Dr.Thanh – College Essay Example

environment4 a. In the world:4 b. In Viet Nam:5 2. Political and legal environment5 a. Political environment:5 b.

Legal environment:5 3. Globalization7 a. Opportunities:7 b. Challenges:8 4. The social cultural environment9 a. Tastes, trends:9 b. Lifestyle:9 c. Population9 5. Natural environment:10 a. Geographical location:10 b. Climate:10 6. Technological environment:11 a. Production technology:11 b. Information-Communication technology:11 III. THE MICROENVIRONMENT12 1. Company12 2. Consumers13 3. Competitors15 4. Distributors17 5. Supplier:18 6. Public relation:18 STRENGTHS19 WEAKNESSES19 OPPORTUNITIES19 THREATS19 IV. TARGET MARKET & 4Ps20 1. Target Market of THP group20 . Target market of Dr. Thanh Herbal Tea20 3. Brand positioning (4Ps)21 a. Product21 b. Price23 c. Place23 d. Promotion24 V. SOME COMMENTS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS27 1. Some comments27 2. Suggested solutions:28 I. INTRODUCTION Tan Hiep Phat Group Established in 1994 by entrepreneur Tran Quy Thanh, Tan Hiep Phat (THP) Group has many years of history in the beverages industry. Its headquarter and factory are located at 219 Highway 13th, Vinh Phu Ward, Thuan An District, Binh Duong Province near Ho Chi Minh City. It is very convenient for transportation on land and sea.

In refer to carbonated soft drinks, everyone knows two “giants”: Pepsi and Coca-Cola. But at the present time, the Vietnamese have no longer sticked to those, but have gradually chosen Vietnamese products like Zero Degree Green tea and Dr. Thanh Herbal tea - some famous brands from THP Group. THP Group has achieved its success due to four main factors: differentials, ensuring product quality, wide distribution systems and effective marketing strategies. Since 30 June 2010, Tan Hiep Phat's products were voted and selected to be VIETNAM VALUE (Top products which are specific and symbolized for Vietnam country).

Far

of this, THP Group is striving to become the leading corporation in Asian food and beverage industry. It evoked potential needs which have not exploited instead of producing products which is available in the market. This is very promising with more than 3000 experts from Vietnam and abroad. Some famous brands include: * In refer to energy drinks, no Vietnamese does not know Number One While Coca-Cola also has a line of energy drink - Samurai which are not really prominent. * About healthy drink: Green Zero degree Tea ; Dr. Thanh.

Although the marketing campaign of Green Zero degree Tea is not too frantic, but it has become the symbol of the fresh drink: “Cool down your life” and accounted for 16% share of par RTD (ready to drink) in Vietnam. Dr. Thanh will be mentioned in the following part. * Recently, THP Group has launched VIP coffee products with vision to differentiate the taste of Vietnamese coffee. Dr. Thanh Herbal Tea (Dr. Thanh) THP Group has produced many differentiated products, including 2 most interesting ones: Oo Green Tea and Dr. Thanh herbal tea. Our project is focusing on the product of differentiation: Dr. Thanh herbal tea.

Dr. Thanh is one of the manufacturer’s most popular brands. The leading player’s products are aimed at more health conscious consumers, for example, females and the elderly. Dr. Thanh’s communication speed, coverage of distribution channels, as well as sales is increasing with breakneck speed. Its coverage is over 60% the market within 1 month after its launch. After 2 months of launching, Dr. Thanh achieved more 200% sale target. What made Dr. Thanh a miracle? In general, the beverage

market in Vietnam is very attractive, but to meet consumers’ needs is not a simple problem for businesses, including THP Group.

Nowadays, the beverage whose ingredients are natural and healthy is supported enthusiastically by consumers. Foreseeing this trend, Dr. Thanh has received consumers’ support since it was launched last Tet 2008. Dr. Thanh is a kind of beverage made from 9 precious herbs (honeysuckle flower, chrysanthemum, summer dry herbs, licorice, birthday flower, La drought management, flower free carpentry…) which are effective for cooling and purifying the body. THP Group, through the mission of production and sales of international standard products, committed to all Vietnamese consumers about quality, hygiene, food safety.

Dr. Thanh quickly became the best selling beverage product in Vietnam market. Dr. Thanh ‘s target consumers are people of all ages, but THP Group pays the most attention to the group of dynamic youth. To consume and become a loyal consumer of Dr. Thanh, it is advisable that we have stable income, which is relatively high in comparison with the standard in Vietnam. As a result, after only 3 months launching to the market, herbal tea Dr. Thanh has been warmly received consumer trust, with participation of 300 distributors, more than 2000 employees and 100 trucks for transportation.

From output of 300. 000 bottles a day, the Group has raised their production to 600. 000 bottles a day. However, it just meets 25% demand for use. It shows that Dr. Thanh is a great and potential product and promises a future boom. THP Group has been very successful with its advertising campaign in support of Dr. Thanh. Through a strong understanding of the market and consumer behavior,

the company’s creative advertising quickly led to success for Dr. Thanh. However, there is a decrease in selling this product. Nowadays, Dr. Thanh faces a lot of difficulties in protecting fame and prestige.

There’s many mixed information which is not beneficial to the business of Dr. Thanh. Many supermarkets have boycotted all products of Tan Hi? p Phat because of consumers’ healthcare. After the authorities discovered expired materials in Tan Hi? p Phat’s warehouses, this leads to different opinions about the products of this group. Many consumers are concerned with the beverage of Tan Hi? p Phat, while others say that there is no evidence show that Tan Hi? p Phat used it in production line. Anyway, consumers are worrying in consuming these products.

Besides, information about environmental issues and fake ads are worrisome problems to Tan Hi? p Phat. Dr. Thanh business situation is showing signs of going down. How can they maintain the leading position in the beverage market as before? Our group will present a detailed analysis on this situation. II. MACROENVIRONMENT 1. Economic environment a. In the world: GLOBAL TRADE THROUGH THE QUARTER USD (billions) (Source: WTO andVietstock) From the chart, we can see the world economy has hit bottom in the first quarter of 2009. However, accordingto many experts, from the second quarter, the world economy has many signs of recovery. . In Viet Nam: Along with the recovery of the world economy, economy of Viet Nam in the first quarter of 2009 also has many positive changes. In the Asian Development Outlook updated report 2009 announced in Hanoi in 22nd September, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has readjusted GDP growth forecast

of Vietnam in 2009 to a higher level (from 4. 5% in March 2009 to 4. 7%) and remained its forcast at 6. 5% for 2010. Nevertheless,Viet Nam is also faced up withmany signs of inflation return arising from the higher consumer prices in the world due to the recovery of the global economy and the rapid increase in the money supply.

These changes in both Viet Nam and the world has had great impact on the development of beer-wine-industry. 2. Political and legal environment a. Political environment: Although the world situation in recent years is frequently fluctuate such as the terrorism in 11th September in USA or war in Iraq... the politic of Vietnam remains relatively stable with no violence of terrorism. It is accepted that Viet Nam is one of the countries which hashigh safe politic in the world.

Political stability helps investors have the optimism about the market, so this is a factor to attract a great deal of foreign investment into Viet Nam, especially into beverage industry. Businesses can rely on this source of capital for development orexpansion company. b. Legal environment: Legal system is built to create complete legal framework for economic activity, force businesses to accept the state regulation of market economy in Viet Nam at present. Moreover, legal system will maintain political stability and create confidence among investors as well as business activities of enterprises.

The impact of the legal system to the operation of beverage companies includes in two legal systems:  * System of economic laws: * Regulations about rights and responsibilities of businesses: 60/2005/QH11 (Business Law). * Trademarks protection for businesses (Intellectual property Law 50/2005/QH11), Technology Transfer Law... * Regulations indoing

business with foreign corporations, which have a basis to do business, as well as protect the rights of domestic businesses, avoid inappropriate requests from international companies. * However, the economic legal system still has weaknesses that Vietnam is gradually overcoming.

Typically, the Competition Law by National Assembly on 03/12/2004 and officially take effect from 7. 1. 2005. However, since the Competition Act came into force today, in Viet Nam there is only a small number of investigations and treatment-related acts restricting competition. This proves that the competitive environment in Vietnam needs to further improve and the role of the Competition Law should be promoted * The ordinance hygiene and food safety, quality standards: * On 7-8-2003, Tran DucLuong Presidentsigned the Ordinance command publicized food safety and hygiene.

When a company lauches a bad product to the market, customers will not only boycott the product, but also have bad impression about the company. As a result, customers will no longer believe in other products of the company, they will find alternative products of other competitors to ensure their safety. Thus companies have great attention to this ordinance to comply with and avoid causing bad impression in mass media. * In the field of advertising, we should also pay attention to product quality which is not exactly with information businesses supply.

This causes wrong information to customers, reducing the company's reputation. To solve that problem,in section 7 of “Advertising, product labeling” pointed out: "Prepackaged food must be labeled. Food labels must include full, accurate, clear, honest about food ingredients and other content as prescribed by law". 3. Globalization Globalization is general trend in the world, affecting all industries as well

as any businesses. That Viet Nam became the WTO's 150th member has given domestic enterprises many opportunities and challenges. a. Opportunities: Expanding markets and increasing exports: Joining the WTO, the goods of Viet Nam will have greater opportunities and more equal access to national and international market expansion. WTO members have also made many commitments on cutting subsidies, reducing taxes and eliminating non-tariff barriers. THP and domestic enterprises have huge export opportunities with the advantage of natural conditions and cheap costs ... * Attracting foreign investments: Reducing taxes, cutting non-tariff barriers, opening services will make the business environment in Viet Nam more and more competitive ..

In addition, reduction and elimination of non-tariff barriers will also help businesses access to inputs at more reasonable costs, since our enterprises will have more opportunities to improve competitiveness not only in national but also international market. b. Challenges: * Competition: WTO accession will reduce taxes, non-tariff barriers, cut subsidies. This will give many opportunities not only for new businesses to join the industry but also for other foreign competitors to access to Viet Nam market. This will increase potential competitiors, force companies to reduce prices.

THP Group is also under pressure to compete with other brands such as Heineken, URC, Pepsi. Coca Cola … * Challenges of economic restructuring: One unavoidable of international economic integration is the restructuring and redistribution of resources. Under pressure of competition, an inefficient manufacturing sector may be lost for a more efficient sector. This process is potentially very risk, including the social risk. This is a tremendous challenge. We can only overcome this challenge if we have the right policies to further enhance the dynamism and

ability to adapt quickly. Human resource challenges: Under pressure of competition from foreign companies, domestic enterprises should have a strategy to train high quality human resources to meet the inside demand. 4. The social cultural environment a. Tastes, trends: Today, Viet Nam is still a developing country, so the demand for essential products is still very high in proportion of the consumption structure - about 50% and will be even higher in the future when people' lives are improved. According to some investors in the beverage industry, Vietnamese now consume a large volume of beverage products, about 4. billion liters per year. Vietnam starting point is an agricultural country, with tropical monsoon weather. The main characteristics of culture, ethnic and climate have defined specific characteristics of the cuisine of Vietnam. This is a food culture using a wide variety of vegetable, fruits... b. Lifestyle: Nowadays, people are very concerned about health care for their families and themselves, participating in many activities sports activities, social activities ... So customers are very interested in consuming products which not only can use fast but also be good for health.

Today, young people and officers very often gather with friends, colleagues in bars after school or work. Meeting the needs of this group, enterprises will find the right way to develop and get high profit. c. Population Vietnam is a developing country with a population of around 85. 7 million people (ranked 13th in the world). The rate of population growth per year in the period 1999-2009 is 1. 2% /year. Therefore, Viet Nam is a potential market potential with abundant human resources at cheap costs.

A growing population means growing human needs to satisfy, offering marketers an indication of demand for certain goods and services. The increasing urbanization also means

living standard increase. The demand for soft drinks increased significantly, especially in large cities due to the large concentrated population. The hotter the weather is, the greater the demand for soft drinks in the summer. Thus, our country with large population, rapid urbanization, a large proportion of young people is a good market with great number of customers for THP Group. 5.

Natural environment: a. Geographical location: Thanks to the geographical position of Viet Nam, THP Group can easily trade with partners across the country as well as in the region and around the world by land-way, waterway and airway. However, the distance from South to North of Viet Nam is quite far, so the Dr. Thanh product’s distribution for the North market gets some difficulties in transportation costs, product promotion b. Climate: Viet Nam climate has characteristic of a tropical monsoon climate, with great annual rainfall and high average temperature.

The characteristic of this climate make the need for beverage in Viet Nam is very high, so it provides THP Group a vast market with a large number of customers. Besides, annually, Viet Nam has got many disasters such as hurricanes (average per year is 6-10 storms and tropical depressions), floods, drought... This also causes big influence to beverage industry. 6. Technological environment: a. Production technology: Currently, science and technology are growing very fast, especially in the non-carbonated beverage production line.

These technological advances create new competitive advantages. So beverage companies with strong capital can focus on the equipment, improve quality of production line and reduce costs of production, create beautiful models, offer highly competitive advantage. Taking advantage of these factors, THP Group has organized the implementation of

activities in advanced technology, high technology service to improve productivity and product quality. About product packaging: the inheritance of packaging design makes THP Group real different in this area.

THP Group has created all kinds of PET bottles, recycled glasses, Tetra Park cans which are really convenient for consumers. Technology environment more modern and accessible has helped companies to solve environmental problems in a better way. The only weakness is that these technologies are often quite expensive. THP Group is one of the leading companies in Viet Nam reaching the standard system of ISO9001-2004 quality, environmental management systems 14001-2000, and management systems for food safety and hygiene standards HACCP should be operating very smoothly. b. Information-Communication technology:

Current communication technology in Viet Nam has developed in a very strong way, helped businesses to promote the image of the company products more easily to consumers with a variety of ways: advertising on the Internet, on television, on radio... THP Group has a good media campaign, a major investment in the media to promote people about the benefits of image and brand products such as copper Pham. VD clip series of product ads on the radio Central TV, the local... Besides, information technology grows and the application on corporate governance has become inevitable.

IT has provided invaluable support for the management of information, resources, organizations and specialized tasks in the enterprise. III. THE MICROENVIRONMENT 1. Company Background: The company’s predecessor was the Ben Thanh Brewery & Beverage factory which came into being in the early’90s. That is the beginning of a large scale development in the market, which was getting bigger and bigger everyday. In 2010, THP Group maintained the leading position

in soft drinks market thanks mainly to its strength in Asian still RTD tea.

It is also the leading player in sports drinks and the third-ranked company in energy drinks in retail value sales terms. Technology: THP Group has set up an establishment fully equipped with the most modern conveniences and production lines in South East Asia, and offers a wide product portfolio of non-alcoholic drinks in Vietnam, including bottled water, RTD tea, and sports and energy drinks. Moreover, THP is proud to be one of the units in the country processing various production technology,the most modern production lines such as Aseptic freezing sterile extracting.

In 2011, THP Group has started to run the system SAP ERP including factories for producing soft drinks and bottle PET. Thanks to this, managing process and production are much more effective. Especially, the cost and energy are saved, which helps THP expand production. Human resources: the total number of THP’s staff is more than 2000 including foreign experts, engineers, employees, and workers, of which > 20 employees have been trained in their particular fields in universities, colleges all over the country and 90% of them have working experience in companies, big corporations currently in operation in Viet Nam.

Among those who participate in production, more than 300 engineers, experts, professionally skilled employees have been trained on the spot by foreign exerts during the process of installing and putting into operation technical lines. 2. Consumers Some research on customer behavior had been conducted and summarized as the following results: Need recognition: Vietnamese people who live in tropical climate want to take care of their health by natural methods. Consumer concerns about calorie intake

continued to rise due to the higher number of obesity cases and dental problems reported by the Ministry of Health in the media in the review period.

As a result, local consumers paid more attention to healthier types such as RTD tea and fruit/vegetable juice. On the other hand, carbonates continued to register a decline in off-trade volume sales because consumers started to turn away from this product type in search of healthier options. Tea is a kind of traditional drink for a very long time, especially in Asian countries. Enjoying tea even becomes special Art with a lot of styles. As long as the pace of development, tea has changed in some other sides but still remained something necessary in our life.

Information search: We consider in turn these groups of people: * For the elderly: drinking tea is an important traditional style of living that is typical of Vietnamese people. Moreover, the elderly especially focus on drinks and food good for health. * For the young (especially for those who often consume hot dishes): With the fast pace of industrialization and the development of economy, the lifestyles of Vietnamese consumers are increasingly hectic. People tend to spend more time at work, which reduces time for cooking and household chores.

As a result, more and more consumers are dining out to save time. The young today take part in great parties with a lot of fried food and drinking beer, wine…, which makes them internal heat. So, they are often involved in disease related to internal heat more and more, while they don’t get enough spare time to cook food refreshing their body. In this case, one

kind of RTD tea that is good for their health is their choice. * For children: children don’t aware a lot about their health as well as food good for them. Children are often impressed a lot by colorful images on its bottle.

Also, with their parents, they will select drinks for their children according to its benefit for health compared to other normal kind of soft drinks that are known containing much sweet. * Dr. Thanh was introduced at the right time as consumers increasingly looked for “healthy” drinks to replace carbonates during hot days in Vietnam. THP group has launched to the market one kind of beverage that meets demand of refreshing body. 3. Competitors In 2010, THP Group gained retail volume and shares in Vietnam thanks to the huge success of Dr Thanh herbal RTD tea.

Although Dr Thanh was only launched at the end of 2009, it rapidly became very popular. Dr Thanh benefited from a strong strategic direction, a deep understanding of the Vietnamese market and consumer habits and mass media advertising. Hereby is some specific kinds of competition Brand competition: Dr. Thanh is the pioneer in the market that provides soft drinks made from herbal nature. The main ingredient for this tea is 9 kinds of herbal trees that is known as for the Royal in the ancient time so that they help cleansing the body. This is a very special feature that makes difference for Dr.

Thanh, a kind of soft drink good for health. Also, due to being the pioneer, Dr. Thanh didn’t get a lot of pressure of competition at first. It’s just strength of the pioneer. It is

unique and tremendous to use the own name and image for its symbol and logo. As a result, consumers quite believe in its quality for a reliable reputation. Moreover, we can see the difference of Dr. Thanh through the outside – the PET bottle, which is convenient for all people, especially for the young and children. Substitute product competition: In Vietnamese as well as foreign market, tea has started to be contained in bottle since the 1980s.

Before Dr. Thanh launched in Vietnamese market, We can tell here some famous brands in the world such as Lipton, Pepsi, Nestle, Coca Cola, Uni President, URC… Then, right after THP has just launched such tea as Dr. Thanh and Green tea, Teafres of MHB and C2 of Yingyan are introduced . So, we can tell here some competitors of Dr. Thanh: * Teafres became a direct competitor of Dr. Thanh herbal tea. Teafres has a similar brand positioning way like Dr. Thanh herbal tea but it adds a youthful and dynamic. But in general, Teafres is not a true rival for Dr. Thanh in many aspects.

Meanwhile THP has done very successfully for Dr. Thanh 3Ps: products, distribution and communication, these 3Ps of Teafres are quite weak: the product has too many similarities with Dr. Thanh, the group owns Teafres-MFB only focused for the ceremony launching Teafres, the product distribution media was not promoted. That is up to 4 months after launching, Teafres has not been popular to customers. * The products in the beverage industry on the Vietnam market include the drink of the Coca, Pepsi, Sabeco products, Tribeco, URC and even the other brand of THP like the Lemon

green tea, Juicies...

Although these brands are indirect competitors, their products have very strong influence to the consumption of Dr. Thanh. With advantage being a nutritious drink for health, Dr. Thanh has increasingly further opportunities in competition with “giants” in the market beverage. Price competition: Herbal tea Dr. Thanh gets the much higher price than other kinds of soft drinks, but customers accept that price because of its benefit for health. With this special feature, Dr. Thanh conducts the strategy of price skimming, ith high price and condensed promotion… * Setting the price for a new product high at first in order to make as much profit as possible and then lowering it gradually to attract more customers. However, this price is quite accepted if compared to its benefit: cleansing and cool down your body. * Doing condensed level of promotion in order to enhance the speed of penetrating market and persuade customers to accept this product easier. 4. Distributors Dr. Thanh distribution system takes advantage of existing network of “Zero degree Green tea”.

At least until now, herbal tea Dr. Thanh also maintains its presence everywhere, from cities to rural areas, from traditional distribution channels to modern. THP gets a wide network of customers all around the country including 268 customers rank 1. Furthermore, THP cooperates to 2 large terms: LBC (in strategy design) and O&M ( Ogilvy & Mathe) (in communications). Consumers can easily find their products in various distribution channels, from supermarkets/hypermarkets and independent small grocers to coffee shops and wet markets.

These strong distribution systems contribute to their success in soft drinks in Vietnam. 5. Supplier: The main material used to produce Dr. Thanh includes 9

herbs. Pressure from suppliers is not large because these herbs are most familiar and popular with tropical climate of Viet Nam. With the herbs to be imported, the enterprise faced with issues such as: import and export procedures, transport, negotiate on price…  6. Public relation: With herbal tea Dr. Thanh, marketing plays an important role in delivering the products to consumers.

Executing various marketing and advertising campaigns helps creating consumers’ curiosity, interest and impression and then contributes to the success of this herbal tea from the very first time. In 2009, THP Group is known as one of the 5 companies that invests the most in marketing strategy. Although Dr. Thanh was introduced in Vietnam at the end of 2009, the company launched a very successful marketing campaign, which ensured that Dr. Thanh reached every province in Vietnam within two months. In 2010, the brand registered dynamic off-trade volume growth to consolidate ts position in soft drinks. Dr. Thanh image appears everywhere, with a wide coverage. In the TV show, in contests, Dr. Thanh logo appears as the main sponsor. Nowadays, Dr. Thanh gradually associates with the public for community activities. Dr. Thanh has got such a perfect marketing strategy that even children can remember its slogan: cleansing the body, cool down your life. After analysing Macro and Micro environment, we can give out some main figures about Dr. Thanh in SWOT. SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTHS| WEAKNESSES| | | THP – a with strong source of capital * The first herb beverage product in Vietnam market, non-aerated, natural ingredients, no preservatives. * Equipped with the most modern conveniences and production lines in South East Asia * Eye-catching

design, lightweight plastic bottle (PET) * Wide distribution channels * A good marketing campaign * Unique name and slogan which is easy to remember and has become very popular| * Quality has not been tested and accepted in global * No innovation in marketing * Undistributed overseas * Price is not competitive due to the cost of marketing activities. Using imported ingredients which can leads to many issues such as: import and export procedures, transportations, negotiations… * The taste is not really special| OPPORTUNITIES| THREATS| * Herbal tea market is growing rapidly, the demand of the customers is large. A replacement for filtered water: increase capacity (up to 2 liters) * The priority for Vietnamese products * Expand markets through export * Launching new technology easily| * Giant Competitors: Pepsi, Coca-Cola * Healthy natural juice products are introduced * Many alternative products * Possible negative publicity * Distribution risk * Seasonal Market demand * Not high customer loyalty * Imported materials| IV. TARGET MARKET & 4Ps 1. Target Market of THP group In general, the beverages market is divided into 2 segments: alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

The second includes many smaller segments such as: coffee, fruit juice, milk, soft – drink, tea… But the CEO of THP group – Mr. Tran Quy Thanh – said that it is very difficult to take part in these two segments because customers have good impression on the very big corporations like PepsiCo with soft – drink, or Lipton with tea, or other market segments in which THP group has succeeded with juice, number one. THP group’s strategy is making the difference so they chose a totally new market segment

– the drink cooling the body and being good for health and it is the pioneer in this segment in Viet Nam.

With the great success from tea green, THP took advantage of the belief of customer to launch a new product line –Dr. Thanh tea herb. 2. Target market of Dr. Thanh Herbal Tea This product line focuses on groups of customers who want to use a drink capable of filtering, cooling the body in hot weather like it is in Vietnam. The other product lines also function to cool the body but concentrate based beverages derived from fruit, whereas THP again chosen herbs - a difference creates a solid basis of trust consumers place in their minds because the main herbs that help remedy very effective cooling.

Quality of life is increasingly raising thus the need to protect human health is also increases. Understanding the psychology of consumers and finding out that the market has not had a drink emphasizing nutrition, THP Group made the most of this point to release Dr. Thanh herbal tea. Target market of Dr. Thanh is quite broad, covering population, but can be divided into three main fields: * The Young * The Elderly * People who often eat hot dishes Laterly, THP has discovered that there is a new group of customers who are really interested in their product – Children. 3. Brand positioning (4Ps) a. Product * Dr.

Thanh provides consumers most benefit: The key feature of herb tea Dr. Thanh is being a beverage product but good for health. The benefits of cooling and purifying body from nine kinds of herb is an extremely powerful and unique idea

making impacts on consumers’ psychology and persuading them to accept. * Bottle and packaging: * The bottles of Dr. Thanh are glass and PET bottles but the most popular type is PET plastic bottles because of its convenience. * Dr. Thanh is the heir of the designing packaging procedure - PET plastic bottle, production lines and distribution channels from other products of THP group such as Zero Degree Green Tea.

Dr. Thanh is bottled in special conditions to preserve the nutrients, which are beneficial to the body. PET bottles can contain green tea and withstand high temperatures due to the hot pouring. At the beginning,THP has its own production line for PET bottles. * This is the first product, on the packaging of which appears the image of its owner. This makes Dr. Thanh become more interesting and attract customers. * The main color in the packaging is red: association with hot, red eyes... a sense of energy. * The name of product: The reason for naming Dr.

Thanh is quite interesting, because the first interpretation, "Thanh" here means that clear heat, pure as the slogan "body cleansing" and the second is the name coincides with the name of general director - Tran QuyThanh. Whatever the explanation is, it will still be a pretty good name and caused the curious consumer. * Slogan: With the brief, concise slogan "purify the body, do not worry about being hot"; THP group has succeeded in outlining the typical features of product and made it easy to go into the mind of consumers * The quality of product:

THP Group, through the mission of production and selling products getting international standards, commits

to all Vietnamese consumers on quality, hygiene, food safety and healthy of Dr. Thanh herb tea. b. Price * When launched, one 350 ml bottle of Dr. Thanh costs 7. 600 VND, a 500ml bottle costs 8. 400 VND, a carton box of 24 350ml bottles costs 170. 000 VND. This is not a price too high compared to the its benefit - "cooling and cleansing the body". However, on the domestic beverage market this is not low price because the price of a 500ml bottle of green tea is 7. 00 VND. THP group gave the skimming price on the domestic beverage market to dominate the market quickly, but in return THP Group gives a high promotion. * Giving the high price ensures that the gross profit per unit of product stays at the highest level. * Active promotion at high level is to increase the pace of market penetration. c. Place * Distribution has been confirmed to be an important factor that enterprises have to note in order to dominate the domestic market. Capture this element and indentify that Dr.

Thanh is a convenient product, THP took advantage of existing network of green tea to make a wide distribution network, make products available to consumers everywhere. Dr. Thanh has maintained a presence everywhere, from cities to rural areas especially in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces, from traditional distribution channels to the modern ones. At any grocery store or any shop, consumers also can buy Dr Thanh. According to a survey of market research made by Nielsen Vietnam firm in November 2009, Dr. Thanh held 23% market share in instant tea industry.

THP Group

has had a widely distribution system across the country with 268 level 1distributors, this shows the strength of distribution channels of Dr. Thanh. * The process of choosing a reasonable intermediate distributor is selecting a distributor through the trial period, if it gets the standard, THP will invest. The standard is different based on each location. If crowded, they have to sell 10000bottles/quarter, if less they just need to sell 1000bottles/quarter. * A part of Dr. Thanh’s success was based on the distribution chain quickly and fully in the local wholesale and retail distributiors.

The results after 3 months of releasing Dr. Thanh is this product already was supported by a great deal of consumers, the product has had the participation of 300 distributors and over 2,000 employees and 1,000 carrier trucks. Output from 300,000 bottles a day so far the group has raised production to 600,000 bottles a day but only meet 25% of demand for use. THP has been very successful when the number of products sold achieved 200% target number. d. Promotion * The time when the THP Group launched Dr. Thanh products is considered to be the golden time because of its convenience.

In the early spring air, especially on Tet holiday, enjoying diverse food, people feel no appetite anymore and can not avoid the feeling - "uncomfortable in the heat". Dr. Thanh brand is positioned with the function to meet those needs. Healthy products have been to the throne, as evidenced by the success of the green tea, and of course the story of "healthy products" still applies on Dr. Thanh * THP group greatly invested in production and promotion for products,

the marketing strategy for this product lined up to $ 2 millions, of which 32 billions on advertising expenses (including music, charity and roadshow ... organizing beauty contests.... ). THP spent 40% of all revenue for advertising activities and 20% of profit for promotion . During the economic downturn, many businesses choose to reduce costs, including advertising expense to reduce prices, but THP group has done the opposite thing, they took a large investment for producing and promoting their new products - Dr. Thanh herbal tea. * THP Group selected two famous names, they are LBC (in charge of design strategy) and O & M (in charge of communications) for their agency staff.

This made the trategic research stages of product development lasted quite short: only 2 months from coming up with the idea to finishing entire R & D, packaging, design ... and complete. * With the above target market, THP selected a suitable promotion way is having the advertising showed on VTV in prime time, advertising with constant frequency in recent months, continuously and repeatedly on television. Apart from the advertising, there is a 360 degree media campaign with the goal of communication: * "Hot in body, drink Dr. Thanh tea. " Awareness of the benefits of products * Create a brand identity * Achieve the target in the shortest time * Before officially presenting on the market, THP Group organized personal sales at the crowed places such as parks, music venues going along with the launch of advertising on TV. The slogan "Coming in Vietnam" was once again gave the feeling of curiosity to consumers. Until TVC had been showed, Dr. Thanh has

really made a strong effect on the market. Dr. Thanh invested heavily on advertising, which is one of the most important factors in the success of Dr.

Thanh. This product appeared everywhere (panners at bus station, the series of articles on many prestigious newspapers, seminars, conferences, recreational activities, artifacts on display in stores ... ). In addition, THP also focused on building brand in the tourist area Dai Nam - Binh Duong. * In addition, Dr. Thanh also organized promotional activities at high levels to increase rate of penetrating market. These activities were free distributing Dr. Thanh in Phu Tho stadium for spectators watching racing in Yamaha tournament. Following the success, Dr.

Thanh again launched a further form of promotion to bring more benefits to more consumers, that is increasing volume, which saves 40% of price. * THP Group paid special attention in PR and investment in order to make the connection with consumers. Besides the charitable activities. Dr. Thanh bottle image appeared everywhere and had large coverage. In the TV show, contests such as beauty contests or the bicycle race which celebrated 30 / 4, Dr. Thanh appeared as the main sponsor. The red color of Dr. Thanh gradually went into customers’ mind in association with the activities for community. There was a time THP Group faced to the news that their materials origined unreliablely and were poor quality. It was thought that this information would make THP Group confused but its leader was very calm and wise to use it to polish their reputation and it became a very effectively advertising without spending money. * By the above suitable directions and a determination for investing

in a new brand, Dr. Thanh was launched after the other product lines but was quickly captured the market with high growth and high recognition. Generally, Dr.

Thanh has been focused most on marketing which was the most efficient stage with an out-standing strategy. The coverage of Dr. Thanh has covered the entire media channels such as TVC Television, Radio, Newspapers, Internet ... these creative marketing campaigns have caused curiosity to customer about a product which can treat the disease called "heat in the body". Right now the frequency of Dr. Thanh advertising still makes many consumers and other enterprises feel overwhelmed. Evidence is that in 2008 it was one of five enterprises, advertising costs of which were highest in Vietnam.

Everyone, even the little ones learn by heart their slogan because it gives the core values ?? of the product - "purifying the body, do not worry about being hot. " V. SOME COMMENTS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS 1. Some comments * Benefits: There have been many opinions saying that the only out – standing benefit of Dr Thanh compared to other products is being good for health. However, nowadays the needs diverse more and more, this requires other added values which are brand new and attractive to customer. * Packaging: It looks like the packaging of Dr.

Thanh is inconsistent with its slogan, "purifying the body, do not worry about being hot”, its packaging should have gone with gentle colors such as blue, white… whereas Dr. Thanh chose a bright red color which makes people think about hot and uncomfortable feeling. * Quality: perhaps this is an issue that THP Group needs to pay attention on most.

Recently there have been a series of articles referring to the quality of the product such as: origin of raw materials does not guarantee quality, customers have discovered a strange thing in a bottle of Dr. Thanh, there were some bottles precipitated.

However, THP Group has not been resolved all these problems thoroughly, we can not entirely blame THP Group for the above problems because it may be is the fault of intermediate distributors due to incorrect storage. No matter who's fault, it is important for Dr. Thanh to find a solution to solve these problems. * It noticed that selecting the target market of Dr. Thanh may face a problem. They have identified Dr. Thanh’s target consumers are the elderly and young people, while two kinds of this consumer have the opposite characteristics that resulted in a unclear strategy.

As we see, Dr. Thanh is a mixture of modern (small bottles, convenient, fresh red) and tradition (inspired by the folk remedies). The youth like modernizing, so a number of them prefer traditional values ?? are not great. In addition, elderly people do not like Dr. Thanh because of dazzling red color, advertisements with strong music and the scenes of many youth singing and dancing. Moreover, Dr. Thanh is just suitable with mid-aged people who have rather high and staple salary if they want to become loyal consumers.

It shows that Dr Thanh has not focused entirely on any target customer at all, which is not beneficial to create their own personalities and show their best performance. It is necessary for Dr. Thanh to conduct marketing researches to identify who their target consumers really are and Dr. Thanh

could build the most suitable marketing strategy. * Price: According to the consumer, the price of herbal tea Dr Thanh is quite expensive. With the low current average income of the people in Vietnam, the consumer becomes a loyal customer of Dr.

Thanh can only be the one who has stable, high compared to common level in the country. For the people receive low unstable income, they do not use regularly, just try to know. 2. Suggested solutions: After taking Dr. Thanh’s issues into consideration, we would like to make some recommendations to THP Group so that they can improve their systems to earn more from Dr. Thanh and make Dr. Thanh the most friendly beverages brand with high quality and reasonable price. Dr. Thanh is likely to the first product in the segment of healthy tea drink.

However, it doesn’t mean that THP Group can have the market power as the leader because when their competitors such as CoCa CoLa or Pepsi pay attention on this segment they, of course, don’t have enough ability to get the share in this site of market. It’s really a great threat that THP Group has to face. Therefore, when it doesn’t become too late, THP Group should prepare some more useful strategy, especially marketing strategy to make Dr. Thanh more and more famous, not only because of its advertisement but also its price and good quality. They have to make customers believe that Dr.

Thanh is the best choice with the most suitable price. First of all, THP Group should improve the quality of Dr. Thanh or even keep the quality the same as customers’ expectation. Moreover, company has to

let customers know about Dr. Thanh’s benefit by the more attractive way, so they have to change the advertise style. In our opinion, advertisements of Dr. Thanh have only one style and we think that people are not very interested in the advertisements, so a change is necessary now. THP Group should choose the artists who have a strong impression to public. The new advertisement just needs to focus on one benefit of Dr.

Thanh like a healthy drink and it is also suitable for daily uses. After the success of making people believe Dr. Thanh is really good for their health when using every day, THP have to rebuild their distribution system to ensure that their products can be delivered to their consumers with the lowest delivery fee. Furthermore, company can change the bottle of Dr. Thanh to a bigger can which can reuse and of course you have to make sure that cans are clean and safety when reuse. To do that, THP can have a great amount of loyalty customers and it also means that company has a general profit from these costumers.

After completing all these things, THP is ready for the competition from the huge competitors and lead the first place in the market of healthy drinks. Specific Marketing Recommendations Recommndation 1: Improve distribution system together with focusing on new target consumers. As being mentioned in our comments, the Dr. Thanh’s target market has changed into middle-age people who usually drink beer and alcohol. So, Dr. Thanh should change the marketing strategy to attract this customers more. Focusing on this segment, Dr. Thanh can gain more profit and make the life of

this product last longer.

At prensent, in beer market, Saigon beer of Sabeco is the market leader with more than 35% market share. Fortunately, there is a strong resemblance in the distributor system between Saigon beer and Dr. Thanh. So, it is possible to combine these systems together and reduce the cost of distributing. Dr. Thanh should negotiate with Sabeco to sign a short term contract for promotion activities. For example, Sabeco and THP Group can do the same promotion campaign at the same time, when customers buy 2 boxes of Saigon beer, they will be given 4 Dr. Thanh bottles.

This approximate with the discount rate of 10% for buyer (price for 4 bottles of Dr. Thanh is about 10% of the price of 2 boxes of Saigon beer). Moreover, usually, a party uses more than 1 box of beer, and a man can drink about 6 - 10 bottles in this party, so, they really need Dr. Thanh to comfort theirself. That mean, if we give customers Dr. Thanh, they can buy more beer and feel the affect of Dr. Thanh to their health. For Sabeco, they can increase the turnover, volume and image in customers when corporating with THP Group. This also helps THP Group not only advertise Dr.

Thanh as a “special drink” or healthy solution for people who got drunk but also use the distribution system of Sabeco. After a period of time corporating with Sabeco, THP Group has chances to promote Dr. Thanh as one of the most effective drinks to recover from beer or wine. Moreover, THP Group can also study about the distribution system of Saigon Beer to improve their

systems. Of course, in this promotion campaign, Sabeco and THP Group share the cost of promotion and distribution. There are many other ways for THP Group to position Dr. Thanh as the best solution for people who usually drink beer and alcohol.

The important point is that THP Group should attempt more and react quickly to the change in taste of customers. With the most suitable and efficient strategy, Dr. Thanh can be the market leader in the segment of healthy tea drinks. Recommendation 2: The elderly ; Children - Potential consumers Moreover, in order to spread their market, THP Group has to pay more attention to their target customers such as the elderly and children who appear to consume a high persentage in the sales of this product. Firstly, the elderly, certainly, often get the problem with heating in side, which cause bad effects on their health.

They are really conscious of these matters and do care about products which do them good. Dr. Thanh almost meets their demands. Because sugar is not good for almost every elderly people, THP Group should focus on launching the sugar-free products to them. Making a new advertisements to show them the taste and the quality of sugar-free products is great to the old is a good idea. Moreover, THP can begin a promotion that supports free Dr. Thanh to each old person for a period of time. It can help THP create a good impression to make more and more people believe in the good influence of Dr.

Thanh to old people’s health and lead Dr. Thanh to become a friendly brandname to consumers. THP Group should make an interview

between some famous doctors and give out their comment about the good quality of Dr. Thanh and the reason why Dr. Thanh is suitable for elderly people. Children is also a potential target that THP Group have to concentrate more. Although the taste of Dr. Thanh is not the style for children drink, it is really good for their health and their parents do know about that. The first option that THP Group can choose is to build a new Dr. Thanh basing on Dr.

Thanh which is for children only. For example, THP Group could keep all basic ingredients and add some fruit taste to attract more children. At the same time, they should develope more effective marketing campaign to promote this new product such as attractive advertisements for children, free drinks at school and supermarket. The image of Dr. Thanh used to be close to young people and children maynot like it. A new marketing campaing to show new image about an ole doctor Thanh who really love children and have a lot of candies and yummy drinks appears to work with the kids.

Together with the products for their parents, children will be more excited if they have got a new Dr. Thanh made by their own way. There are a variety of ways for THP Group to position Dr. Thanh as the best solution for different kinds of people. The most important thing that THP Group should not forget is that: Besides their promotion attempt to attact more customers, they should care more about market research and the quality of their products. With the most suitable and efficient strategy, Dr. Thanh can be

the market leader in the segment of healthy tea drinks. REFERENCE