Marketing plan for developing bakery products for kids in supermarkets

27 CHAPTER 5: MARKETING PLAN FOR DEVELOPING BAKERY PRODUCTS FOR KIDS IN SUPERMARKETS .... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Regarding the market situation, company’s strategies and marketing budget as w

COMMITMENTS

The information, knowledge in this thesis of “Marketing plan to develop bakery products for kids in supermarkets” is my own work with academic learning from the course MBMM, from tutor’s advices as well as from my own working experience

All data in this thesis are true and I will use it for study only, it can be used for Puratos business but not for any other commercial purposes

Quang Minh Truc

I would like especially thank to Dr.Nguyen Minh Ha, my tutor for the final thesis, without any day learning in his class, but I received abundant guidance, information and particularly his enthusiasm in tutoring Without his tutoring, my thesis will not

be completed

I also thank to Ms.Janet Leong, my General Manager of Puratos Vietnam, who helped to consult me for practical advices from her own experience and from company’s aspects

I highly appreciate my classmates, group mates for the sharing, encouraging, challenging me during the course and in the period doing final thesis

Lastly, and most importantly, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my dearest wife, family who gave me both financial and moral supports that I needed during 2 year studying, and to my little baby girl is the very last thanks for her bringing happiness

to my life during studying time

TUTOR’S COMMENTS

SUPERMARKETS

COMMENTS:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COMMITMENTS 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 2

TUTOR’S COMMENTS 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

LIST OF FIGURES 6

LIST OF TABLES 7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 10

1.1 Problem statement 10

1.2 Study objectives 10

1.3 Scope and scale of project 11

1.4 Research methodology 11

1.5 Significance of this study 12

1.6 The study structure 12

CHAPTER 2: PURATOS INTRODUCTION 13

2.1 Vision, Mission and Values 13

2.2 Puratos’ marketing activities and conceptual framework 15

CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 16

3.1 Marketing plan 16

3.2 Market analysis 17

3.3 Marketing objectives, targeting and positioning 19

3.4 Marketing mix 4P’s to 4C’s 20

3.5 Resource and financial plans 22

3.6 Marketing Implementation 23

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 24

4.1 Research methodology 24

4.2 Questionnaire development 25

4.3 Training and pre-test 25

4.4 Free trial products and Interviews 26

4.5 Data collection and analysis 27

CHAPTER 5: MARKETING PLAN FOR DEVELOPING BAKERY PRODUCTS FOR KIDS IN SUPERMARKETS 28

5.1 Company mission 28

5.2 Market analysis 30

5.3 Company’s current marketing status: 35

5.4 Marketing plan for period 2012 - 2013 39

5.5 Marketing activities for marketing plan 41

5.6 Resource and budget for marketing plan 50

5.7 Implementation plan 54

5.8 Evaluations 55

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 57

REFERENCES 59

APPENDIX 61

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2-1: Puratos Group – key figures 14

Figure 2-2: Evolution of the annual turnover (in Million €) 14

Figure 5-1: Puratos Vietnam past 5 years’ growth 29

Figure 5-2: Puratos Vietnam sales forecast, growth forecast 29

Figure 5-3: Age and sex distribution for the year 2010 31

Figure 5-4: Vietnam GDP annual % growth 31

Figure 5-5: Forecast foods consumption in Vietnam 2004-2014 32

Figure 5-8: Customer’s acceptance price to buy bakery for their kids 45

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3-1: Marketing mix from 4 Ps to 4 Cs as Lauterbon’s principle 20

Table 5-1: SWOT analysis – Puratos Vietnam 33

Table 5-2: Sales forecast, marketing budget forecast 36

Table 5-3: Marketing activities and budget plan 37

Table 5-4: Summary project’s objectives 40

Table 5-5: Project’s budget allocation (USD) 51

Table 5-6: Project implementation plan 54

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Regarding the market situation, company’s strategies and marketing budget

as well as our position in Vietnam market, this marketing plan aims to provide a thorough understanding about current bakery products in supermarket and form a base for new development bakery products for kids, in order to achieve marketing objectives and gaining competitive advantage for Puratos, fulfill company mission

of double sales of Puratos group in the period year 2010 to 2018 and particular target for Puratos Vietnam with 35% growth each year in supermarket channel

The is ongoing co-operative project between Puratos as ingredient supplier and Big C casino as retailer in Vietnam, and it is planned to be completed for 12 months from April 2012, starting from concepts, ideas development to fully implementation in all Big C supermarkets nationwide by April 2013

Free trial products in the research by quantitative nature and data analysis are considered main important activities of project when we applied in field survey for

900 samples in 3 Big C supermarkets in Hochiminh city in the South and Hanoi city

in the North to represent for nationwide Vietnam to find out buying behaviors, products preference, important influencing factors on bakery products from kids’ perspectives to form a base of understanding for future products development for our target customer: kids

Budget for the project is fairly shared for both sides, in which Puratos is responsible for products developments by technical supports, products support during the survey and soft launching phases which are extracted from marketing budget and Big C own budget for their consumer promotion as well as communication activities

From the ideas of this project we have very positive feedbacks from customer about our capability in consumer insight understanding, technical supports and ability to help them explore new sales opportunity We are now on progress tracking sales performance, review and develop more new products and improvement packing as well as production cost to improve profit before official launching in April 2013

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The first chapter gives overall information about the study: reasons we need to

do, for what purposes, in certain extent of business status, the ways we do and significance of the study as well as how the thesis is structured

1.1 Problem statement

In the context of Vietnam economic is developing very well, bakery as one

of big foods business is proving its aggressive growth in recent years, especially in supermarket channel, which make them become one of key customers in bakery ingredient business Puratos, a business to business ingredient supplier, wants to take foothold in this important strategic channel by doing partnership marketing with key customers, aiming to gain long term relationship, and gaining sales to fulfill company business mission and marketing vision: Reliable partner in Business through project Development bakery products for kids in supermarkets In the context of market competition is tougher with many new entering competitors, company budget is higher, only by developing new ideas, concepts for customers

we can achieve our business purpose to secure constant sales growth 20% a year

1.2 Study objectives

The first objective of the study is to build a marketing plan for developing bakery products for kids in supermarket based on market survey results From the marketing plan, we have better understanding about budget to spend versus marketing budget, as well as expected business results for company strategic decision making Another important objective of this project is to make the base form for later studies for business development

The project was made for Puratos Vietnam supplier and Big C casino as big retailer in Vietnam which want to innovate new business opportunities in bakery products The two companies need to develop a new range of bakery and patisserie

products specific for kids shopping in Big C supermarkets to enlarge current products portfolio and to increase sales This is why thesis aims to provide information about bakery markets and retail business in Vietnam in order to find the right products to introduce to market

By fully deploying this new products range within one year, we expect to gain extra sales 10% on current bakery category at Big C supermarkets through 5 to

10 new products for kids, this can help Puratos to increase at least 7% incremental sales on current and new ingredient products

1.3 Scope and scale of project

The project scope is limited for only one specific customer: Big C Casino in Vietnam, which currently has 17 stores of hypermarkets and contributes around 20% sales revenue in total company sales, they are also very committed to long term investment in Vietnam market and for bakery category Other supermarket customers are not in the extent of this project study due to un-relevant customer profile, not strong commitment to bakery category development or lacking of resource to do By successful deployment to all Big C supermarkets, we expect the sales increase 7% - 10% from this project The period of this marketing plan is 12 months from April 2012

1.4 Research methodology

Research methodology for project is simplified without involvement of professional market research agency, event agency due to constrain in budget All were executed by dedicated Puratos sales and marketing staffs with cooperation from Big C bakery development team though desk research, in field research by quantity nature at 3 Big C supermarkets in Hochiminh and Hanoi city, and data statistic before giving out list of relevant products to develop In this marketing plan, diverse information in current business context was put into analysis and

planning consists of marketing strategy, current activities, resource and result from interviews

1.5 Significance of this study

In overall, this study aimed to:

 Gather best understanding about shopping behaviors of shoppers in Vietnam supermarkets

 Understand influencing factors in decision buying bakery products from kids and parents’ perspectives

 Understand preference selection in bakery assortment for kids

 Find out possibility to increase sales of bakery products in supermarkets

For Puratos, this is one of big cooperative marketing plan with big customer to make solid long term partnership and become real reliable partner in customer’s business, so it has critical meaning in making it perfect and applying for future similar marketing plan for other projects with other customers

1.6 The study structure

The project is structured with six chapters: this overall introduction part is as chapter 1 Chapter 2 introduces Puratos with its performance, vision, mission and marketing activities framework In chapter 3, there will be reviews on literature on marketing plan which are used as framework to make project’s marketing plan Chapter 4 discusses research methodology used in collecting and analysis data for the project The project’s marketing plan starts from chapter 5 with the framework base on components discussed in theory part with market analysis and 4 Ps components analysis Chapter 6 is conclusions and some recommendations for project

CHAPTER 2: PURATOS INTRODUCTION

Puratos is an international group with a full range of innovative products and application expertise in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors Products and services are available in more than 100 countries around the world, and in many cases actually produced there by our subsidiaries

Customers are artisans, industry, retailers and food service We aim to be

‘reliable partners in innovation’ wherever we are in the world, and so help our customers deliver nutritious, tasty food for the communities they live in Our head office is in Groot-Bijgaarden, near Brussels in Belgium

Entering Vietnam from year 1998, Puratos has been supplying bakery, patisserie and chocolate ingredients to almost bakery, patisserie customers in Vietnam as ABC, Duc Phat, Kinh Do, Tour les Jours, Bread Talk, Big C, Metro, Coopmart …and we are keen on the business to business sales strategy

2.1 Vision, Mission and Values

We believe that people will attach more and more importance to the quality

of their food in the future That is why we have adopted the unicorn, the famous mythological animal being a symbol of ethics and determination, to stand for our guarantee of safe, top-quality products

A mission of excellence

At Puratos, we are close to customers and consumers everywhere We turn technologies and experiences from food cultures around the world into new opportunities to help customers be more successful with their business

With long time experience in bakery products some key figures from group level and sales performance helps us more understand about Puratos

Figure 2-1: Puratos Group – key figures

Figure 2-2: Evolution of the annual turnover (in Million €)

Source: Puratos’ website Source: Puratos’ website

2.2 Puratos’ marketing activities and conceptual framework

Market Intelligence, screening market:

Market intelligence helps to line up solutions with consumer demand By screening the market in various ways, we want to contribute to the aim we share with our customers: the development of their business Through our network of subsidiaries and partners in over 100 countries worldwide, we can identify the latest trends at a very early stage We are in frequent contact with more than 200,000 customers: artisans, supermarkets, foodservice and industrial concerns On top of this day-to-day contact, we maintain an open and constructive dialogue with trade organizations and other food industry stakeholders

We are also closely in touch with consumers worldwide The most important countries are continuously screened to analyze new trends and identify new business opportunities for our customers In addition, we have developed two powerful tools to gain direct feedback and input from end-consumers: our Sensory Analysis service and our Sensobus

Sensory Analysis: With the unique sensory analysis service, we help you to

understand and describe how consumers evaluate their products In turn, it helps us

to create products based on consumer preferences The aim of these laboratories is

to describe and compare bakery, patisserie and chocolate products and investigate consumer responses to them, while respecting the diversity of opinions that exists within and between different countries or regions

Sensobus: is a unique, fully equipped sensory analysis lab on wheels It can

host hundreds of consumers a day, near to where they actually buy their food With our Sensobus, we can quickly discover what consumers prefer and help our customers and our researchers understand which solution fits best

CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review chapter will include definitions, comments and arguments related to marketing plan, analysis market status, marketing mix and resource planning from many organizations, professional marketers’ perspectives This part is used as framework for marketing plan of project in latter chapter

3.1 Marketing plan

The American Marketing Association (AMA-2007) defines marketing as: The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives (Hakansson, Harrison and Waluszewski 2004) This definition, however, depend on context and nature of business, Business-to-business and consumer markets have differences which effects how they should be marketed (Rope 1998) In the B2B field the number of customers as well as suppliers is usually smaller and the communication between the seller and the buyer is more interactive and personal than when selling to consumers (Ford et al 1998) Establishing a long-term relationship is also common in B2B buying whereas consumers may change the company that they buy from on daily basis (Jobber and Lancaster 2009)

There are two general types of marketing plans: strategic and tactical or operational Strategic marketing plans are usually made for the next three to five years McDonald (2007) and Bowie and Buttle (2004) suggest that a tactical/operational marketing plan should be made on the basis of a strategic marketing plan and therefore the strategic long-term plan should be made first When done on the basis of a strategic plan it uses the segmentation, targeting and positioning established in the strategic plan A tactical marketing plan typically

covers a short time period, one year or less It focuses more on details and the actual actions being taken (Bowie and Buttle 2004, McDonald 2007)

This project as cooperation between Puratos and customer, based on company’s strategic marketing plan, is really going in ways of tactical marketing plan for a specific new range of products launching

There have been many books written about marketing planning but the basic content of a marketing plan is quite similar in each of these In this thesis the components of a marketing plan from Wood’s (2003) book are used because the division of different parts was clear and the structure logical These parts which are analysis of current market situation, SWOT analysis, marketing objectives, marketing mix and financial plans are examined in the following parts

3.2 Market analysis

The first stage of marketing planning is the analysis of the current market situation This involves examining the current situation both inside and outside of the organization The information gained from the analysis acts as a base for the SWOT analysis in which the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

of the organization are identified (Wood 2004) The main function of this market analysis is to get an understanding of what to expect from the markets that the company is entering to, what are the needs, problems and opportunities of that market This information can then be used as a guide in the future marketing decision

PEST analysis is a well-known type of analysis that is often used in conducting a market analysis The advantage of PEST analysis is that it makes organizations con-sider external factors that could be important to their business position and performance (Smith and Raspin 2008) PEST analysis includes evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors of the market There

have been many variations made from the PEST model These variations also include other factors to consider in addition to the four elements introduced in PEST (Smith, Raspin 2008) Wood (2004) has used political, economic, social and technological factors in her book’s external audit but has also included the evaluation of legal, cultural, eco-logical and competitive issues

Social and cultural factors affect the size and composition of markets and segments These issues also have an impact on customers’ requirements, characteristics, attitudes and perceptions Also demographic details should be examined when considering important social and cultural factors For Business to Business selling the social and cultural trends that affect size and growth of the industry the company is selling to (Wood 2004)

A SWOT analysis is a summary of the company’s key strengths and weaknesses in comparison to key opportunities and threats (McDonald 2002) Business relationships can also contribute to the organization’s strengths and weaknesses Therefore the business relationships should be evaluated during the internal audit It is important to consider the value added by suppliers and strategic alliance partners, the capacity, quality, service, commitment and costs of suppliers, changes in business relationships over time and level of dependency on suppliers (Wood 2004) Also according to Wood (2004) strength is a company’s internal capability that helps in achieving the organization’s goals, utilizing opportunities and defending from the threats Weakness is the exact opposite to this It may come

in the way of achieving objectives or complicate the handling of opportunities and threats effectively Opportunities and threats exist outside the organization and they cannot be changed from within the organization They are circumstances that the company can take advantage of (opportunities) or circumstances that have to potential to harm the company’s performance (threats) (Wood 2004) The purpose

of making a SWOT analysis is to match the company’s resources with the environment

3.3 Marketing objectives, targeting and positioning

Objectives: A marketing objective relates to what the organization is aiming

to sell, how much and to whom Defining objectives when making a marketing plan

is important because they both set a direction for the marketing strategies and makes it possible to determine whether the strategies have lead to the desired outcome (McDonald, 2007) The marketing objectives should be defined in a way that when the marketing plan is implemented it is easy to see whether they were met

or not It is useful to express the objectives in clear terms for example percentages

or other figures, rather than using terms such as increase, improve or maximize that lack proper measurability Objectives serve the company most if they are in line with the mission statement, marketing budget and market situation (McDonald

2007, Westwood 2006)

Targeting: In product specialization the company makes a certain product

that can be modified to different customer groups, and sells it to more than one segment The company has thus the possibility to build a strong image in the product area that they have chosen Market specialization includes concentrating on serving many needs of a certain customer group (Kotler 2003) In business to business, to be successful in cooperative development with customer, the seller should have very clear understanding on their clients’ consumer targeting and try to match our products with that direction, especially for large customers

Positioning: Positioning means designing the company’s offering and image

so that it has a distinctive place in the chosen markets (Kotler 2003) Basically positioning is the act of differentiating the company’s products or services from those of competitors

In B2B marketing positioning is communicated via personal selling, sales promotion, advertising and trade shows Bingham, Gomes and Knowles (2005) introduce six positioning strategies for B2B marketing: positioning by technology,

The Marketing mix

In correspondent to 4 Ps, today organizations need to adopt the four Cs - customer, cost, convenience, and communication - to achieve organizational objectives Coined by Robert F Lauterborn, co-author of The New Marketing Paradigm: Integrated Marketing Communications (NTC Business Books- 1997), the four Cs encourage us to operate our organizations from the customer’s perspective Lauterborn advises the following:

Table 3-1: Marketing mix from 4 Ps to 4 Cs as Lauterbon’s principle

Forget product: Study Consumer wants and needs You can't sell whatever

you can make any more You can only sell what someone specifically wants to buy

Seller’s view Buyer’s view

The feeding frenzy is over; the fish are out of school Now you need to explore them one by one, with something each particularly wants

Forget price: Understand the consumer's cost to satisfy that want or need

Price is almost irrelevant; dollars are only one part of cost What you're selling against if you're selling hamburgers is not just another burger for a few cents more

or less It's the cost of time to drive to your place, the cost of conscience to eat meat

at all, versus perhaps the cost of guilt for not treating the kids Value is no longer the biggest burger for the cheapest price; it's a complex equation with as many different correct solutions as there are subsets of customers

Forget place: Think convenience to buy People don't have to go anyplace

any more, in this era of catalogs, credit cards and phones in every room On the other hand, when they do decide to go somewhere, it's no longer only to Kroger's What's a poor marketer to do? Think beyond those nice, neat distribution channels you've set up over the years Know how each sub-segment of the market prefers to buy, and be ubiquitous

Forget promotion: The word is communication All good advertising

creates a dialogue Promotion is us out, manipulative, 1960s Communication is from the buyer – in cooperative, 1990s That contrast is in the fact the fundamental difference between the Four P's, which served so well for so long, and the Four C's, which may be the formula for success as we leave the second millennium

Product, price, place and promotion are passed Consumer wants and needs, cost to satisfy, convenience to buy and communication or the catechism for our times (Bob Lauterborn - 1990) Lauterborn’s approach isn’t a marketing fad It’s a fundamental shift in management philosophy and practice, primarily in response to dramatic changes in how people decide to purchase So, while the product or service is an essential ingredient, it’s pointless without a customer Pricing affects profits, but only to the extent that the customer will buy at your price points

Therefore, your pricing needs to consider cost recovery as well as the customer’s intellectual, emotional, and sensate response to paying the sales price

Fifty years ago, mass marketing worked Promotion focused on mass distribution of the same message Since then, consumers have grown up in a culture pervaded with media Today, old and young alike are inundated with advertising messages Like any long-term relationship, two-way communication is essential In today’s economy, it’s too easy for customers to take their dollars elsewhere

3.5 Resource and financial plans

In order to build a successful picture of marketing performance, marketers need to calculate and spend their budgets with carefully thinking about the financial returns on the expenditure According to key financial measures such as sales, profits, costs and return on investment, marketers can evaluate the marketing plan and decide the budget progress toward long term objectives (Wood 2007) However, it is not easy to measure how much can be returned from the investment And usually, evaluating the effectiveness of spending marketing budgets is based on standard performance measures, such as returns in monetary terms, or new coming relationships, or adjustments of the marketing strategies, or customer satisfaction index, etc

Kotler introduced two types of marketing controls (operating control and strategic control) together with four steps of the marketing control process (set specific marketing goals – measure its performance – evaluate and compare between expected and actual performance – take corrective actions) (Kotler 2008) From Kotler point of view and Marian point of view, operating control involve annual control, financial control and productivity control (processes, activities) (Wood 2007)

3.6 Marketing Implementation

From marketing view, marketing implementation is the section that actions will be carried out in order to follow the marketing strategies After the marketing objectives have been set, marketing implementation has a duty of picking them up and taking them to actions Related issues, Walker, Mullins, Boyd and Larreche stated that a business organizational structure, internal policies, procedures, and resources must fit its chosen strategy or else implementation will fall short Yet even though marketing strategies have been chosen a numerous competitive advantages, marketers need to arrange and replace by effective implementation

Many managers think that doing things right (implementation) is as important as, or even more important than, doing the right things (strategies) (Kotler, 2008) Still it is more difficult to carry things out than write marketing objectives to document Therefore, implementing marketing strategies requires the marketing strategies fit with company culture, people, organizational structure and the long-term orientation (mission, vision, core value) Successful marketing implementation is designed to be cohesive, workable, and linkable with different functional levels as well as different internal/external levels of the relationships

In summary, this chapter 3 provides the basic information, sets of ideas and perspectives about steps and what to do for a marketing plan Depending on company’s strategy, status and products, the marketing plan could be different in analyzing and planning by using different marketing tools

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

As an important part of tactical marketing plan, the research methodology helps us to define problems for solving and developing This is more important for marketing plan of this study to find out right products for our targeting customers: kids in supermarkets This chapter will cover the questions to solve, and how we plan to do to get best outcomes from data analysis, not just to use for this project but also for future study and improvements

4.1 Research methodology

The most important step in the marketing research process is the definition of the problem that needs to be solved (Burns & Bush 2000) This is why the starting point of the research was defining the problem and research questions

After desk research to identify the market situation, social trends, buying behavior, findings from other countries with similar questions about kids buying,

we designed research on quantitative nature, in which we aimed to measure the preference, important influencing factors, products assortment we need to find out,

to re-affirm the hypothesis we made during the desk research

The research was conducted in three typical hypermarkets of Big C chain in Vietnam: two in Hochiminh city (one in urban and one in suburb) for the South Vietnam and one in Hanoi city for North Vietnam with the purpose to gather most common information and insights represent for all stores in nationwide to answer for the questions:

- Is there the real need of bakery products for kids?

- Children shopping behavior & selection?

- Bakery / patisserie assortments for children?

- What factors is most influence to kids when buying bakery products?

Out of that, some sub questions are included in the research to bring the insights for both Puratos and Big C

- What make Big C supermarkets more attractive than other retailer?

- The current bakery products at Big C can satisfy all customers?

- Any opportunity for Big C to increase the selling price for bakery products?

- Hidden needs of potential products for kids that we can develop more?

4.2 Questionnaire development

The panels consisted of 2 main target buyers: kids and theirs accompanies and the questionnaires were developed simply using common words about the finished products which was a mixed of dichotomous, multiple choice, likert scale questions with scale of 5 for different preference levels while there are some additional questions in the panel for kids’ accompanies, mainly they are related to buying behavior and budget decision For some open end questions, the interviewers were not advised to suggest the answers before the respondents can think of something to answer to prevent the bias of the results and also to seek for more expectations on products they want to buy

The objective of this questionnaire survey is to answer for the hypothesis we have from desk research to measure the preference, influencing factors on buying products as well as to find out hidden needs from customers

4.3 Training and pre-test

As the contents of the survey need a certain knowledge from the interviewers about the products, market and technical matters so we selected mostly the sales people of Puratos and bakery employees of Big C to conduct the survey, still there

is a training and a pre-test to make sure everyone has same understandings without ambiguity and to equip them full information to offer clarification to respondents

when need We assigned appropriate persons who interview kids or parents as there should be a bit difference in communication skill, ability and tactics to approach and make shy kids open up her words with limited bias from interviewers

This part objects to execute the interviews smoothly with lowest variation from different interviewers from different working background

4.4 Free trial products and Interviews

Field research by quantitative nature is applied by interview and tasting products to measure the preference of target participants in the survey by multi choice questions with some open questions and the interview were conducted by Puratos and Big C supermarket’s bakery category employees who have certain understandings about bakery products and technical terms Aiming to kids at the age of 7- 15, who are old enough to respond their ideas in the interview, and their parents/ accompanies who go shopping in Big C supermarkets with

There are 3 main steps in the interview:

Each interview last for around 15 minutes with all above process, almost customers are fine with that duration because we organized it on weekends when

we could find more kids going shopping and customers have more free time From this activity, we can have best answers from respondent when they have opportunity

to experience real products and express their real attitude about products, this is very important aspect when developing the new products: thinking of customers

Approach right

target customers

Briefing, selecting their preference

Tasting and responding questionnaires

4.5 Data collection and analysis

We will need 900 respondents are collected from 3 supermarkets in North and South Vietnam, which consisted answers from 50% from kids and the 50% remain from their accompanies The questionnaires were classified and keyed in the spread sheets by coding There is clear statistic report by each single question with comparison between parents and kids’ responding to find out the difference, most common preferences as well as product using habits, decision making

Based on results of the statistic data, we give out recommendations and suggestions for relevant products development: taste, color, flavor, shape, size, packing, price as general trend and specific on most preferred selection of products assortment for launching

CHAPTER 5: MARKETING PLAN FOR DEVELOPING BAKERY

PRODUCTS FOR KIDS IN SUPERMARKETS

This is main chapter in thesis with combination of literature framework applied in practical status of company which will lead us from company mission and status in current market, current marketing activities to detailed activities to achieve specific objectives in marketing plan It is closed by the implementation plan and evaluations of project

5.1 Company mission

“Double sales for the period 2010 – 2018” is the global mission of Puratos group To fulfill this mission, a tough budget was allocated for every country Puratos having subsidiary, Asia with constant growth in years were set a higher budget with 20% growth each year to cover big market European in the flat trend

Our mission in this project marketing plan is to gain incremental sales 7-10%

on current sales of Big C customer in period 6 months from April 2013

Vietnam set annual sales growth budget at 20% to achieve ambitious target

of triple sales in year 2018 compared with 2011 actual results In fact, Puratos Vietnam has recorded 30% volume growth for the period from year 2007– 2011 from 427 tons to 552 tons

Historical sales performance in figure 5-1 can helps us to see how realistic

the sales forecast plan in next 5 years in figure 5-2

Figure 5-1:3Puratos Vietnam past 5 years’ growth

Figure 5-2:4Puratos Vietnam sales forecast, growth forecast

forecast (Ton)

Sales budget forecast (USD)

Sales volume growth

Sales volume growth

Source: Company’s historical sales data

Source: Company forecast

What does this mean to marketing?

For large accounts which contribute very big sales, company and marketing department need to build long term PARTNERSHIP through the TRUST to customers The growing of customers is the growing of ours, so as partner, it is necessary to concrete this relationship by joint marketing activities

5.2 Market analysis

This first stage of marketing planning is to examine the current situation both inside and outside of the organization to get an understanding of what to expect from the bakery market in Vietnam that we are doing business in; what are the needs, problems and opportunities we have and use them as base for company sales and marketing strategic focusing

The Population in Vietnam was reported at 87.21 million persons in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF- 2010) In 2015, Vietnam's Population is expected to be 93.68 million persons Below figure 5-3 shows us the composition in population, in which the young people take very high ratio, this opens very good opportunities for consumer products in general and for children in specific aspect

Figure 5-3:5Age and sex distribution for the year 2010

With average economic growth around 7% in past 5 years (refer figure 5-4),

in 2009, Vietnam's economy share of world total GDP, adjusted by Purchasing Power Parity, was 0.37 percent In 2015, Vietnam's share of world total GDP is forecasted to be 0.42 percent

Figure 5-4:6Vietnam GDP annual % growth

Source: World Economic Outlook (WEO) - 2010

According to forecast from Business Monitor International (BMI-2009), total spending for foods in Vietnam market in the period 2009-2014 will increase to 67.3%, particular in 2014, the spending for foods estimation is 426.997 billion VND Spending for foods per capita is foreseen at 56.4% (about 4.5 million VND)

in year 2014 as shown in figure 5-5 This number gives us the confidence with company business growth at rate 20% per year

Figure 5-5:7Forecast foods consumption in Vietnam 2004-2014

Fast growing of modern retail channel is another clear trend in recent 10 years ”Retail market in Vietnam is growing at the remarkable progress, far exceeding many other economies in the world, behind only India and Russia This area received a lot of investment from abroad, and the market is firmly establish with opening of many trading centers and larger stores” (RNCOS - Analysis of Vietnam’s Retail Industry)

A year-on-year increase of 22 percent, according to the General Statistics Office – 2009, the retail sector is forecast to continue growing at about 20 percent a

Foods consumption in Vietnam

Foods consumption, left column (bio USD) Foods consumption per capita, right column (USD)

Source: Viettrade - 2010

year with over 800 outlets with aggressive investment from both from local Vietnamese as Coopmart, Citimart, Maximark, Hapro, Vinatex and international groups as Big C Casino from French, German Metro Cash& Carry, or Korean Lottemart, Giant Diary Farm from Malaysia… make retails market more dynamic and attractive and promising

The suppliers for bakery products are not numerous but always in strong competition Puratos, as expertise in bakery products technology, with more than 10 years present in Vietnam has its own strength and weakness, they can be briefed as below table of SWOT analysis which are extracted from internal audit and market evaluation by global and regional marketing team every 2 years with our Vietnam management team self-evaluation after we have results from regional marketing, they are analyzed more details in later pages

Table 5-1:2SWOT analysis – Puratos Vietnam

Consistent high quality

Global experience for 100 years

Worldwide distribution networks

Strong R&D supports

Modern retails is clear shopping trend

Young growing populations