in cooperating with farmers to grow hygienic rice This help my company having a source of good materials to manufacture rice In addition, we organized our distribution channel to provide rice for our customers Currently, main market of us focused on Ho Chi Minh city Phan Duy Hien: By exploring the report of your company in 2019, I realized that performance of dealers channel can’t achieve your target Can you share your opinions about this issue? Phan Cong Binh: Dealers channel play the most important role in our company Currently, we have many channels to distribute rice such as our rice stores,dealers channel, school, companies and small supermarkets In which, dealers channel contributed highest sales quantity each month Instead of competing directly with big companies with large financial resources and experience in rice brand industry such as Hat Ngoc Troi, Minh Tam, Vinh Phat Wilmar rice in supermarkets, Sông Vàm Rice cooperated with dealers to distribute rice We used available resources of dealers such as relationships, places combining with support from sales team of Sông Vàm Rice to develop market However, performance of dealers channel can’t achieve mar target in 2019 There are three possible problems affecting performance of dealers channel They are:  Slow in finding new dealers  Underperformance of long-term dealers  Some dealers stop cooperation with the company Phan Duy Hien: Is your target attainable? Why you set these number for dealers channel? Phan Cong Binh: Our sales team had total people In which, there are highly experienced salesmen in rice industry, others need to be trained about knowledge in rice industry and selling skills Although I set up an attainable goal for them with just dealers/month, but we couldn’t achieve it We need to deal with that problem to improve performance of the company My target for our long-term dealers is attainable and realistic Long-term dealers had experience in cooperation with our sales team & marketing employees Besides that, our dealers are often located in crowded residential areas and apartment buildings There are minimum 600 households in area of our dealers According to history data of sales department, one family with four people can consume at least 10kg-20kg rice per month From that, we can estimate market size of our dealers: tons – 12 tons /month Therefore, we expected our long- time dealers could achieve 20% market share (at least tons/month) in their areas by support of salesmen & marketing staffs However, actual performance of them was lower than target We need to deal with that problem to improve our performance Phan Duy Hien: In these problems, which is the main problem of Sông Vàm Rice? Phan Cong Binh: Long-term dealers played the most important role in total performance of dealer channel In my opinion, we need to choose the problem: underperformance of longterm dealers to deal with If we want to expand our business quickly, distribution channel is the key factor to construct As the strategy of Sông Vàm Rice: focusing on cooperating with dealers to distribute rice widely and gain market share quickly, the company should build a sustainable relationships with dealers by helping them achieving more sales revenues and profits, especially long-term dealers Therefore, we should find solutions to improve performance of long-term dealers Phan Duy Hien: Could you suggest causes which lead to the main problem? Phan Cong Binh: In my opinion, currently cooperation between sales team and long-term dealers is not efficient It affected negatively to performance of long-term dealers Besides that, incentive policy for long-term dealers also is a possible cause Phan Duy Hien: In these causes, which is the main cause in your opinion? Phan Cong Binh: In my opinion, lack of a trade marketing plan leads to the main problem: underperformance of long-term dealers If we can create an effective trade marketing plan to support long-term dealers We could improve performance of long-term dealers Phan Duy Hien: To deal with the problem, we summarize three alternative solutions, what solution you will choose for your company? Phan Cong Binh: All three solutions could help our company solving the problem and improve performance of our long-term dealers However, we should use current resources to solve the problem first Sales team and marketing team will execute the best utility trade marketing package of solution to support our dealers in short-term.We will evaluate the results of this package In the long-term, we should have a trade marketing manager to share responsibility of sales manager and handle marketing team The company needs to compete with other competitors in long-term, therefore we really need a person who is in charge of managing trade marketing activities to support sales team and enhance revenues of dealers For that reason, solution could be used for short-term, solution could be used for long-term -In-depth interview 2:  Interviewee: Mr Le Thanh Hien  Title: Sales manager of Sông Vàm Rice  Age: 36  Working experience period: 10 years experience in sales, years working for Sông Vàm Rice  Status: current working for Sông Vàm Rice Phan Duy Hien: Thank you for joining with me in this interview Could you introduce something about yourself? Le Thanh Hien: My name is Hien, currently I’m sales manager of Sông Vàm Rice I’m working here for three years Phan Duy Hien: Could you share your opinions about the symptom: underperformance of dealers channel of Sông Vàm Rice? Le Thanh Hien: Our company classified dealers into types to manage, it depends on the length of time of cooperation between the company and dealer: Long-term dealer: Dealers have over one year cooperation with the company Short-term dealer: Dealers have over months cooperation and under one year with the company New dealers: Dealers have under months cooperation with the company In which, long-term dealers play the most important role in the performance of the company This symptom could come from underperformance of long-term dealers Besides that, we are slow in finding new dealers for the company These problems could affect the performance of dealers channel Phan Duy Hien: In which possible problems, which is the main problem? Le Thanh Hien: Long-term dealers contributed significantly in the performance of dealer channel They helped our company distributing products widely and building many loyal customers in Ho Chi Minh city However, the actual performance of them can’t reach target of CEO in 2019 This affected total performance of dealer channel We need to improve it Dealer channel contributed highest sales quantity and profits for our company, especially long- term dealers To build a close relationship with distributor members, we need to help them improving performance, gaining more revenues & profits Although slow in finding new dealers is an important problem Sông Vàm Rice must tackle to build a strong and wide distribution channel, the company firstly should find solution to improve performance of long- time dealers This could help the company keeping current dealers and achieving their satisfaction Phan Duy Hien: Why sales team was slow in finding new dealers? Le Thanh Hien: Each month, our sales team needs to achieve target of CEO: at least new dealers/month It means that we must cooperate with at least 48 new dealers/year However, in 2019, our sales team could only bring total 28 new dealers for the company This problem can come from ability of our salesmen in closing deals to convert potential dealers into real dealers Phan Duy Hien: Could you suggest me possible causes which lead to the main problem of Sông Vàm Rice? Le Thanh Hien: There are some possible causes lead to the main problem as following:  Cooperation between dealers, salesmen and marketing staffs is not efficient  Incentive policy is not enough to boost motivation of dealers  Training sales skills and knowledge about products is not good  Lack of modern technology and software to manage sales team and dealers Phan Duy Hien: Could you share with me the current process of cooperation between sales team and long-term dealers? Le Thanh Hien: We often have marketing activities to support dealers They could be sampling activities, giving flyers for consumers in dealer’area or promotion programs to help dealers advertising products and increasing the number of consumers These activities are effective in the first stage of cooperation That is the reason why short-term dealers and new dealers can achieve target of CEO However, in the next stage, we faced difficulties to boost sales revenues for long-term dealers because we lack of a trade marketing plan Phan Duy Hien: How about current process to train sales skills and knowledge about products for dealers? Le Thanh Hien: After signing the contract with dealers, salesmen of our company will help training knowledge about products and basic sales skills for dealers This would help them having ability to consult for their customers However, after reviewing the performance of long-term dealers, we should consider carefully to give long-time dealers more training on sales skills & marketing knowledge to persuade and increase the number of customers Phan Duy Hien: How about modern technology andsoftware to manage sales team and dealers? Le Thanh Hien: Currently, our company managed sales team and dealers in a traditional way We only used simple software as Excel to handle performance of dealers and make report for CEO We lack of a modern software as DMS (distribution management system) to evaluate real-time performance of sales team and dealers to propose suitable solutions to increase performance of distribution channel Phan Duy Hien: In these possible causes, what is the main cause? Le Thanh Hien: In my opinion, the company should focus on improving the effectiveness of cooperation between sales team and long-term dealers by creating attractive marketing activities This could help dealers gaining more satisfaction of customers and increase sales revenues Therefore, the lack of trade marketing plan is the main cause Phan Duy Hien: How about solutions to solve the main problem? Le Thanh Hien: Our company needs a trade marketing manager to organize effective trade marketing activities to support my sales team and dealers This could help me and salesmen focusing on finding new dealers for the company, having more time to take care of current dealers Trade marketing team will be responsible for improving sales performance of dealers, bringing more benefits for customers at dealers stores through suitable activation activities Sales team will cooperate closely with trade marketing team to execute these activities to enhance revenues for distribution channels We really need an experienced trade marketing manager to win at point of purchases Phan Duy Hien: What solution you think that will be suitable for your company among three alternative solutions? Le Thanh Hien: Firstly, my sales and marketing department would try our best to execute the best utility trade marketing package of solution Although applying solution could put pressure on our departments,but this solution had costs similar with our budgets We would work closely with dealers to support them and evaluate the results of this project In the longterm, we think that our company should have a trade marketing manager to share responsibility with me -In-depth interview 3:  Interviewee: Mr Tran Long Thai  Title: Salesman  Age: 30  Working experience: years experience in sales & marketing Working years for Sông Vàm Rice,  Status: current working for Sông Vàm Rice Phan Duy Hien: Thank you very much for joining with me in this interview Could you please introduce about yourself? Tran Long Thai: I’m Thai I’m a salesman of Sông Vàm Rice company I’m working here for years Phan Duy Hien: Could you share with me about your department? How about responsibility of your team? Tran Long Thai: Our deparment consisted members, in which sales manager managed, allocated tasks for us Every month, we need to find many potential dealers to achieve target of CEO & sales manager Besides that, we also need to take care of current dealers, help them improving sales revenues by using marketing activities Phan Duy Hien: In 2019, dealers channel of Sông Vàm Rice can’t achieve target of CEO What’s your opinion about that symptom? Tran Long Thai: There are two possible problems related to that Firstly, we are slow in finding new dealers Secondly, the performance of long-term dealers is lower than expectations In which, the company should deal with the second problem It could help building a sustainable relationship with dealers 68 Phan Duy Hien: Why did long-term dealers can’t achieve target of CEO? Tran Long Thai: Cooperation between long-term dealers and our team is not efficient, especially our marketing activites can’t bring more customer for long-term dealers Besides that, incentive policy also is a concern of us Phan Duy Hien: Could you share with us about marketing activites to support dealers of Sông Vàm Rice? Tran Long Thai: It was effective in first stage of cooperation, that is the reason why new dealers and short-term dealers can achieve target of CEO by our marketing activities In contrast, we met difficulties to boost sales revenues for long-term dealers We should focus on improving performance of long-term dealers Phan Duy Hien: How about solutions to solve the main problem? Tran Long Thai: We often lack of ideas to organize new marketing activities to support long-time dealers If we could have an experienced trade marketing manager, productivity of sales team and performance of long-time dealers will be enhanced significantly Sales team could know exactly situation of dealers, customers behaviour at their stores to consult for trade marketing manager & marketing team to design effective trade marketing plan for the company Phan Duy Hien: What solution will be fit for your company? Tran Long Thai: We should choose solution to solve the problem.It could save us much money and bring benefits for dealers quickly However, to compete with other comptetitors in long-term, a new trade marketing manager is very necessary He will manage marketing department and propose a trade marketing plan for our company Cooperation with agency could be considered after that -In-depth interview 4:  Interviewee: Mrs Phan Thi Hanh Nguyen  Role: Long-term dealers of Sông Vàm Rice  Time of cooperation: Since 2017  Age: 37 Phan Duy Hien: Good morning, could you introduce about yourself and your cooperation with Sông Vàm Rice? Mrs Nguyen: My name is Nguyen I live in Binh Thanh district in Ho Chi Minh city I became a dealer of Sông Vàm Rice since 2017 Phan Duy Hien: Could you share your thought about the quality of product of Sông Vàm Rice? Mrs Nguyen: The quality is good & stable Our customers feel satisfied about taste of rice, especially the price is reasonable for customers Each month, I can sell around 1,5 tons/month Phan Duy Hien: Do you satisfy with your sales performance? Mrs Nguyen: I tried to expand the number of customers in my areas However, the actual performance was lower than target of CEO and my expectations We need more support from the company to attract more customers, especially I hope that the company will increase discount percentage for dealers to boost our motivation Phan Duy Hien: How about marketing actitives of Sông Vàm Rice? Are they effective? Mrs Nguyen: By marketing activities of the company, I could have many customers in our apartment I can earn money to support my family My sales quantity is around 1,5 tons/month However, I faced difficulties to attract more customers in my areas I need more promotion programs and marketing activities from the company Phan Duy Hien: How about other support activities? Mrs Nguyen: The company should help us increasing ability of sales skills to find potential customers in our areas Especially, we would like to experience the process of manufacturing rice to consult for the customers The company should give us a chance to this Sometimes, my customers asked me about the process of manufacturing rice I can’t answer well.In addition, the company can design advertising posters for me We will advertise on groups on Zalo, Facebook to attract customers Phan Duy Hien: What’s your suggest for the company to enhance performance of your stores? Mrs Nguyen: The company must have a trade marketing plan to support us and attract customers These trade marketing programs must be combined and creative instead of organizing seperately In addition, Sông Vàm Rice should have many types of promotion programs Instead of using a familiar program as buy 10kg get 1kg free, the company could discount directly on price of products Many customers of mine like it, because they can save money for their family.They could buy a greater quantity, this could help us improving sales performance -In-depth interview 5:  Interviewee: Mr Ngo Kim Huong  Role: A former dealer of Sông Vàm Rice in district  Time of cooperation: Since 2018 70  Age: 27 Phan Duy Hien: Could you introduce with me about the cooperation between you and Sông Vàm Rice? Ngo Kim Huong: I opened a rice store in Nguyen Thien Thuat street, district in Ho Chi Minh city I sold many brands of rice products Sông Vàm Rice is one of them Phan Duy Hien: How about the quality and sales revenues of Sông Vàm Rice products? Ngo Kim Huong: Quality of products is good and stable Especially, it doesn’t have pesticide residuals The price is reasonable for our customers Sales revenues increased in the first stage of cooperation However, after that we faced difficulties to boost sales revenues for our stores Phan Duy Hien: How about marketing activities supported by Sông Vàm Rice? Ngo Kim Huong: They organized marketing actitivites in the first stage of cooperation and the customers liked it Then, some promotion programs are similar, the customers feel not attractive Phan Duy Hien: Why did you stop cooperation with the company? Ngo Kim Huong: The fixed cost of our stores is high, we couldn’t increase our sales revenues to cover costs Besides that, profits of rice products are lower than other products Therfore, we decided to business with other products -In-depth interview 6:  Interviewee: Mrs Doan Nguyen Minh Duong  Role: A former dealer of Sông Vàm Rice in Binh Thanh district  Time of cooperation: Since 2018  Age: 41 Phan Duy Hien: Could you introduce with me about the cooperation between you and Sông Vàm Rice? Mrs Duong: Our house has a place to business We chose to sell rice since 2018 We sell traditional rices and rice brands for customers in my areas Phan Duy Hien: How about the quality and sales revenues of Sông Vàm Rice products? Mrs Duong: Quality of products is good and stable However, marketing team didn’t focus on advertising quality of products They need more marketing actitvities to support dealers Phan Duy Hien: Why did you stop cooperation with the company? 71 Mrs Duong: It is easy for us to sell traditional rice Because we could sell rice with more profits than products of Sông Vàm Rice Besides that, we could sell rice for more customers without efforts to advertise The company should have more marketing activities to boost sales revenues for us -In-depth interview 7:  Interviewee: Ms Luu Thi Que Tram  Role: Marketing employee of Sông Vàm Rice  Age: 26 Phan Duy Hien: Could you introduce about yourself and your position in the company? Ms Tram: My name is Tram I’m a marketing employee of Sông Vàm Rice I’m responsible for executing marketing activities to support dealers and sales team Phan Duy Hien: How about marketing activities that the company often organizes to support dealers? Are they effective? Ms Tram: Our marketing activities are very effective to support new dealers However, we lack of new ideas to launch more attractive programs to boost sales revenues for long-term dealers.There programs not only must attract new customers and retain current customers, but also could help branding Sông Vàm Rice brand Phan Duy Hien: How about solutions to solve the problem? Ms Tram: Our marketing team is young, we lack of experience and knowledge in trade marketing field Therefore we could not produce creative trade marketing activities to support sales team and dealers Therefore, we really need a manager to manage us and train knowledge for us to enhance performance of the company -In-depth interview 8:  Interviewee: Mrs Phan Thi Luong  Role: A long-term dealer in district  Age: 48  Time of cooperation: Since 2018 Phan Duy Hien: Could you introduce about yourself and your business? Mrs Luong: I’m Luong My family had a grocery store to sell for customers in apartment areas I started to cooperate with Sông Vàm Rice since 2018 Phan Duy Hien: Could you share with me about the quality of products of Sông Vàm Rice? Mrs Luong: The quality is good and stable Especially, the products didn’t have pestiside residuals It is very good for my customers Phan Duy Hien: How about sales revenues of Sông Vàm Rice products? Mrs Luong: Sales revenues increased significantly in the first stage because of marketing activities from the company.After that, the customers feel bored with current trade marketing programs Therefore, we faced difficulties to increase number of customers and sales revenues Especially, The company offered us 15% discount percentage They gave me 300,000 VND when I sold ton/month I hope the company could give me more discount percentage to boost my motivation Phan Duy Hien: Could you suggest solution for the company to attract more customers? Mrs Luong: We think that a trade marketing plan could connect me,sales team and marketing team of Sông Vàm Rice We could work closely to achieve target of CEO and enhance performance of the company Some multinational companies as Unilever had seasonal gifts to give for customers Sông Vàm Rice should have promotion programs as giving gifts as raincoats, bowls for customers when they buy rice Besides that, the company should continue using activation activities as sampling, giving flyers to attract new customers in our residential areas -In-depth interview 9:  Interviewee: Mr Truong Dinh Thang  Role: A long-term dealer in district  Age: 35  Time of cooperation: Since 2018 Phan Duy Hien: Could you introduce about yourself and your business? Mr Thang: I’m Thang I’m a dealer of Sông Vàm Rice in district Phan Duy Hien: What you think about trade marketing activities from Sông Vàm Rice? Mr Thang: It’s very effective in first stage I can attract more customers in our areas However, in long-term, the company lacks of ideas to organize it effectively Phan Duy Hien: How about solutions for the company to improve performance of long-term dealers? Mr Thang: The company could organize activation programs as organizing event in our areas This could help attract attention of customers Many companies often organize these programs, customers could remember the brand name of Sông Vàm Rice In addition, the company could help us designing image and content about the company’s products to post on social media as Facebook and Zalo to advertise QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH We conducted a survey with 10 current long-term dealers of Sông Vàm Rice about trade marketing packages to support them There are packages created in Orthogonal Design from attributes (promotion programs, advertising programs and activation programs) and their different levels These dealers will rank from to for the utility of these packages (1: most utility, 9: least utility) This survey has a purpose to find out the most utility trade marketing package to support long-term dealers according to their opinions Package Advertising Promotion program Seasonal gifts Buy 10 get Activation program Organizing event Giving flyer Seasonal gifts Sampling Standee display Buy 10 get Discount directly on price Seasonal gifts Organizing event Organizing event Giving flyer Image & content to post on FB Zalo Standee display Discount directly on price Discount directly on price Buy 10 get Giving flyer Sampling Sampling Standee display Standee display Image & content to post on FB Zalo Standee display Image & content to post on FB Zalo Standee display Ranking References Jolson MA Broadening the Scope of Relationship Selling Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 1997;17(4):75-88 Johnston MW, Hair JF, Boles J Selling & Sales Management in Action: Why Do Salespeople Fail? 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Lack of a trade marketing plan Underperformance of long- term dealers Root cause Main problem Figure 10: Final cause-effect map of Sông Vàm Rice Alternative solution Summarizing all analysis above