MAJOR FINDINGS

1.1.

 The evolution of marketing mix and promotion mix:

 Marketing mix:

Marketing mix is a business tool which is used to combine activities and

different marketing techniques to gain a business’s objectives in the market target
(Wikipedia). In the 1960s, E. Jerome McCarthy-a marketing expert- created 4Ps,
which is used to teach in classes today, it also the foundation of marketing mix.
(Unknown, The Marketing Mix 4P’s and 7P’s Explained). Beside 4Ps, 7Ps is also a
marketing model but this model is often used in services industries.

Nowadays, the market is developing and customers’ demand also changes.

Therefore, marketing experts created another model called SAVE that focus on
Solution, Access, Value and Education.

 Solution: Instead of focusing on features and function of products or

services and whether they can gain the upper hand among competitors or
not, the business focuses on how their products or services can be the
solutions for customers’ problem

 Access: With the development of Internet, the distance is no longer a

problem. Customers can buy products or use services even though they
live far from stores, they can access to the website or apps in their smart
phone, get information and then order products or services through the
Internet. Therefore, the business needs to make sure that the web site has
to be responsive and easy to use.

 Value: Concentrate on customers’ awareness of value than the truly

existing price of products or services. By focusing on benefits which
customers need, the business can set a price that value with customers’
money.

 Education: Education focus on improving position of the company in its

industry and building faith from buyers to gain loyalty customers by
sharing informative communication materials.

According to (Unknown, Marketing Mix Evolution: 4P’s to SAVE, 2015)

  Promotion mix:

Promotion mix is applying different promotional methods for products or

services, which includes direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, public
relations and advertising.

(Jaideep)

 Direct marketing: The companies or organizations use technology to keep in

touch with targeted customer such as mails, phone calls, letters, etc.
(Amstrong)

 Personal selling: The business uses face-to-face communication through a

sales person to persuade customers to buy their products and services; and
build relationships between them and customers. (Nithya)

 Sales promotion: The short-term solutions to promote the buy of products or

services(Amstrong)

 Public relations: It is about creating a good company’s image in the

consumers’ mind through press releases (magazine, newspapers, etc.),
sponsorships, special events (launch events or loyal customers’ events) and
web pages. (Amstrong)

 Advertising: Advertise products or services through non-personal

presentation. Major tools are broadcast, print, internet and outdoor
 While other elements of the promtion mix use indirect (non-personal) methods,
personal selling use direct method to communicate to buyers, by this way, personal
selling can support others. The company will apply personal selling by using its sales
force with specialist knowledge about the products to persuade customers to try and
buy their products. This method is the easiest one to encourage consumers to buy
products and to build long-term relationships with them.

 Support of personal selling to other promotional tools in Swensen’s:

 Personal selling with sales promotion:

Swensen’s currently has a sale promotion called “Swenday” for customers.
Customers will get one free product if they buy one in main menu every Tuesday.
When buyers come to Swensen’s, they will be instructed on how to fill in the required
information such as email address, name, phone number, etc. for sale promotion. By
this way, Swensen’s can get benefit and satisfaction from customers as well as build
long-term relationships with them by sending information about next sales promotion
for them.

(Swensen's)
  Personal selling with direct marketing:

After cutomers giving their mails on “Swenday” to buy 1 get 1 free, they will receive
message from Swensen’s to ask for feedback on their product and service. Additional
the email address will be used by Swensen’s to send promotional messages.
Customers will read the information about the sales promotion and then they can
come to stores to ask the sales team what they have not known yet, Swensen’s sales
force will give them reasonable answers.

 Personal selling with public relation:

(Swensen's)

Customers will be shown a message with a video which Swensen’s wants to advise
gently when they access the website. After reading this message and watching the
video, customers may query about the meaning of “love taste” and what flavour which
fit them. In this case, buyers can go to the stores and ask for information, sales team
will take responbility for answering their questions and giving them advice. Moreover,
sales team can let consumers try some flavour in order to choose the flavour which
they like or fit them the most. If buyers can not come to Swensen’s store, they can
click to Facebook icon stays on the top right of the web page then send a message to
Swensen’s, they will be replied within one hour. After being given recommendations,
customers can come to Swensen’s store or order online to buy the products and give
Swensen’s feedback after tasting the ice cream.
 (Swensen's VN Facebook)

 Personal selling with advertising:

When customers access the website of Swensen’s, they will be shown different
products and sales promotion’s information. Therefore, choosing a suitable product
for individual’s taste and pocket is not easy. In this case, personal selling can help
advertising. Sales team of Swensen’s can explain specifically for customers about
products’ information and sales promotion as well as new invention for special
occasion such as Mother’s Day, Chrismast, Tet Holiday, etc. or special products
which can meet their demand.

(Swensen's)
 1.2.
Decision making process is the process of making choices that any body has to
go through. According to John Deway, these following are five steps of decision
making process:
 Need recognization: This is the most important step. Customers start
thinking about what they need and how to satisfy them. Internal stimuli
and external stimuli can cause their demand. (Johnston)
 Information search: Customers will find the information about
products through social media such as facebook, instagram or online
retailer such as tiki, amazon, lazada, etc.
 Alternative evaluation: After searching for the information of products,
they will have may choices. In this step, they will find strengths and
weaknesses of products that they have searched and consider which one
is better.
 Purchase dicision: After considering, they will make their decision.
Their decisions can be affected by products’feedback and the level of
motivation to accept the feedback.
 Post-purchase behavior: In this step, customers will decide whether
they satisfy with the product’s quality or not. For this reason, post-
purchase plays the role of maitaing the relationships between the
company and customers.
 Buying Situation 1: Situation 2:
dicision An university students that likes to A huge fan of Son Tung MTP saw
go to traveling wants to buy a her idol wearing Biti’s Hunter on
suitable shoes for his hobby “Lac Troi” music video.

The student acknowledge that his The need regconization comes from
Need current shoes is not suitable for seeing her idol wear a particular pair
recognization travelling, therefore, he needs to of shoes.
buy shoes for adventuring. He
wants good quality shoes without
breaking the bank (shoes need to
be under 800.000 VND )

- He got aware of Biti’s Hunter She searchs online for nearby

Information through their public relations retailers or online retailer to buy the
search campaign: “Be a real hunter” shoes.
through the internet.
- Ask for recommendations from
friends and family.

Alternative - He evaluated products from She does not have to go through this
evaluation brands like Nike, Puma, New phase as she already know clearly
Balance and Biti’s. He concluded what she wants from the beggining.
that all of the shoes from those
brands are good quality but Biti’s is
the cheapest. As he is still a student
and he does not want to overspend.
Therefore, he chooses to buy Biti’s
Hunter.
 They can both buy online or go directly to a retailer to buy Bisti’s Hunter.
Purchase
dicision

- They can be satisfy or not with the products

Post-purchase - Rating can be given
behavior - They can use word-of-mouth to advise their friends and family members
to or not to buy the product.

1.3.

 Defining sales team:

The sales team plays a critical role in the success of the company, which includes
sales manager and the sales team itself. Therefore, both the sales manager and the
sale team have to do the objective effectively to achieve the goals
(QFINANCEDictionary). These following are the main jobs of the sales force:

 Sales manager: Work in human resources which includes hiring and

training staffs. Sales managers are also responsible for creating sales
strategy through working with the marketing department.

 Sales team: Work directly with the customers, persuading them to buy the
company’s products or servies, they also maintain customers relationships
and create customer database. They have to work in collaboration with the
managers to carry out sales strategy.

 The Ansoff Matrix:

The Ansoff matrix has been used by various marketing departments to pin point the
correct marketing strategy. There are four quadrants of the matrix which include:
Market development, diversifcation, product development and market penetration.
For Bitis, they have to understand this matrix in order to launch their new products :
Bitis Hunter to be successful.

In Bitis case, product development (New product/Existing markets). In order to raise

awareness for Biti’s Hunter, they used a public relations campaign “Be a real Hunter”,
also their advertised the shoes through partnership with Sơn Tùng MTP and Soobin
Hoàng Sơn, therefore, the shoes was introduced in the music video like “Lạc Trôi”
and “Đi và yêu”. Their marketing campaign had big success, raising the awareness of
Vietnamese consumers. Although their marketing department did a good job, the sales
department did not work collectively and was not able to forecast the sales potential.
Hence, they ran out of stock.
 (Blogadayroi)

 Product life cycle:

The misstep of the sales force can be explained in detail by using the product
life cycle theory. In the theory shows that there is four stages of a product which are
Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.
 (Glover)

 Introduction:

This step is the most expensive step of product life cycle, this is when ideas
turn into products. The Introduction aims to find out customers’ need and how to
satisfy their demand with a product that is high quality but the cost must be at the
lowest possible price to maximize profit. (Unknown, Product Life Cycle)

Like stated in the introduction phase of the product life cycle theory, Biti’s
Hunter is a very new product, therefore, there is little awareness of product. In
addition, like explained above, the marketing team did a great job as of raising
awareness. The product was in high demand but there were no shoes to sell. It was the
error of the sales force, as they should have worked with the marketing department to
provide and get information about:

- The sales potential: The sales force should have predicted the huge amount of
attention Biti’s Hunter would get after Son Tung MTP‘s music video. This prediction
should have been thought about carefully at the beginning.

- The sales research: They did not predict the demand accurately. Hence, they ran out
of stock.

2.1.

 Gathering information:

 The company:
The first ice cream store of Swensen’s was opened in San Francisco in 1948 by Earle
Swensen. The brand was set up to satisfy the demand of customers with promise of
high quality and reasonable pricing. Today, there are more than 300 Swensen’s ice
cream stores all over the world and this number is rising. (Swensen's)

 The industry:
 According to the research of IMARC (Industry trends, Key players,
Manufacturing process, Machinery, Raw materials, Cost and revenue),
ice cream industry grew at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate)
of around 5.8% during 2008-2015 reaching a volume of 18.6 Billion
Litres in 2015. (Unknown, Ice-Cream Market , 2016)
 Today, the economic is growing slower. However, it does not have an
effect on ice cream market. According to Lynda Utterback, a bad
economy is always good for ice cream stores because it's a comfort food
(Utterback)

 Targeted customer:

TH School’s canteen (http://www.thschool.edu.vn/#page/2).

TH School is a new international school, which offers an all through education

from kindergarten up to the end of High school. TH School attach special importance
to food safety problems, students are allowed to nosh and eat meals but they have to
eat food that are sold at school’s canteen or stores to grarantee food’ quality. TH
School is also famous for their nutrition that they provide for students. Student’s
meals are designed base on nutrion pyramid which was provided by nutrition experts
all over the world and they use healthy food to serve the students. (THSchool)
Therefore, if Swensen’s sells their products for canteen and stores of TH School, it
will be a huge advantage.

 Product: Swensen’s Low carb ice cream

Since TH School concentrates on food quality and nutrition that keeps their
students in shape so Swensens has to provide products which satisfy these demands.

Swensen’s ice cream is made from all natural, unproccessed ingredients and
from fresh fruits that are rich in vitamins, which fits the food quality requirements
from TH School. Furthurmore, with the introduction of Low carb Ice Cream, it will
help students stay in shape because it has little to no sugar and other fattening
ingredients (Swensen's). This product line has flavours like mango, apple cranberry
sobert, lemon sobert, lime sobert, strawberry mint, etc.
 (Foody)

(Swensen's)
  Competitors:

Since customers tend to drink coffee more and more often, Swensen’s has to be
watch out for indirect competitors.The direct competitors of Swensen’s are Häagen-
Dazs, Baskin Robbins, Dairy Queen and indirect competitors are coffee brands such
as Trung Nguyen Coffee, Highland Coffee, Twitter Beans Coffee, etc.

 Planning the presentation:

 Deciding the approach:

 Knowing objectives: The meeting will be held to demonstrate

Swensen’s Low-carb ice cream product line then will try to negotiate a
partnership with TH School’s canteen to sell the company’s product
line.

 Getting in touch and self-introduction: A gmail message will be

prepared (the message will be in the appendix) to briefly introduce the
company and its merchandise then to set a presentation meeeting date.

 Preparing the sale message: The message will be written in VITO style.

 Opening the sales:

The sales representative should arrive 15-20 minutes earlier than the appointed
time, showing respect, professionality and punctuality. For appearance, the
representative should wear a black skirt with a red T-shirt to show professionality and
to also fit the company’s theme. And to help show confidence to persuade the
customers, good posture should be maintained throughout the presentation by standing
straight, arms wide open. For the introduction, the representative should introduce
herself, the company and its product line.

 Presentation and demonstration:

For this part, the representative should use powerpoint slides to aid the presentation,
the content should be related to the sale message. Sale aid should also be applied by
having ice cream samples prepared on the desk of the clients. During the presentation,
good body language, presentation pace and volume should be maintained.
  Handling objections:

Situation: Customers say that the ice cream doesnt follow health regulations.

Salesperson: “ As Swensen’s company and main stores is based in the United

States, it has to follow strict food health’s regulation imposed by the US Goverment,
Swensen’s Vietnam import ice cream directly from the US, so I guarantee you that it
is very safe to eat.

 Closing the sale and negotiating the price:

At first, the representative needs to acknowledge the signs from the clients that
shows interest, like verbal signs: “ Low-carb ice cream line is very tasty and has many
flavours” and non-verbal sign like nodding their heads after tasting the samples. After
seeing those signs, the sales representative should try to close the sale by applying the
techniques like quality close: “ There is no ice cream line that offer such great quality,
tastiness for this price” or concession close: “ If you agree to be our partner, you can
buy our ice cream with 10% lower price compared to regular customers”. Also
representative should negotiate price and terms like: “ If you are going partner with
us, the staff that serve our ice cream in your canteen must be recruited and trained by
Swensen’s”.

 Follow-up:

After closing the sale, the representative should show gratitude by saying thank
you and shake the clients’ hands. The clients should be given special promotions.

 Sale report:

The sale report should has three segments: Volume of sale, customers data, cost
of operation.
 2.2.

 The script:

As the sales presentation will be held at 10:00 AM, the representative should arrive
20 minutes earlier to prepare materials, visual aids, drink and seats for clients. At
10:00, representative will give handouts for clients and the presentation will be started
after clients have all settled down into their assigned seats. First, the representative
will talk about the company’s history, goals and promise to customers, then the
representative will introduce the product, present detail about ingredients, nutrition of
the product and what benefit the product can bring to them. The representative should
bring samples of the product for clients to try, therefore, her presentation will be more
persuasive. From 10:30 to 10:45, the representative will offer special price if the
clients agree to buy product with large quantity. To finish the presentation,
representative will ask the clients if they want to ask his or her anything about
products, after answering all questions, the representative will say thank you.

 The slides:

Swensen’s :Product Presentation

“Good as Father Used toMake”

Sales representative: Nguyen ThaoLinh

 About us
o History

o Our goals: Tobethenumber onechoicefor all occasions

o Our promisestocustomers:
Excellent service Creativesundaeand icecream

Every experienceis memorableand valuefor money

Swensen’s Low-carbice
cream
Why Low-carbicecream?:

Peopleareswitching toa low-fat diet

Good for health with high nutrition

 Swensen’s Low-carbice
cream
Quality:
100%natural, fresh and healthy ingredients
High technology
Import directly fromU.S
Certificateof U.S Ministry of public health

Swensen’s Low-carbice
cre
Many flavourstochoose
am Alwaysfresh!
 !!Special offer!!

10%off for largequantity!!!!

Pleaseask us somequestions!
 Thank you for listening!

APPENDIX
VITO letter:

“DO YOU WANT TO HAVE AN UNIQUE PRODUCT WHICH NOWHERE

HAS EXCEPT YOUR CANTEEN? READ THIS.”

24nd March 2017

Mrs. Nguyen Phuong Mai

Manager.

Dear Mrs. Nguyen Phuong Mai,

We heard that you are finding a line of products which are high quality, fresh,
unique and suitable for students’ pocket and nutrition of your school, Swensen’s send
you this message to notice you that we can provide you a line of products that you are
looking for: Swensen’s Low-carb ice cream. Swensen’s will hold a meeting to present
about this line of products and this presentation aims to let you know about our
products carefully, why you need to have it in your stores and special price for
retailers.

Mrs. Nguyen Phuong Mai, we are glad to have your attendance to our meeting.
This presentation will help you know what you can get from being Swensen’s partner.

Have a nice day

Nguyen Thao Linh

Sale Representative