Introduction
Trung Nguyen coffee serves as the biggest strategic business unit of the entire coffee market. There are other known coffee companies under the enterprise including Dick smith and Murphy. The Trung Nguyen coffee brand is young compared to the enterprise because it came into being in the recent years but the entire enterprise established in the year in the early 90’s.
Trung Nguyen coffee brand is international and it has big stores in New Zealand and Australia and each branch containing over one hundred and seventy employees. As a result, it is the most recognized and trusted brand in many countries serving millions of customers every day during breakfast or any other coffee time. For the past thirty years, Trung Nguyen coffee has committed to provide wide range of good quality products, which come alongside guarantees. Their products satisfy the need of customers regardless of social status as they come with lower prices as compared to the rest. The main research question is that of why Trung Nguyen coffee as a new company in the coffee industry has to introduce the new Trung Nguyen coffee in the market. The coffee company has a strong mission, which is to offer clients with every day solution to their endeavors and at the same time provide them with energy. Trung Nguyen coffee motivates individuals who work early in the morning and late at night.
What makes the item for consumption more recommendable to many is that it contains no additive and it is not as addictive as other coffee brands. That means it has almost zero percent of caffeine. Another advantage is that it is not continuous and only works at the time of use (Paul, H. 1997). Trung Nguyen coffee is a natural product and has no side effects despite its rapid action in boosting energy. Identification of the market where the company wants the product get an upper hand is an ingredient of market segmentation. Presently, many coffee brands are highly addictive and contain components that are addictive to the user. To those who fear chemicals and value natural products, Trung Nguyen coffee is their ultimate choice (Hardy, J. 2010).
The product has some qualities that make it penetrate widely in the market. This makes it easier for the marketing manager to introduce it without necessarily concentrating on the price. The fact that it contains natural ingredients gives it a reason to set low prices. This is strength to the company and one can argue out that the natural products are locally and widely available at low costs.
It however faces some weaknesses in the view of the fact that it is new in the market and there are already other dominating products in the industry (Hardy, J. 2010).If the company’s weaknesses combine with the strengths, more opportunities will emerge. Some of the opportunities could be global financial crisis. This is where the extension of working hours could come in handy. The decision aims zero-rating the recession rate.
The most important aspect of marketing is ensuring that there is the availability of the product to all the clients who want it. The main tool for promoting Trung Nguyen coffee is creation of awareness of a new product or one that has been in existence but has in the lost marketability in the past. In business, promotion of products regardless of age in the market is very important. With this, there are various reasons that come with it including the creation of awareness in new products, increase in demand, positioning, competition outperformance and establishment of brand equity (Hardy, J. 2010).
Since the Trung Nguyen coffee a new product in the market, what will matter most is the advertisement to create more awareness and recognition. The advertisement in subject includes media, word of mouth, marketing directly and free samples. Since it is product fit for human consumption, many will go for it if given the chance to taste in small quantities and not necessarily spending a coin. Internet pop up advertisement and creating a good company website could be a good way of reaching the entire world (Paul, H. 1997).
An Action program plan section explains the marketing thrusts broadly mainly for the purposes of business objectives achievement. There must be the presence of elaboration of all strategy elements of marketing in order to provide answers for questions like subject to be done, time of the action and the doer as well as the cost of the promotion for leaping lizard. (Rich, 2011)
Trung Nguyen coffee will direct most of its promotional activities to the media advertisements inclusive of trade shows directed at dealers and another one directed at consumer with an estimated cost of $20000. These will include radios on frequency 103.5 Truing fm, televisions, magazines and newspapers. Media is the most efficient way of marketing a new product. For instance, advertising through radios and magazines is not only cheap but also effective in passing out the information to a target market. This roughly cost $8000 slightly lower than sales contest which ideally awards trips and vacations to dealers with an estimate of $13000. The company will not rely so much on newspapers since they are very expensive. In stead, it will complement the radios on frequency 103.5 Truing fm and magazines with cable television since this mode is cheap and passes information to many people at the same time. The adverts on these media will contain the necessary details of the new brand including its cost and benefits.
The first action is creation of responsiveness; the company would create awareness of the product by word-of-mouth and issuance of free samples. The company will hire young energetic individuals who will benefit from training and get important information about the new product. These individuals will get placements in to various work places and institutions of higher learning to pass the information to the potential customers in these places. The marketers freely get samples to distribute to these targeted prospects. Word-of-mouth and free samples are as effective as media in creating markets for new products such as the Trung Nguyen coffee. (Lamb, 2011)
The other action and program would be for the company to use Internet pop-up ads and the company’s website to pass information to prospects. This mode will mostly target the e-prospects. Pop-ups are effective in promoting a new product since they come automatically whenever someone accesses the company’s website. The company will design the pop-ups in such a way that they contain information regarding the company and the product. This will be important in informing the viewers about the location of the company, importance of Leaping Lizard and its price. Internet ads are cost-effective and reach a large group of prospects at the same time.
All these programs follow each other after a specified period which could be after every two months or three months and most follows the order from April, August, February of the following year and September and in that order. Changes on time depend on consumers and general sales. Advertisement on newspapers is mainly for Trung Nguyen coffee consumers and retailers. (Scott, 2010)
Literature review
Both Starbucks and Trung Nguyen are multinational coffeehouse chains. Starbucks Coffee Corporation is an American coffee chain based in Seattle Washington opened back in the year 1971. Trung Nguyen on the other is Vietnam’s based version of starbucks coffeehouse chain established back in the year 1996. One of the differences between the two is that Starbucks has been in operation for quite a number of years. In addition, one of the most notable similarities between the two is that their operation is multinational with Starbucks stores/branches spread in 61 countries worldwide (Lamb, 2011). In total Starbucks has 20,366 stores in the countries it operates in. on the other hand, Trung Nguyen has also over 60 countries to which it distributes its products with over 1000 stores. Both corporations are also similar in that they are involved in the production, processing as well as distribution of coffee products. Another similarity between the two is that they form the largest domestic coffee brand in terms of processing as well as distribution within their country of origins. This implies that Trung Nguyen is the leading domestic coffee brand within Vietnam in terms of processing and Production while Starbucks is also the leading coffee Brand in terms of processing and distribution within the domestic market of United State. Another similarity between these two multinational Corporations is that both these Corporation have diversified their ranger of product processing and distribution with tea. This implies that the two Corporations have as well production facilities dealing with tea production and processing. The processing tea plant for Trung Nguyen Multinational Corporation is based in Lam Dong Province. One of the major notable differences between Trung Nguyen and Starbucks coffeehouses is that Starbucks specializes in arabica coffee for processing while Trung Nguyen corporation specializes in the three coffee types, That is arabica, Robusta as well as excelsa coffee. Another notable difference between the two corporation is that Trung Nguyen being a relatively newer company in business offers mostly hot drinks or beverages while on the other hand Starbucks which has been in business for quite a while offers both hot as well as hot beverages or drinks. The cold drinks offered by Starbucks in its outlet store include wines and beers, which the corporation started offering as of the year 2010 in its United States stores. The Starbucks corporation beer and wine drinks are were available in seven retails shops and others have since then applied for licenses to dispense the cold drinks (Miller, 2012).
The Trung Nguyen coffee brand is branch of a relatively successful company in the entire coffee world. The subsidiary companies have a high level of competitiveness since they are in a competitive market. Marketing experts have argued that the best way to remain in the competitive edge is by getting a good competitive advantage as a strategy. The reason behind Trung Nguyen coffee success is its successful strategy of the product in the market. Business strategy is all about the scope and direction in organization’s operations. In addition, business strategy is a key player in business success as it is a long-term direction for the company’s operation. Managers operate and execute the company in this way.
In execution of a business strategy, managers play the biggest role and they must be present during the process. The success depends on how the business operates and what it does in order to succeed and achieve the set goals. The purpose of a strategy is satisfaction of the stakeholders as well as customer’s needs. Trung Nguyen coffee’s stakeholders and staff also play a big role in the execution of the business strategy making the most important process and part of the organization.
Strategic choice comes as the third element of logic in the formulation process of strategy. Choice remains at the centre during the formulation of strategy and if no choices made, there can be very little value of any strategy thinking. There are limits of the choices made however and they have limits, which they cannot exceed. Trung Nguyen coffee cannot get limited by its resources since small enterprises tend to do so. It is a large enterprise and therefore finds it difficult to adjust quickly and the past tend to constrain them.
In Trung Nguyen coffee, managers find it difficult to make decisions on strategies since some of its decisions come from high levels or in different countries which could be far. This is however different with public sectors who get the choices influenced by politicians making the role of managers limited to making decisions in future. Even if managers in Trung Nguyen coffee are free to make strategic choices, the results depend on their premeditated choices and opportunities.
In conclusion, when making future strategic choices, clear choices have to be present. It is always good to make prescriptive views when making considerations on choices and descriptive ways of thinking help in the explanation of the events outcome. Present in the tidy logical world, processes of choice have four steps which are identifying the options, evaluating options against the favorite criteria, selecting the most excellent option and finally taking the appropriate action. The choice and identification of options is purely analytical and with no shortcuts. It is difficult to identify all possible options at the same time with equal clarity.
Good strategic choices in Trung Nguyen coffee are very challenging as they keep them ahead of the competitors and at the same time, they have to be achievable. Apart from judgments and skills being critical in making a strategic choice, analysis is also an important role. For example, it is better to at times delay on making decisions than not make a decision at all and it is better to make a wrong decision than make no decision at all. Choice and strategic choice is the process of selecting an option for implementation and this option has to be the best for both long term and future success of a company and organization such as Trung Nguyen coffee.
Research methodology
Since there is no questionnaire in this study, there was need to concentrate on the SWOT analysis in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses as an overall research design. For example, after that analysis, TOWS matrix becomes important since it is a useful tool, simple yet very effective in brainstorming strategies to address the SWOT results. TOWS are simply SWOT spelled backwards.
External factors
Some marketing strategies in Trung Nguyen coffee are for the purposes of capturing some segments in the market. The most important thing is trying to establish the importance of the strategy in moving forward of the company. For example,
How to conduct the literature search is a challenge that faces research and studies but for this study, it is not. Many customers for Trung Nguyen coffee who consume the products are unpredictable and they hesitate to buy a product that they little know about. They however contribute to the literature search and help in getting the required information. This is in not only Trung Nguyen coffees but also everywhere since it is very risky to buy a product that you little know about. If a company has a new product in the market, it is always good to create good awareness to the target audience who in this case are the consumers. The research approach is possible through advertisements and marketing trade fares. Creation of marketing campaigns is a great way for research approach and emphasize on the value and quality of the products giving it the need to compete in bases of industry factors of success.
Incases of sampling where consumers buy products they little know about and products turn out to be bad, it is wise for them to return and the company there on takes the initiative to explain the product to the customer. In Trung Nguyen coffee, employees stand strategically on the shelves to explain to customers about the new products therefore creating awareness. It also gives free samples if need be for the customers to get a chance of tasting their new products. Concerning data access and data analysis, the result of this strategy of boosting the consumer confidence translates more on the cash register since customers have confidence. This builds the company and it is a long-term advantage for the company, and that is why Trung Nguyen coffee has grown and stretched to all over the world.
Another way of glimmering interest for products like Trung Nguyen coffee does is conducting campaigns intended for promotion of products in the many ways as possible. This strategy is very close to boosting customer confidence and most of the time they go together. This has happened in Trung Nguyen coffee where it brands all the products with its name, logo and other related products it sells. Methods of data analysis are many and research has information that Trung Nguyen coffee also has branded coupons and wrappers, which clearly shows where the shopping is from. They brand mineral water bottles make attractive advertisements on the media both visual and audio not to leave out printed.
Language barrier is among the greatest research limitation especially having in mind that Branding public vehicles and pouting stickers on taxis is also a way of creating awareness and it enables the public know and familiarize themselves with the products. There are people who like tasting and putting new products into test for comparison and therefore this is the best way to do so while conducting research. The more the people know about the products, the more they look for the store with the products and the more the returns for the store. This has seen Trung Nguyen coffee makes a lot of money considering the money it uses on creating the awareness is not close to what they make per financial calendar. This strategy boosts in cases of launching new markets.
Creation of awareness as a strategy in Trung Nguyen coffee is the determination of the long-term goals that are basic alongside its objectives and adoption of actions together with allocation of necessary resources while carrying out the mentioned goals. Awareness creation is a process that comes in less than three stages. These stages include strategic analysis which is the where a company’s strategist identifies SWOT in the surroundings. The next stage is the strategic formulation stage where choices come up and the last stage is the strategy implementation. This is the stage in subject and it is here that strategy turns into an action. Implementation of a strategy is the organizational action translated from a strategy. This is possible through design, management of strategic change, resource planning and structure of organization. Implementation of awareness creation strategy is complex and would only be successful depending on how well the components used in carrying it out get incorporation and interaction.
For identification of implementation issues of awareness creation as a strategy in Trung Nguyen coffee, a good concentration and look on the application components for the strategy could be a good pointer to begin with. These components are organizational structure and design, implementation strategy and strategy translation to Trung Nguyen coffee’s action. This is by using Trung Nguyen coffee’s structure as a dependant of the structure type in use. This is because the structure of Trung Nguyen coffee is global and differs from other smaller organizations and businesses. There is a very big possibility that the extent of centralization and devolution can make influence on the implementation of this strategy, awareness creation. The structure of Trung Nguyen coffee and aspect design of the implementation of awareness creation strategy compacts with how human resources in Trung Nguyen coffee get abolishment and organization on interest of creating corporate strategy.
The main problems encountered when using organizational aspect when implementing strategy is quitting of the employees because they get no motivation from Trung Nguyen coffee. When the situation gets to this point, chief executive officers and senior management in Trung Nguyen coffee impose the policy on those working in the company. The manner in which information circulates around the ranks is also a problem. If information circulation does not have a fluent flow, obsolete and outdated information would base the decisions made and it is not right. The solution to this problem is delegating the command for the purposes of easy and fluent streaming of information. This solution is through all the ranks especially those involved with new strategy implementation in Trung Nguyen coffee.
Implementation of a strategy depends mostly on culture, which goes hand in hand with structure. Trung Nguyen coffee is a global brand and it becomes a bit difficult to integrate and implement the strategy in all stores from all over the world. Because implementation involves the control of behavior of other customers and their perceptions alongside culture many problems are human related and the solutions would mainly depend on the structure of the management and the behavior of leadership. Structure and culture therefore go together and they act as big issues in implementation of strategies.
Nurturing relationships is an important ingredient in strategy implementation and its absence would very much affect awareness creation to customers and consumers at large. It is very important for every organization including Trung Nguyen coffee to create good relationships with clients surrounding community. Through this, there is creation of long-term benefits. It requires that Trung Nguyen coffee hire good-hearted people during recruitments. It follows that Trung Nguyen coffee structures its organization around key strategies.
Conclusion
There are many questions on how culture influences the implementation of strategies. Well, culture is the belief of people and if they do not want what you offer to them, it could take you time to convince them. This has been a problem in strategy implementation especially the consumer awareness creation. Different countries as well as different regions have different cultures and before the study on all of them, other organizations will have overtaken and taken lead in the competition edge. The solution to this problem would be trying to integrate different strategies suitable for different cultures. It therefore means that different cultures should have different structures. For example, if Trung Nguyen coffee needs to create awareness on coffee canned meat to various regions, it becomes difficult because their culture does not allow them to eat meat therefore there is no way it can be easy to create the awareness on the same. At the same time, the management or structure should be different because dealing with such cultures requires management of the same culture.
The structure should fit the strategy and meaning that the layers of Trung Nguyen coffee and the extent to which there is decentralization of power matters when it comes to implementation. Managers and top officials in Trung Nguyen coffee decide what strategy works and what does not because they are the key players in the company. Other issues of implementation include money where without money to do the advertisements and reach to the world implementation of strategies becomes difficult. Consumers play the biggest role in implementation because they are the target audience in creation of awareness and if they do not fall or give in, chances in future to implement the same becomes hard and management finds it hard to make decisions which in the past have not been a success to the company. Technology is also an issue because without technology, communication becomes hectic and slow.
No matter what customers say during the research, the decision of buying is emotional to many of them. It is the obligation of the organization to play on customers emotions because what works for them well works well for you too and vise versa. This campaign helps customers feel themselves, decision to buy your products and the company. Trung Nguyen coffee has made big investments in the strategy and results show that it is working since the returns as a result are enormous. This helps the organization to have esteemed and dedicated customers and even the sales are low, esteemed customers will always boost and bring more consumers. This strategy greatly helps in completion and getting a bigger market share.
The sales team plays a big role in overcoming a customer’s objection. Trung Nguyen coffee’s sales team boosts the obstacles of the customers to buy before they get into any of their stores worldwide. A marketing strategy like overcoming objections not only improves the buying decisions for existing customers but also attracts new customers. This is because it emphasizes warranties, endorsements, testimonials and other devices that reinforce positively. This attracts customers who did not intend to make purchases in market.
Trung Nguyen coffee has utilized this strategy well and as a result, it gets new customers each new month and the objections of the existing customers to buy improve. It translates to better sales, which mean the company grows and remains on the competitive edge since the success of the company bases on how many customers it gets in each financial year. In terms of market share, this strategy improves it and it becomes easy to open other stores close or even next to existing stores. When Trung Nguyen coffee started using this strategy, there were notable changes on sales and profits.
This strategy tends to answer the question on why many advertisements emphasize on the date and day the sale or the promotion ends. The secret behind this strategy is that it makes people respond to deadlines positively and in huge crowds. For example if a sale is ending tomorrow, many people will make sure that they buy the products they want before the store closes on deadline. A company suffering from diminished customer base can potentially jumpstart and provide a quick influx of customers by creating the sense of urgency through such a strategy. This is a short-term advantage since a company cannot always have deadlines. This can only happen two or three times in a year. Maybe when there is closing and opening of stock. Creating awareness is also a strategy stands out tall concerning feasibility, suitability and acceptability. In Trung Nguyen coffee, creation of awareness has been widely accepted and any time the company uses this strategy, more customers tend to turn out and respond in very big numbers making it the number one strategy for Trung Nguyen coffee. The strategy is also suitable because it requires only the sales team and media to create the awareness and influence huge crowds of consumers. The feasibility fact is very evident since it has happened in the past. If it were not possible, it could not have had the other stipulated facts. Creation of awareness is therefore the most feasible, suitable and acceptable strategy in the market share and competitive market.
Implementing the awareness strategy has many issues but culture and structure affect it more. Trung Nguyen coffee has had a difficult time dealing with different structures and cultures in the big marketing industry. For a strategy to get elevation to being an action implementation must be there and if issues arise, the management should get relevant measures in trying to overcome the problems because at the end of the day, implementation must take place.
Trung Nguyen coffee having been where it is in the competitive market and having penetrated in almost all the countries of the world, it must have well-structured management that ensures proper management of implementation problems. It is one of the organizations faced with the most implementation issues with culture and structure topping the list. If all the organization borrowed a leaf from Trung Nguyen coffee, such issues can no longer be issues but factors influencing and accelerating strategy implementation. Trung Nguyen coffee has however managed to implement awareness creation strategy and the results well translated in the cashbooks.
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