Omachi Sampling & Activation

POST MORTEM REPORT

Bien Hoa, Ho Chi Minh & Ha Noi Jul Aug, 2009

Prepared by: Hong Thuy Communications

Updated by Nov 07, 2009

Manage to deliver 250,000 samples in Bien Hoa, HCMC, Ha Noi & Haiphong in 6 main channels: Coffee Shops Office Buildings Cinemas Culture Centers Home Appliances Centers Supermarkets But at the end of project, client asked to omit Hai Phong from working plan. Timing: August 07 30, 2009

Please find attached for full working schedule in Bien Hoa, Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi.

First implementation in Bien Hoa could be considered as a demo for the whole long project. After 2 days working in Metro Bien Hoa, agency and client has come to some agreements in implementation and gained some experience to work on site.

Sampling Bags:
Due to this item came close to the starting day, client took

over this item from Hong Thuy for self handle. All the transportation to HT warehouse was on time and transferred to HN properly to cover the quantity of related channels working.

PG Uniforms:
Uniform has been revised upon clients feedback since the

demo days in Metro Bien Hoa. Cook Uniform Set was also added with apron for cook assistant.

Booth Component:
Produced upon clients approval, nice and following all

guidance in term of brand image. Re-touch often after everytime finished working at venue. Technical system: LCD, AVP System and other elements met the expectations from client.

Mock-up:
Revised upon clients feedback from demo days in Metro

Bien Hoa. Newly-produced mock-ups were better than previous version. On the last days of project, all mock-ups were re-touched to reserve 90% standard of production.

Cooking Set:
Applied upon standards from demo days in Metro Bien

Hoa. Agency also added with hot-cold water machine to make sure the flow of working not being interfered much.

Mock-up is set up at the entrance of MT channel!

Booth Component is wellorganised!

Venue co-ordination had problem for working in hiclass office buildings (OB) and coffee shops (CS).
Requirement of client for sampling position was at the

main entrance, not in parking lot. Agency has worked back on sampling schedule:

For OB channel: agency had to degrade OB into class Ainstead of A and A+ for working permission (90% class A and A+ OBs denied allowing us working). For CS channel: agency replaced with the same class coffee shops (class A or A+).

In cinemas and home appliance centers, some denied working with us on the last minute due to the conflict of category and venue policy on advertising activity.
Agency replaced with coffee shops channels or less traffic

venues. All replacement was aligned with client in advance and changed to another venue if client rejected alternative.

However, we still worked at those place in good position (at the entrance of the venues upon client request).

All sampling positions were at the main entrance to cover the best traffic, in case there were more than 1 entrance, PGs would be devided to cover the most traffic!

In MT channel, as client had problem working with Big C system, we had to move to other supermarkets in coordination with OMC team. Some supermarkets in the last 2 days were not high traffic, especially in HN. This was well-informed and got agreement with client.

PGs performance:
Fairly good upon guided. After some first working days, Pgs

became more fluent in working and covering the target as many as possible. Pgs did try to deliver to the most traffic with message: Mi OMC duoc cai tien ngon hon voi nuoc cot tu thit va xuong.

Sup and helpers followed training document and paid a good attention to allocation plan from agency.

Dlivering samples

Giving information to customers

More photos - Manpower performance

Wet sampling service:

Followed the cooking guideline from OMC to

maintain the standard. Kept a good image of OMC within booth area, did clean-up and water fill-up to make sure things going smooth. Delivered clear message of OMC as well as special taste of a premium instant noodle to target customers. As a result of this, many customers did ask us more to purchase OMC home.

Serving carefully

Cooking precisely

Demonstrating nicely!

More photos - Wet sampling activities

No. 1

Channel Metro Bien Hoa GRAND TOTAL

Total Quantity 5,110 5,110

No. 1 2 3 4 6

Channel Coffee Shop Office Building Cinema HAC & Public Area Supermarket GRAND TOTAL

Total Quantity 8,342 11,668 3,354 2,512 43,015 68,891

In Ha Noi, sampling activity was successful in channels: caf shop, office building, public area, and cinema. Especially in office building channel. In MT channel, samples delivery quantity was lower than expected (~43,000 samples against 65,600 samples). This had been alerted to client right at the beginning of the project. In general, we have achieved 80% target of the project in Ha Noi (since client has omitted HP and Big C system from schedule).

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6

Channel Coffe Shop Office Building Cinema HAC Culture House Supermarket GRAND TOTAL

Total Quantity 8,587 8,045 2,679 5,640 5,260 109,675 139,886

In Ho Chi Minh, MT channels and office buildings channels achieved total target lower than expected (~110,000 samples against 134,000 samples and ~8,000 samples against 15,950 samples). However, the excess of samples delivery in other channels helped to make a good general picture. Agency did finish 85% target of the project in Ho Chi Minh (in affected by the cancellation of Big C system from client)

Majors Feedback from Wet Sampling Channels Effectiveness Recommendations

What did customers say after trial?

PGs collected quick comments or caught auto-responses from customers (at 34% total trial users recorded) after wet sampling as below:
Do you use OMC at home at the moment? What do you like best in OMC? What do you think about the OMC price?

Use of OMC at home:

12/20 said YES as they find OMC delicious and suitable for family. 6/20 said NO as they have not tried OMC yet. 2/20 said NO as they find another kind of instant noodles more suitable for their family.

What do you like best in OMC?

13/20: taste of OMC, it is much better than other instant noodles. 6/20: potatoes noodles which prevent acnes. 1/20: reasonable price.

What do you think about the price of OMC?

2/20: expensive. 10/20: reasonable. 8/20: a little bit expensive but reasonable in comparison with quality.

Which channel should be invested for activation & sampling activities?

OMC Project was working on 6 main channels, divided into 2 key activities wet samplings and dry samplings, including:

Supermarkets Coffee Shops Office Buildings Cinemas Home Appliances Centers Public Centers

This activity is extremely high traffic at Metro venues due to good place to illustrate (with booth solution, great position to attract people and the unique characteristic of people shopping in these venues) should do next time as an efficient way to give customers a try as well as keeping a good image of OMC. In other supermarkets, this activities still happened well but the image of OMC is not high as expected. This was due to: the position of booth area, the environments and the behaviors of people going shopping and getting nearby. The image of OMC is somehow just to be at the same kind with other brands of instant noodles should consider more next time.

Venue Supermarkets

Traffic High

Pros Direct Strike to the decision maker Image and target customers

Cons Target customers is missing or mistaken. Difficult to deal, esp. with O.B in relevance to OMC standards of image high cost if possible. High dealing cost for entrance delivery position.

Recommendation Always should do in this channels. Should be considered and finalized list before decide to go ahead. This channels should be conducted in door-to-door activities! Should be invested if cost is suitable.

Office Buildings

Medium

Coffee Shops

Low

Image and target customers

Cinemas

Medium

Image and target customers

High dealing cost for entrance delivery position, not too many venues up to standards of OMC.
Not relevant to the activities of HACs so its difficult to deal with. The quantity of this kind of venues is not many. Target customers not high. Venues not many.

Should do but just focus on main high-traffic cinemas.

Home Appliances Centers

High

Sound image to OMC standards

Could do if want to expand the quantity of delivery.

Public Centers

High

Just high-traffic

Should omit in list next times. Could put in back-up list to be considered in case.

For keeping it a good project!

The difference of OMC and other brands in this kind of activities is the paper bags, which makes OMC more premium. Paper bags helped delivering a good image of OMC to customers not only a high class instant noodles but also a fashionable brand.
This is effective to work with OMC target customers.

Agency work carefully in these 2 steps (storage & transportation) of the sampling projects. Clear document with signatures has been strictly prepared. Equip a professional warehouse system to well manage in/out stock in each step of project.
Agency work close to manpower during working time, especially on samples security issue. Some certain regulations should be put in the contract in order to bind manpower with us together with more responsibility in samples keeping on site. Photo report should be more quality of the size of photos.

MANPOWER MANAGEMENT

Although the appearance of samples in the market at the end of the project, as a professional agency, big learning for upcoming projects for both sides is necessary. Solutions for such cases to be investigated, learned and aligned in a meeting for both sides experience and for any similar case if happen later.

Along with Client, Agency to take this serious in a sampling project. One-point contact should be agreed between client account team event team for a prompt report. Agency should also take note of the appearance of the 3rd party from clients side.

Production process of some specific items need to be always improved.

On the other hands, the agreement between client and agency upon mechanism, possibility on site should be agreed and approved via official via email.

Production Plastic bag:

Issue: did not meet production timeline due to suppliers sudden denie the production order technical, costing difficulty and timing fault. Solution: compensated 100% agency fee though item value has ~1.6% of total agency fee and to-be-confirmed item. Result: OMC to be in charge of producing paper bags.

Venue coordination Sampling position:

Issue: some venue had sampling positions near too crowded parking lot/entrance way/street pavement. Solution: reposition manpower as close to doorway as well to keep brand image. Result: ensured brand image and sample delivery but increase token fee a lot(Agency take charge of this additional).

Production Mascot, Mock-up

Issue: samples of Mascot, Mock up have to change as requested by client. Solution: cancelled mascot, reproduced mock-up, retouched after 10 days running. Result: ensured product package image and quality.

Action plan Sampling schedule:

Issue: Due to OMCs final decision over sampling position, timeline has to be delayed and the venues had to be changed. This effect to the difficulty on venue dealing and tight timing. Token fee is increased Solution: reschedule and replace some venues with relevant to agreed standards. The increased fee was cover by agency. Result: daily schedule update notification for 1st week, weekly update for 2nd week and final schedule for last 2 weeks.

Onsite implementation Sampling delivery target:

Issue: delivered to target exceeding age 35 quite many (compared to total) due to real circumstance venue traffic. Solution: reconfirmed to limit sharply sample delivery to age over 35. Result: ensured right target and brand image.

Onsite implementation Wet sampling service timing:

Issue: cooking timing did not meet standard (3 mins) sometimes due to high traffic. Solution: re-briefing and training Result: ensured timing and wet sampling quality better.

Onsite implementation QC coordination:

Issue: QC, lacking identity and experience, interfered much on first days of activation made some on-site unnecessary pressure and difficulty some disputes happened between QC & HT. Solution: met and discussed by email to review QC working flow. Managerial persons came on-site to resettle. Result: ensured improved working flow and coordination.

Onsite implementation Venue moving:

Issue: some venue had not good traffic as expected. Solution: moved to back-up venue for the worst traffic cases. Reviewed and agreed on venue traffic evaluation. Result: ensured best traffic sample delivery qty.

Onsite implementation Weather condition:

Issue: some days met heavy rain and a lot sunny to influence manpowers working morale and stamina. Solution: protected samples well and rent tent to cover the working place (HT offered best and quick action) Result: ensured smooth working flow and sample quality.

Onsite implementation Sample misusage:

Issue: Sups delivered sample case (1 in HN & 1 in HCM) to venue and outlet owner because of their requirement and desire to try product. Solution: informed OMC, got back the sample and purchased nonsampling OMC to offer as gift to outlet owner/managers. Warned and fined sups who violated the working regulations. Result: ensured no violation over this rule till the end of project.

Crisis management Sample leakage:

Issue: Est. 30-40 sample cases were leaked and sold in the market Phuoc Long, Dist 9. Solution: On-site investigation the where the source from. After ensuring a good system of HT sample controlling, HT requested to open investigate such case from client side. As a professional handling for goof OMC brand, HT purchased leaked samples (~25 cases). Beside both sides investigate method, HT informed and cooperated with Dist 9 authority to investigate and find exactly when/where/from whom the sample leakage related to. Result: no more leaked sample to be found until now. Waiting final investigation result from authority.

*Efficiency of the project per expectations Accomplished right target percentage reach 18 35: >75% >35: <25% Accomplished delivery percentage per traffic 86.9% (208,777 delivered/240,000 tasked by OMC) 99.4% (208,777 delivered/210,000 planned and agreed) Satisfactory right place venue selection Class A, B: >85% C+: <15% Perfect sample warehouse & storage: Loss/Damage: 0% Delivery/Receipt: 100% Accomplished logistics management: Loss/Damage: <1% Delivery/Receipt: >99% Satisfactory coordination & flexibility: Issues got solutions & results: >91%