NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL IMPROVING MARKETING MIX FOR GAS PRODUCTS IN LIEN QUANG THANH BUSINESS LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS JOINT STOCK COMPANY Bachelor of Business Administration in E[.]
NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL IMPROVING MARKETING MIX FOR GAS PRODUCTS IN LIEN QUANG THANH BUSINESS LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS JOINT STOCK COMPANY Bachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA) Thesis Student : Tran Thi Thu Ha Class : EBBA4-A Supervisor : Le Van Nam, MBA Hanoi, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A completed study would not be done without any assistance Therefore, the author who conducted this thesis gratefully gives acknowledgement to their support and motivation during the time of doing this thesis as a requirement of completing my Degree of E-BBA Program in National Economics University First of all, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to my supervisor MBA Le Van Nam His kindly support and continuous advices went through the process of completion of my thesis His encouragement and comments had significantly enriched and improved my work Without his motivation and instructions, the thesis would have been impossible to be done effectively Secondly, I want to extend many thanks to the Director and all employees at the Lien Quang Thanh Business Liquefied Petroleum Gas Joint Stock Company who offered me a valuable three-month internship with full support Without their help, the data could not have been gathered correctly and fully My special thanks approve to my parents for their endless love, care and have most assistances and motivation me for the whole of my life I also would like to explain my thanks to my sisters for their support and care me all the time At last, my deeply thanks come to all my friends during time I study in E-BBA Program Their kindly help, care, motivation gave me strength and lift me up all the trouble for the rest of my life TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .4 LIST OF TABLES .5 LIST OF FIGURES .6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.3 Research objectives and Research questions: 12 1.4 Research methodology 13 1.4.1 Research process 13 1.4.2 Data source 13 1.4.3 Data analysis 14 1.5 Scope of the research 15 1.6 Research structure 15 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON MARKETING MIX FOR CONSUMER PRODUCTS .16 2.1 Marketing and marketing mix for consumer products 16 2.2 Marketing mix for consumer goods 21 2.2.1 Product 21 2.2.2 Price .26 2.2.3 Place .28 2.2.4 Promotion .29 2.2.5 Factors impacting marketing mix 32 CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF LIEN QUANG THANH.,JSC’S MARKETING MIX FOR GAS PRODUCTS 35 3.1 Overview of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC 35 3.1.1 Company Overview 35 3.1.2 Foundation and Development of the company .35 3.1.3 Organization chart 35 3.1.4 Core line products 36 3.1.5 Financial Report of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC (2012-2014) 37 3.2 Analysis of marketing mix for Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC’s gas product line 39 3.2.1 Respondents profiles .39 3.2.2 Target customer 39 3.2.3 Products 40 3.2.4 Price 49 3.2.5 Place 50 3.2.6 Promotion 52 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING MARKETING MIX OF GAS PRODUCTS IN LIEN QUANG THANH.,JSC 56 4.1 Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC’s marketing objectives for gas products .56 4.2 Recommendations for improving marketing mix for gas products 56 4.2.1 Improving product strategy through market and customer study 56 4.2.2 Adjusting price strategy to be more market competitive 58 4.2.3 Better motivating and managing distribution channels 58 4.2.4 Better planning and managing promotional activities 59 4.2.5 Recommendations for better marketing management 60 4.3 Conditions for solution implementation .61 CONCLUSION 63 APPENDIX .64 APPENDIX .67 APPENDIX .72 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LQT Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC PR Public Relations LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Brief Financial report of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC in 2012, 2013 and 2014 38 Table 3.2: Competitive price review of gas products of LQT (VND) 50 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Research Process 13 Figure 2.1 Concept of Marketing mix 17 Figure2.2 Three levels of Product 21 Figure 3.1: Organization chart of LQT .36 Figure 3.2: The gas product consumption of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC .45 Figure 3.3: The revenue proportion of gas products of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC .46 Figure 3.4: Products customers often buy at Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC .47 Figure 3.5: Reason customers buy gas products of the company .48 Figure 3.6: Criteria that affect customers’ choice of paint brands 48 Figure 3.7: Distribution Channel Of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC 51 Figure 3.8: Sales performance by Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC in 2014 52 Figure 3.9: Channels through which customers know about the company 53 Figure 3.10: Promotional programs that influence customers’ purchase 54 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY There is a high competition in gas industry in Vietnam with many local and brands Gas industry is an industry which needs the high trust and support of customers To that, the company have to continually invest in developing and improving quality of products to meet customers’ demands The objective of the thesis “IMPROVING MARKETING MIX FOR GAS PRODUCTS IN LIEN QUANG THANH BUSINESS LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS JOINT STOCK COMPANY” is to analyze the current marketing mix of Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC’s gas products, to explore the weaknesses in the marketing mix and to recommend the tactics and approaches towards improving the marketing mix so that Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC can gain more success in the long term in the gas market Based on the theory on marketing mix for consumer goods together with primary data (survey 30 customers, interview managers and staffs at Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC and observation) and secondary (publications, reports, articles, books), the author has analyzed the each element of marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) for gas products at Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC and compare it with competitors and customers’ expectations Key findings are: Inadequate control and investment in product strategy Inflexible pricing strategy which needs to be more market-oriented Improper management of the distribution channels Negligence in gaining the support from the company’s staffs for the advertising and PR activities Unplanned management in advertising and PR activities: Incompetent reporting system Management flaws in implementing sales promotion Unprofessionalism in mobile marketing Inadequate investment in training and improving personal selling skills of the sales staffs Based on the findings, author has proposed recommendations for Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC to improve its marketing mix for gas products such as: Strengthening product strategy by professional study of the market and the targeted customers Adjusting price strategy to be more market competitive Better motivating and managing distribution channels by motivating and improving Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC’s own sub-agents Properly planning for all advertising and PR activities, better controlling of the sales promotion programs, being more professional in direct marketing and improving personal selling skills for sales staffs Making sure that different divisions coordinate and support each other Setting up key performance indicators for marketing activities Preparing master marketing plans CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In the development of global economy, the competition between companies, organizations becomes more and more intense Hence, marketing strategies play important role in attracting customers In that trend, gas market in Vietnam is not an exception Over the last years, with the growth rate 15% - 20% per year, gas has been a potential product In the whole country, there are hundreds of gas companies operating in many different forms The attractiveness of this market has created a fierce competition between domestic products and imported ones Lien Quang Thanh Business Liquefied Petroleum Gas Joint Stock Company was established in January 15, 2008 Initially, the company is just only as a small organization which sells gas to agencies and customers Until now, LQT has grown bigger, have more items to sell and has reputation in local Along with the growth of the national economy, Lien Quang Thanh Business Liquefied Petroleum Gas Joint Stock Company has achieved a lot of success, contributing to the gasoline industry Currently the company does business in various activities such as producing, wholesaling, retailing fuel trade of solid, liquid, gas and related products; electrical appliances, household appliances, gas stoves, metal utensils in kitchens and pure bottled water,… In which, gas products create 80% of the total revenue for Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC However, since 2011, gas companies have appeared rapidly in Thai Binh Province, this made the market share fragmented Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC faces to a lot of challenges which destabilizes the current position in the local market In addition to the fluctuation of world and domestic petroleum gas price affected company’s production cost In this currently competitive situation, to promote sales of its gasoline product in order to maximizing profits, Lien Quang Thanh.,JSC should change the way that they ... thesis ? ?IMPROVING MARKETING MIX FOR GAS PRODUCTS IN LIEN QUANG THANH BUSINESS LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS JOINT STOCK COMPANY? ?? is to analyze the current marketing mix of Lien Quang Thanh. ,JSC’s gas products, ... RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING MARKETING MIX OF GAS PRODUCTS IN LIEN QUANG THANH. ,JSC 56 4.1 Lien Quang Thanh. ,JSC’s marketing objectives for gas products .56 4.2 Recommendations for improving marketing. .. encourages me to choose the topic ? ?Improving marketing mix for gas products in Lien Quang Thanh Business Liquefied Petroleum Gas Joint Stock Company? ?? as the final thesis to graduate from the National