kế hoạch marketing của bút bi thiên long - thiên long pen marketing plan

That up-to-date technology, continuous innovation, high-quality products, and excellent manpower can differentiate Thienlong group with many competitors, especially in the competition in

One-year Marketing Plan

Thienlong group

Trần Kim Dự Phan Khánh Hải Ngô Hớn Khang Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Thiện Điền Nguyễn Xuân Vinh

4/23/2012

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary 1

2 Company Description 2

3 Strategic Focus and Plan 3

Mission 3

Core competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage 3

4 Situation Analysis 3

SWOT Analysis 3

Industry Analysis: trends of common pens and premium pens 5

Competitors Analysis 6

Company Analysis 8

Customer Analysis 8

5 Market-Product Focus 9

Marketing and Product Objectives 9

Target Markets 10

Points of Differences 10

Positioning 11

6 Marketing Program 11

Product Strategy 11

Price Strategy 12

Promotion Strategy 13

Place (Distribution) Strategy 15

1 Executive Summary

Thienlong group offers a variety of stationery products, including pens, office, art, and school supplies Throughout 31 years of operation and manufacturing, the Group has gained five international management criteria: ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management), OHSAS 18001 (health and working management), SA 8000 (society

commitment), and ISO 17025 (laboratory controlling) For the past 10 years (1998 – 2008), Thienlong group has been ranked as the number one in the Stationery Category casted by Saigon Tiep Thi magazine

To consolidate the position and pursue the mission “serving study and conquer the peak

of knowledge as a supplier of writing instruments and stationery", the Group has to make most of its core competency, its internal strength and external opportunities as well as try the best to diminish its weaknesses and avoid threats That up-to-date technology, continuous innovation, high-quality products, and excellent manpower can differentiate Thienlong group with many competitors, especially in the competition in pen market

In 2013, the image of Thienlong pens will be emphasized in both markets for low to mid-end class and for business people who have higher income Up to now, Waterman, Joon, Parker, and Underwood are famous brand names that compete with Thienlong in premium product line Besides, China pens and Ben Nghe pens are competitive products compared to Thienlong pens in common product line In this situation, Thienlong group decided to focus on the expectation of customers toward ballpoint pens and try to solve all existing quality concerns

To specify the mission and goals in ballpoint pen market, Thienlong group has listed gaining 65% of market share for pen by the end of 2013 as the main marketing and product objectives, followed by sub-objectives in current market, new market, and technical competency

On the way to reach this target, Thienlong should enhance its points of differences such as the smooth of inks and brand equity, to encourage people to choose Thienlong pens instead of the others Although the common product line seems quite easy for the Group to strengthen the impact of Thienlong products, it is totally different in the premium product line because

customers often do not consider Thienlong pens as an expression of prestige Therefore, it will

be harder to change customers’ perception in this market

In order to accomplish these objectives, Thienlong group will apply four marketing mix elements, especially the promotion and place strategies While product strategy focus on making greater appeal, price strategy is for maintain the acceptable price compared with Thienlong’s competitors Promotion strategy includes IMC program with three alternatives of promotional mix: personal selling, public relations, and direct marketing Place strategy is applied with push and pull strategies, depends on the product line Each strategy has their own way to implement, but all four strategies have the same goal of contributing to the fame of Thienlong pens

Based on the market and that we have been in business for over 30 years already, we are looking to do two things The first is strengthening the products’ name and image in both the common product line and premium product line, and secondly will be to increase market share over the next year With the focus solely on gaining more exposure and becoming more of a company that consumers really trust, we will gain brand loyalty which should boost our sales significantly

2 Company Description

Founded in 1981, Thienlong group provided only some simple pens with small-scale production process By 1991, the Group has successfully expanded its market of art, office, and school supplies, especially the market of pens, over the whole nation by staying focus on customers and evolving to meet their needs Thanks to excellent workforce, advanced technology, and modern equipment, Thienlong is now considered as the number one company in the field of manufacturing pens in Vietnam Thienlong Pens have reached every corner of life, serving the needs of studying and working

For domestic market, the distribution network of Thienlong stationery has widely covered 64/64 cities and provinces with over 100 distributors and 40,000 points of sale In terms of export market, Thienlong products are currently available in all five continents of the world

Thienlong group believes its high-quality strategy has proven successful This marketing plan outlines how the Group reinforces the market share in organizational goods market and expands influence in customer goods

3 Strategic Focus and Plan

This section involves two key parts that influence the marketing plan: (1) Mission and (2) Core competency of Thienlong Pen

Mission

“Thienlong is determined to serve study and conquer the peak of knowledge as a supplier of writing instruments and stationery"

In this fast-developing modern lifetime, the mission of Thienlong group is to create utility stationery in elegant shapes in order to please customers of low to mid-end incomes who desire

to study, to work, to conquer knowledge, and to broaden their minds The Group will always devote itself to the conveniences and confidence of the users

Core competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

In order to pursue that mission, Thienlong group has leveraged its core competencies, which take take the forms of up-to-date technology, continuous innovation, and excellent staffs

On the way to create the image of Thienlong stationery as delicate and easy-to-use products, these competencies then differentiate our products by the best services for consumers, including product offerings and post-purchase services

When Thienlong group continuously improves its core competencies in response to the changing market conditions to thrive more and more, it create sustainable competitive advantages, involving improving the quality of products, dynamic product lines, and strong man force in close-knit relationships

4 Situation Analysis

This situation analysis defines and interprets the current environment in which Thienlong group finds itself by providing a brief SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis After this overview, there are four subsections, including industry, competitors, company, and consumers analyses that provide more in-depth description of the Group

SWOT Analysis

Table 1 shows the current strengths and weaknesses of Thienlong group as well as opportunities and threats in the market The goal of this analysis is to enhance the strengths as much as possible while reducing weaknesses in order to take full advantages of the market’s opportunities and avoid threats

Table 1 SWOT Analysis for Thienlong group

Internal

Management,

workforce

Experienced and entrepreneurial management and board High qualified workforce depending on over 200 000 graduates per year.1

Offerings

Provide unique brand personality and brand equity

Many competitors with same or lower quality and price Current models are not really attractive

Marketing

Establishing strong distribution system with distributors, selling points, bookstores, supermarkets…

Many products have only one marketing strategy; restricted in using products High inventory cost

Finance

High growth rate in revenues/profit ratios (412/37, 484/47, 618/58) for the last three years.2

Manufacturing

A 150-billion-VND factory named Thienlong Long Thanh built in 2008 with the productivity of 200 million products per year 3

High production cost

External

Consumer/

Social

Market scale is very wide and increases continuously Vietnamese often take priority to select Vietnamese stationary products if Vietnamese products are the same in prices and quality as foreign products

Avoid misunderstanding in international communication

Joining WTO brings huge foreign competitors such as Parker, Sheaffer, etc Some Vietnamese business people often refer high brand name like Parker instead of domestic firms

Competitive

The credibility of Vietnamese high-quality product certification

Chinese competitors see Vietnam as a potential market where they can export large quantities of pens and put

domestic production into hard situation because of their low price strategy

Technological

Production technology is developed continuously, which leads to increase in quality and reduction in variable cost

Vietnamese firms rely too much on imported machines and facilities

1 General Statistics Office, (2010) Higher education report

2

Co, C (2011, 08 05) Interview by N Nguyen [Personal Interview] Thienlong group: Stationery is not a small market , Ho Chi Minh City

3 Co, C (2011, 08 05) Interview by N Nguyen [Personal Interview] Thienlong group: Stationery is not a small market , Ho Chi Minh City

Economic Target consumers’ incomes are

increasing

Inflation makes it hard to balance between quality and profit

Legal/

Regulatory

Government supports Vietnamese products and prohibits product counterfeiting

Because some countries reserve a portion in their industry for domestic companies, Vietnamese companies cannot enhance export

Thienlong group manifest its strengths as excellent managers and staffs, famous brand name in associated with the personality traits including simple and convenient, large amount of distribution networks, and strong investment in manufacturing and R&D department In addition, favorable external factors such as the increase in population and customers’ incomes, technological benefits from foreign machines, the protection from business law make it easy for the Group to compete with other competitors

While a future opportunity can be a potential strength, a future threat can be a potential weakness Thienlong products have to compete with more and more famous foreign brand name and even Chinese business rivals who are usually known as suppliers of super low-price products With these outside threats, the Group should improve its main weaknesses involving limited marketing strategy, high production cost, and the appearance of current models

Industry Analysis: trends of common pens and premium pens

Common pens: Nowadays, pen is an indispensable part of modern life because it is tied to

the studying, working, and daily behaviors of everybody Among 2 million Vietnamese students, each student’ averagely use is about two pens/month4

, with the price 3000 each pen, that means the expenditure of the students for pens is about 150 billion VND per year If we include other pens’ users such as high school pupils and officers, the total expenditure for pen become extremely large Therefore, it is expected that demand of pen market will growing continuously, which opens a new wide future for Thienlong and for the pen industry as a whole

4 Vietnam Student Association (2009 - 2013) (2009)

Preliminary review in union work and student movement-congress midterm VIII

Premium pens: As a product, it is a status symbol, a sign of prosperity and education

Premium pen is a symbol of power In the premium segment, the increasing in customers’ incomes and their personal needs of status, prestige and self-respect create a potential chance for pen manufacturers to invest in this product segment Although the sales of premium pens are not

as large as the common pens’, this line of products can bring big revenue due to its high prices

A price of premium pens may up to over 100 times of common pens This highly profitable segment comes with the challenges from well-known foreigner companies such as Parker, Allan D’lious, and Waterman Therefore, it seems like in premium line, Vietnamese producers are just

in the stage of introduction and raising awareness

Competitors Analysis

Stationery market, pen market in particular, belongs to monopolistic competition where there are many sellers competing with their products on a substitutable basis Thienlong pens have to face with two types of competitors, one from foreign countries, and another from different Vietnamese brands

Foreign competitors: In the competition with foreign companies, there are two concerns,

one of famous and luxurious brand name such as Waterman, Joon, Parker or Underwood and the other of very cheap products from China The well-known foreign brands attract customers who have high income because their models are

very luxury and it demonstrates the level of

user At this present, Thienlong group is

striving to raise awareness and interest of its

luxurious brand name Bizner in premium pen

market It is a hard task which needs at least

six months because Thienlong is very new

and slightly weak on this section Another

foreign competitor that is very famous in the ballpoint pen market in Viet Nam is Chinese pens Because of the inferior about the diversity of the products, Thienlong has lost a large number of customers who concerned about the appearance of products to China, which usually produces pens with diversity, colorful models, and low prices Table 2 illustrates some different factors between Thienlong pens and those imported from China

Table 2

Quality Low quality, use in short time High quality

Services Doesn’t have Customer care and some services

for students

Model Variety, good looking, attractive Variety, but not attractive

Domestic competitors: In domestic competition, only in Ho Chi Minh City, there are over

3000 business registered in pen market activities and nearly 50 businesses, who directly manufacture pens Among these competitors, Ben Nghe Company should be the first one to mention because Ben Nghe and Thienlong seem like going in a parallel road when if there is one product of Thienlong group, there will be also mostly the same product of Ben Nghe With the same target markets and advertising channels, Ben Nghe is considered as a huge competitor of Thienlong because of its benchmarking strategy

Figure 1 shows us about the competition of Thienlong with other competitors.5

5 TVSI, T (2010, 0003 26) Updated analysis report of thienlong group Retrieved from www.tvsi.com.vn

Figure 1

Market Share of Viet Nam Stationery

55%

14%

29%

2%

Thien Long Ben Nghe Imported Products Another

Company Analysis

Common pens are the segments bringing the largest profit for Thienlong Thienlong pen

is account for the largest share in Vietnam pen market and remain the growth rate at about 25% per year on average According to a research of AC Nielsen Vietnam in 2009, Thienlong have 55% share of pen industry in Vietnam Thienlong pen is so popular that when asking students about their choice of pens, most of them had used Thienlong pen at least one time These achievements are resulted from the advantages of being the pioneer in manufacturing pens in Vietnam Early customers recall the pioneer brand name if they satisfy with the product This pioneer position also brings long-term market-share reward However, Thienlong pen can lose these advantages within the blink of an eye over pricing, services or lagging technology Therefore, Thienlong should emphasize on continuous innovation and 4P strategies

Throughout over 30 years of operation, Thienlong group always highlight “the best quality” as its guideline of production To consolidate this statement, the Group has given its managers and staffs numbers of chances to attend refresher courses in well-developed foreign countries in order for them to contribute their best abilities to the success of Thienlong group Besides human factor, the Group always invests strongly on R&D and manufacturing to meet the high requirements of target markets

In recent days, Thienlong group has conducted many social activities such as Exam Consultation and Exam Strengthening starting from 2002, The Thienlong Used Pens for Cash, Secretary’s Day, etc as “a homage to the society” that greatly contributes to the development of the Group These activities can also be considered as a typical marketing strategy to create the image of the Group in associated with education, which will gain wide acceptance from customers

Customer Analysis

This section describes (1) the characteristics of customers who are expected to buy Thienlong pens and (2) quality concerns of Vietnamese today

Customer characteristics: depending on two different product lines, there are two target

markets with two typical traits The common line is responsible for activating the physiological needs of writing Whatever ethnic groups people belong to, wherever people live, each time they study or work, they do need pens as an indispensable tool to complete their job In this segment, the Group mainly focuses on low to mid-end incomes who stress on utility like place and