Vinamilk’s marketing communications plan for new

product Organic Gold: Infant cereal with milk

Student: Trung Chanh Tran (Frank)

ID number : 25011414
Lecturer : Dr Mizan Rahman

Marketing Communications
MKT9125M-2
Table of Contents
I. VINAMILK AT A GLANCE............................................................................................3
1. General information.......................................................................................................3
2. Sustainable development in Vinamilk...........................................................................3
2.1 Sustainable development in the context of climate change.........................................3
2.2 Management of sustainable development...................................................................3
3. Communication plan to create oppotunities from challenges........................................4
II. OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION.............................................................4
1. Development strategies..................................................................................................4
2. Vinamilk with organic trend..........................................................................................4
3. Objectives of communication campaign........................................................................5
4. Key message..................................................................................................................5
III. TARGET MARKET......................................................................................................5
1. Vinamilk’s general target custommers..........................................................................5
2. Target audience for “Organic gold: Infant cereal with milk”........................................6
IV. PROPOSED STRATEGY.............................................................................................7
1. Situation Analysis..........................................................................................................7
2. Proposed overall strategy...............................................................................................9
V. OPERATIONAL PLAN AND COSTING......................................................................10
1. Campaign timeline.......................................................................................................10
2. Typical communications techniques implemented......................................................11
2.1 Digital marketing.................................................................................................11
2.2 TV Commercial....................................................................................................12
VI. Measuring Marketing Communication Effectiveness..................................................13
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................14
 I. VINAMILK AT A GLANCE

1. General information
Established in 1976, Vinamilk is now the number one dairy company in Vietnam and one of
the world’s largest Top 50 nutrition companies. For more than 40 years, Vinamilk has
dominated the domestic market by launching a wide range of good quality products such as
liquid milk, yogurt, condensed milk, and so on. Vinamilk currently operates 13 factories in
Vietnam and the largest dairy farm network in Asia accredited by Global G.A.P. The
company also has a large global presence in the US, Cambodia, New Zealand and a
subsidiary in Poland, selling goods to nearly 50 countries, by merging and export (Vinamilk,
2019)
2. Sustainable development in Vinamilk
2.1 Sustainable development in the context of climate change
According to Vinamilk, as the population increases with the high growth in number of
consumers, climate change has been inducing more challenges which include:
o Concern about Food security and nutrition
o The urgent need to decrease emissions from the food production system
o The need to adjust the human diet in the context of climate change requires
revolutions at rapid speed
As a manufacturer, Vinamilk is always aware that any production activities have impacts on
the surrounding environment. Therefore, we are always working to find solutions to minimize
negative impacts on the environment and to find ways to effectively use resources and
energy. All solutions are aimed at the main purposes: effective use of inputs (materials,
energy, water) and control of inputs to minimize the impact on the environment.
2.2 Management of sustainable development
 Risks and Challenges:
Competition: The competitiveness increase when the number of rivals is growing rapidly
such as TH True Milk, Ba Vi, Moc Chau. In order to maintain hand enhance competitive
advantages, the brand need to response this situation appropriately by identifying and
analizing changes in the market.
Input materials supply: One of the big problems in production is lacking of availability of
raw materials for the manufaturing process. Vinamilk has to maintain safe inventory control,
perform evaluation and monitoring of suppliers and allow fair purchasing planning.
Social media: Negative information posted on the social media can lead to the loss of
reputation and monetary damage due to lack of prompt and accurate management. The brand
need to regularly track and handle unfavorable information distributed on the mass media to
made effective crisis management actions by automated monitoring software.
Loss of Key Customers: Breakdown of main consumer relationships, resulting in a loss of
sales. Customer relationships need to be controlled, sales are periodically reviewed and key
customers are subject to approved policies.
3. Communication plan to create oppotunities from challenges
Vinamilk always welcome healthy competition in the dairy industry as it is good for both the
company and customers, who are getting more options and better prices. In the context that
Vietnamese goods-supporting psychology is more and more pervasive, Vinamilk is looking
to take advantage of more opportunities in the Vietnam market. Vinamilk is confident to
apply technology of 4.0 platform with morden production in research and development to
advoid the risks to manufacturing and distribution.
According to Ms Kieu Lien – CEO of Vinamilk, the strategic investment orientation and
long-term thinking of Vinamilk is improving nutrition quality of Vietnamese people with
organic products. The passion for perfection is the firm motivation for Vinamilk to create
quality products with the most valuable nutrition. (Vinamilk, 2018). Health and wellness
packed food continues to develop more rapidly than regular packed food, with growth mainly
coming from bouyant demand in Asia Pacific ( Warc, 2019). Vinamilk believes that the trend
of consuming high-class, purely organic and eco-friendly products grows strongly in future
(Vinamilk, 2019).

II. OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION

1. Development strategies
Maintaining the number one position in Vietnam market and aiming to reach the Top 30 of
World’s Largest Dairy Companies in terms of revenue, Vinamilk has identified a
development strategy with three main pillars for execution, including:
 Leading in highly applicable innovations
 Consolidating the leading postion in the Vietnam’s dairy industry
 Becoming the most valuable dairy company in the South-East Asia
(Vinamilk, 2019)
2. Vinamilk with organic trend
In May 2019, Vinamilk officially launched the super-premium formular product: Vinamilk
Organic Gold, the first European Organic-certified baby formula and infant cereal, produced
in Vietnam (Business Insider,20190). These are the first organic products at Vietnam market
which also allows consumers to transparently trace the origin of the ingredient to production
using Blockchain technology (PR Newswire, 2019).
According to a survey among Vietnamese consumers in 2019, approximately 62.65 percent
of the Vietnamese respondents stated to buy organic food products often, meanwhile nearly
59.23 percent of the respondents stated that it is important for them to purchase organic milk
and dairy products (Statista, 2019). Otherwise, about 24 percent of respondents chose
Vinamilk as their top-of-mind company for food and beverages (Statista, 2019).
Organic products is the potential market for all the players, Vinamilk is facing a risk of a
series of new brands being lauched with a wide range of organic product lines. To advoid
losing market share to other competitors and maximize the sales, beside maitaining
production quality, Vinamilk need to take actions to conduct marketing activities to keep
loyal customers, attract new consumers and constantly strives to bring values for customers
with the desire that the customers can experience with Vinamilk for long-lasting engagement.

3. Objectives of communication campaign

Build awareness of new organic product – “Organic gold: Infant cereal with milk”
Product for infant - Organic ingredients - Benefits for your children’s health : The baby food
market in Vietnam has been growing rapidly over the last few years in which prepared baby
food sees the highest value growth with sales reach VND336.9 billion in 2019 (Euromonitor,
2019). Vinamilk’s new product with high quality ingredients is created to meet all standard of
quality which can satisfy the fastidious mothers.
Change consumers habit - Change traditional food for infant : Porridge is a very common
food in Vietnam. Its presence is ubiquitous in Vietnamese homes where it appears in many
dishes that are considered nutritious and easy to digest. Vinamilk introduce the innovation in
new fresh porridge packaging called Infant cereal with Organic Gold.
Building a connection with moms' hearts: It is considered that the product line for children
is extremely concerned by mothers, so connecting and maintaining the trust of mothers in
Vinamilk's products is very important.
Influence purchase intent and increase sales: Vietnamese consumers consider porridge as a
daily food while Hipp, the leading player in this category and Heinz which is ranked third,
prepared baby food products are positioned as nutritious supplements to the daily baby diet
( Euromonitor, 2019). Vinamilk infant creal can compete with foreign suppliers in Vietnam
baby food industry. The expected sales of this products is $600.000 in 3 months.
4. Key message
In the busy modern life, people often tend to get back to nature to find the balance, Vinamilk
undertakes to provide complete and truthful information to consumers about “Organic Gold:
Infant cereal with milk” that the company produces and sells. Vinamilk strives to deliver the
optimal nutrition solutions fitting the Vietnamese physical conditions through marketing
communication. With the key message “Growing up with nature”, Vinamilk makes every
effort to meet the ever-increasing demands for both quality and quantity and distributing
international standard nutritional products closer to Vietnamese consumers .
III. TARGET MARKET

1. Vinamilk’s general target custommers

The development of effective marketing communication begins with a clear target public.
The audience can be potential buyers of the products of the company, current users or
individuals, groups, particular audiences or the general public. The target audience is a
critical influence on the decisions of the communicator regarding what, how, when, where,
and to whom to say (Kotler, 2000). According to Annual Report (Vinamilk, 2014), the
general demographic segmentation is mentioned below:
  Age and circle of family life: As far as we are concerned, not only calcium but also
many other useful nutrients are contained in the milk and milk products. These
nutrients are not just brought up for kids. Drinking milk with young women is a very
good investment for their body and the futur child's bones. Fresh milk is also a good
source for people to get calcium and other nutrients
 Gender: Women are the most frequent consumers who buy milk products. There are
two types of them: First type is young girls who buy milk products as a good source
of nutrition and a beauty method, second type are housewives who buy milk to ensure
the health of their family members. Bear in mind that almost all of Vinamilk's
commercials involve a young girl or a mother, meaning they are
 Education: People with a high level of education tend to place high nutritional value
on their children and their families. They are well aware that fresh milk is important
to their health.
2. Target audience for “Organic gold: Infant cereal with milk”
There are more than 83 percent of Vietnamese believe that organic food products are
healthier and more nutrious, they also trust the safety standard of organic food products
(Statista, 2019). Despite their concerns over the high price and poor labelling of safe and
healthy foods such as organic products, a number of Vietnamese consumers are prepared to
buy and consume more organic foods (de Koning et al.,2015). In the case of “Organic gold:
Infant cereal with milk” of Vinamilk, the target audience is mentioned below:

Segment Demographic Psychographic Behavioir Geographic

characteristic characteristic characteristic characteristic
From 6 to 24 - Need a product that Cites and
months old provides nutrition for urban areas in
Infant - Daily users
strenghthenging immnune Vietnam
health, supporting digestive - Potential users
health, helping skeletal
system being stronger - First time users

- Still depends on their - Fed by adults

parents but they can have
influence on what product
the family should buy.
- Age: Above 18 - Middle class, Upper class Cites and
years old urban areas in
Parents - Need a product that can - Daily users
Vietnam
- Income : provide nutritions for their
- Potential users
children.
Middle income
- Tend to be brand
-Less price sentitive and
loyal
rather focus more on the
quality - First time users
 IV. PROPOSED STRATEGY

1. Situation Analysis

 SWOT Analysis

Weakness
Strengths - Limited flavor options in Organic
product lines
- Vinamilk is favorable and reputable
brand name - Relatively more expensive than
competitors
- Innovative features with superior taste
and premium quality
- Stable material resources
- Strong visual impact
- Intensive distribution channels across
nationwide Threats
Oppotunities
- Generous marketing budget
-Strong competition from new market
- Increasing demand for healthy and entrants (both local and imported)
nutritious products
- Fast-gronwing indirect players in
- The government has invested 2000 Organic food sector
billion VND for milk development
project until 2020
- Reinforcement from goverment's
annual national campaing
"Vietnamese consumers purchase
Vietnamese goods"
- Rising disposable income

 Positioning
“Organic Gold: Infant cereal with milk” is the leading premium organic cereal that is
extremely good for children’s health. This product is the ideal meal for the baby, it not only
provides enough essential nutrients for the digestive and immunie health but also helping
skeletal system to be stronger. Otherwise, it’s truly convenient and trustworthy for the parents
to serve a instant meal in just 5 minutes for their children in every occasion.
 Rich in nutrients

Low price High

price

Low in nutrients

 4P Strategies

4P Description Objectives Techniques/ strategies

Strategies
- Brand name :
Product “Organic Gold: Infant cereal Product is generated - Keeping and improving
with milk” including all the special features of the
necessary factors to products
- Packaging : Paper box
meet the customer’s
200g - Ensuring the products are
need
always be in stock
- Design : Combination of
When customers
eye-catching colors and - Using digital marketing
come up to the
meal images for children, and TV comemerical
product, they will
creating a familiar and
get enough - TV Commercial
memorable feeling. Text
information,
including both Vietnamese - Banner at Shopping malls
consider the benefits
and English
of this product and
- Quality : Superior taste decide to purchase.
made with premium healthy
 ingredients
It is reasonable price Compared to the product’s
to approach all the price of other competitors,
Price 120.000 vnđ
target consumers. the price of Vinamilk is
They can try and appropriate for both target
have ability to buy costumers and others who
more than one time have demand for infant
cereal.

Distribution: To see how quickly - New distribution channels

Place - Retailer’s outlets
- First-tier distributors
the product gained are essential to expand
broad availability in network coverage
just a few months
- Visual merchaindising
after launching.
- Online shopping websites

- Key message : Growing up - Rapidly and widely - Give away programs

with nature build awareness of
Promotion - Lauching promotions
product
- Intergrated marketing campaign using:
communication -Attract more
Facebook
customers
Celebrity endorsement
- Increase sales
Television Commercial
Magazine Advertising
PR Articles
Visual merchaindising

2. Proposed overall strategy

Through the situation analysis that is presented in the previous parts, the domestic market
place is constantly evolving over time and even the market dominance position can always be
threatened by the presence of new comers and the exhaustive rivalry of existing ones. In
order to maintain and develop market share as well as develop the company to a new level,
Vinamilk needs to have an appropriate and proper marketing strategy. In next parts of the
paper, detailed implementation of strategy will be explained.
 V. OPERATIONAL PLAN AND COSTING

1. Campaign timeline
Phase 1: Awareness Phase 2: Desire Phase 3: Action
Time
Q3/ 2020 July, 2020 August, 2020 September, 2020

Objective Increase product Increase traffic on -Encourage potential customers to

awareness in Vietnam websites, social become new customers
market media and e-
- Keep loyal customers
commerce sites.
- Enhance purchasing
Reach up to 500.000 Reach up to Reach up to 200.000 customers
customers aware of 300.000 customer decide to purchase the products
KPIs
the new products have intendancy
to buy

- Digital marketing -Digital - Digital marketing

marketing
Tactics - TV Commercial - TV Commercial
- TV Commercial
- Banner at Shopping - Shopping online websites
malls - Banner at
- Banner at Shopping malls
Shopping malls
- Workshops: Early
- Outdoor experience for
Childhood - Influencers
customers: Organize booths at
Professional
-Magazine crowded places, Invite parents to
Development
Advertising buy with promotion price.
- PR Articles - Visual merchaindising:
+ Modern trade (Supermarkets,
hypermarkets and convenience
stores),
+ General Trade (Sidewalk shop
vendors, canteens and tradtional
market)

Key message “Organic Gold Infant cereal with milk: the best choice for your beloved children
growing up with nature”
 2. Typical communications techniques implemented
2.1 Digital marketing
Implement Time
- Creating the Facbook posts including photos,
contents that support to encourage the curiousity of
Facebook - Start to run advertising
consumers about Infant cereal with milk
advertising campaign from 01/07/2020
- Using hashtag # BotandamOrganicGold to 30/09/2020
#andamOrganic #Lonkhoncungtunhien
Time set for displaying
- Run Facebook Ads campaigns to attract customers advertisements on Facebook
in both mobile and PC devices.
Week days:
-10am -2pm : when parents
have time to suffing the
social media after breakfast
and lunch
- 8pm-11pm : when parents
have time to suffing the
social media to entertain
after dinner and before go to
bed
Weekend: All day

(Vinamilk, 2019)
- Creating an emotional TV ad featuring mother-
and-child moments based on a counting rhyme to
Youtube - Upload new videos
stand out from competitors.
regularly: 2-4 videos each
month, from July to
September.
- Share Youtube videos to
other official Vinamilk’s
channels and websites 3
times a week

(Vinamilk, 2019)
- Optimize the videos for SEO to get view
 - Using hashtag # BotandamOrganicGold
#andamOrganic #Lonkhoncungtunhien

 Costing
According to WordStream, the average cost-per-click for Facebook ads across all industries
is $1.72. There are some factors that influence how much Facebook Ads cost:
o Target audience : People with certain demographic and psychographic profiles cost
more to reach than others.
o Advertising time : Competition increases during peak times.
o Advertising placement: Different Facebook ad placements cost more than others.
o The competitors: Facebook advertising costs will largely depend on how many
competitors are taking the same method,
For Facebook, post engagements includes all actions that people take involving the ads while
they're running. Post engagements can include actions such as reacting to, commenting on or
sharing the ad, claiming an offer, viewing a photo or video, or clicking on a link. In order to
reach 200.000 engagement in a month, the budget is set for this campaign is $100.000
including creating contents, design and run advertising campaigns.
For Youtube, outsourcing marketing video production costs can range anywhere from $1,200
for a basic video, to $50,000 for a premium video ( LeanLabs, 2019). In the case of Vinamilk,
the primary goal for this campaign is to build organic search traffic, the brand will need to
publish 6 videos separed equally in 3 months with the budget for videos production and
posting to the channels is $50.000
In general, the total cost for Digital marketing in both Facebook and Youtube platform in 3
months is approximately $150.000 including videos production and running advertising
campaign.

2.2 TV Commercial
Spot planning
- The commercial will be shown
during the break and at the end
of a number of high rating TV
series and programs on two
channels which mostly prefer by
Vietnamese family are VTV3
and VTV1. This also make the
cost for these slots will be
charged higher.
Time slot
- The number of spots is
separated equally for two
channels, 3 spots on
weekday and 4 spots on
weekend. The 10 seconds
advertisements will be on
aired in continuosly for a
period of 3 months starting
from July 1 to 30
September 2020
Costing (TVAD, 2020)
On aired cost for two
channels:
VTV1: Range from $200
to $1000 each spot
VTV3 : Range from
$200 to $2000 each spot
Total budget for TV
commercial of 2 channels
in 3 month is $100.000
 VI. Measuring Marketing Communication Effectiveness

Marketing activity Measurement Techniques

 Quantitative Data Collection
- Potential Reach:
Online marketing number of Followers, TV, websites and other social networks
And TV comercial Fans, Subscribers for the allow manager to collect data, track the
product number of daily visitors and page views at
a stage of planning or implementation.
- Confirmed Reach: For Facebook and social networks, it is
number of Views, possible to track number of subscribers and
Post/Page Views, Video number of comments left by visitors from
Views insight systems.
For TV commercial, the advertising agent
- Repeat Visits will provide the number of audience
watching the ads.
- Conversion rates from For online shopping sites, collect data of
online shopping websites the number of sales by number of unique
visitors or visitor sessions
 Content Analysis
To assess the quality and tone of media
coverage, or to review the content
of specific programming that reaches the
audience.
 - Reaction of customer  Observation and Interview
Offline marketing toward the new product Observe and interview individuals or
which is introduced groups to see how they are responding to
through banners, posters the new product when they see it or use it
and give away programs at first time
at public
 Quantitative Data Collection
- Number of sales
through visual
The number of sales will be recorded by
merchandisers the sellers of visual merchandisers. This
( supermarket,will evaluate how many products are sold
convenient store,
in the period of time, filter out the potential
traditional market ) locations to decide which should be
distributed less or more.
 Survey
- Number of potential Ask some open-ended questions,
customers are interested “checkbox” answers are the most
in the products through preferable way to collect quantitative data.
banner, posters

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