HANOIUNIVERSITY Faculty of Management

and Tourism

POM ASSIGNMENT REPORT

Hanoi, 05/04/2012

STITUATION ANALYSIS OFOMO DETERGENT

Tutor: Ms. Nghiem Huyen AnhClass: Tut 2_ACGroup 4’s members:Nguyễn Thị Lan _ 1004010045Nguyễn Thị Phượng _ 1004010073Nguyễn Thị Phương Thu _ 1007010255Nguyễn Thị Phương Thùy_1004010073Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _ 1004010096

ii

MAJOR ASSIGNMENT MARKING SCHEME (total: 200 marks)

Name of Students in the group

Nguyễn Thị Lan _ 1004010045

Nguyễn Thị Phượng _ 1004010073

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thu _ 1007010255

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thùy_1004010073

Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _ 1004010096

Title of Assignment STITUATION ANALYSIS OF OMO DETERGENT

Date

Word count 5,400

Criteria Very Poor

Poor OK Good Very Good

Total

Executive Summary 10

Company Analysis 20

Environmental Analysis 30

Competitor Analysis 25

Customer Analysis 30

Brand Analysis 40

SWOT Analysis 30

Conclusion 15

Tổng

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200

Acknowledgement

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Tuan Anh,

the lecturer of Principle of Marketing subject for providing us

an opportunity to do this useful assignment. Moreover, he gave

us a guideline so clearly and sufficiently, making us easily to

understand and do this assignment. Secondly, we want to give

many thanks to our tutor Ms. Huyen Anh, for your guidance and

encouragement in carrying out this project work. We also wish

to express our gratitude to other members in our team and

also in our class who rendered their help during the period of

our project work and supported, shared with us lots of

useful things to complete our assignment on time. Last but not

least, we would like to thank the authors on the internet and

books with the convenient, easy to use and quickly transfer with

more accurate and update information to help us do this project

more effectively.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSExecutive Summary.................................1

I. Company Analysis.............................2II. Environmental Analysis......................3

1.Economic....................................32.Demographic.................................43.Political...................................54.Natural.....................................55.Technological...............................66.Cultural....................................7

III. Competitor Analysis........................7IV. Customer Analysis..........................10V. Brand Analysis..............................13

1.Review the product-life cycle of OMO.......132.4P analysis................................14

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2.1. Production............................14

a. Product..............................14b. Product assortment...................16

2.2. Price ............................16

2.3. Placement.........................19

2.4. Promotion.........................20

VI. SWOT Analysis..............................21VII. Conclusion ...............................24

References.......................................26

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In this situation analysis, we choose OMO - one of the most

famous products of Unilever and also the leading brand of washing

powder in Vietnam market as our research object. This report aims

to provide a gathering of relevant market information that needs

to be examined before any market related decision is made. In the

first part called Company analysis, we will identify the

company’s mission as well as the objectives that will guide the

present and future development of the company together with its

mission over the next 12 months. Second, there will be an

Environmental analysis which demonstrates external forces

affecting the market. With OMO, we investigate five macro

environmental factors including economic, natural, technological,

cultural and political. Next, we assess strengths and weaknesses

of current and potential competitors and make a compare between

the position of OMO and its competitors, which are specifically

Tide and Vi dan. In the customer analysis, we describe four

customer segments including: people who are usually exposed to

more dirt, people who prefer expressing themselves and saving

Page1

fabric conditioner, people who use washing machine and those who

offer no detergent residue and their characteristics based on

demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentations. After

that, we go on with brand analysis in which we review OMO’s

current performance and describe the current marketing strategy

for the brand as well as offer some recommendations relating to

the situation. Last but not least, we summarize all the

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of OMO Company

and also determine some possible actions that are needed to deal

with each area of the SWOT. In the end, all of our key findings

and recommendations are outlined and highlighted which can help

this analysis more clarified and understandable.

I. COMPANY ANALYSIS

In recent year, the competition of Vietnamese companies and

foreign companies was drastic, especially multinational firms,

which present and dominant in Vietnam. Among them, the one that

should be mentioned is Unilever.

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Unilever is one of the world leading multinational corporations

in term of consumer goods with food and care products for

personal hygiene and family. Having been in Vietnam since 1995,

this corporation has invested more than $ 120 million and became

one of the most successful investors in our country with two

fields which are specializing in personal care and household

products (such as Lux, Viso, Soap, Lifebuoy, Dove, etc…). For

those products of this company, we choose Omo, which is a leading

brand of Vietnam washing-powder, to examine and analyze.

Along with the growth of country, the development of children is

the first priority concern of society in general and of each

family in particular. According to this trend, Omo has chosen

their mission which is aimed at children under slogan “Dirt is

good” (http://www.unilever.com.vn) and this idea that “Dirt is

good” is not simply a catchphrase for this company. In fact, it

lies at the core of Omo brand, going consistently through all

brand activities and innovations.

In order to develop the company in line with its mission, Omo has

two objectives: profit maximization and product quality

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leadership. In the first place, company aims to provide the best

quality product in the market, and therefore charges more than

its competitors (http://tailieu.vn). Actually, Omo uses price to

signal high quality in an attempt to position their product as

the quality leader, making their company becomes leading brand of

washing powder in Vietnam market. In the second place, Omo

charges high price for their product to have highest profit and

to cover its costs. Moreover, in order to get profit

maximization, Omo also develops many activities that bring its

product closer to the public by means of brand positioning; to be

more precise, through PR activities (http://www.scribd.com). To

apply these campaigns, this company uses advertising strategy

“boomed” on television, newspaper and Internet. In addition, they

also make them more excited by associating with a series of

marketing activities to promote the brand like” vui cung vet

ban”, “Bi quyet cua me”, “Nang dong cung be”, etc.

(http://www.omovietnam.com). From that, Omo has achieved as the

largest brand in Vietnam because it is not only in high quality,

but also launched impressive campaigns such as “Dirt is good” or

“White clothes Bright clothes.

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II. ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

1. Economic

Today, as the quality of life has been improved more and more

along with higher income, many families use washing machines.

Therefore, OMO not only develops hand washing powder but also

produces detergent for washing machine with features that

overcome disadvantages when washing clothes by washing machine.

In addition, in recent years, inflation rate of Vietnam have been

high, with the figure of 2010 and 2011 was 11.5% and 18.6%

respectively (http://www.bbc.co.uk). Moreover, according to

vnexpress, inflation rate of Vietnam in 2012 is predicted to be

still high. Beside, based on the figures of vneconomy.vn, we know

that GDP growth rate of Vietnam tends to decrease, from 6.78% in

2010 to 5.89% in 2011. Also, the online newspaper nguoiduatin.vn

showed that the unemployment rate in Vietnam has risen rapidly

between 2010 and 2012. These figures demonstrate that Vietnamese

economy has to cope with many difficulties and challenges ahead.

That result in many strong effects on consumer spending,

therefore, influences many companies as well. In the trend of

poor development of the economy, consumers tend to spend less and

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save more. For detergent product line, OMO is considered the best

and most expensive one. In the trend of poor development of the

economy, consumers tend to spend less and save more. Thus, it is

possible that there are a large number of people will choose

other products which are much cheaper than OMO. This is one of

the challenges facing OMO. To deal with this problem, the company

needs to create some strategies to adjust the price, retain

current customers and attract more consumers by using promotion

techniques. They may decrease the current prices or produce a new

washing powder with average price which is suitable for most

customer segments.

2. Demographic

Besides the extended family, there is an increase in the number

of other family models such as nuclear family, single parent,

married couple…leading to a big difference in consuming behaviors

among different family models. This affects marketing decision of

OMO, the company need to make plans to meet the different needs

of all types of family. Additionally, Vietnam has a large scale

population of 86 million people (13th world), with the increase

of 1 million each year (http://www.vietnamonline.com).6

Educational level of Vietnam is relatively high, especially in

the urban areas. Graduations rates from universities and colleges

are quite high compared with other countries together with

intellectual labors in Vietnam are good at technology. Therefore,

there are abundant and qualified human resources for OMO.

However, according to Vietnamese census throughout the years

(http://en.wikipedia.org), the structure of Vietnam’s population

is aging. This fact influences adversely the company because the

major customers that OMO aims at are children and youngsters.

With an aging population structure, the current products of OMO

seem to be quite luxurious. The middle-aged and older people may

not want OMO and prefer other cheaper ones but still meet their

needs and demands.

3. Political

The legal system of Vietnam is more and more complete;

particularly the policy of Vietnamese Government is to build an

industrialized and modernized economy, creating favorable

conditions for foreign companies like OMO-Unilever to promote

investment and business. Furthermore, Vietnam is a country of7

religious freedom, so the distribution and advertising of

products are not strictly restricted as many other countries.

However, there are some obstacles resulted from the Trade law

such as increase in tariff (http://ketnooi.com). Thus, the price

product of OMO in Vietnam is still higher than many other

countries and OMO is reckoned as the luxury good compared with

other types of washing powder, so customers have more

considerations in making decision. This requires the company to

set out reasonable pricing strategy for the market in Vietnam.

4. Natural

Nowadays, resources supplying for the production have become

exhausted. In the case of powdering industry like OMO, their

ingredients mostly come from crude oil like fat acid (pametic,

oleic, stearic…). In recent years, the oil price goes up that

leads to the rise in costs of inputs for production, causing the

price of OMO increase (http://www.scribd.com). For nature, if we

do not take into account the impact of industry waste, that will

be a shortage. Of course, the company must follow the government

laws, and take their responsibility to protect the environment

and that will cost their product higher. Unilever is successful

8

with their waste treatment water process and that receive good

feedbacks from society. A good thing is there is none of

information about increased pollution from the manufacturing of

OMO, so OMO retains its reputation in the market in contrast to

many other companies that were charged because of contaminating

the environment. Thus, consumers still puts their belief in OMO’s

products. It is good for OMO to reinforce their brand.

5. Technological

Unilever is global leader in research and development, who

believes that powerful vitality based innovations are crucial to

delivering sustainable growth. In 2008 Unilever appointed first

chief research and development officer. The Company spent 927

million Euros on R&D worldwide and also has five laboratories

around the world that explore new thinking and techniques to help

develop their products. (http://www.ukessays.com). In particular,

the emphasis on investment in technology development of Unilever

has created beneficial conditions for the development of OMO.

There are many outstanding innovations for the products of OMO,

namely:

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In 2003, Omo is the first brand to provide detergent for

machine wash. Until now, OMO Matic has been recommended by

80% of washing machine manufacturers in Vietnam.

In 2004 Omo launched break - through formulation which

cleans dirt even in hard-to-reach places.

In 2004, OMO launched Omo Bleach, which delivers safe bleach

laundry.

In 2007, OMO Comfort with long lasting fragrant is

introduced to consumers.

In 2009, with new enzyme formulation and super soaking

technology, OMO can remove tougher stains more efficiently

than ever before. OMO is now known to Vietnamese people as

stain – removal expert

(http://www.unilever.com.vn).

All these above innovations have extremely positive impacts on

the development of OMO, helping manufacturing a wide range of new

products, creating market opportunities; hence, OMO is

increasingly closer to consumers.

6. Cultural

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Culture deeply influences consumers’ selection of products such

as product usability, product features they need, design ... OMO

has produced many product lines to meet the variety of needs:

Those who prefer white clean clothes: Clean White Omo, beating

out 99% of stains

Groups of people who prefer pure white and fragrant to assert

themselves, Unilever launched Thousands of Flowers Incense

Omo, Omo matic...

According to research results, Vietnamese market ranks eighth

among the top 10 countries who believe advertisement the most

(http://www.scribd.com). Therefore, Omo has introduced many

impressive advertising tactics to attract more consumers to pay

their attention to product quality and design

III. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Along with the everyday demand of consumers, washing-powder

becomes essential goods, hence, manufacturers have created many

new trends derived from the housewives’ psychology which was keen

on clearing the stain quickly and had no negative effect to their

skin. Understanding this psychology of detergent, firms have

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produced product lines to satisfy the various types of customers.

This leads to the competition in the market share of the business

between firms, especially for Omo and other types of washing

powders. In fact, the strongest direct competitor of Omo is a

trademark Tide of P& G, and some others weaker ones like Sun, Vi

dan, Lix, Ariel (http://www.scribd.com). Moreover, Omo also has

some indirect competitors such as Amway, SA8, Magic clean and so

forth. Actually, in this report, we will represent the effect of

two biggest direct competitors, Tide and Lix, on the development

of Omo.

The following table compares the characteristics between Omo

detergent brands and Tide, Lix:

Produ

ct

Qualit

y

Safe

for

skin

Brand Price Advertis

ing

Promote

Omo Good Normal easy to

remember

expensi

ve

interest

ing,

plentifu

l,

attracti

ve

plentiful

,attracti

ve

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Tide quite

good

Normal quite easy

to

remember,

under

evaluated

expensi

ve

plentifu

l

plentiful

Lix Normal Normal close with

South-West

Vietnamese

cheap shortage shortage

(http://banhbeo.wordpress.com )

Tide, which is the most “heavy” competitor of Omo, has their own

strengths to compete with the big famous brand like Omo. First of

all, Tide positions their trademark with high quality and

memorable name (http://en.wikipedia.org). While Tide positions

their products as “harmless for skin”, Omo’s product positioning

is “pure white”; however, according to majority of consumers, all

type of washing powders always has detergent, so the harms for

hand are inevitable. For this reason, their status “harmless for

skin” is failure, leading Tide to be second largest detergent

brand in Vietnam, following Omo. Secondly, this firm is well-

known for its many attractive advertising. In fact, they have

launched the new message for their brand:” Tide knows the fabrics

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best” through the clean white silk which showed the personality,

confidence and each curve on the women’ body

(http://www.chienluocmarketing.org). Moreover, Tide also offers a

sweet combination of sweet fragrance with Downy, making its

trademark not inferior to Omo. Last but not least, attracting

promoting campaigns are also used by Tide to conquer the

customers. In reality, consumers are always drawn to the

attractive invitation of trying free products, attending seminars

to introduce new technology of super market; thus, they use this

strategy to attract buyers. Nonetheless, when Omo started the

race with their advertising campaigns, the location of Tide was

no longer as strong as the previous period and the following

example will make it clear.

In contrast, Tide also has their own weakness like positioning

their products with high price. Because consumers prefer buying

products that have high quality and low price so high price

becomes weakness for not only Tide but also for Omo. However,

depending on the situation of income, interests, ages, each

person or group of people has the different habit and behavior.

Actually, whereas the low-income people often pay special14

attention to prices, those with high income tend to concern over

the quality rather than price of the product. Thus, Tide and Omo

still have a strong position in the detergent market.

Today, Tide is still a direct competitor that has strong

influence on Omo while other types of washing-powder are not

considered as potential rivals for a powerful brand like Omo.

However, there are several advantages of Lix brand that Omo

should care about. First of all, Lix is considered as Vietnamese

high-quality goods in conformity with people who are in the

middle and low income ( http://www.lixco.com) . In addition, the

product of Lix are also widely distributed and extending across

the country as well as other system such as Coop Mart, BigC,

Metro, etc.. However, small budget in marketing which is the

major issue of Lix makes this brand less competitive as Omo or

Tide.

From the above analysis, we have a positioning map as following:

Price (high)

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(low)

Quality (high)

(Low)

Graph: positioning of Omo, Tide and Lix.

The graph shows that compared to other brands in market, Omo and

Tide is the most expensive detergent but ranked at the highest

positon, while Lix is ranked at lower position with low quality

and price.

IV. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

The understanding of competitors is important but the

understanding of customers is definitely necessary for the growth

and survival of a company. In order to meet customer’s needs and

wants, Omo uses target marketing because it helps sellers to find

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their marketing opportunities more efficiently. Based on target

marketing, sellers can develop the right product for each target

market and adjust their prices, distribution channels and

advertising to reach the target market efficiently (Kotler et al,

2006). Therefore, we summarizes for customer segments of Omo and

their characteristic that following variables as segmentation

criteria in a table below:

Customer

Segment

Customer’s Characteristics

Demographic

Segmentation

Psychographic

Segmentation

Behavioral

Segmentation

1. People who

usually

expose to

more dirt

-income:

middle income

-lifestyle:

working

environment

is dirt

people are

active and

easy to get

sweat like

children

- regular

occasion

- benefits

sought: caring

more about

quality of

cleaning

stains

- loyalty &

readiness

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stage: strong

loyalty, aware

product

- positive

attitude

toward product

2. People who

prefer

expressing

themselves

and save

fabric

conditioner

-income:

middle income

-personality:

expressed

yourselves

through scent

- regular

occasion

- benefits

sought: caring

more about

saving fabric

conditioner, -

readiness

stage: aware

product

3. People who

use washing

machine

-income:

higher income

-lifestyle: do

not have time

to hand

washing

- regular

occasion

- benefits

sought: caring

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more about the

appropriatenes

s between

detergent and

washing

machine

- readiness

stage: aware

product

4. People who

offer no

detergent

residues

-income:

middle income

- regular

occasion

- benefits

sought:

disliked

detergent

residues in

clothes

- readiness

stage:

informed

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product

Moreover, detergent is necessity in our life so customers will

have variety-seeking buying behavior with low consumer

involvement but significant perceived brand differences. Hence,

Omo, leader in detergent’s market share, should encourage

habitual buying behavior by dominating shelf space, keep shelves

fully stocked and running frequent reminder advertising (Kotler

et al, 2006).

V. BRAND ANALYSIS

5.1 Review the product-life cycle of OMO

All producers want their product to have a long and happy life;

although their products are not expected to sell forever, they

want to get profit to cover all their efforts and risks. Hence,

each product has a life cycle. (Kotler et al, 2006). Omo, now,

has various types of products including Omo matic, Omo comfort,

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Omo bleach, Omo matic and Omo in liquid form to serve 4 customer

objects (http://www.unilever.com.vn).

Some of those products are belong to maturity stage being Omo

matic, Omo comfort, Omo bleach. In this stage, many producers

have numerous products to sell, which leads to greater

competition and a slowdown in sales growth; to compete with

others, they must enhance advertising campaign; improve quality,

feature and style, (Kotler et al, 2006). As we can see that on

the detergent market, Omo has been launching with a lot of new

features such as Omo comfort, Omo matic. Style of this product is

also improved by adding more new colors like bright blue and

orange. Recently, producer has organized some projects towards

the community such as project of clean planet; they also increase

advertising concentrating on some programs like “cho be cung don

tet”, “nang dong cung be” or “ vui cung vet ban”.

(http://www.omovietnam.com). In this stage, with product and

marketing modifications, Omo has positioned successfully with the

first brand in customer’s mind on Vietnam detergent market.

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Additionally, Omo producer launched the newest product 2 years

ago; that is Omo in liquid form being in growth stage. According

to Kotler (2006), a lot of money will be spent on product

improvement, promotion and distribution but giving up the maximum

current profit and competition is unavoidable. Although Omo

washing water was launched on the market for a short time, it has

attracted a lot of housewives by advertising, they are curious

about new product and want to buy it for trial; they also share

the experience of using on the media like newspaper online.

(http://www.tin247.com). It is clear that advertising campaign

for new product of Omo is extremely successful.

5.2. 4P analysis

5.2.1 Production

a. Product

A product has three levels being core product, actual product and

augmented product (Kotler et al, 2006). Hence, we analyze Omo in

terms of those levels:

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Core product: Omo has bleach stain higher than other kinds

of washing powder and can wash completely the dirty spot on

clothes.

Actual product:

Brand: Omo is easy, short, catchy name to remember.

Packaging: the packaging of Omo is very bright,

prominent and catchy. Traditional colors of Omo are

red, white and deep blue. Packaging has increasingly

improved to make it convenient, the most aesthetical

for users while preserving product best through time

and space (http://www.scribd.com). New model of Omo has

the image displayed on two sides of the package;

besides the traditional color, there are more two

colors being bright green and orange- splat- which is

the symbol of the dirty namely” learn to play”. All are

designed in a harmonious, friendly and lively style. A

remarkable new enhancement is no need to cut package

and can be easily torn by hand for using. Omo also was

packed in paper bag to protect environment.

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Size: Omo has various type of size: 400g, 800g, 1.5kg,

3kg, 4.5kg and 5boxes/barrel to meet customer needs and

demand. (http://www.scribd.com).

Augmented product:

Warranty: In recent years, Unilever Vietnam specially

emphasis on anti-counterfeiting to protect consumer

interests, intellectual property and reputation of Omo.

Products of company have “ stamp warranty” or “ logo

warranty” to help users identify counterfeit goods

(http://vietbao.vn)

Service: Omo Company has the center of caring customer

to serve and consult consumers about their products.

(omovietnam.com).

To reinforce the belief of users, producers should

provide more convenient service for customer. For

example, when people use product, they realize that

they purchase a wrong or low quality product because of

counterfeit good; they can return it and take a new

one.

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Product classifications

On detergent market, since there are many types of products like

Tide, Vi Dan, customers usually compare their quality, style,

suitability, and price in the process of selection and purchase.

Therefore, Omo is considered as shopping product.

b. Product assortment

The number of versions offered of each product in the line

creates the depth in product mix decision. Because Omo has some

versions like Omo matic, Omo comfort or Omo in liquid form, Omo

is the depth of product mix to satisfy users in 4 segmentations.

To conclude, although Omo is a famous brand on the market now,

producers face with the fierce competition; so they should

improve their product more and more. They might create more

versions of Omo to diversify it or improve the service by

delivering the close customer card for people who buy Omo

regularly.

5.2.2. Price

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OMO brand has set a target to reduce production costs in order to

bring reasonable prices to consumers who have high and middle

income. Company has relied on small business in local to find

alternative materials in place for import materials. This

decreases both the purchasing cost and tax rate. Omo has been

using product line pricing strategy which is when management must

decide on the price steps to set between the various products in

a line, based on cost differences between the products, customer

evaluations of different features and competitors’ prices (Kotler

et al, 2006). Omo matic, Omo comfort and Omo in liquid form are

typical examples for various versions and different features.

Producers set the price for those products as follow:

Image Product information Price

26

(VND)

Omo Comfort 2in1 3kg

Prodcucer: Unilever

Vietnam

Type: washing by

hand

Feature: save

fragrance

118,000 VNĐ

Omo Matic 3 kg

Producer: Unilever

Vietnam 

Types: washing by

machine

Feature: saving –

less foam

130,000VNĐ

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Omo in liquid form

1L

Producer: Unilever

Vietnam

Type: washing by

hand

Feature: washing

strongly

58,000 VNĐ

Omo matic in liquid

form 1L

Producer: Unilever

Vietnam

Type: washing by

machine

Feature: washing

strongly

58, 000 VNĐ

28

(http://thitruongvietnam.com.vn)

Because prices between those versions do not differ too much, all

products have been preferred.

During the first 5 years, Omo penetrated the market by using

competition base pricing approach; the company kept the same

price and qualities though increase in the price of the similar

type of product due to the effect of increase price in raw

materials and fuel. This strategy helps Omo gain higher market

share and compete with other competitors. In 2002, the market

witnessed price war between Omo and Tide and discount strategy

was initiated at the beginning of August, 2002. P&G began the

battle by decreasing Tide price from 8000d to 6000k per 400g

package, Unilever immediately reacted by reducing the price of

Omo from 7500d to 5500d per 500g package. P&G continued to dance

battle with discount from 6000d to 4500d for Tide of 400g while

Unilever show the new method by courting agents “exhibiting a Omo

package will receive 1000d”along with increased prices by reduce

weight from 500gr to 400gr- 5500d. In grocery stores,

supermarkets, Omo brand flood the market .The price of Tide and

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Omo drop by 30% than before respectively and consumers will have

benefit first. After 6 months, two brands shook hand and have

together grown the price up to now. From 2002 to now, price of

Omo and Tide has increased by 10,000d/kg.

This strategy of Omo can help Omo develop more and more.

(http://www.scribd.com).

5.2.3. Placement

Omo is divided into 3 channels:

1. Manufactures-> Retailer--> Consumers.

Vietnam has 82 million people living in rural, accounting for 72

%; retail market is very complexity and the majority with more

than 450,000 stores. On the other hand, based on the buying

habits of customers, company choose distribution channel through

agents, supermarkets or distributors suitably. Vietnamese has the

buying habit everyday instead of going to supermarket at the

weekend to buy goods for the whole week. Unilever takes

advantages of available channels as the market system, traders.

Since the general trend of Vietnamese today is increasingly

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closer to modern distribution channels such as supermarkets,

company has implemented a strategy that distributes its product

through retail supermarket such as Big C, Co-op mart, Maximax

system, etc... Those supermarkets distribute directly product to

the final clients by giving them to choose favorite and fit

product.

Distribution is focused the final user, consumed in small amounts

but regularly.

2. Manufacturer Wholesalers Retailers Final user

With this channel, Omo is sold at the big commercial centers like

Metro Binh Phu in HCMC or at other Metro system in 5 major cities

of Vietnam. Here Omo is provided with the large amount for

retailers, and then put to final consumers. This channel helps

product line of Omo primarily directed to retailers in large

quantity.

3. Manufacturer WholesalerJobber-Retailer Consumer.

Accomplished products are taken to the agents representing the

company to conduct transactions with customers. Distribution

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center is located in Binh Duong with modern equipment and

scientific operating layout. Goods after production will be

gathered on this center, then shipped to dealers in Central (from

Nha Trang southwards) and Southern, Western. This is also a

transit point from HCMC to Ha Noi and Da Nang. So, distribution

strategy is to expand the market, agents, increase the quantity

and quality of channel distribution, but it creates more cost and

the price of Omo will be higher in hand of customers.

(http://www.scribd.com).

Among 3 channels, channel 1 is the most effective since it has

only one intermediary and save more for transportation cost. If

producers want provide Omo with the lowest price for customers as

possible, they should cut down the number of intermediaries.

5.2.4 Promotion:

Promotion is a series of mixtures of activity: Advertising,

promotions, public relations, direct sales and direct marketing.

The selection of promotional tools to spread the image and the

message is extremely important. Ads on television, newspapers

(Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien), websites (http://www.omovietnam.com ) or

the oral method are some programs which Unilever Vietnam has

chosen to promote Omo. Besides, the company also organized

32

programs establishing study promotion funds for poor children in

each Omo package. Specially, the Omo’s ads programs usually use

the image of the family as a son always remembers his wearing

with a white sun-scented laundry by his mother and this is create

a good effect for Vietnamese. As a result, customers pay more

attention for Omo.

Omo also constantly organizes and implements some programs to

work with customers. For example, program “Hoc dieu hay ngai gi

vet ban” with the goal of creating opinion to support the “Omo –

ao trang ngoi sang tuong lai”; games of skill and chance “Nang

dong cung be” support to Omo’s slogan “Ngai gi vet ban”. Besides,

Omo is known as a leading brand with many social activities. In

these, poverty reduction is the most outstanding activity: Omo

has developed the project “Omo mai đo am tinh xuan,” helping

build nearly 300 houses in 37 districts of five poorest provinces

in Vietnam: Lai Chau, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Quang Tri, Quang Nam

(http://hanoimoi.com.vn). OMO recently deployed a “Cleaner Planet

Plan” which related to environmental protection - an issue that

is concerned of everyone. Therefore, instead of promoting the

brand, hold and reward customer, get consumers to ‘load up’ on a

mature product, they have created the brand awareness for

clients.

By implementing some consumer promotion tools, Unilever drew a

lot of attentions and received many positive responses for the

company as well as the brand.

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VI. SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Consider Possible actions

Good reputation Remain and develop

its reputation

Increase quality,

reduce price to

satisfy customer

needs, develop

marketing

activities,

participate more

in public

activities

Researching

activities and

developing technology

are effective.

Emphasize on and

invest more in

research and

innovation

- Increase budget

for research and

innovation

department

- Know the need

and want of

consumers;

34

Identify customer

segments or sub-

segments to have

the policy that

for each type of

detergent having

various price and

sizes.

- Recruit more

excellent experts

Successful

advertising and PR

campaigns

Develop and

innovation those

campaigns

- Organize some

programs to

find talents in

advertising

sector

- Improve

technology’s

knowledge for

staff by some

35

trainees

Weaknesses

Inconvenient service Reinforce service

system

- Open more

caring centers

for customer

- Have some

service along

with purchasing

for example:

closer customer

card...

Price is still high

in comparison to

customer segment of

low income in Viet

Nam.

Identify ways to use

material, labor,

capital more

effectively

- Apply more

technology,

machine in

manufacturing.

- Train workers

‘skills regularly

and increase

reward level for

36

workers working

effectively in

order to increase

ability of

workers

Opportunities

Abundant and

qualified human

resource

Improve intellectual

knowledge and

practical skills

Provide more trainee

programs associated

with colleges and

universities

Threats

In the context of

greater demand of

consumers, Detergent

market in Viet Nam now

is very aggressive.

Remain and develop

its position in the

market and customer

‘s mind

- Research market

and develop

strategies to meet

customer ‘s needs

- Differentiate the

company’s courses

and offer superior

values to the 37

partners.

Viet Nam’s population

gets old in future.

Identify ways to

avoid surplus in

future when demand

lower

Research market and

predict future

demand from now

Employees may be

dissatisfied with

their current wage

level because of

inflation.

Identify the level of

salary which the

company can pay to

make employees more

satisfied but still

increase total profit

thanks to benefits

from wage efficiency

Find the suitable

salary level and

increase salary for

employees timely by

asking accounting

department and other

related departments

work together.

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VII. Conclusion

To summarize, in Vietnam detergent market, at this time, OMO is

the leader detergent with good quality, friendly image, and

impressive promotion programs. However, to prepare the best for

the unpredicted future, Omo has to pay attention and predict to

changes in behavior of external environment, strengths and

weaknesses of its competitors, especially Tide and the needs and

wants of customers, hence, taking proactive approach. They should

spend more concern about positioning their brand through develop

strategies for product, price, placement and promotion. In order

to solve OMO’s weaknesses, develop and preserve their strong

points, take opportunities and cope with threats, we outline some

specific recommendations as follow:

Survey opinions of customers to investigate what they need

and want, hence, developing and exploit new innovative

products that satisfy customers.

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Opening more caring service for customers; publish closer

customer cards for groups use large products of Omo and have

some incentive programs for owners.

Build trainee programs for third and forth student of

universities. Those programs can be informed through

internal personnel, website of Omo and youth union of

universities. Two or three months in summer vacation should

be chose to recruit.

Hold or sponsor summer camping for children from 8 – 14

ages. In those camps, children will play many games. After

that, there should be a game for them that related to

washing clothes by using Omo.

Provide incentive programs for personnel in inflation stage.

It can be increasing wage or if they do not afford to do

that, they can give combo of two or three products of

Unilever at the end of each month, or organized tourist

trips.

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