KẾ HOẠCH TIẾP THI UNILEVER

UNILEVER VIETNAM MARKETING DEPARTMENTMARKETING PLAN FOR OMO DETERGENT POWDER... In this plan, the PR activities of Unilever Vietnam UVN for OMO detergent powder was used as a case study

UNILEVER VIETNAM MARKETING DEPARTMENT

MARKETING PLAN

FOR OMO DETERGENT POWDER

CONTENTS

I wish to acknowledge many individuals whose have instructed and supported

in the completion of this plan

Special thanks to Dr Dung Tran for his complete support with many valuable

lessons, suggestions and weekly advice on how to write a marketing plan Besides, his weekly reminders really gave pressure as well as motivation for the completion of this plan

Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to all of my friends for their advice and support during the time I was working on this plan

LECTURER’S REMARKS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEO: Chief Executive Officer

P&G: Procter & Gamble

ACN: A C Nielsen Company (marketing research)

TNS: Taylor Nelson Sofres Company (marketing research) SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility

R&D: Research and Development

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

TVC: Television Commercial

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables:

Table 1 OMO product Portfolio

Table 2 Population of 4 major cities in Vietnam

Table 3 Price comparison between OMO and Tide

Figures: Figure 1 Marketing mix elements (the 4P’s)

Figure 2 Five levels of product by Kotler

Figure 3 The Extended Marketing mix (7Ps)

Figure 4 Detergent market share in Vietnam (2009)

Figure 5 Product Mix of OMO

Figure 6 Distribution network of OMO

Figure 7 TVC –White Clothes for Bright Futures

Figure 8 TVC – OMO Stain removal expert

PART I: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

An important objective of this plan is to understand and learn how to evaluate the role of Public relations (PR) in marketing mix strategy of a company In this plan, the PR activities of Unilever Vietnam (UVN) for OMO detergent powder was used as a case study for analysis

In the second part, I’d like to present an introduction of UVN and provide an overview

of OMO brand - the core object of the analysis- and its position in the market Furthermore, this part may help the readers know how strong or weak the brand is; and what opportunities, threats may come to the brand

In the third part, the company’s main strengths and weaknesses and the main opportunities and threat facing OMO detergent powder will be identified

In the fourth part, we define the company’s objectives in the areas of sales, market share and profits, and the issues that will affect these objectives

Part five is going to discuss Marketing Strategies and Action Programs for OMO

Part six will forecast the budget and the expected financial outcomes from the plan.Finally, in the last part, we will see how the progress of the plan for OMO brand will be monitored

PART II: CURRENT MARKETING SITUATION

1 An overview of Unilever Vietnam and OMO detergent powder

1.1 About Unilever Vietnam:

Unilever Vietnam is a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever Corporation, one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods in foods, household and personal care products with a presence in more than 150 countries

Unilever started operation in Vietnam in 1995 with a total investment around US$120 million

in 2 companies: Lever Vietnam - specializing in Home and Personal Care products and Unilever Bestfoods & Elida P/S - in Foods, Tea and Tea-based Beverages

Since its establishment, Unilever’s wide range of products such as OMO, Viso, Sunsilk, Clear, Lifebuoy, Lux, Dove, Pond’s, Close-Up, P/S, Lipton, Knorr have not only met the needs

of Vietnamese consumers but also gained leading position in the categories which they compete Unilever Vietnam has developed an extensive national network of more than 200 principle distributors and over 400,000 outlets nationwide by 2008 The company directly employs more than 2,000 people and indirectly creates nearly 6,000 jobs via its local business partners such as suppliers, distributors and third party contractors (*)

Since 1995 to date, Unilever Vietnam has always achieved significant double-digit growth each year In April 2010 and April 2005, the company was honored to receive the President of the State's First rank Labour Medal and Second rank Labour Medal respectively for its excellent business performance and contribution to the development of Vietnam In April

2000, Unilever Vietnam received the Prime Minister’s Award for its excellent business performance and contribution to many social and charity activities and community health and education projects Unilever Vietnam is committed to helping people feel good,

look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the community We will develop new ways of doing business that will allow us to grow while reducing our environmental impacts

OMO is a brand among homecare products of Unilever Since its first day back in 2000, through delivering the simplest and most efficient laundry, OMO is contributing to cleaner and happier Vietnamese lives

Following information will provide us a closer view of OMO

1.2.2 Product Portfolio:

OMO Product Portfolio

OMO bleach

OMO comfort

OMO packshot handwash

OMO packshot matic front load

OMO top load

Table 1 OMO product Portfolio

1.2.3 Market segmentation:

a) Target market:

Initially, OMO targeted middle- and high-income consumers market Later, with a commitment

to bring the best benefits to customers’ lives, Unilever and OMO are trying to reduce production cost and lower its prices to meet the demands of customers with low income in rural and remote areas

b) Defining business market:

Detergent washing power, targeting to provide good washing quality detergent powder

c) Segmentation method:

Unilever segments its market for the brand OMO by population and geography, based on the following variables:

1) Density/Dimension Scale:

OMO mainly covers cities and large towns throughout the country since this is an attractive market with high profitability The population densities in these areas are relatively large, and the demands there for washing products are higher than in rural areas

detergent powder brands

1.2.4 Key facts:

 Largest brand in Vietnam

 Has around 60% share of the Vietnamese detergent market

 Most highly recognized brand in Vietnam, 2005 (ACN Omnibus)

 98% of Vietnamese households have tried OMO at least once (TNS Consumer Panel)

 The brand is still only 10 years old in Vietnam

PART III: SWOT ANALYSIS

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In this section, I’d like to provide a brief analysis of OMO’s SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats)

Strengths:

- Strong financial capability: with the support of Unilever Corporation, OMO has good finance to maintain its top position in the market as well as make it a stronger brand

- Reputation: since its first days, OMO has created the credibility with the customers by providing high quality products Since then, the reputation of the brand has been highly recognized

- Distribution channels: Unilever has built a huge distribution channel nationwide

to sell its products, including OMO

- CSR activities: Unilever has implemented a lot of CSR activities with OMO brand as a representative These activities reward OMO and Unilever a lot with the increase of sales

- People: Unilever has a strong company culture and high quality human resources whose responsibilities are highly appreciated

- R&D: research and development activities are favourite investment channels of UVN Thus, OMO always has new innovations for its product range

- Almost key leaders of UVN are foreigners so some promotions may not be suitable with ways of life of Vietnamese people This may lead to losing the interest of customers toward the brand

Opportunities:

- In recent years, the average personal income of Vietnamese people has been increased significantly This is a chance for OMO to expand its market as the number of potential customers, who could afford OMO’s price, is increasing

- Living standard of Vietnamese people is improved year by year, and now many people are able to own washing machines for household use Thus, the market share of detergent powder for washing machines will expand for all competitors, including OMO.

- Vietnamese people primarily live in extended family (2 or 3 generations live together), this is still a great consumption channel for OMO

2 Key competitors & Position in detergent washing powder market:

Currently, there are various detergent powder brands of different manufacturers in Vietnamese market Thus, the competition to gain a larger market share in this industry is very harsh in the market The key competitors in this competition include such brands as Tide, Vi Dan, Surf, Viso, etc Of these brands, Viso and Surf live in the same home with OMO as they are products of Unilever Therefore, only Tide is direct competitor of OMO because other brands either belong to a different market segment or are not strong enough to compete with OMO

After entering the detergent market in Vietnam, OMO has built credibility in customers’ consciousness as high quality detergent which resulting in 60% market share against its competitors, especially Tide (P&G) At present, OMO is the largest detergent powder brand in Vietnam

Figure 4 Detergent market share in Vietnam (2009)

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PART IV: OBJECTIVES AND ISSUES

1.1 Achievements:

 PR activities of OMO have achieved great communication effectiveness

The public relations activities have implemented on a large scale and have achieved great communication effectiveness The activities have made the image of OMO now is not just a normal consumer product but attach with the image of caring and sharing Thanks to effective PR programs, OMO has created a move in brand positioning to be a community –oriented brand and "burned in the minds of customers.”

 Positive contributions to the society

The PR programs have really brought practical benefits to society The CRS programs have helped many disadvantaged pupils and students and poor families to continue their learning and production The programs have really created noble human values

detergent powder market by creating a unique event - washing the biggest T-shirt in the world, and that was the only message taken out from the event OMO did not measure the aspect of East Asian culture and current economic situation of Vietnam at the time Vietnamese people need something practical and useful for community in such an event The giant T-shirt was considered a waste of money for nothing.

Secondly, although PR activities of OMO have achieved great communication effectiveness but in my objective opinion, these programs have not been replicated In other words, new activities only confined in large cities, especially Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City while OMO’s target customers are all families throughout the country

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PART V: MARKETING STRATEGIES AND

ACTION PROGRAMMES

ANALYSIS THE ROLE OF PR ACTIVITIES IN MARKETING MIX STRATEGY OF

OMO DETERGENT

1 The role of PR in the marketing mix strategy of OMO:

1.1 The objectives of PR activities:

Objective is a guideline for all activities, especially with the PR programs Setting clear and rational objectives can help OMO planning, implementing and evaluating PR activities effectively

The list below is a brief of objectives that OMO has set for its PR activities:

 Providing information positively and effectively about product quality in significant events via mass Medias

 Achieving a wider promotion of the positive roles, the needs of using OMO washing powder in daily life

 Positioning OMO washing powder at a higher level, the level of a prestigious and community-oriented brand in customers’ minds

1.2 The role of PR in the marketing mix strategy of OMO:

In the success of OMO’s marketing mix strategy, we cannot forget to mention the important role of PR activities In each campaign, there is not only PR department of Unilever, but also a powerful force of PR firms that always ready to support them Once a program is launched, it is one time OMO attracts the attention of customers

OMO always catches the concerns of customers and responses to them positively PR plays a vital role in raising brand awareness for OMO as well as influences purchase decisions of customers PR activities of OMO usually begin by creating “public opinion tendency”, and program “Dirt is good” was a typical example Starting with the concept that today many parents do not allow their children to play outdoors because they afraid the children may get dirty, OMO sent them the message: “Give your children the freedom

to learn and play – Dirt is good” The message aroused the consciousness of the parents about letting their children freedom to learn and play even if they might get dirty OMO

newspapers; actually most of comments or articles on the papers were conducted by OMO’s PR executives under different names They made customers believe that, for children, getting messy is a natural part of learning, having fun and enjoying everything life throws at them; and no matter how dirty your family's clothes get, a wash with OMO will ensure that they emerge white and bright again - so you and your children can go out and be as active as you like Such PR activities help increasing brand awareness for OMO significantly because OMO has concentrated on solving the public’s concern positively.

The success of creating a high customer’s awareness of OMO has been creating many advantages for the brand in dominating the detergent powder market as well as competing with others competitors Back to 2002, the market witnessed a fierce price war between OMO and Tide aimed at dominating the market When the price fell through the floor, the two brands had to increase the prices again because they could not afford with such low prices However, the power of communication of OMO which based on the success of PR activities helped OMO won in this price war due to higher brand awareness created earlier At that time, noisily PR and advertising activities made OMO a top of mind (TOM) brand of many customers, thus they were still willing to pay more for the product even if the price was higher than TIDE Furthermore, once the brand awareness is high, the need for expanding distribution channels is also a essential In this case, we can see that PR has indirectly distributed to the expanding of OMO’s distribution channels as PR has completed its vital role in raising public awareness about the brand

In summary, PR plays an important role in marketing mix strategy of OMO PR activities not only help increasing the brand awareness among customers but also creating advantages for OMO in price competition with other competitors Besides, PR also contributes in the expanding of distribution channel of OMO Generally, PR nearly covers all the 4Ps in the marketing mix strategy of OMO The success of PR activities has brought OMO to the heart of customers, making them consider OMO a high quality brand; even more, it is a brand that always looking forwards to create the best value for customers’ lives

2 Reviews of PR activities of OMO:

It can be said that UVN had a thoughtful marketing strategy with creative communication activities in order to polish the trademark and attract customers' consumption to

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