ASSIGNMENT 3 FRONT SHEET

Qualification BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Business

Unit number and title Unit 32: Business Strategy (574)

Submission date 05/09/2022 Date received (1st submission)

Re-submission date Date received (2nd submission)

Student name Nguyen Quoc An Student ID GBD201509

Class GBD0904 Assessor name Nguyen Huu Nam Phuc

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 Table of Contents
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
2. Summary of the SWOT ................................................................................................................ 1
3. Strategic choices theory .............................................................................................................. 3
3.1 Strategic direction ................................................................................................................. 3
3.2 Business Strategy .................................................................................................................. 3
3.3 Strategic method .................................................................................................................. 4
4. Propose the 1st strategy .............................................................................................................. 4
4.1. Strategic direction: New products and services .................................................................. 4
4.2. Business Strategy: Differentiation ....................................................................................... 7
4.3. Strategic method: Organic development ............................................................................ 8
5. Propose the 2nd strategy ............................................................................................................. 9
5.1. Strategic direction: Market Development ........................................................................... 9
5.2. Business strategy: Differentiation...................................................................................... 10
5.3. Strategic method: Organic Development .......................................................................... 11
6. Evaluation of the proposed strategies ...................................................................................... 11
6.1 Theory of SAFe .................................................................................................................... 11
6.2 Apply SAFe to the strategy.................................................................................................. 12
7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 15

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 Table of Figures
Figure 1: Everpia Logo ..................................................................................................................... 1
Figure 2: Air Mattress Market ......................................................................................................... 4
Figure 3: The right temperature for a good night's sleep over time .............................................. 6
Figure 4: Attached link on Tiktokers profile.................................................................................. 10

Table of Tables
Table 1. SWOT of Everpia................................................................................................................ 1

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1. Introduction
Everpia (EVE) is a company that directly manufactures Everon products. This is the leading
Korean bedding brand in Vietnam for over 20 years with more than 600 exclusive agents
nationwide. After 20 years in Vietnam, Everpia has consistently made investments in product
design, technology innovation, and enhanced management quality to establish itself as a
leading figure in the bedding sector (Everon, 2022). Since 2010, EVE has been a listed company
on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) (VSHB, 2022).

Figure 1: Everpia Logo

This paper proposes two strategies based on strengths and weaknesses of Everpia. In each
strategy, the company determine strategic direction, business strategy and strategic method
before carrying out. Then evaluating two proposed strategies according to the SAFe criteria.

2. Summary of the SWOT

The table below will summarize the SWOT based on previous reports.

Table 1. SWOT of Everpia

Strengths Weaknesses
 Good input management by  High operating costs
implementing many measures.  E-commerce distribution channels
 The production capacity is large and have not had any innovation.

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 difficult to imitate.  The technology applied to production
 Diversified distribution channels is still not really special
 Marketing and sales team continuously
research and learn to understand
customers better.
 Shorten customer care time by
automating care.
 Mechanism to attract talent and retain
employees through benefits and
training programs.
 Autonomous sources of supply, choose
certified suppliers.
Opportunities Threats
 The Government of Vietnam applies  The decrease in the currencies of
Resolution No. 128/NQ-CP to promote Korea and Japan affects the exchange
products in the textile industry and rate for Vietnam when exporting
bedding in particular. goods.
 The GRDP of Vietnamese people is on  Competitors in the same industry are
an increasing trend. constantly developing technology. In
 Today's users increasingly prefer this day and age, technology can be
ecofriendly products. replaced at any time.
 The weather in Vietnam, Korea,  Competition in the bedding industry is
Emerica, and Europe is suitable for exceptionally high.
producing bedding materials.  Because the switching cost of the
Vietnam's law does not prohibit the bedding industry is not significant, the
import of raw materials for the power of buyers is high
production of bedding products.
Currently, there are many suppliers of
cotton, silk, and yarn materials for

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 businesses producing bedding and
pillows. Therefore, the company will
have more choices to choose suppliers
and not worry about the lack of raw
materials.
 It is difficult for new entrants to enter
the market because of the large initial
capital requirements as well as the
difficulty of meeting the requirements
of the trade association.
 There are very few products on the
market that can replace bedding
products.

3. Strategic choices theory

3.1 Strategic direction

Strategic direction is a descriptive theory of an organization's plans to move towards its vision
and accomplish its goals. It ensures the leadership, management, and owners must
communicate employees' values, contributions, and efforts towards the company's goals. In the
case of long-term, strategic direction helps the company maintain stability. This term includes
market penetration, product development, market development and diversification strategy
(Johnson, et al., 1984).

3.2 Business Strategy

A business strategy is a plan designed to ensure the organization's goals, vision, and financial
improvement in a competitive business environment. It helps businesses consistently achieve
their goals and maintain a foothold in the competitive market. Business strategy includes cost
leadership, differentiation, cost focus, and differentiation focus (Johnson, et al., 1984)

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3.3 Strategic method
The strategic method describes setting methods and goals and using resources, personnel to
increase the company's competitiveness. It allows the company to conduct strategic evaluation,
internal analysis, and strategy implementation. The strategic method includes merger &
acquisition, alliance, and organic development (Johnson, et al., 1984).

4. Propose the 1st strategy

Producing a new product called ''Everpia air mattresses''

4.1. Strategic direction: New products and services

The size of the global air mattress market was worth USD 127.6 million in 2018. Thanks to the
outstanding advantages of air mattresses such as odorless, high durability, the ability to inflate
to full within minutes, convenient to carry travel, easy to clean, good heat retention, and
especially, the price is highly lower than latex or cotton mattresses, the air mattress is a product
chosen by many people. The image below shows the size of the mattress market over the years,
and it tends to increase (Grandviewresearch, 2020).

Figure 2: Air Mattress Market

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In addition, hospitals, resorts, and hotels have also been using air mattress products as extra
beds. The increased demand for extra beds in hotels has allowed the air mattress industry to
grow. The increasing number of nuclear families and small room sizes in urban areas has
resulted in limited room space. The demand for space-saving will increase stronger than
expected, so the air mattress market will develop. Compared to traditional mattresses, air
mattresses take up less space, which can further drive the market. Growing public awareness of
the physical benefits of air mattresses and increased demand for traveling, extended vacations
or adventures have created opportunities for the air mattress industry to spread out
(Grandviewresearch, 2020).

Realizing the potential market, Everpia decided to create a new product called "Everpia air
mattress." Traditional mattress products were previously widely sold by Everpia in Vietnam and
distributed to Europe and America because of high demand. In particular, air mattresses are a
type of product commonly used in countries such as the US, UK, Germany, France, etc., so
Everpia's new products will be distributed to old markets this time. As a result, the strategic
direction is New products and services.

Everpia's reason for choosing a new product production strategy is rooted in the strength of
excellent production capacity and production scale. To produce new products means Everpia
has to invest in new production lines. At present, Everpia has air pillow production lines. The
company can integrate machinery into the production line of air pillows or create a new
production line to produce air mattresses. Anyway, Everpia has experience in manufacturing air
pillows, so the production of air mattresses will not be too difficult for the company. With
factories scale of over 500 billion invested in the top 3% of the largest textile enterprises in
Vietnam, it is not hard for Everpia to produce the new product.

Although the air mattress has many outstanding advantages, its good heat retention feature is
a double-edged sword. On hot days, the air mattress is easy to get stuck if used in summer
because it retains heat well. No one wants to lie on a burning mattress and get sweat.
Compared to the traditional mattress, the price of the air mattress is relatively lower.
Therefore, a cost leadership campaign is not a wise strategy for this type of product. Besides, if

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considering a long-term campaign, cost leadership will not be suitable for Everpia because even
if it sells many products, the company will also suffer a lot of losses. If price competition occurs
between companies by reducing price, the company will have high costs. Therefore, Everpia
decided to choose Business Strategy as Differentiation. Instead of just manufacturing
conventional air mattresses, Everpia will integrate a temperature-customized cooling/warm
system into the mattress. Everpia air mattress's Air Cooling and Warm System quickly removes
moisture and sweat from the bed, changing the temperature to warm or cool flexibly.

Besides adjusting the temperature, the remarkable thing about the Everpia air mattress is that
it automatically changes the temperature according to the human circadian rhythm. Science
proves that people sleep more deeply when the body is at the right temperature at night.
Therefore, to have a good sleep, the temperature dramatically impacts humans (Hopkins
Medicine, 2019).

Figure 3: The right temperature for a good night's sleep over time

Understanding this, Everpia integrates circadian rhythm sleep technology that allows users to
program a personalized cooling and warming mode for each hour of the night for a deeper
sleep.

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Everpia's Air Mattress has two modes. Mode one is that the cool air will automatically be blown
into the mattress every time it is inflated. The automatic cooling fan will be attached to the four
roots of the mattress. The second mode allows users to adjust the cool and warm temperature
at will and automatically set the temperature to change according to the user's circadian
rhythm. Besides, the temperature regulation system also helps to eliminate body sweat, can be
controlled remotely, easy to use and install.

4.2. Business Strategy: Differentiation

To differentiate this campaign, Everpia focuses on customer buying experience and service.
Since this is a new product of Everpia, the company will display it at all showrooms across the
country and let customers lie down to try it out to experience the product's smoothness and
temperature-changing features. To enhance the customer experience more, Everpia decided to
allow customers to use the product for free for three days before making a purchase decision,
provided they have to check in or post a video review on social media. Through the trial,
customers will have direct feedback and evaluation. Helping businesses both promote images
and market new products. Sampling organizations will often increase the chances of purchase if
the product is good.

When buying directly at the Everpia showroom, customers will play a lucky draw game to
receive a discount voucher on the total order value. Discount vouchers range from 5-10%.

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Besides, customers will also get a 5% discount on the next purchase or buy other products after
buying the air mattress. During using process, Everpia will send staff to the customer's address
for a warranty every three months without the customer having to call or bring the product to
the showroom. In addition, customers will also receive automatic care messages via email or
SMS about how to use and fix them at home when the product has problems, promotions, and
so on.

4.3. Strategic method: Organic development

Currently, Everpia has air pillow production lines. Everpia's pillow products contribute to 2
million products and will generate more than 562 billion VND in revenue by 2021
(Nemcattuong, 2020). This means the company has experience in manufacturing, distributing,
and selling ‘’air products’’. Therefore, Everpia can easily invest, add to existing production lines
or create a new line to produce air mattresses without having to alliance or buy any
organization.

Moreover, Everpia currently has a dense network of customers through B2B, B2C, D2C, E-
commerce, and export distribution channels. This means that Everpia's brand is well known to
many customers and partners. Because this campaign is aimed at the old market, Everpia can
completely re-access its old customer target without cooperating with any companies.

Besides, Everpia has a marketing team that is constantly updating the situation, doing market
research to understand customers better and draw customer personnel most correctly. Everpia
does not need to hire external marketing services such as agencies, freelancers, and so on but
still runs marketing activities well.

In terms of external factors, it will be difficult for new businesses to enter because they require
significant initial capital. Especially with high-tech products like Everpia air mattresses, it is even
more difficult. If only compared to new entrants or small companies, the time problem is not
too threatening, so the company can thoroughly research and develop products independently
without having to cooperate.

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In short, the company can completely use the Organic Development Strategic Method for its air
mattress product.

5. Propose the 2nd strategy

Increase brand awareness and revenue for compressed pillow products in a new
market which are office workers, and people who often travel.

5.1. Strategic direction: Market Development

Many people know Everpia as the leading brand in bedding products, cotton, towels, or
curtains, but very few people know that Everpia has a product called "compressed pillow."
When it comes to compressed pillows, many people mistakenly think of inflatable pillows, but
that is not true. Compressed pillows are microfiber, cotton, or polyester pillows that are
vacuum pressed after finishing (Kieu, 2021).

Unlike traditional packaging, vacuum pressing makes it impossible for bacteria and dust in the
air to penetrate inside the pillow intestine, preserving it better. Besides, the vacuum pressing
helps the product to be streamlined, compact, convenient for putting away and bringing.

Building on the strength of compressed pillow, the company that uses Strategic Direction is
Market Development. Because this is an easy-to-carry product, it is very suitable for office
workers and people who often travel and camp. Instead of having to sleep on hard chairs for
hours, causing users to feel headaches, neck fatigue, or having to stuff a pillow into a suitcase
when traveling, using a compressed pillow will help users have a better sleep or be convenient
to carry. In this campaign, Everpia will target a new market of office workers, people who often
travel and picnic.

This campaign stems from Everpia's strong point of having an excellent marketing team. The
marketing department constantly updates the market situation, trends, analyzes customer
portraits and integrates marketing communication activities to have the most appropriate
brand and sales marketing campaigns for each target customers.

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5.2. Business strategy: Differentiation
The difference in Everpia's Compressed Pillow product marketing campaign is to expand a new
distribution channel that is Affiliate Marketing through the website or the link on the KOL and
KOC profiles on Tiktok. It can be said that this is a Marketing campaign focusing on Unique
Delivery Channel.

Figure 4: Attached link on Tiktokers profile

The reason Everpia thinks this is the difference is that most bedding companies in the market
carry out marketing campaigns through indirect distribution channels (Lotte Mart, BigC,
VinMart, Co.op Mart, .. .), modern distribution channels (Shopee, Tiki, Lazada,...), or B2B, D2C,
etc. No bedding brand has yet associated with celebrities on Tiktok and done Affiliate
Marketing on this platform.

Currently, there are many common social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and
so on, but the reason Everpia chose Tiktok is because of its incredible rise. Tiktok has 1 billion
users worldwide, even though it was only established in 2016. In the early stages, when the
application was launched, it had more than 100 million users and viewed more than 1 billion
videos daily. As of 2020, Tiktok has 2 billion downloads on the App Store and Google Play and is
the most downloaded app in 2022 (Mohsin, 2022).

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To implement this campaign, Everpia will sign long-term cooperation contracts with leading
Tiktokers working in tourism, travel, picnic, and offices in countries where Everpia distributes
products, such as Vietnam, Korea, Japan, the United States, and so on. Tiktokers will be
sponsored by Everpia to review, create content about compressed pillows, and be paid an
appropriate commission, provided they must attach the product link in the bio profile.

Partnering with Tiktokers worldwide with a high following working in the field related to
Everpia's products, will help the campaign reach the right target of customers. From there, it
will increase the brand awareness of the product as well as the purchase decision of the
viewers.

5.3. Strategic method: Organic Development

Everpia can fully use its available resources, which is the Marketing department to exchange
work with Tiktokers. The company does not need to borrow money from the bank or financial
community to carry out the campaign. This is proven through the company's revenue reaching
nearly 900 billion only with outstanding products. They can use their own money to set up the
strategy. Grasping the mentality of the majority of office workers who need a good nap in the
company and people with travel habits who want to bring essentials stuff but need to be neat
and light, Everpia creates a strategy to solve the pain of this customer target as well as increase
the brand extension of the Compressed Pillow product. This differentiation strategy will create
competitiveness compared to competitors in the market with the same product segment.

In terms of external factors, to have a large number of quality KOLs and KOCs, the company
must spend a large amount of money to carry out the campaign. Therefore, new entrants or
small companies may not have enough capital to carry out this campaign globally.

6. Evaluation of the proposed strategies

6.1 Theory of SAFe

The SAFe criteria is a strategic evaluation model of the business that is guaranteed to be
conducted. The SAFe framework helps organizations see threats and how companies can face

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them. An organization will be willing to change and apply innovation to grow. The SAF
framework strategy helps the company confront the market and the organization. The
assessment will be determined through 3 criteria: Suitability, Acceptability and Feasibility
(Johnson, et al., 1984)

Suitability is measured through the opportunities and challenges the business faces through its
fit with the environment, expectations, capabilities, strategic position, etc.

Acceptability is understood as whether the campaign's outcome meets stakeholders'

expectations. It can be profit, risk, and the response of the stakeholders involved in the plan.

Feasibility concerns the success of a campaign or whether it can work in practice. In the process
of checking the feasibility, enterprises need to ask many questions to evaluate the details of the
implementation options and the detailed project preparation.

6.2 Apply SAFe to the strategy

Proposal 1: Producing a new product called ''Everpia air mattresses''

Suitability: This campaign of Everpia stems mainly from the strength of excellent production
capacity and production scale. Besides, Everpia has many years of experience in the production
and distribution of bedding products as well as owns the production line of ''air products'', so
the company's launch of air mattresses is really suitable. The differentiation of product features
will help the company attract customers and increase revenue. Besides, Everpia also has a vast
network available around the world. Everpia will not have too many difficulties reaching
customers when launching air mattresses.

Acceptability:

Stakeholder expectation: Like the company's bedding products, Everpia's new product revenue
primarily comes from exporting. If choosing a cost leadership strategy, Everpia will suffer
significant losses even if they sell many goods. When businesses compete on price, it means
Everpia has to cut costs and affect revenue. That's why the company chose a differentiation in
the features, services and buying experience to innovate and upgrade product as well as attract
more customers. From there, the company can set a higher price based on the difference,

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convenience, services, buying experience of the product. The stakeholder expectation rate will
also increase especially for shareholder as the company earns more profit. When selling a lot of
goods, it will create an opportunity for a win-win cooperation relationship between suppliers
and Everpia because the company will need packaging and materials to complete the product.
By focusing on being different from other similar products in the market, Everpia can penetrate
and dominate the market even though it has just launched the product. In addition, Everpia air
mattresses also meet customer expectations. It is explained that users will feel too hot when
using traditional air mattresses in summer. To solve this pain, Everpia has integrated a cooling
system into the mattress. Besides, the product can also change the temperature based on the
user's circadian rhythm.

Risk: The first risk that Everpia faced when manufacturing air mattresses that it took a lot of
time and money to research and created such a high-tech product. As mentioned in the SWOT
section, Everpia's production technology does not have too many outstanding features. If the
research time is too long, competitors may launch similar or improved product lines before
Everpia. This is because ideas can be referenced or copied from the internet or for other
reasons. Besides, production technology is constantly improving in the 4.0 era, which will be a
significant risk to the company.

Feasibility: Regarding production resources, Everpia is fully capable of launching a new product.
Although the company does not have a very special production line, products in another field of
the market related to integrated air conditioning or cool system are now not too strange. To be
able to launch a new product with outstanding features, the company should focus its costs on
the R&D department to avoid wasting unnecessary resources.

Proposal 2: Increase brand awareness and revenue for compressed pillow products in a new
market which are office workers, and people who often travel.

Suitability: Because the company has a talented marketing team, it is possible to build a brand
for the compressed pillow product and increase sales for this product. Everpia's goal is to let
more customers know about the compressed pillow, especially customers who are office
workers, people who often travel and picnic. Based on the available advantages of compressed

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pillow combined with the pains of the above group of prospects, the marketing team has
implemented a differentiation in the delivery channel, which is affiliate marketing on the Tiktok
platform. This strategy will create competition for Everpia compared to other companies on the
Tiktok platform. Applying a method to combine with influencers in the travel and office field
will facilitate the product to reach the correct customer target. The emotional factor of buyers
will increase thanks to video reviews or content from celebrities they trust. So it can be said
that this campaign is very suitable for the company's strengths thanks to its professional and
creative marketing team.

Acceptability:

Stakeholder expectation: The differentiation in campaign two will meet employees'

expectations, especially those in the marketing department if the campaign is successful. The
company can increase the amount or reward them if the campaign helps the company increase
brand awareness and bring high profits. From there, employees will be encouraged to work,
improve work efficiency, and develop more creative and new ideas to solve customer pain and
properly approach potential customers as much as possible. Moreover, the convenience of the
product also meets the needs of potential customers. Users can easily carry the product
anywhere with the same effect as a traditional pillow. Besides, this campaign also facilitates the
company's partners, KOL, KOC to have more passive income.

Risk: Competitors can copy the idea of this campaign. KOLs and KOCs can receive products in
the same field from competitors of Everpia for video recording. Therefore, the company must
have a contract to cooperate only with Everpia. Moreover, it will take a long time for the
company to find and evaluate the quality of KOLs and KOCs in the early stages of campaign
implementation. Using KOL, KOC services always require Marketers to balance their budgets. If
the scale is not correct, it will leave a heavy financial disaster for the brand. Not necessarily
cooperating with the more famous people will bring commensurate profits. Therefore, booking
must be based on cost calculation between KOL, KOC and the brand. In the case of the KOL and
KOC have scandals, the brand image will also be affected and reduce customers' trust in the
product.

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Feasibility: Thanks to the large financial resources and talented marketing team as well as the
strong growth of Tiktok in general and KOL, KOC in particular, this campaign can be
implemented in reality.

7. Conclusion
The paper presented two strategies based on the SWOT of Everpia. The strategy is planned
based on the Strategy direction, Business Strategy, and Strategy Method. Then the company
applies the SAFe criteria to evaluate whether the campaign is appropriate, meets stakeholder
expectations, and is applicable in practice.

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