Some digital marketing solutions for appota joint stock company = Một vài giải pháp Digital Marketing cho Công ty CP Appota

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS TRAN VINH QUANG SOME DIGITAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR APPOTA JOINT STOCK COMPANY Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Supervisors: Dr Tran Doan Kim Hanoi - 2012 TABLES OF CONTENTS AKNOWLEGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii TÓM TẮT iv TABLES OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES x ABBREVIATIONS xi INTRODUCTION .1 CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Overview of marketing 1.1.1 Marketing in general 1.1.2 Marketing management 1.1.3 Shift in marketing management 1.2 Digital Marketing .7 1.2.1 Definition 1.2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing 1.2.3 The factors that influence in Digital marketing 10 1.3 Majors marketing tools in digital marketing 12 1.3.1 Email marketing 12 1.3.2 Online advertising 15 1.3.3 Affiliate marketing 18 1.3.4 Viral marketing .20 1.3.5 Social media marketing 22 1.3.6 Search engine marketing 26 1.3.7 Mobile marketing 29 CHAPTER - ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL MARKETING SITUATION OF APPOTA JSC 34 2.1 APPOTA‟s introduction 34 2.1.1 General information 34 vii 2.1.2 Products and services 37 2.1.3 Customers .38 2.2 Digital marketing macro-environment analysis .40 2.2.1 Legal – political environment 41 2.2.2 Economics environment 42 2.2.3 Social – cultural environment 42 2.2.4 Technological environment 43 2.3 APPOTA‟s Digital Marketing situation analysis 49 2.3.1 Company factors influencing marketing activities 49 2.3.2 Market factors and trends .50 2.3.3 Future competitors and Appota analysis 501 2.3.4 Current major marketing tools 514 2.4 Evalution of Appota‟s digital marketing 60 2.4.1 Pros 60 2.4.2 Cons 62 CHAPTER – SOME DIGITAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR APPOTA JSC 63 3.1 Recommended in major digital marketing tools 63 3.1.1 Online advertising 63 3.1.2 Social media marketing 63 3.1.3 Viral marketing .65 3.1.4 Mobile marketing 66 3.1.5 Market research 67 3.1.6 Management process 67 3.2 Action plan .68 3.2.1 Action plan for each step 68 3.2.2 Budget and other resources 69 3.2.3 Schedule 70 3.2.4 Control and Evaluation 70 3.3 Other suggestions for company 70 viii 3.3.1 Differentiation-Focus to market segment .70 3.3.2 Focus in product‟ development and innovation .71 3.3.3 More suggestions to improve 72 CONCLUSION 77 REFERENCE 79 APPENDIX SAMPLES OF WEEKLY CONTENTS PROVIDED TO APPOTA USERS 80 ix LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES FIGURE 1-1: CONTEX OF DIGITAL MARKETING 10 FIGURE 1-2: THE SONG‟S TREND IN GOOGLE TREND 21 FIGURE 1-3: THE MODEL OF SOCIAL MEDIA 23 FIGURE 1-4: THE MODEL OF WEB 2.0 .24 FIGURE 1-5: RELATED WORD IN SEARCHING .27 FIGURE 2-1: APPOTA‟S MAJOR MILESTONE: 35 FIGURE 2-2: APPOTA‟S BUSINESS MODEL 36 FIGURE 2-3: VIETNAM SMARTPHONE OPERATING SYSTEM SHARE .38 FIGURE 2-4: APPOTA‟S USERS BY MOBILE PHONE OPERATING SYSTEM 39 FIGURE 2-5: APPOTA‟S TOP & BIGGEST APPLICATION DEVELOPERS AND CONTENT PROVIDERS .40 FIGURE 2-6: IT INDUSTRY - REVENUES AND GROWTH RATE 42 FIGURE 2-7: INTERNET USERS - NUMBERS AND GROWTH RATE 45 TABLE 1-1: PROS AND CONS OF ONLINE ADVERTISING 17 TABLE 1-2: COMPARING BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA 22 TABLE 1-3: SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING – SEO & PPC‟ PROS AND CONS 28 TABLE 1-4: MOBILE PHONE FEATURES AND IMPLICATION FOR MARKETERS 30 TABLE 2-1: NUMBER OF TELECOM, INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS 47 x ABBREVIATIONS 2G 2nd Generation Mobile System (usually GSM) 3G 3rd Generation Mobile System (usually UMTS/WCDMA) SME Small and Medium Enterprise MI Mobile Internet SP Service Provider CS Content supplier DEV Developer CP Content providers TELCO Telecommunication Company NO Network Operator ISP Internet Service Provider ADV Advertising HR Human Resource IP Internet Protocol ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line MBA Master of Business Administration LAN Local Area Network R&D Research and Development ROI Return on Investment SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats SMS Short Messaging Service IOS Apple mobile operating system Android Google mobile operating system FI Founder Institute Mobile website A website that programed to compatible with mobile device ARPU Average Revenue Per User xi INTRODUCTION The thesis title Some Digital Marketing Solutions for APPOTA Joint Stock Company Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to suggest some marketing solutions with action plans to be used in a year to continue growth of Appota with existing products In order to that, the thesis focuses on reviewing and summarizing the theory of marketing and digital marketing with major tools; applying the reviewed literature to analyze Appota situation now; and propose some solutions to enhance the digital marketing in Appota The thesis necessity Appota is a SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) in the information and communication technology founded in Dec, 2011 Within a year of start-up, it has achieved a significant growth in terms of both revenues and headcount.The company currently has employed more than 60 headcount who obtain many years of experience in mobile content Appota has become a premier partner to many big companies in the same industry and a leading-edge smartphone content provider in Vietnam With the market share of more than 60% of smartphone users including iOS and Android mobile users, Appota is one of the most disruptive start-up in Vietnam ICT industry The company intends to increase its market share to be the dominance and keep the impressive growth to extend business to South East Asia with the target of coverage over 20 million smartphone users Being one of the co-founders of the company and take responsible for all sales & marketing activities, I have been working with both Sales& Marketing team to gain market share, attract customer, monetized products and services, build customer database, keep strong relationship with partners We have tried a lot of new marketing strategies or plans to find the best approach for the company Based on the research in marketing activities and with an insight of company situation, my finding in this thesis is to address the digital marketing with specific solutions as a strong tool for the company to keep the growth Scope of research APPOTA follows a new model in Vietnam with no competitors currently, moreover it has only one year of operation Therefore, instead of implementing industry analysis (including competitors) and SWOT analysis (that provides understanding about Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) the thesis focuses on suggesting some practical solutions for the company This thesis offers an idea for the company on how they could apply the marketing solution, especially eMarketing to keep the growth of market share and growth of customer base in the target segment Research questions Which theories can be applied in Digital Marketing at Appota? What current digital marketing practice at Appota? How to improve Digital Marketing and other suggestion to Appota? Methodology and Limitations of Study The thesis based on a qualitative research and a case study method for analytical purpose to suggest or explain why or how something is happening Appota‟s specific data collection was carried out by interviews In the interviews, Appota‟s representatives like CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and Product Director provided very valuable ideas and information on the subject.Besides, author‟s own observations and experiences were also used in data collection and analysis Secondary data has been computed by research of documents, annual/quarterly reports of Appota Significance By reviewing the theory of digital marketing, this research benefits Appota in proposing marketing tools to increase the market share and improve the revenues which contributes to the company‟s development Expectation Digital marketing is being well applied in many companies around the world so the same methodology can be applied in the scenario of other companies in the same industry with some adjustments Follow-up Further study will be carried on upon the result of this thesis in applying some digital marketing solutions for the company Other way of study will be analyzing the impact of the competition on the company and steps toavoidor come over unexpected impacts 10 Structure The first chapter is an introduction with concentration on marketing in general and marketing tools, especially digital marketing The second chapter describes actual state of the company regarding its products and services, customers and current marketing practice The third chapter concentrates on marketingsolutionsfor the company with a specific action plan CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Overview of marketing 1.1.1 Marketing in general Marketing can be found everywhere as people nowadays are bombarded with television commercials, direct-mail offers and sales calls Simplified, marketing is only a two-way process, even though four stages can be recognized which are designing, developing, delivering and determining value1 Baines stresses that a two-way process includes customer and marketing organization The four stages are there to ensure that the whole process will be successful Customer is the one who has the power to make the final decision and has a strong input Additionally, marketers must specify how to satisfy customers‟ needs In Vietnam, perspective to marketing is very different They emphasize the importance of market segmentation and positioning instead of other features As can be seen, marketing is a wide and versatile term, which includes many dimensions of business activities Whatever determination is used, the terms value, customer needs and information are often mentioned Therefore, when thinking of promotion, which is a vital part of the marketing process, it is good to bear in mind that many features influence the result 1.1.2 Marketing management Marketing deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs When YouTube realizes that people want to share their video and interact in a simple way, or when WhatsApp realized that people want to chat via mobile phone‟s data plan rather than to pay money for SMS, they demonstrated marketing savvy and turned a private or social need into a profitable business opportunity It is the reason why marketing is also defined as “meeting needs profitability” Baines, Fill, Page, “Marketing: Case insight”,Oxford University Press, 1st edition, 2008, pg.17 ... xi INTRODUCTION The thesis title Some Digital Marketing Solutions for APPOTA Joint Stock Company Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to suggest some marketing solutions with action plans to be... major marketing tools 514 2.4 Evalution of Appota? ??s digital marketing 60 2.4.1 Pros 60 2.4.2 Cons 62 CHAPTER – SOME DIGITAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR APPOTA. .. to analyze Appota situation now; and propose some solutions to enhance the digital marketing in Appota The thesis necessity Appota is a SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) in the information and