ASSIGNMENT 1 FRONT SHEET

Qualification BTEC Level 4 HND Diploma in Business

Unit number and title Unit 1: Marketing Essential

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I. INTRODUCTION:
Nowadays, there are some controversies of BOD over whether the marketing department is not
necessary for the advancement of businesses in the B2B industry. In fact, a strong marketing
team plays a paramount role for achieve organizational objectives as well as enhancing
competitive advantages in the market. Therefore, in order to prove how marketing crucial in the
developing modern economy, this report will clarify clearly the definition and the marketing
concept, the vital roles and responsibilities of the Marketing function and its interrelationships
with other functional units in the B2B enterprise. To be more specific, the Hoa Sen Group is
mentioned as a prime example.

II. GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPANY:

HSG is the number one enterprise in the field of steel sheet production and trading in Vietnam
and is also the leading steel sheet exporter in Southeast Asia. Based on Hoa Sen Group's
official website, the following is some general information about Hoa Sen Group includes name,
headquarter, brief history, product portfolio, mission, vision, and recent Objectives (Hoa Sen,
2020).

Company name: Hoa Sen Group

Headquarter address: No. 09, Thong Nhat Boulevard, Song Than 2 Industrial Park, Di An
Ward, Di An Town, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam.

Company's brief history:

 August 8, 2001: Hoa Sen Joint Stock Company, the precursor of Hoa Sen Group
established with an initial charter capital of 30 billion VND, 22 labors and three
distribution branches.
 November 2016: Hoa Sen Steel Sheet Joint Stock established with the charter capital
of 320 billion VND.
 December 2007: Hoa Sen Joint Stock Company renamed Hoa Sen Group and
merged three companies Hoa Sen Steel Sheet Joint Stock Company, Hoa Sen
Building Materials Joint Stock Company and Hoa Sen Building Mechanical Joint Stock
Company.
  December 5, 2008: 57.038.500 stocks of Hoa Sen Group are listed on the HCM City
Stock Exchange.
 2009 - 2010: The charter capital grew up from 570,39 billion VND to 1.007,91 billion
VND.
 2010- 2011: Export revenue reached 101 million USD.
 2012: Becoming the leading steel sheet exporter in Southeast Asia.
 2012 - 2019: Achieved a series of great awards for quality and brand service.

Product portfolio:

 Steel Sheet In Colt Hoa Sen: aluminum-zinc alloy-coated steel sheet, galvanized steel
sheet, pre-painted galvanized steel sheet, and so on.
 Steel Pipe
 Plastic pipe: UPVC Plastic Pipe, HDPE Plastic Pipe, PP-R Plastic Pipe, and so on.

Source: Hoa Sen, 2020.

Mission, vision, recent objectives:

 Mission: Providing products and services that ensure international quality, reasonable
prices, diverse designs, environmentally-friendly, meeting consumer needs under the
Hoa Sen brand, contributing to change the national architectural appearance and
community development. Also, innovating and growing continuously to affirm the
position and mission of a dynamic, inventive, pioneering Vietnamese enterprise in
both business and community activities in order to raise a high situation in the global
market (Hoa Sen, 2020).
 Vision: Becoming the leading economic group in Vietnam. In particular, focusing on
the production and distribution field of building material products through firm's
sustainable development strategy based on a chain of core competitive advantages,
in parallel with the aim of similarity evolution and protect habitat so as to bring the
highest value for investors, employees, buyers, and society (Hoa Sen, 2020).
  Recent objectives:

Based on the Annual Report 2017, Hoa Sen Group also sets objectives strategy for the
development period from 2018 to 2023, the two images below are specific contents of those
goals (Hoa Sen, 2018).
III. THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION:
1. The definition of Marketing:
Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong
customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.The purpose of
marketing is to draw in new buyers and maintain relationships with existing clients by providing
them with worth and satisfaction (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 29).

2. The definition of Marketing roles and responsibilities:

A simple model of the marketing process consists of five steps and is divided into 2 parts. In the
first four steps, businesses work in order to understand customers' needs and wants; thereby,
they create value for customers and building strong relationships with customers. In the last
step, enterprises capture benefits (profits, trust) from customers (Kotler, Armstrong and
Opresnik, 2013, p. 30).

Figure 1: A simple model of Marketing process (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 30).

Step1: Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants: In this step, it is
necessary for marketers to research and understand the needs, wants and demands of
customers as well as the marketplace where they operate (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik,
2013, p. 30).

 Need is a state that feels a shortage (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 30).
 Want are the human needs that are formed by culture and individual personality(Kotler,
Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 30).
 Demand are human wants that are affected by the buying power. (Kotler, Armstrong and
Opresnik, 2013, p. 30).
 Market offerings are the combination of products and services that are offered in the
market in order to meet the customers' need and want. Market offerings are classified into
two categories, tangible (products such as clothes, eggs, milks, fans, steels, and so on)
and intangible (services such as customer consulting, or activities such as education,
tourism, and so on). (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 30).
Application the Hoa Sen Group in this process:

Need: Seeking for materials to serve construction works, home repair, and so on.

Want: Customers give priority to leading companies in the field of building materials such as
Hoa Phat, Minh Ngoc, Hoa Sen Group, Viet Duc, etc.
Demand: Customers prioritize quality products at suitable with their conditional finance.
Therefore, Hoa Sen Group, one of the largest enterprises in the field of building materials, with
diversified products, quality, and affordable prices, can meet the both demand and wants of
clients.

Market offerings: Hoa Sen Group's market offerings are tangible products including corrugated
iron, steel, zinc pipes, plastic pipes, and so on.

Step 2: Design a customer value-driven marketing strategy:

After understanding the market and consumers, the next responsibility is to create an
appropriate strategy. To achieve this, the first question that marketing managers have to answer
is which customers are they going to serve?. This question facilitates the firm to
segmentation and identify the target customers in order to focus resources on them so as to
best serve. Another question marketers must answer is how can they best serve their
customers?. This means that businesses must understand what benefits they will deliver to
customers so as to convince cusumers why they must choose that enterprise's products (Kotler,
Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 34).

 Market segmentation is to divide the market into different groups of customers based on
criteria such as purchasing motivation, demand, gender, age, financial conditions, and so
on (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 34).About B2B enterprises, in order to
identify target corporate customers segmentation, businesses have to base on the size,
industry, location, and so on.
 Target market refers to the specific customer segmentation the business wants to target
in order to serve as well as possible (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 34).
 A value proposition is a promise of the business in order to bring customers the
enterprise's merits or values to meet the demand of clients (Kotler, Armstrong and
Opresnik, 2013, p. 34).
 Following is the application of Hoa Sen Group in selecting customers

Marketing targeting:

 Industry: construction industry, manufacturing industry, real estate industry, and so on.
 Purpose: Repairing or constructing works, factories, upgrading buildings, manufacturing
pieces of equipment, and so on.
 Location: both rural and urban areas
 Size: the industrial zone land area ranges from 15 to 400 hectares.

Value propositions:

 HSG has a modern chain system and technology. Therefore, their products are always
high-quality, meeting both domestic and international quality standards.
 Products are diversified and environmentally-friendly
 Affordable
 The company has a strong internal force, which is the honesty, enthusiasm, and
unanimity of all employees.

Five marketing concepts: Organizations have designed and implemented their marketing
strategies through the five marketing concepts that include production, marketing, product,
selling, and societal concepts (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 35)

Figure 2: The model of marketing concepts

  Production concept: This concept holds that there is available and affordable products
will be favored by consumers. Therefore, there is a need for managers to concentrate on
boosting production and distribution efficiency (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p.
35).
 Product concept: This concept holds that products that extend greater quality,
performance and inventive features will be more prioritized by customers. Therefore, it is
necessary for the marketing strategy to concentrate on improve products continuously
(Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 35).
 Selling concept: This concept highlights that consumers will buy enough company's
products only if the firm has a large-scale sale and promotion effort (Kotler, Armstrong
and Opresnik, 2013, p. 36).
 Marketing concept: This concept holds that the achievement of organizational objectives
determined by the understand of the target market's need and want and delivering more
value than competitors do (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 36).
 Societal concept: This concept states that there is a need for the marketing strategy to
bring benefits for clients through maintaining or enhancing the long-run interests of both
consumers and society (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 37).
Applied for Hoa Sen Group:

According to the annual report of the Hoa Sen Group in 2019, the firm has invested in a
modern equipment line system and apply new technology in production process.
Therefore, all products of the company are high-quality, meeting the diverse needs of
domestic and international markets.

Up to now, Hoa Sen Group has established a system of over 536 branches and retail distribution
stores nationwide to bring their products to end consumers' hands. In particular, Hoa Sen Group
also conducts online sales through the Hoa Sen official website in order to provide the best
convenience and experience to customers, with the message: “No need to go far. - buy Hoa
Sen steel sheet, steel pipe, a plastic pipe at home" (Hoa Sen, 2020).

In addition to focusing on production and business activities, Hoa Sen Group has always been a
pioneer unit in community activities through sponsoring television programs with profound
humanities which Golden Small bell, Overcome yourself are some typical examples; and
various charitable programs such as Viet Families’ Sweet Home, Hoa Sen Steel Sheet –
School together, the Futsal cup for underprivileged children, and so on. This shows that
Hoa Sen Group has affirmed the mission of a dynamic, creative, and active Vietnamese
enterprise to contribute to the general development of society (Hoa Sen, 2020).

 From all the information above, it can be concluded that the Hoa Sen Group has applied
threes out of five concepts including production concept, product concept, and marketing
concept.

Step 3: Construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value: In this
step, marketers will have to focus on building an integrated marketing program that turns
designed marketing strategies into real values for firm's target customers.

Marketing mix is the set of marketing tools that is used by firms to implement their marketing
strategy. The major marketing mix tools are devided into 4Ps including product, price, place, and
promotion (Kotler, Armstrong and Opresnik, 2013, p. 38).

Figure 3: The model of 4Ps Marketing Mix

 Analyzed marketing mix 4p of Hoa Sen Group:

Product:

 Goods: Hoa Sen Group's goods are divided into three different categories:
- Steel Sheet In Coil Hoa Sen: Cold rolled coil, Galvanized steel sheet (GI), Pre-painted
zinc alloy coated steel sheet, Metallic Steel Sheet, and so on.
- Steel Pipe: Galvanized steel pipe and square steel pipe, Wood pattern steel ,Truss bar,
Batten bar and Hollow pipe, and so on.
- Plastic pipe: UPVC Plastic Pipe, HDPE Plastic Pipe, PP-R Plastic Pipe, and so on.

Source: Hoa Sen, 2020.

 Features:
Hoa Sen Group has focused on investing in modern equipment systems and applying
new technologies to production. Therefore, HSG products are always shiny with silver
surfaces, anti-erosive, effectively heat-resistant, flexibly designed, and ensuring high-
quality based on international standards. In which, each product is designed and has
different characteristics. For example, the cold sheet product is characterized by high
heat resistance and heat resistance, or Wood pattern steel sheet is designed with high
aestheticism, good heat resistance, high durability, no mold, easy cleaning, high-
temperature resistance, easy installation, and so on (Hoa Sen, 2020).

 New products:
Recently, Hoa Sen Group has announced a new product line called Hoa Sen Gold super
durable steel sheet in the high-end segment to serve the trend and increasing consumer
demand, creating a foundation for sustainable development and the different from other
competitors (Tuoi Tre, 2020).

 Added services:
Hoa Sen Group's customers will be delivered to door-to-door transportation. Also, Hoa
Sen's customers receive tempting preferential and discounts (Tuoi Tre, 2020).

Place:

 Hoa Sen Group has a nationwide network of distribution - retail branches covering the
whole country, which facilitates the enterprise to directly approach consumers, strictly
control product quality, and quickly bring products to market (Hoa Sen, 2020).
  Hoa Sen's products are distributed under two forms, direct and indirect. Products after
production are sold directly to corporate customers. For individual customers, the
company sells products to these customers from retail points (Hoa Sen, 2020).

Promotion:

 Advertise:
- Television: HSG has made many videos to promote their products through sponsor TV
programs such as: Golden Small Bell, Overcome yourself, and so on.
- Internet: HSG takes advantage of websites, social networks such as Facebook,
Youtube, and so on in order to advertise product images, reinforce brand name.
 Publicity:
- HSG sponsored and organized a number of annual programs and events rich in
community and humanity such as Viet Families’ Sweet Home, Hoa Sen Steel Sheet –
School together, the Futsal cup for underprivileged children (Hoa Sen, 2020). The
purpose of these actions is to build the image of a friendly and responsible Hoa Sen
brand for the development of the community and society.
- In addition to sponsoring charity programs, social organizations, HSG also advertises
their products outdoors to flexibly reach customers in many different locations.
Price:

 Price is defined as a measure of value that reflects costs to sellers and benefits to buyers.
Decisions on the price are the deciding factor to create profits for the business.
 HSG's valuation goal is not competing on price. Instead, they focus on investing in
modern technology, upgrading product quality, targeting markets and high-margin
products, exploiting the competitive advantage of 536 branches and stores nationwide,
increasing the gross profit margin. As a result, the company's profits increase rapidly in
recent quarters (Hoa Sen, 2020).

Step 4: Building profitable relationships and create customer delight: This is considered
the most essential step in the first part of the marketing process. This step facilitates enterprises
to maintain and enhance the relationship with not only customers but also partners.

According to Kotler, Armstrong, and Opresnik (2013), customer relationship management

(CRM) is defined as the overall process of building and keeping up beneficial client connection
by means of binging both the superior customer value and satisfaction.

However, to build and create lasting value for customers, marketers cannot do it themselves,
they have to work closely with various marketing partners. Therefore, in addition to good
customer relationship management, marketers must also manage relationships well with
partners. "Partner relationship management (PRM) is to work closely with others inside and
outside the company to jointly engage and bring more value to customers" (Kotler, Armstrong
and Opresnik, 2013, p. 38).

Step 5: Capture value from customers to create profits and customer quality: After
completed the above four steps, the company has created value for its customers as well as
fostering strong customer relationships. In this last step, the enterprise focuses on capturing
value from the customer based on customer satisfaction, customer lifetime value, and
customer equity (Kotler & Amstrong, 2013).

Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler (2013) defined customer satisfaction as the result of
comparing the product's perceived performance and clients' expectations. If products meet
customer's demand, they will feel satisfied. In contrast, customers will feel dissatisfied or
disappointed if products do not meet their demand. Besides, according to Armstrong and Kotler
(2013), the value of the estimation of the whole stream of buys that the client would make over a
long period of patronage is defined as customer lifetime value. Also, customer equity is the
combination of the total customer lifetime value, all the current firm's customers and the
company's potential clients (Kotler & Amstrong, 2013).

3. How the Marketing environment impact the roles and responsibilities of Marketing in the
company:
The impact of the marketing environment on the roles and responsibilities of Marketing
Marketing in B2B businesses, specifically Hoa Sen Group, will be clarified through the analysis
of the influences of factors in the micro and macro environment on the business. The purpose of
this analysis is to allow enterprises to identify opportunities as well as threats in order to
promptly adjust their appropriate steps to the market (Kotler & Amstrong, 2013).

3.1. Micro Environment:

The microenvironment of the marketing environment includes five factors. They are supplies,
marketing intermediaries, competitors, publics and customers. (Kotler & Amstrong, 2013)

Suppliers:
  Suppliers play a crucial role in the company's success, so Hoa Sen Group always
maintains relationships of mutual respect and trust with suppliers. Most of HSG's raw
materials are supplied from many reputable domestic and foreign manufacturers such as
Nippon Steel Trading Co., Ltd (Japan), Shangshing Steel Industrial Co., Ltd (Taiwan), AK
Vina Co., Ltd (Vietnam), Posco. Steel Service and Sales Co., Ltd (Korea),
GlencoreInternational AG (Switzerland). This facilitates HSG to flexibly choose the right
suppliers at different times. Besides, the enterprise enjoys preferential policies on output
and prices, thereby promptly updating trends of price fluctuations in the world market.
Therefore, the company is always proactive in purchasing, storing and selling decisions
reasonably to create the highest profit and reduce risks.

Marketing intermediaries:

 Resellers: HSG possess 536 nationwide distribution/ retail . This allows thecompany to
directly approach consumers, control product quality and easily provide products to
market.
 Physical distribution firms: In order to serve the transportation and storage, Hoa Sen
Group has established Hoa Sen Transportation and Mechanical Engineering One
Member Limited Company. Thereby helping the company have a place to store products
as well as provide freight transportation services to customers.
 HSG chooses Vietnam Television as a partner to advertise products and bring their
brands closer to target customers through TV channels and some famous newspapers
such as Tuoi Tre News, Thanh Nien News, and so on.
 Financial intermediaries: HSG has signed a contract with Vietinbank to borrow more
than 2,500 billion VND to invest in building 2 cold rolling lines. Besides credit support,
Vietin Bank also commits to supplement working capital for Hoa's business activities Sen.

Competitors:

 In the Steel pipe market Vietnam, from the chart below it can be seen that the Hoa Sen
Group currently holds the second position with a market share of 15.3% in 2019 and
increased to 16.8% in 2020. Major competitors most in this market is Hoa Phat Group
Joint Stock Company; in addition, HSG has to face with other competitors such as Minh
Ngoc Production and Trading Co., Ltd, Viet Duc Joint Stock Company, TVP Steel Co. .,
Ltd., and so on. Therefore, Hoa Sen Group needs to have marketing policies, quantify
brand quality, boost exports and eliminate ineffective project ideas.
 Figure 4:Steel pipe's Vietnam market share in 2019&2020

 However, according to statistics from the Vietnam Steel Association in 2020, Hoa Sen
Group continues to maintain its leading position in the market share with a market share
of 30.3%, increasing compared to 2019 (29.5%).

Figure 5: Coated steel 's Vietnam market share in 2019&2020

Publics:

 Publics are one of HSG's target customers, so the firm must be aware of a wide range of
publics interest issues related in order to meet their demand on time.
 HSG promotes the implementation of charity programs and activities and joins hands to
build a growing community. With positive contributions to the society, the enterprise has
built an image of a business with a high sense of social responsibility, bringing the best
values to the community. In addition, the company has built good relationships with
media, and news on the principles of equality, transparency and legal compliance.
 Messages and information are provided by the company always guaranteed accuracy,
clarity, completeness and objectivity, helping them to catch accurate information on the
activities of HSG as well as the system of distribution policies coordination and promotion
of the business.

Customers:

 HSG's business markets include construction companies, industrial machinery

manufacturers, real estate companies among which Cotecconsa and Novaland Group are
typical examples. These customers often focus on logic and efficiency, and they often go
directly to HSG's businesses or factories to choose and buy products. Thanks to quality
products along with affordable prices, Hoa Sen's products have been met the customers'
demand and trusted by domestic and foreign customers.

3.2. Macro Environment:

The macroenvironment consists of 6 forces. They are demographic, natural, political/ legal,
economic, technology, and cultural.

Demographic:

 In recent years, the demand for housing in all parts of the country has increased,
especially in large urban areas due to our country's population increasing. According to
the General Statistics Office, the total population of Vietnam is 96,208,984 (in 2019), the
average population growth rate in the 2009-2019 period is 1.14% per year (ASEAN,
 2020). In addition, Vietnam's population has the middle age of 26-35 years old, this is the
age of the family, high demand for building houses. This can be considered as a potential
market for Hoa Sen Group.

Economic:

 In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese steel industry faced many
difficulties. In the first 3 months of 2020, domestic steel production and sales have
negative growth of 6% and 12.4% respectively over the same period in 2019. In addition,
the domestic steel industry continues to face challenges due to the slowdown in
manufacturing industries using steel for construction industries, infrastructure,
automobiles, motorbikes, and so on and the competitive pressure from increasing
domestic supply.

Natural:

 Vietnam has fertile soil, humid tropical climate, so the flora environment is diverse and
plentiful. This helps Hoa Sen Group to easily exploit and find suitable materials.
 In addition, the climate is seasonally differentiated from North to South, heavy rainfall is
unevenly distributed according to seasons and regions, and in the rainy season, excess
water causes flooding, especially in the Central region. Therefore, Hoa Sen Group's
building materials and steel sheet products are essential to respond to natural disasters
and floods.
 Vietnam has a coastline and road stretching from North to South and the transportation is
relatively convenient, facilitating the enterprise to distribute easily products to consumers,
convenient for import and export as well as trading between different countries of the
world.
=> Opportunities: Hoa Sen Group has advantages in importing sources raw materials and
export products to foreign markets.

Technological:

 The technological factor is one of the factors that exert profound effects on the
development of the steel sheet industry in general and Hoa Sen Group in particular. HSG
has successfully applied the world's advanced NOF technology to the alloy plated steel
sheet factory and maintained an integrated management system including ISO 9001:
2015 on the quality management system, ISO 14001 standard : 2015 on environmental
management system and OHSAS 18001: 2007 standard on occupational health and
safety management system.
  Opportunity: Advanced and modern technology => high-quality products =>
competitive advantage over competitors in the same industry
 Threat: Most of the technology machines are imported from abroad => high costs.

Political/ legal:

 Vietnam has a stable political system and an open legal system. With the accession to
WTO, the State has issued many preferential policies on importing and exporting raw
materials.
 Opportunity: Promote expansion and development, have opportunities to attract
foreign investment and enter the world economic environment.
 Threat: Hoa Sen Group faces many competitors at home and abroad in terms of
market share, price, and cost.
 The State always creates conditions to ensure the development of human rights, so
freedom of the press and freedom of speech are important factors in general
development.
 Opportunity: Help businesses to spread their images and products through mass
media widely.
 Promulgating laws such as Investment Law, Enterprise Law, Labor Law, Antitrust Law,
Anti-dumping, and so on.
 Threat: Facilitating HSG to limit competition, forge to promote production and
management.

Cultural Environment:

 Vietnamese citizens always tend to the origin, uphold the ancestral traditions of the
nation, the policy of appeal on people to build the charitable houses for war invalids,
martyrs, and the disadvantaged. HSG has contributed their products, specially the Hoa
Sen corrugated iron products, in this process. This demonstrates the core value of the
company "Honesty - Community - Development".

3.3. The opportunities and threats of the marketing environment of the Hoa Sen Group:
Through analyzing the impact of the marketing environment on Hoa Sen Group, the following
are several of the opportunities and challenges of the business at present.

Opportunities:
  The geographical location and favorable climate facilitate HSG to have advantages in
importing sources of raw materials and export products to foreign markets.
 HSG has a chance of spreading their images and products through mass media widely.
 Competitive advantage over competitors in the same industry because of high-quality
products thanks to modern equipment and machinery.

Threats:

 Facing with many competitors both at home and abroad.

 Modern equipment and machinery come with a high-cost investment.

4. Explanation of the role of marketing and how this department helps the company to overcome
issues and achieve the business objectives:
Marketing assumes a crucial role in the firm's strategic planning in different ways.

 In the first place, marketing gives a guiding philosophy, the marketing concept, that
recommends there is a need for the company strategy to revolve around creating client
worth and building profitable relationships with significant consumer groups. (Kotler &
Amstrong, 2013)
 Secondly, marketing contributes inputs to strategic planners by helping with distinguishing
attractive market opportunities and assisting the company's capability to exploit them.
(Kotler & Amstrong, 2013)
 Lastly, inside individual enterprise units, marketing designs strategies for achieving the
unit’s targets. When the unit’s targets are set, marketing’s assignment is to facilitate them
do beneficially. (Kotler & Amstrong, 2013)

IV. THE DIFFERENT ROLES OF MARKETING WITHIN BOTH A B2B AND

B2C CONTEXT:
The table below will show that five key differences including customer relationships, branding,
decision-making process, audience targeting and terminology between B2B and B2C marketing.
The differences B2B marketing context B2C marketing context
Customer relationships Concentrating on enhancing Concentrating on establishing
long-term enterprises by short-term transactional
building personal relationships. relationships worth at an
efficient rate.
Branding B2B enterprises priorities B2C enterprises priorities
creating potential customers creating solid brand
relationships over formating recognition and experience for
the solid brand. the customer in order to sell
products and ensuring they will
come running back.
Decision-Making In the decision-making process In the decision-making process
Process for B2B enterprises, it is vital to for B2C enterprises depend on
maintain open communications customers, it is crucial to
between businesses in order to marketer to determine desires'
determine whether it is suitable customers in order to appeal
for both parties. and bring them what they’re
looking for.
Audience Targeting For B2B enterprises, there is The market targeting of B2C
mandatory to analyze and enterprise is larger-scale than
understand the customer's B2B enterprise. Mostly target
demographics. This facilitates customers of B2C focus on
the business to build individuals who are the end
successfully a lead generation customers more than business
strategy. Mostly target customers
customers of B2B are business
customers.
Terminology B2B enterprises utilize industry B2C enterprises utilize a
terminology to communicate relatable voice in order to
with their target audience. entice the customer to click on
an advertisement.
V. DEMONSTRATE THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF MARKETING WITH
OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS:
1. The functional structure of Hoa Sen Group:

2. The roles of the marketing department of HSG:

Marketing department plays a paramount role in the advancement of businesses in general and
Hoa Sen Group in particular. Below are some of the responsibilities of the marketing department
in the Hoa Sen Group.

 Building and enhancing brand value.

 Creating and developing marketing strategy.
 Researching and analysing market to understand the demand of customers about the
company's products and services.
 Developing a pricing strategy that maximizes profits and market share
 Building and maintaining the relationship between business and potential customers.

3. The relationship between the marketing department with other departments:

3.1. The potential conflicts between the Marketing department and other departments of Hoa Sen
Group:
Financial department:
  The marketing department in HSG takes a longer about price vision, they accept to spend
a large amount of money and suffer a short-term financial loss to expand the market or
invest in long-term strategic goals. They often use the discount strategy as a marketing
tool. However, the function of the financial department is to set budgets for the firm
because they want hard evidence to justify the expenditure; besides, they need to keep a
hard investment amount to promptly offset the costs of loss (if any) in the company.

R&D department:

 There were two conflicts between the marketing department and the R&D division in the
Hoa Sen enterprise. Firstly, to create a new product, the R&D department needs long
times to ensure the quality of products and a large amount of consumption. They do not
want to waste time, budget, and resources on premature products due to poor research.
On the other hand, the marketing department wants new sane to be available as soon as
possible because they fear competitors will launch their products to the market first. The
second contradiction between these two departments is over the purpose of the product.
The R&D department focuses on the sake of the product rather than the value it brings to
the customer. In contrast, the marketing department focuses more on the benefits and
value of the product.

Production department:

 The production department prefers large quantities of product to run with as little variation
on the product as possible. This means the manufacturing department would rather deal
with standard orders over customizations orders. In contrast, the marketing division has a
greater demand for flexibility. They want to quickly manufacture different products to meet
the diverse needs of the market. Besides, with the marketing department, it is necessary
for products must have periodic improvements in order to maintain the firm's position in
the market.

3.2 How marketing department supports other departments:

Despite the arguments above, the marketing department also supports other functional units in
many different ways.

Financial department:
  The marketing department identifies the target customers for the business and develops
appropriate marketing strategies to attract target customers, thereby increasing sales and
profit for the company. The finance department manages financial factors such as
revenue, costs, ability to implement projects, and so on, Thanks to the marketing
department's strategies, the company's revenue increases.

R&D department:

 The marketing department develops positioning strategies and identifies customer

segments, from which the R&D department researches and develops products, improve
production processes so that businesses operate in the most optimal way.

Production department:

 Market demands always change over time, so when the production department wants to
produce a new product, they cannot operate independently because they do not
understand deeply the market demand. Therefore, it is crucial for the marketing
department to support the production department in this situation.

VI. RECOMMENDATION:
Given the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic exerts a negative impact on the economy in general
and the Hoa Sen Group in particular, this requires the business have to create new business
strategies or solutions to optimize business efficiency business in difficult times like today. For
Hoa Sen group, although reports indicate that the company's finances still increased during the
Covid-19 period, the firm still needs to have the right strategies to maintain its stable state now
and in the future. To gain this, there are some recommendations as follow:

 The first thing to look out for the company is the optimization of production processes to
save costs, reducing waste things to maximize profitability in difficult times. To gain this,
Hoa Sen group should maintain the quality of products by means of using advanced
technology, which facilitates the firm to speed up the workflow and eliminate unnecessary
processes.
 Given the fact that there is an increase of people who tend to use social media during the
Covid-19, the company should promote digital marketing to better reach customers during
this period. Hoa Sen group can refer to support tools for popular digital marketing such as
Website Optimization, Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Marketing Automation, and so
on.
VII. CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, through all the analysis of the roles and responsibilities of the marketing
department in a B2B enterprise, particularly the Hoa Sen Group, which were mentioned above, it
can be concluded again that the marketing department plays a significant part in promoting and
building the brand reputation of an enterprise, helping the enterprise create specific strategies to
easily achieve their objectives business as well as gain a firm position in the market.

REFERENCES:

Hoa Sen, G., 2020. Hoa Sen Group. [online] Hoasengroup.vn. Available at:
<https://hoasengroup.vn/> [Accessed 22 November 2020].

Hoa Sen, G., 2020. Annual Report 2019. [online] Hoasengroup.vn. Available at:
<https://bit.ly/37grNF1> [Accessed 22 November 2020].

Hoa Sen, G., 2018. Annual Report 2017. [online] Hoasengroup.vn. Available at:
<https://bit.ly/2HJ3Xce> [Accessed 22 November 2020].

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G. and Opresnik, M., 2013. Principles Of Marketing. 17th ed. Pearson.

Tuoi Tre, O., 2020. Tập Đoàn Hoa Sen Công Bố Dòng Sản Phẩm Mới Hoa Sen Gold. [online]
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moi-hoa-sen-gold-20200224120523698.htm> [Accessed 23 November 2020].

Tuoi Tre, O., 2020. Tập Đoàn Hoa Sen Tìm Kiếm Đối Tác, Triển Khai Chuỗi Siêu Thị Hoa Sen
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