Marketing plan for shell helix 2011 2013 master project in business and marketing management

But Shell Helix is still new and low perceived the automobile lubricant brand in Vietnamese market.. The growth rate of Vietnamese automobile market is over 14% year by year versus the w

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP HCM UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES

MBMM4

LÂM QUANG THỊNH

MARKETING PLAN FOR SHELL HELIX 2011-2013

Tutor’s Name: Dr TRẦN HÀ MINH QUÂN

Ho Chi Minh City (2010)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COMMITMENT

I, Lam Quang Thinh, have prepared and conducted this project “Marketing Plan for Shell Helix 2011-2013” as the final project of my MBMM4 program

With the approval and great advices from the National B2C Sales Manager of Shell

VN Co., Ltd – Ms Bui Thi Thanh Ha and Shell company, this project has been accomplished by myself and served the Shell VN company as a real case

I trust the legality of all references, information sources, updating and materials using

to complete this project

And I am confident to submit it to Solvay MBMM Faculty, Professors and Jury members

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF APPRECIATION

Firstly, I would like to say my sincerely thanks to all who have given me fully helping hands to finish well this project Your valuable inputs, guidance, documents offer and encouragement are able to treasure for my project accomplishment

I also would like to express my great appreciation towards Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan who has provided me a lot of insightful feedbacks and devoted guidance to my work I simply can say, it is a great chance for me to be with you

I also convey my sincere thanks to Shell VN Ltd., Co - Sales and Marketing team for giving me the general information, findings, an opportunity to undertake about the Shell real case for my studying of the Master of Marketing and Management program and warmest thanks to my mentor, Ms Bui Thi Thanh Ha – National B2C Sales Manager who was spending her valuable time to me a lot of market insights and valuable ideas for this final project

And, I also would like to take this opportunity to present my grateful heart to all professors, lecturers from the Open University of Ho Chi Minh city and the Solvay Business School In the last one and a half year, you have full-heartedly directed us

to the broad path of updated knowledge treasure Besides that, I would like to present

my sincerely thanks to the Post Graduate Office and our program coordinators, Mr Serge Bywalki and Ms Nguyen Thi Mong Thuy and all my MBMM4 classmates for your kind supports, useful information updating during my studying course

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to my family who give me strength to fulfill the project as well as the whole program

COMMENTS OF TUTOR

Mr Lam Quang Thinh had proven his capability and willingness to complete this project

Overall: Very comprehensive

I would like to recommend this project should be presented to Solvay MBMM Faculty, Professors and Jury members

Good luck and success!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

PART 1: ABOUT SHELL VN CO., LTD

1 Establishment and achievement 1

2 Vision and mission 3

3 Corporate strategies and goals 4

4 Core value and sustainable competitive advantage 4

PART 2: SITUATION ANALYSIS

1 SLEPT Analysis 5

2 Market demand analysis 7

3 Competitor Analysis 9

4 Shell Analysis ( SWOT ) 12

4.1 Strength 12

4.2 Weakness 12

4.3 Opportunity 12

4.4 Threat 12

5 Customer Analysis 13

5.1 Customers’ decision-making process 13

5.2 Influencers 13

5.3 Purchasing drivers 14

5.4 Key success factors 14

PART 3: MARKETING PLAN & IMPLEMENTATION

1 Marketing Objectives 15

2 Marketing and Sales Strategies 15

2.1 Segmentation & targeting consumers 16

2.2 Positioning 17

2.3 Point of difference 17

3 Marketing Program 17

3.1 Product 18

3.2 Price 20

3.3 Place 20

3.4 Promotion 23

3.4.1 The Marketing ATL for Shell Helix 23

3.4.2 The Marketing BTL for Shell Helix 24

4 Marketing implementation 25

4.1 Sales and Finance 25

4.1.1 Sales revenue 25

4.1.2 Financial projection 25

4.1.3 Budget planning 26

4.2 Corporate structure 26

4.3 Marketing program implementation 26

4.4 Monitoring, Evaluation and Control 28

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

ABBREVIATIONS

ASEAN Association of South East Asia Nations

ATL Above the line

B2B Business to Business

B2C Business to Customer

BTL Below the line

COGS Cost of Goods Sold

CRM Customer Relationship Management

DIFM Do it for me

DIY Do it yourself/myself

FDI Foreign Direct Investment

FOC Free of Charge

FWS Franchise Workshop

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GFD Go Forward Distributor

GSO General Statistic Office

HCMC Ho Chi Minh City

IBYDIFM I buy you do it for me

IWS Independent Workshop

JV Joint Venture

LPG Liquid Petroleum Gas

MCO Motorcycle oil

MBMM Master in Business and Marketing Management MMIS Marketing Management Information System MPV Multi Purpose Vehicle

OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer

PCMO Passenger Car Motor Oil

SIPC Shell International Petroleum Company

Shell VN Ltd., Co Shell Vietnam Limited Company

TOM Top of mind

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Page CHARTS

2.1 Brand Positioning Map

2.2 Shell Lubricant Distribution System

3.1 Marketing Plan for Shell

4.1 Revenue of Shell 2000-2010

TABLES

2.1 The Number of Registered Vehicles

2.2 Capacity versus Consumption of Automobile Lubricant

4.1 Financial Projection 2011-2013

4.2 Budget Planning 2011-2013

4.3 Marketing Program

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Shell is the global largest manufacturer of energy and the world leader in petrochemicals Shell helps to meet the world's growing demand for energy in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways Shell innovative approach ensures to help tackle the challenges of the new energy future Shell is offering consumers a wide range of energy such as Fuel, Bitumen, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), Chemical, Lubricant…

Over 110 years operation in Vietnam, Shell is supplying a wide range of petroleum products to meet the Vietnamese consumption demand With the implementation of

the Vietnamese industrialization–modernization process, a lot of infrastructure constructions and automobile manufacturing factories have being built and expanded And the transportation demand in Vietnam is continuously increasing year by year Shell has many significant success in launching Shell Advance for motorbike and Shell

Rimula for diesel engines (heavily truck, van, boat…) But Shell Helix is still new and low perceived the automobile lubricant brand in Vietnamese market.

Basing on the Office of Transport Registration–Vietnam, there were 721.859 registered

cars in August 2007 The growth rate of Vietnamese automobile market is over 14% year by year (versus the world growth rate of 3%) and will be even greater in the

coming years due to greater private luxury cars demand; the decline 70% of automobile import tax rate; lots of international well known brand name of automobile manufacturing factories in VN such as Honda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi… And the result that, it creates chances to penetrate automobile lubricant by many lubricant companies such as BP-Castrol, Exxon Mobil, Caltex…which are investing budget for brand building and gain market share in this potential automobile segmentation in Vietnamese market And Shell Helix is recognized in top leading brand of high quality automobile lubricant

brand in over the world This Marketing Plan has prepared for Shell VN to analyze,

outline and improve the current situation of Shell Helix by the strategies of brand building, Sales and Marketing activities, actionable programs of good distribution

network development to enhance its brand image perception, to gain back higher market share and to obtain the top leader position of the new automobile lubricant segmentation in Vietnam

The main marketing objectives anchor on intensive growth of Shell Helix for automobile lubricant As the current Shell business strategies in world-wide, Shell product’s quality and package are strictly following the global Shell company standards Certainly, the quality, price and distribution are also highly important factors for success

in this marketplace and count a lot to sustain Shell’s competitive advantage

With the current positive growth rate of Shell Helix around 20% and nearly 50% revenue per year, Shell VN stretch for the goal of 40% increase in volume and 80% increase in revenue in the three coming years 2011-2013

And to achieve the goals, the strategic Marketing is to build Shell Helix brand awareness with “the best quality”, “the top international lubricant brand” and “value for money” perception Meantime, the strategies of horizontal growth for market penetration, general market share expansion with creating differentiation in customer and consumer consulting services, credibility distributors, professional field Sales team, community events to deliver the Shell’s value to protect environment

In short, this marketing plan is also very critical for Shell Helix to gain leading position in automobile lubricant market in Vietnam They are considered as

milestones of Shell Marketing’s strategic planning

The following parts will help to understand further the Shell Helix business real case and the Marketing plan how to achieve the goals

INTRODUCTION

The Vietnamese PCMO market is considered to have potential growth in coming time Shell has full PCMO lubricant products portfolio to supply this demand in the automobile or luxury car segmentation in total lubricant market But, Shell Helix brand has still not yet been perceived very positive by customers and consumers And Castrol

- the biggest competitor has prepared a lot of energy, budget and time to research, develop Castrol all range of automobile for this new and potential market to gain the top of mind and awareness Castrol brand Therefore, I have decided to work on the Marketing Plan for Shell Helix 2011-2013 in the hope that I can contribute some ideas for the Shell VN Management Board to improve their Shell Helix business performance, to succeed in competition and gain higher Shell Helix brand’s awareness

The Marketing Plan for Shell Helix 2011-2013 focuses to promote Shell Helix automobile lubricant in VN market which has been forecasted the most potential and fast growing market in coming years

This Marketing plan is supported by secondary information from desk research and primary information from two research studies in the market (automobile’ s owner, drivers) and multi-brand lubricant shops as follows:

- The “Shell Brand Imagery Assessment” Study was conducted in October 2010, with

10 in-depth interviews to automobile lubricant retailers and a sampling survey of 100 purchasers of transport service companies in HCMC

- The “Shell Brand Health Check” Study was conducted in October 2010, amongst three actors in the brand decision making process: retailer (n=100), car owners (n=100) and drivers (n=100) The survey covered four main regions: HCMC, Bien Hoa and Ha Noi

PART 1 ABOUT SHELL CO., LTD

1 ESTABLISHMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT

The Royal Dutch Shell Group, commonly known as Shell, was created in February

1907 and the global energy company which headquartered in the Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office at the Shell Center in London, United Kingdom Shell is the largest energy company and the second largest company in the world measured by revenues In 1833, Marcus Samuel opened a small shop - the primary Shell in London,

UK selling sea shells It soon became a successful import-export business which was

managed by Marcus Samuel’s sons - Marcus Junior and Sam

Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemicals companies for production, transport and refining to meet the new pressures on demand With around 101,000 employees in more than 90 countries and territories, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide Shell helps

to meet the world's growing demand for energy in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways Shell innovative approach ensures to help tackle the challenges of the new energy future

Partners in innovation with Ferrari F1 team

Selling transport fuel

to some 10 million customers a day

One of the world’s best known brands

Employs 101,000 people in more than

90 countries

Shell

About Shell VN Ltd., Co, there are some milestones as follows:

 1894: Shell first business established its presence in Viet Nam Traders started retailing kerosene in tin cans

 Through the years until 1975, Shell had successfully developed the business

of fuels retailing, accounting for more than 70% of the market in the South of Vietnam

 1989: Shell backed Vietnam and signed the first Product Sharing Contract with Vietnamese Government Oil exploration was executed in Da Nang and Vung Tau Provinces The exploration activities were with no discovery and withdrawn in 1996

 1991: Shell International Petroleum Company (SIPC)’s Representative Office was set up in Hanoi

 1993: SIPC set up an other office in HCMC and Shell Bitumen Ltd was licensed

 1995: Shell Codamo Ltd Started operation and Shell Gas Hai Phong JV was established with a local partner - Vinashin

 1996: Shell Chemicals Ltd was licensed

 1997: Shell Gas Sai Gon Ltd was licensed

 2003: Shell Bitumen, Shell Codamo, Shell Chemicals and Shell Gas Sai Gon merged into one and Shell Vietnam Ltd was established

 2005: Shell Gas Sai Gon split from Shell Vietnam to become Shell Gas Vietnam Ltd Shell Gas Hai Phong is a part of Shell Gas Vietnam

 Nowadays, Shell Vietnam Ltd operates with around 300 employees in Bitumen, Marine, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), Chemicals with high quality water-proof paints and Lubricants with global brand Shell Helix, Shell Advance and Shell Rimula

2 VISION AND MISSION

- The objectives of the Shell are to engage efficiently, responsibly and profitably in oil, oil products, lubricant, gas, chemicals and other selected businesses and to participate in the search for and development of other sources of energy to meet evolving customer needs and the world’s growing demand for a better energy future

- Shell will be integral to the global energy needs for economic development for many decades The Shell role is to ensure that Shell extract and deliver them profitably and in environmentally and socially responsible ways

- Shell seek a high standard of performance, maintaining a strong long-term and

growing position in the competitive environments in which Shell choose to operate

- Shell aim to work closely with all customers, partners and policymakers to advance more efficient and sustainable use of energy and natural resources

3 CORPORATE STRATEGIES AND GOALS

- To build and maintain the top leading lubricant brand in Vietnam

- To develop and increase the Shell Helix’s market share 13% by 2013

- To support and control up to retail outlet level in order to maximize sales volume and

to ensure consistently strong brand exposure

- To leverage the brand image so that the Shell VN company can tap into a more premium segmentation of the VN market

- To be No.1 leading brand of high quality lubricant in Vietnamese market

4 CORE VALUE AND SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The core values of Shell are honesty, integrity and respect for people are central to Shell worldwide operations They have formed the basis of Shell General Business Principles for 30 years and remain as important as ever

With the long history of establishment, Shell has strengthened itself with profound know-how, rich experience, and worldwide distribution network Shell provides the VN market acceptably high quality products to protect automobile at the affordable price The Shell advance technology (Fully synthetic) is another competitive advantage of Shell to sustain in an increasing competition environment in the next coming years

- Vietnam has a large population over 87 millions With a youthful population and continuing strong economic growth, together with its large consumer markets with rising income The Vietnam's consumer market is still in the early stages of development but has been one of the fastest growing markets in the region as a result of robust economic growth and rising disposable income

- The fast industrialization and improving Vietnamese living standards lead to high social mobility, i.e the expenditure on transportation is getting higher As the VN economy is expected to grow stronger in the coming years, the real growth of consumer expenditure is forecast to reach 7.3% in 2010 Sectors which are expected to grow strongly in 2010 include education, household goods and services and transport

SLEPT ANALYSIS

CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

MARKET ANALYSIS

SWOT ANALYSIS

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

1.2 Legal factors

- Currently, the distribution of petrol and gasoline is managed by Vietnamese government And the Vietnam government has launched many decrees for development the other petroleum such as bitumen, marine energy, liquid petroleum gas, chemicals and lubricants… The current distribution network of lubricant is opened and set up by both the foreign multinational and local companies

Table 1: The Vietnam Demographic and Economic Indicators

Demographic and economic indicators

GDP Measured at

Purchasing Power Parity

(million international $) 199,004.07 222,185.10 241,367.88 256,546.27 275,639.22Real GDP Growth

Consumer Expenditure

(US$ million) 38,273.51 45,591.50 60,840.77 63,982.68 68,185.05Annual Gross Income

(US$ million) 47,382.91 56,479.26 75,265.32 79,360.12 84,535.33Annual Disposable Income

(US$ million) 39,937.33 47,658.31 63,556.51 66,964.47 71,398.12

Source: The VN Statistic in 2009 - Vietnam Demographic and Economic Indicators

1.5 Technological factors

With the current Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the oversea businessmen invest money and high technology into their business in VN For Shell VN, Lubricants are produced in local factory and imported many petroleum sources from Shell’s group strictly following the global Shell group’s formula and quality standards

2 MARKET ANALYSIS

Vietnam is in the trend of fast urbanization and infrastructure development, which facilitates the increase steadily of vehicles

Table 2: The Vietnam Transport Registration

The number of vehicles in Vietnam 2003 2004 2005 2006 August 2007

As illustrated in the above table, the number of vehicles are steady increasing average 14% every year (versus the world growth rate of 3%) This growing rate will be even greater in the coming years as bellows:

- The transportation expenditure (14%) is the top No 2 grading below the highest consumer’s spending of food and beverage (38%)

- The VN government is developing big plan to improve infrastructure network

- As the Circular 184/2010 from the Finance Ministry, the import tax for automobile under 9 seats will decrease 1 to 3% more as current (83%); its effective from 1st January, 2011

- Having a greater demand of business cars, private luxury cars, sport or fashion cars, especially highest demand in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi city

- Apart from the imported automobiles, there are lots of international well known brand name of automobile manufacturing factories in VN such as Honda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi…

- Currently, there are many international and local lubricant companies which are supplying the automobile power demand by launching some initial products

Table 3: The Vietnam consumer expenditure by sector (2009)

The Vietnamese PCMO market size estimate is 14 million liters with about average growth 45% every year for passenger cars It will be a potential chance to launch Shell Helix portfolio in the VN automobile segmentation

Table 4: VAMA 2009 Report and Lubricants consumption estimation

- Less focus to develop Shell Helix

- Strengthening distribution network

- Total still weak in VN

- But Total is very committed to

VN market by acquiring Mobil in Viet Nam

Exxon Upgrade the portfolio and

positioning of brand (BP-Castrol)

- Nationwide distribution network

- Strong distribution network

- Top of mind brand

- High spending in ATL & BTL

- Nationwide distribution network

- Competitive pricing

- Big promotion

- Weak distribution network

10

The findings of the market survey conducted among three actors (retailers, automobile’

s owners and drivers) in September and October 2010 show that Castrol is apparently the direct competitor of Shell across regions on availability, brand awareness, distribution (retailer), buyers and users.(Appendix 1)

- Shell Helix is just right behind Castrol on all levels of brand awareness in general and

in particular HCMC, Hanoi and Bien Hoa

- In addition, Castrol especially appears leading in automobile lubricant segment with high brand awareness among retailers, high purchase levels among owners.(Appendix 8)

- Last but not least, Castrol Edge is also perceived better Shell Helix This is probably a critical reason for owners tentatively to be more loyal to Castrol than Shell Helix

- Castrol clearly have similar positioning as Shell is well-perceived of “reliable”, known”, “consistent quality” and “technology advanced” brands in terms of positioning (Appendix 7)