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UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE - VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HCM

INTERNATIONAL TRAINING & EDUCATION CENTER

TRUNG NGUYEN COFFEE

Internet Marketing Strategy

<1158005> LE TAN ANH (LEADER)

<1158028> LE HOANG KIM DUYEN

<1158059> PHAM NGOC MINH KHOA

<1158101> TONG TRAN THANH PHUONG

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Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Missions of Trung Nguyen

They believe in

PROBLEMS/OBJECTIVES

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT: OTHER EXT. FACTORS

Opportunities

Threats

MICRO-ENVIR: – FIRM/ ORGAN. & INT. FACTORS

Strengths

Weaknesses

COMPETITIVE ANALSIS

Trung Nguyen vs Starbucks

Trung Nguyen vs Phuc Long

CONSUMER ANALYSIS

Target Market

Feedback

ALTERNATIVE EVALUATION INCLUDING CRITERIA

PRODUCT

How to improve the Online Marketing

PRICING

PLACE

PROMOTION

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Trung Nguyen was established in 1996. At first, Trung Nguyen was just a small, young brand of

Vietnam but they quickly build the credibility and became the most familiar coffee brand to

domestic and overseas consumers.

At the beginning, Trung Nguyen was a small coffee brand which located at Buon Me Thuot but

10 years later, Trung Nguyen has become a powerful cooperation with six member companies.

Their business are producing and offering coffee, selling tea and coffee and they also franchising

their brand. At the present, Trung Nguyen already has nearly 1000 of franchises and 8 shops in

other countries like: America, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, China, Cambodia, Ukraine and

Poland. All products of Trung Nguyen have been exported to 43 countries around the world.

Their vision is to become the cooperation which increase Vietnam’s economy, they want to build

the top brand by bringing the inspiration to all of the people who drink Trung Nguyen coffee and

proud of the ethnic culture.

“Firstly, innovation is the main important of Trung Nguyen to provide useful values for their

customers and employees.

Secondly, every member has the responsibility for building, developing and protecting the

company.

Thirdly, always take the satisfaction of the consumer at the focus point of all activities.

Fourth, they give their employees a lot of benefits which make them feel satisfied, giving their

employees opportunities for training and developing.

Fifth, they took the effective performance to be the platform of the company.

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Sixth, they contributed a lot for building a good environment for the community and the

development of the society.” (http://tailieu.vn/xem-tai-lieu/bai-tieu-luan-gioi-thieu-so-luoc-ve-cafe-trung-

nguyen.504242.html)

Missions of Trung Nguyen are:

Big aspirations.

National spirit and international spirit.

Never stop the innovation.

Provided best performance.

Creating value and sustainable development.

They believe in:

Coffee will make the world become better.

Coffee is the energy for the intellectual economic.

Coffee brings the creative for the harmony and sustainable development.

(http://www.trungnguyen.com.vn/en/trungnguyenmission.aspx)

PROBLEMS/OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this project is to point out the weaknesses of Trung Nguyen Coffee especial

in online marketing which Trung Nguyen is still limited and find out many solutions to improve

the online marketing for Trung Nguyen Coffee like putting more advertisement in many famous

websites. For example: vnexpress.net, tuoitre.com.vn. Another way to improve the online

marketing is through many popular social websites like Facebook, Twitter in order to getting

more attention of as much people as we can. In addition, in this project we also figured out the

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way to develop the plan for Trung Nguyen Coffee in order to having more products with more

tastes to make Trung Nguyen can get closer to the customers.

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT: OTHER EXT. FACTORS

OPPORTUNITIES

Vietnam has a number of export coffee 2nd ranking in the world (in 2009 is 1.18 million tons).

Vietnam has a coffee culture and among of coffee product was used in domestic market just is

5% (95% exporting). According to IAM, 65% consumers use traditional coffee 7 times in a week

and 25% use instant coffee. The research shows the rate of in home user and out of home user

are 49% and 51%. Trung Nguyen Coffee focuses on developing G7 instant coffee. G7 tends to

serve consumers who like to use coffee in home (49%) and can have a chance to defeat all of

instant coffee’s consumer ( 25%) cause their brand and taste. Their store system will focus on the

consumer who use traditional coffee 7 time in week (65%) cause their taste and among (30 stores

in Vietnam).

One of the best oportunities nowadays is the take away coffee tendency. It seems like a potiential

market, known as a gold opprtunity, for Trung Nguyen Coffee to interact more customers,

especially in the youth audience, because the vast majority of young people prefer to enjoy the

coffee take away. Some young people find coffee take away and use in a long time make them

bore (take away coffee don’t focus on the taste of traditional coffee with make a person become

to addict coffee). After that, they want to use traditional coffee or instant coffee which has

traditional taste (http://m.videos.vietgiaitri.com/People/phim-video-clip-cafe-bet-thoi-quen-yeu-thich-cua-gioi-

tre-sai-gon-id.0n1_gkP26C8.vgt). Another opprtunity is that Trung Nguyen has the “story of their

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product”. The curiosity of customers about their coffee product history that will make Trung

Nguyen Coffee earn more truth from their customers. Next, the youth generation has a thinking

of “Vietnamese should use Vietnamese products” combined with the older brand of Trung

Nguyen Coffee that will a big opportunity for them. A good example is that when they release

any new coffee products they also receive good feedbacks from customers even the price of

coffee product is more expensive than same others (https://www.facebook.com/tuhaoviet)

THREATS

There are a lot of foreign coffee companies like: Coffee Bean, Starbucks, Angle-in-us went into

Vietnam. They have a lot of products with many tastes which attracting the Vietnamese youth.

This is a big threat for Trung Nguyen Company so they need to come up with many more

products which satisfied the consumer needs.

There are a lot of coffee companies like: Nescafe, Vinacafe, QCafe, Passiona. In the past, Trung

Nguyen has a strong competition with Nescafe which was a product of American coffee

company Nestle and Trung Nguyen and they gained high market share in Vietnam. This will

show that there will be a lot of coffee companies want to overthrow Trung Nguyen Company.

This will be a big challenge for Trung Nguyen to keep their position in Vietnamese market.

Trung Nguyen needs to find out the long-term plan, try their best to develop the number one

coffee so that it will forever be the best coffee of Vietnamese people.

The franchises are another challenge for Trung Nguyen Coffee. There will be many risks when

there was a lot and a lot of franchises open in Vietnam and other places in the world because it

will be really hard for Trung Nguyen Company to control the system of all franchises. They

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cannot control the qualities of the coffee so it’s may lose the trust of the consumer. In this case,

this will be a big opportunities for another coffee company to overthrow Trung Nguyen.

MICRO-ENVIR: – FIRM/ ORGAN. & INT. FACTORS

STRENGTHS

Firstly, the credibility is the core value that Trung Nguyen Coffee earned from their customers. It

is the largest strength of Trung Nguyen Coffee compared with other competitors (Nescafé,

Vinacafé, Starbucks, Gloria Jean’s Coffee…) in Vietnam market. This is obviously favorable

because Trung Nguyen Coffee brand established in 1996. Therefore, they have a long period of

time to build the solid relationship toward their local customers, according to a particular

research campaign from 2009 to 2011; Trung Nguyen Coffee is the number one brand in

Vietnam with the biggest number of customer coffee used. There are nearly 10 million of 17

million households that bought almost Trung Nguyen products to enjoy at home in this

timescale. Besides, Trung Nguyen Coffee captures customers’ mentalities when all their

products express the stronger ethnicity. A good example for this view is that they focus on

making origin cups of coffee to Vietnamese’s style like filter coffee and G7 instant coffee. In

particular, the vast majority of Trung Nguyen’s consumers almost have the strong patriotic spirit

with 65% consumers who agree with the statement “I prefer to buy Vietnamese’s brands”,

according to research programs of households’ shopping behavior in typical urban and rural

areas in Vietnam about coffee purchased for use at home without gifts from 2009 to

2011(http://www.trungnguyen.com.vn/2201/thongcaobaochi).

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Secondly, the quality of traditional coffee is also one of the outstanding strengths. Trung Nguyen

coffees are grown and produced directly at the processing facilities in Vietnam using the best

advance technologies, so coffee beans bring a unique flavor in accordance with tastes and habits

of Vietnamese. According to the Saigon Times Daily, Trung Nguyen Coffee Corporation hosted

a training course for 1,500 farming households in Daklak Province to cultivate coffee in 2,500

hectares areas in accordance with the standard Utz Certified. It is one strategic activity of the

company to improve the quality of raw materials to make special coffee products. By applying

Utz criteria, Trung Nguyen can trace products back to their origins, protect the environment, and

follow trading rules as well as international conventions to meet requirements of the global

market (http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/Home/business/other/17216/). Trung Nguyên coffee products use

a variety of different coffee beans, including Robusta, Arabica, and excels in order to create six

main coffee lines such as Weasel and Legendee which are reserved for High-class, Diamond,

Coffee beans, Passiona with low caffeine, G7 instant coffee, G7 Cappuccino Chocolate, Creative

Coffee and Fresh Coffee.

Thirdly, the next strength of Trung Nguyen Coffee is the quantity of supplies and distribution

channels. Trung Nguyen Coffee has a significant advantage from supplies when they can use

available resources as well as utilize the cheap labors to ensure that they minimize the cost of

production. A good instance may be that Trung Nguyen's revenue increased 32% to $ 200

million in 2012 (http://m.vnexpress.net/kinhdoanh/kinhdoanh/trungnguyensapmoquancapheomy/2743868/p0).

More specifically, Trung Nguyên operated three processing facilities: a processing plant in Đắk

Lắk Province, established in 2003, with a capacity of 10,000 tons of coffee a year; an instant

coffee factory in Binh Duong Province, established in 2005, with a capacity of 3,000 tons a year;

and a tea processing plant (Tien Dat Tea Factory) in Lam Dong Province. As of 2009, a new

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processing plant was under construction in the city of Buon Ma Thuot, supported by an

investment of over 40 million USD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trung_Nguy%C3%AAn). Additionally,

Trung Nguyen has diverse distribution channels with around 1000 coffee's Franchising stores in

Vietnam and 8 stores in foreign countries such as America, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China,

Campuchia, Polska, and Ukraina. Specially, their G7 instant coffee products exported more than

43 various nations in the whole world with key markets such as U.S and China.

WEAKNESSES

1. Trung Nguyen coffee products do not diverse as the aspect of customers.

2. Trung Nguyen Coffee franchises too much. Therefore it cannot be guaranteed for the

consistency and synchronization.

3. Keeping to change the design of packaging causes confusing for customers in distinguish

between real Trung Nguyen coffee or the fake.

4. Trung Nguyen Coffee is running many projects at the same time causing scattered power,

capital, intellectual.

5. Trung Nguyen branding is not strong enough to compete with international coffee brands

such as Starbucks, The Coffee Bean…

6. The strong competitive from Nestle and Vinacafe in the market share.

COMPETITIVE ANALSIS

Trung Nguyen vs Starbucks

http://i2.wp.com/www.ecoblader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Starbuck-vs-Trung-

Nguyen.png?resize=925%2C3310

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Globally, the strongest rival of Trung Nguyen Coffee currently is none other than Starbucks. The

first aspect is in terms of brand; Trung Nguyen was established in 1996 while Starbucks has an

older brand when they began to operate their first store in 1971. Starbucks was more likely to

dominate the global market earlier than Trung Nguyen Coffee. Both of Trung Nguyen and

Starbucks are famous franchising brands; however, Starbucks are privileged to connect with

millions of customer everyday with exceptional products and nearly 18,000 retail stores in 60

countries in around the world such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt,

England, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand,

Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain,

Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United States, Wales... Meanwhile, Trung Nguyen Coffee had

only around 1,000 coffee stores in Vietnam and 8 stores outside Vietnam such as America,

Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China, Campuchia, Polska, and Ukraina over 10 years.

The next drawback of Trung Nguyen Coffee is about products. Both of two service systems are

not only sell coffee products but also serve about tea, foods, cakes…However, comparison with

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Starbucks, Trung Nguyen Coffee has not diversified as well as innovated their products yet to be

more convenient in order to attract more customer attentions with unique and diverse flavors.

Trung Nguyen Coffee just keeps the traditional flavors of Vietnam.

Besides, the target market is also unfavorable towards Trung Nguyen Coffee. Almost Starbucks’

products are take-away with lots of various flavors appropriated with the modern tendency -the

young style- so they have more and more opportunities to increase their profits and easily to earn

faith from customers. While the target market of Trung Nguyen Coffee is almost older people

and workers who are always willing to spend more time to enjoy a cup of coffee while chatting;

but it does not seem to fit with the current trend.

Furthermore, the price disparity is also an adverse problem. According to the statistics in 2012, a

cup of Starbucks’ coffee in America has the average price from $1.75 to $2.66 whilst a cup of

Trung Nguyen’s coffee in Sai Gon has the average price from 48,000VND to 63,000VND

equivalent to $2.3 - $3. However, the revenue both corporations earned that totally reverses.

Assume that the revenue of Starbucks and Trung Nguyen are converted into cash, Trung

Nguyen’s revenue is around $151,000,000 whereas $11,700,000,000 belongs to Starbucks’

revenue in 2011. Therefore, the revenue of Trung Nguyen would probably catch up with

Starbucks after 17 years and 10 months if the revenue of Starbucks continuously grew with the

average rate of 7.35% per year and Trung Nguyen is with 37% per year.

Trung Nguyen vs Phuc Long

Comparison with the global market, Trung Nguyen Coffee in the domestic market seems like

more vibrant. In the coffee market in recent years, Phuc Long Coffee seems like a new brand and

has not known a lot by local customers, because the main product makes Phuc Long’s brand is

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tea. Although Phuc Long brand was established in 1968 at Bao Loc (Lam Dong) where brings

the real value about tea and coffee appropriated with Vietnamese traditional taste, Trung Nguyen

Coffee seems to be more dominated about the traditional coffee product line when they opened

the first store in 1996.

The first argument is customer service. It is obviously favorable for Trung Nguyen Coffee

because the staff of Trung Nguyen Coffee mostly is young people who are trained and always

learn to develop technique abilities for the purpose of dedicating to the spirit of “Commitment –

Responsibility – Honor”. Besides, Trung Nguyen has a team to develop the dynamic market and

the entrepreneurs who directly inspire the passion for the next generation of Trung Nguyen. In

contrast, the service style of Phuc Long is more and more terrible in recent years. Many

customers are disappointed about their service. A typical example for this view is that staff does

not concentrate on ordering drinks for consumers resulted in customers feel disrespected and

offensive. (https://bndosomething.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/5-dieu-se-khien-cho-tra-ca-phe-phuc-long-thanh-

cong-hon-oct-2012/).

Secondly, the marketing strategy effectively is the most important factors that decided the

success of Trung Nguyen Coffee today. One of the most convincing instances is the G7 branding

strategy. In the G7 Ultimate Festival at Reunification Palace in 2003, the coffee product trial

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(blind test) of Trung Nguyen Coffee, known as G7 “3 in 1”, which is selected by 89%

participants while all of other products is chosen with around 11%. Meanwhile, Phuc Long

Coffee seems to be more passive in marketing their coffee products to the public through

different channels such as media networks so customers cannot update Phuc Long business and

all their products. The business of Phuc Long Coffee is not effective as they desired even though

they tried to change their product image from green paper-glass to white paper-glass.

However, one minus point for Trung Nguyen Coffee is when they are always loyal with the

ground and roasted type of coffee while almost Phuc Long Coffee’s products are coffee take-

away. Therefore, Trung Nguyen Coffee needs to diversify coffee products such as add into their

menu some kind of coffee takeaway in order to improve their target market.

STARBUCKS TRUNG NGUYEN PHUC LONG

Price 1 2 3

Location 1 1 3

Quantity 3 1 2

Local taste 3 1 2

Global taste 1 3 2

Branding 1 2 3

Variety 1 2 3

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1: Ranking the first

2: Ranking the second

3: Ranking the third

CONSUMER ANALYSIS

The South of Vietnam has coffee is a popular beverage, The North of Vietnam has tea is popular

drinking. As you can see that people who come from the South of Vietnam easily to receive

more new things more than the North of Vietnam, because almost foreign famous brands like

Starbucks, MacDonad and so on also build their branchs in the South of Vietnam first. For

example, when they open a new store in Saigon, city dwellers will come to their stores and try to

drink in order to comparison. But in Hanoi, the local people never find a new thing, they just try

to protect a thing (brand) with in their heart (ex: Kem Tràng Tiền). Furthermore, urban people

have among of users (coffee) more than rural people

(http://phattrienkinhte.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/got-chan-asin-cua-nguoi-khong-lo-trung-nguyen/). Therefore,

Trung Nguyen should focus develop their coffee shop system in Saigon. The target market of

Trung Nguyen Coffee mostly is workers, office staff, older people, people in households and

foreigners. However, in the future, we strongly believe that Trung Nguyen Coffee will probably

widen their target market to tend to teenagers, students and so on.

Feedback:

1. In 2011, 49% of consumers buy G7 3in1 coffee for home using.

2. “Ngày hội tuyệt đỉnh” on 23/11/2003 Trung Nguyen invited consumers to try to drink G7

coffee in 3 days. They also used blind test (invites consumers to drink two cups of instant

coffee, a G7 and a brand of instant coffee popular but not for other brands to know their self-

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assessment). The result is quite satisfactory: 89% of consumers choose the G7 and 11% of

consumers choose other brands

3. 21.265 People like Trung Nguyen Group on its facebook.

4. 10 million over 17 million Vietnamese families buy Trung Nguyen coffee products

5. The research about drinking behavior of working people in VN in 2011 show that 18% of

employees are drink Trung Nguyen coffee, higher than 13% employee intellectuals non-

alcoholic drinks; every 3 people intellectuals who drink coffee, one use Trung Nguyen

coffee; especially up to 40% of official workers over 30 years old chose Trung Nguyen

coffee.

6. With high quality products, only Trung Nguyen coffee is available on flights of Vietnam

Airlines, was chosen to serve in the APEC Summit, ASEM, ASEAN worldwide women

Summit, Miss Earth, Miss lady in the world, the Vietnamese - Belgium 2009, ASEAN Open

FoodDay 2010 ... is popular in more than 53 countries in the world: U.S., UK, Germany,

Russia, Canada… The end of 2011, the instant coffee G7 was appeared in Korea's E-Mart.

(http://www.trungnguyen.com.vn/ipad/1868/intro.html)

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(http://diaocdaklak.com/nescafe-com-vn/Goc-Cafe/cafe-Trung-Nguyen-Thuong-hieu-quoc-gia-10/)

ALTERNATIVE EVALUATION INCLUDING CRITERIA

Safe Plan:

Producing the good which have the taste to be suitable with foreign people in domestic

company.

Ex: Cappuccino, latte instant

Risky Plan:

expand the market of G7 into another Europe counties as Germany, Poland, Czech

Republics, and Austria …

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PRODUCTS:

Trung Nguyen Coffee has nine main product lines:

Weasel - the king of coffee - is the most premium product of Trung Nguyen Coffee. Weasel

coffee is produced around 200 kilograms per year in the whole world so that it seems like a core

speciality as well as the type of most expensive coffee in the world. Vietnam is one of several

nations where has this legendary coffee, specifically in Trung Nguyen Coffee. The price of

Weasel is exactly 16 million VND for 250 grams

(http://trungnguyenstore.com/coffee-weasel.htm)

Legendee - the coffee for the great – is the most unique coffee that has been chosen to serve for

the Global Conferences such as ASEM, APEC, WEF… and as special gifts dedicated to the head

of states, the kings. Hence, the Foreign Ministry has been chosen Legendee as the cultural

diplomatic ambassador. The price of Legendee is 990,000 VND for 225 grams.

(http://www.trungnguyenstore.com/coffee-legen.htm)

Diamond coffee of Trung Nguyen Coffee is selected from several regions where have the best

resources such as Ethiopia, Jamaica, Kenya and Buon Ma thuot. Diamond product has five

different flavors in the same product box. The price of Diamond is 522,000 VND for 250 grams.

(http://www.trungnguyenstore.com/san-pham/chi-tiet/10/14/31/diamond.htm)

Passiona - Coffee for women - is a special product line of Trung Nguyen Coffee which is

reserved for women. It contains low caffeine content, collagen supplement, antioxidants, oriental

herbs and sugar diet. The price of Passiona is 43,500 VND for 250 grams.

(http://trungnguyenstore.com/san-pham/chi-tiet/2/8/13/passiona-cafe-cua-phai-dep.htm)

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Additionally, some other product lines are really popular in Vietnam market. The first mention is

G7 instant coffee with the price is around 40,000 VND for 18 packages

(http://trungnguyenstore.com/san-pham/phan-loai/2/6.htm). G7 instant coffee also has the G7 cappuccino

chocolate line with 50,000 VND for 12 packages (http://trungnguyenstore.com/san-pham/phan-

loai/2/7.htm).

The next product is creative coffee with five various level of flavor. There are creative 1 (Culi

Robusta) with 38,100 VND for 250 grams, creative 2 (Robusta Abrabica) with 44,300 VND for

250 grams, creative 3 (Arabica Se) with 53,600 VND for 250 grams, creative 4 (Premium Culi)

with 60,800 VND for 250 grams, creative 8 (Classic Whole Bean Legendee) with 199,500 VND

for 250 grams and 396,000 VND for 500 grams.

(http://trungnguyenstore.com/san-pham/phan-loai/1/3.htm)

Besides, Trung Nguyen Coffee also serves their customers by origins coffee beans of them. The

coffee beans are divided into six categories such as coffee beans 1 is Culi Robusta with 149,000

VND for 1,000 grams, coffee beans 2 is Café Arabica and Robusta with 178,000 VND for 1,000

grams, coffee beans 3 is Arabica with 214,000 VND for 1,000 grams, coffee beans 4 is Culi

Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa and Cartimor with 238,000 VND for 1,000 grams, coffee beans 5 is

Culi Abrabica of Lam Dong highland with 300,000 VND for 1,000 grams, coffee beans 6 is

Robusta Brazin with 263,000 VND for 1,000 grams.

(http://trungnguyenstore.com/san-pham/phan-loai/1/5.htm)

The last product of Trung Nguyen Coffee is fresh coffee. It is bottled with 24,000 VND per

bottle (http://caphetuoi.com/caphetuoi/).

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In 2013, Trung Nguyen introduced their new coffee product, which called G7 X2 into the local

market to meet local consumers’ needs. That is the combination of taste of the filter coffee and

the convenience of instant coffee. To begin with, they hang the advertisings and banners at the

supermarket, the Trung Nguyen coffee shops and the big ads at crossroads to attract customers.

Furthermore, Trung Nguyen advertises on TVs at primetime to get most attention of TV

audience. At Trung Nguyen shops and supermarkets, they also have the PR to promote G7 X2 to

consumption. They open the small stalls at some university for students to try G7 X2 and get

feedback. They also create the promotion for G7 X2, if consumers buy 2 packages of G7 X2,

they will get one glass cup free and can win the prizes as worth up to hundreds million. On the

Facebook of Trung Nguyen Coffee, they introduced new product and create the events as post

the picture with G7 X2 will get the discount voucher at Trung Nguyen Coffee stores.

We suggest that Trung Nguyen Coffee should write blogs regularly with good content related to

key word “G7 X2” to build a good SEO for Trung Nguyen on search engine rankings. One more

point for marketing a new coffee product of Trung Nguyen on Trung Nguyen website before

their customers exit their website is that offering limited-time offers with combo discounts in

limited quantities when their customers use G7 X2 as well as offering coupons in exchange for

customer’s email addresses or pop-up surveys about customer’s recommendations about a new

product G7 X2. Morevover, they should try to share their content about G7 X2 on social

network, forums, blogs, publisher networks to have a quality online traffic. Additonally, one of

the way to do viral marketing for G7 X2 effectivelly might be online contest with some questions

to distinguish G7 X2 from other coffee products on the market nowadays. We think that is the

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best way to make thier customers can remember deeply about Trung Nguyen, especially in G7

X2 as well as create more interaction with customers.

HOW TO IMPROVE THE ONLINE MARKETING FOR TRUNG NGUYEN COFFEE?

At the present, Trung Nguyen are a little bit weaker than another coffee brands as Starbucks,

Coffee Bean. When we type the keyword like “Coffee in Vietnam”, Trung Nguyen coffee was

not stand at the top of the page, this will cause a lot of disadvantages. The customers will not pay

their attention to Trung Nguyen coffee.

So we will shows some solutions to improve the online marketing for Trung Nguyen coffee.

Firstly, we will have to improve the SEO. Trung Nguyen have to write a lot articles to blog pages

and those articles must have strong product titles. We have to figure out the keywords that

shoppers would use to search for the product and include them in the product titles.

Secondly, we have to use the Social Media to work. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ are great ways to show search engines that people are talking

about Trung Nguyen Coffee.

Thirdly, Trung Nguyen should introduce their own app like “Products of Trung Nguyen” for

smartphone as IOS or Android. When using this app on their smartphone, the consumers can

look for all products, the images, the prices of those products before coming to Trung Nguyen

shops. This will make the psychology of the customers become more comfortable and make the

relationship between Trung Nguyen and consumers get closer.

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PRICING

In general, the average price of Trung Nguyen coffee products are relatively high compared with

local coffee products although in the international market its coffee products stand the quite

medium level with medium price. However, it is sometimes higher than others in several foreign

markets. By pricing the coffee high in the home market, Trung Nguyen Coffee appealed to the

aspirations of Vietnamese people. An emerging middle class took to the brand and the coffee

shops became important social centres. The first Trung Nguyên coffee shop opened in Ho Chi

Minh City in 1998, and by 2010 there were more than 1,000 across Vietnam.

(http://www.trungnguyen.com.vn/en/1686/c..) In the foreign countries, the most effective evidence of

Trung Nguyen Coffee where has the coffee price higher than others is in Japan. It is one of the

famous countries with the traditional tea ceremony art. Japanese has known about coffee very

early (around 1800), so Japan is a strict market about enjoying coffee. Although almost

franchising stores of Trung Nguyen Coffee in Japan set the price of each cup of Trung Nguyen

coffee that is higher 50% than Starbucks and higher 25% than other local coffee products, Trung

Nguyen Coffee also achieve lots of success in Tokyo as well as has the large number of their

close customers in Tokyo (http://timtailieu.vn/tai-lieu/tieu-luan-phan-tich-chien-luoc-marketing-ca-phe-trung-

nguyen-12479/).

We suggest that Trung Nguyen Coffee should keep the stable coffee price to ensure that they

always keep the trust from customers as well as try to improve and enhance the quality of coffee

from the local credible supplies. They can find the ways to reduce costs in efficient ways such as

utilizing the source of local labors, using many advance technologies, transporting directly

products without intermediaries, attract foreign investments… in order to maximize their profits

if they want to earn profits without increase product prices. Besides, they also need to diversify

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their products to be more convenient and modern appropriated with the complicated lifestyle

nowadays. In particular, they have some new services such as serving takeaway coffee, foods,

cakes, souvenirs, gifts and so on. Furthermore, they operate the music programs to attract

customers to go to their stores in the evening because the style of Trung Nguyen Coffee mostly

is relaxing. It may be a good idea if Trung Nguyen Coffee coupled with a reading space for the

business office with lots of technique books. All of them can help Trung Nguyen coffee to keep

the high coffee product price and the good quality on both of domestic and foreign market

without losing the truth from customers.

PLACE

Globally, G7 Mart is a chain of retail stores of Trung Nguyen Coffee. It is one of the first

Vietnamese enterprises which open the convenience store chain. After many years G7 Mart does

not make a breakthrough, they cooperated with Japanese brand - Ministop- to bring new

developing directions to G7 Mart. Ministop is a chain of retail stores of the Aeon Group which is

one of two group's largest retail trade in Japan. Under the agreement with Ministop, G7 Mart

accepted the transfer of technology operational systems from Ministop included stores system

settings, IT systems, logistics, operations ... and proceed to establish a joint venture, known as

G7-Ministop Convenience Store Chain. Particularly, Ministop holds a 25% stake and G7 Mart

holds a 75% stake (http://www.nhipcaudautu.vn/article.aspx?id=6937-g7-mart-co-thoat-xac?)

Locally, Trung Nguyen Coffee cooperated with Tan Son Nhat airport to have a Trung Nguyen

cafe store on the third floor. Additionally, Trung Nguyen Coffee also cooperated with some

popular locations such as Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Art, Sai Gon Railway Station,

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shopping malls (Pandora Tower, Vincom Eden, Superbowl, Parson Flemington), Big C Binh

Duong…to place their stores for the purpose of bringing the convenience to their customers.

Many restaurants, tourisms and hotels sometimes collaborate with Trung Nguyen Coffee in order

to use the Trung Nguyen Coffee’s products to serve their consumers. Moreover, Trung Nguyen

Coffee collaborates with some social networks like Facebook, publisher website (gucafe.com,

cafebiz.vn, foody.vn, diadiemanuong.com …) and newspapers or magazines (Tuoi Tre, Thanh

Nien, Tiep Thi Gia Đinh...) for the purpose of advertising their new coffee product.

We suggest that Trung Nguyen Coffee should widen the affiliate network with Twitter and

Instagram to approach more customers by the way that they write or post lots of pictures or

status about their coffee products which are really unique and diverse. Why do consumers should

use Trung Nguyen Coffee? How is it different from others? How do their customers feel about

their coffee’s flavor? What is the meaning message they want to share with their

customers? They can up to date some campaigns, annual festivals or events of Trung Nguyen

Coffee on social networks such as the photo contest about “17 years creativity with Trung

Nguyen Coffee”, Tourism of coffee fair at Nha Trang island in 2013, Buon Ma Thuot Coffee

Festival in the fourth time in 2013...to attract the attention as well as to be closer with their

customers. I strongly believe that it is the best way to earn truth from customers rapidly and

effectively.

In addition, Trung Nguyen should add more banner on stress in Ho Chi Minh (where has some

their competitors) to make customer memory them. Trung Nguyen is a brand, has a potential to

make Vietnamese proud but they don’t know the way to make their customer and Vietnamese

know that. They should have more advertising on TV or Internet. Some video clip show the

Vietnam’s family value (Coca-Cola a foreign Brand was successful) and the Vietnamese’s pride.

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Trung Nguyen Coffee can have more huge communities on Facebook with status “check in

Trung Nguyen coffee on Facebook that give you a voucher” as well as open some fanpages such

as “Hội những người thích nhăm nhi Café vào mỗi sáng”, “Hội những người ghiền café Trung

Nguyen for the purpose of take lots of customer’s comments about Trung Nguyen Coffee.

PROMOTION

Trung Nguyen did so many things for community in the past. They have a CEO who began from

a poor situation and they always try to build his image as a motivation for Vietnam teenager. For

example, they created a film about Mr. Vu’s life that is “Giọt Đắng”. The film show the poor life

of him and hard to create an official coffee brand in Vietnam and the world.

Furthermore, Mr. Vu usually has the shock conversation on the media in order to motive

Vietnam teenager. In an interview, Mr. Vu commented frankly “Vietnam teenager is lack of

ambition” and after that he receives some bad react from Vietnam’s youth.

(http://tiin.vn/chuyen-muc/song/dang-le-nguyen-vu-tuoi-tre-dung-so-phep-thu-sai.html)

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When they Starbucks come to Vietnam, they have so much media operation quote his speech

“Starbucks are water have coffee smile and mix sugar. That is true”. Be honest, Somebody who

commented that speech, don’t know the real story in that case and some their controversial made

Trung Nguyen have an invisible benefit marketing when the Vietnam customer try to find some

information form Starbucks. For example, when a person search “Starbucks “or “Starbucks Việt

Nam” on google in that time and what happened “Starbucks are water have coffee smile and mix

sugar. That is true” is the first result that means Trung Nguyen will be on the top google when

someone search their competitor.

*** The real case: In fact, when Mr. Vu came to Switzerland to attend a workshop for the coffee

and having a journalist want to talk about something with Mr. Vu. And they chose a Starbucks

shop, She asked Mr. Vu: “Do want to enjoy a coffee cup?”

Mr. Vu: “No, I don’t like”

The journalist: “why?”

Mr. Vu:” Starbucks are water have coffee smile and mix sugar. That is true and their real coffee

just an espresso cup”

….

These are some his speeches for Starbucks:

“Starbucks chỉ là người khổng lồ không bản sắc” (“Starbucks just a giant who doesn’t have

identity”)

“Hey! Starbucks please leave Cà phê sữa đá alone”

He said: “Cà phề sữa đá was created by Vietnamese and that recognized in the world”

“Why someone come to Starbucks?”

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Therefore, you should not care about those speeches because that gave Trung Nguyen some

benefit of marketing and the inter contact with their fan (loyalty customer).

Trung Nguyen holds some events to PR the brand

(http://www.trungnguyen.com.vn/2536/sang-tao-cung-trung-nguyen,-don-nhan-con-loc-qua-tang)

Writing blogs

(http://www.trungnguyen.com.vn/1864/Trung-Nguyen-thuong-hieu-quoc-gia)

THE END