2010

Marketing Plan

Instructor: Dr. Bang Nguyen

Student: Phan Bao Duy – s3297037
RMIT International University Vietnam
 RMIT International University Vietnam
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE

Your assessment will not be accepted unless all fields below are completed

Subject Code: BUSM 2412

Subject Name: Marketing Management

Location where you study: RMIT Vietnam – SGS Campus

Title of Assignment: Final Assessment – Marketing Plan

File(s) Submitted: s3297037_PhanBaoDuy_MarketingPlan.docx

Student name: Phan Bao Duy

Student Email Address: s3297037@rmit.edu.vn

Learning Facilitator in charge: Dr Bang Nguyen

Assignment due date: 13 September 2009

Date of Submission: 13 September 2009

Number of pages including this one: 29

Word Count: 3259

Page 1 of 29
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ASUS is preparing to launch a new product, which is called Eee PC T101MT - hybrid
netbook and convertible tablet at Vietnam market in the beginning of year 2011. This will
be our tactical product with an innovative design (180 degree rotatable hinge, slim,
lightweight) and excellent customer services which included 1-year global warranty.

The target consumer is education people and businessman, who always need a tiny portable
personal computer to get connect everywhere, every time on the go. By taking advantage of
the high brand-awareness of ASUS in Vietnam, together with the opportunities of potential
netbook market’s growth, Eee PC T101MT is believed to become a revolutionary and
tactical product to compete with other rivals in Vietnam’s marketplace.

The primary marketing objective is to attain 15,000 unit sales in the first year after launch.
And the main financial objective is to achieve net profit of $5 million by the end of 2012.

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Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................... 5

II. CURRENT MARKETING SITUATION ..................................................................................... 7

1. External Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 7

1.1 Macro-environment (PEST analysis) .................................................................................... 7

1.2 Micro-environment (5-forces analysis) ............................................................................... 10

2. Internal Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 13

III. SWOT ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................... 14

1. Strengths ........................................................................................................................................ 14

2. Weaknesses .................................................................................................................................... 14

3. Opportunities................................................................................................................................. 14

4. Threats ........................................................................................................................................... 14

IV. OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................... 15

1. Statement of Corporate ................................................................................................................ 15

2. Marketing Objectives ................................................................................................................... 15

3. Financial Objectives...................................................................................................................... 15

V. SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING ........................................................... 16

1. Market Segmentation ................................................................................................................... 16

1.1 Demographic ......................................................................................................................... 16

1.2 Geographic............................................................................................................................. 17

2. Target Market ............................................................................................................................... 18

Selecting Market Segment ................................................................................................................ 18

3. Positioning Map ............................................................................................................................ 18

VI. MARKETING MIX STRATEGIES ........................................................................................... 20

1. Product & Brand........................................................................................................................... 20

1.1 Three levels of Product ......................................................................................................... 20

1.2 Brand Development Strategy ............................................................................................... 21

1.3 Product Life-Cycle (PLC) Strategy ..................................................................................... 21

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 2. Price ................................................................................................................................................ 22

2.1 Pricing Objective ................................................................................................................... 22

2.2 Optional-product pricing ..................................................................................................... 22

3. Place (Multichannel Distribution System) .................................................................................. 23

4. Promotion ...................................................................................................................................... 24

4.1 Combination of Push & Pull strategy ................................................................................. 24

4.2 Advertising............................................................................................................................. 24

4.3 Sales promotion ..................................................................................................................... 25

4.4 Public relations ...................................................................................................................... 27

4.5 Personal Selling ..................................................................................................................... 27

VII. ACTION PROGRAM................................................................................................................... 28

VIII. CONTROLS .............................................................................................................................. 28

REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 29

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 I. INTRODUCTION

ASUS is a multinational computer product manufacturer center in Taiwan, and a leading company driven
by innovation and commitment to quality for products that include notebooks, netbooks, motherboards,
graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones and networking devices.

ASUS is the first company that brings the new concept of a tiny laptop called netbook into marketplace,
with a brand name Eee PC (which means Easy to Learn, Work and Play). Netbook was "born" in order to
respond for a demand of many people wanted something that was smaller and easier to carry around, yet
performed many of their normal day to day functions. The main differences between netbook and original
notebook are the small monitor (less than 10 inch), lack of Optical Disk Drive and limited memory/disk
storage capacity.

Product Overview

ASUS Eee PC T101MT is another creative product of Asus that

combined netbook and tablet into one innovative shape: 180
degree rotatable hinge that lets the netbook easily transition
from netbook computer mode to tablet computer mode.

As a result, T101MT have both of the best identity of netbook

and tablet: tiny PC with a useful keyboard, unique multi-touch
experience with interactive interface on 10-inch monitor, high speed Wi-fi N but still have very light
weight and long-lasting battery life brings great energy efficiency.

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Technical specifications:

Operating system Windows® 7 Starter/Windows® 7 Home Basic

Windows® 7 Home Premium
Display 10.1" LED Backlight/ Resistive Multi-Touch Panel(1024x600)
CPU & Chipset Intel® Atom™ N450
Memory Starter: 1GB DDR2
Home Premium: 2GB DDR2
Memory door for upgrade (Up to 2GB)
Wireless Data Network 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHz
Bluetooth2.1 + EDR*
*Optional

Storage 160GB HDD + 500GB ASUS Web Storage (Starter)

320GB HDD + 500GB ASUS Web Storage (Home Premium)
*Complimentary one-year 500GB ASUS Web Storage trial.

Camera 0.3M Pixels

Audio Hi-Definition Audio CODEC
Stereo Speakers
High Quality Mic
Input / Output 1 x VGA Port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor)
3 x USB 2.0, 1 x LAN RJ-45
2 x Audio Jack (Head Phone / Mic-in)
Card Reader: MMC/SD supported SDHC capacity up to 32GB SDXC, in
High Speed (HS) and Default Speed (DS) modes, and max. capacity up to
2TB
Battery 6.5 hrs. 35Wh Slim and Eco-friendly Li-polymer Battery
*Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.

Dimensions 264mm(W)x181mm(D)x31mm(H)
Weight 1.3 Kg (2.86lbs)
Infusion White, Black

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II. CURRENT MARKETING SITUATION
1. External Analysis
1.1 Macro-environment (PEST analysis)
 Political factors:
 Tax: as from 01 January 2010, the VAT tax rate applied on all laptop products was
increased from 5% to 10% and the import duties was cut down a half to only 3%. This
may slightly affect to the prices and customers' caution.
 Economic factors:
 GDP growth rate: is recovered from recession in 2008-2009 and promised to be back on
the increasing path in 2010.

Moreover, according to AC Nielsen VN research in year 2009, the growth rate of GDP per
Capita of Vietnam was kept at a stable level but there still have an obvious gap between
Urban and Rural area.

Source: Government Statistics Offices

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  Household income (HCM & HN): was increased significantly with approximate 58% of
citizen had an average income of 4-7m VND in year 2009. This may lead to the
proliferation spending capability of Vietnamese customers.

Source: ACNielsen Omnibus

 Inflation rate: according to IMF, the inflation rate of Vietnam in year 2010 will be a 2-
digit number and still stay at the high level in comparison with many other Asian
developing countries.

25.00%

20.00%

15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

0.00%
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010E

 Social factors:
 Consumer behavior: according to AC Nielsen VN, consumer trend in 2010 still
concentrate on 'purchase more on promotion' and 'buy bigger packs to save money'. This is
suitable for the promotion strategy and product-bundle pricing provision of ASUS VN.

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 Technology factors:
 Internet users:
The number of Internet users in Vietnam was increased significantly, doubled from 10.7
million in 2005 to 22.5 million in 2009 and seized 26% of total population.

In addition, the frequency of Internet usage was very high with nearly 70% of users said that
they go online every day.

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 In conclusion, the PEST analysis shows that the macro-environment of Vietnam is very potential
for a high growth of netbook market with increasing number of Internet users along with the
significant rise of household income, despite the fact of high inflation and VAT tax.

1.2 Micro-environment (5-forces analysis)

 Threat of new entrants: high
 Most of the biggest netbook manufacturers in the world like Acer, HP, Samsung, and Dell…
have already been in Vietnam. Therefore, they can easily launch their new products without
any obstacles.
 Bargaining power of suppliers: low
 Most of Asus netbook's hardware such as mainboard, VGA card and components are
provided by PEGATRON, which is a subsidiary of ASUS Global.
 Bargaining power of buyers: low
 Since this type of product is quite new, then buyer's demand may be high and their bargaining
power is low.
 Threat of substitute products: moderate
 There are many types of notebook and tablet PC that customer can choose with various
specification and design.

 Competitors analysis:
 In the global netbook market (2009): Acer was still a market leader which holds up to 37% of
market share, while Asus stood at the second position with 21%.

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 Global netbook market share (2009)

15%
37%
11% Acer
Asus
HP
16%
Samsung
21% Others

Source: Digitimes Research and iSuppli

 However, there is still no research or official report about the netbook sales in Vietnam.
Therefore, a national survey made by PC World VN in year 2010 was used to create a
reference about the netbook market in Vietnam. With 58% of the votes, Asus was awarded as
"The Best Product" in "Netbook Computer" category, while HP and Acer hold the second and
the third place respectively with around 8%.

Vietnam netbook market (2010)

Others
26%

Acer Asus
8% 58%
HP
8%

Source: PC World VN

As we can see from those charts above, Acer and HP are the 2 main competitors of Asus in
netbook category, not only in Vietnam but also in the global marketplace.

Direct competitors:

Asus T101MT is a new product line which is a combination of original netbook and tablet PC
with a multi-touch screen. Therefore, only some products which have similarities in concept,
function and design are considered as the potential direct competitors of T101MT.

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 Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t Gigabyte Netbook – T series
(T1000P, T1000X, T1005M)

Indirect competitors (Tablet PC)

Apple iPad

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2. Internal Analysis

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III. SWOT ANALYSIS
1. Strengths
 Well-known product line with high brand-awareness
 High quality products by using 100% Asus manufactured-mainboard
 Innovative design with multi-touch LED screen
 Excellent at customer services with 2-year global warranty and free home-delivery after warranty
2. Weaknesses
 Higher price than competitors
 Limited functionality and upgradable options
 Low performance when multitasking
 Resistive touch-panel is not sensitive enough for multi-touching
3. Opportunities
 The rise of income and living standards made purchasing netbook as 2nd PC became affordable.
 Potential growth of the netbook's market in Vietnam
 Enlargement of distribution networks
 High loyalty status of Asus customer promised for a successful product's launch
4. Threats
 Increasing direct and in-direct competitors
 Downward pricing pressure
 Many special taxes apply by government regulation
 A shift in consumer trend to another product's line in future

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IV. OBJECTIVES
1. Statement of Corporate

Corporate Vision

"ASUS constantly strives to be an integrated 3C solution provider (Computer, Communications,

Consumer electronics) that delivers innovations that simplify our customers' lives and enable them
to realize their full potential. ASUS products represent the best that technology has to offer,
providing outstanding performance and aesthetics that seamlessly accommodate all lifestyles,
anytime, anywhere."

Mission and Philosophy

"As a major player in the IT industry, ASUS' corporate mission is to provide innovative IT
solutions that empower people and businesses to reach their full potential. ASUS' philosophy
behind product development—which is to accomplish the fundamentals well first before moving
forward—has resulted in a dependable backbone of computer components.

"Inspiring Innovation and Persistent Perfection" is our formula for exceeding expectations in
everything we do, and delivering complete customer satisfaction consistently. It will chart the
course for ASUS to fulfill our vision of becoming the world's most admired leading enterprise in
the new digital era, and will continue to serve as the blueprint for making our customers' dreams a
reality in decades to come."

(ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 2010)

2. Marketing Objectives
 Attain 15,000 unit sales in the first year after launch.
3. Financial Objectives
 Achieve $5 million net profit from ASUS T101MT product by the end of 2012.

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V. SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING
1. Market Segmentation
1.1 Demographic
 Occupation: business and education customer

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 Age: young and middle age, from 15 to 50 years old. Elder is not targeted because they usually
find uncomfortable when using a PC with small screen and keyboard like netbook.

VN Population by age

43%
57% Age 15-50
Others

Source: Euromonitor International

 Gender: this product is suitable for both female and male.

 Income: according to a research of ACNielsen, number of average income people (4-10 million
VND/month) keep the biggest percentage with nearly 72% of Vietnam population in 2009.

1.2 Geographic

Mostly focus on urban area, especially 2 big cities where most students and businessman study and
work at: Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh.

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2. Target Market
Selecting Market Segment
As stated in the section above, the main target market segment which ASUS T101MT want to
aim at is business and education customer from 15 to 50 years old, with average income (4-10
million VND/month) and may live in the urban area, especially 2 big cities Ha Noi and Ho Chi
Minh.

Occupation
business & education
customer

Age Geographic
TARGET urban area
15-50
years old MARKET (HN & HCM)

Average Income
4-7mil VND/month

This targeted market is potential for ASUS T101MT since they are most likely to purchase a
netbook using for their work or study, with an affordable price for the average income
customers.

Besides that, undifferentiated marketing strategy can be used to focuses on common needs
of student and businessman, who require high availability of mobile personal computer with
Internet connectivity everywhere on the go.

3. Positioning Map
Asus Eee PC™ T101MT is a product that offers our customers the best quality with a reasonable
price, including excellent customer services and valuable warranty program.

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Overall positioning strategy for product ASUS T101MT is more for more

High Quality

Low Price High Price

Low Quality

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VI. MARKETING MIX STRATEGIES
1. Product & Brand
1.1 Three levels of Product

Asus
Royal Club

Famous
brand name

1-year Portable PC
High Innovative Free trial
global to connect
quality design software
warranty everywhere

Hybrid
netbook and
multi-touch tablet

Free
home delivery
after warranty

Product improvement
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 – New product
Design Pink, Blue color Red, Yellow color New concept design
Software Newest Windows OS Newest Windows OS Newest Windows OS
Hardware Atom Dual-core Atom Quad-core New Chip & Processor
3GB DDR2 RAM 3GB DDR3 RAM 4GB DDR3 RAM
1.3M camera 2M camera 5M camera
3G Sim-card slot 9-cell battery New multi-touch tech.
After-sale services 2-year global warranty 24/7 Online support Free shipping

As most of hi-tech products, netbook had quite short life-time with only about 1-2 years due to the
rapid change of new technology. Hence, T101MT must also be improved to be up-to-date and
become more competitive advantages than other products.

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1.2 Brand Development Strategy

ASUS Eee PC

T101MT

Asus T101MT is a new product belongs to an existing Category (netbook) and Band Name
(Asus Eee PC). So, the brand development strategy should be used is Line extension.

In 2009, ASUS has been voted number one in "high-quality services and products, as well as
innovation in responding to customers' needs" among Taiwanese Corporations by 2,622
executives and professionals who participated in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Asia 200
survey. Furthermore, in CES 2010, five Asus products were awarded with Innovations Design
and Engineering Awards.

Recently, as an award for the tireless efforts of ASUS, Vietnamese consumers have voted
ASUS as the top brand in 4 different product categories of PC World VN Award 2010:
Mainboard, Optical Disk Drive, VGA Card and Netbook. This will be a strong foundation for
ASUS to build up our brand awareness in Vietnam marketplace.

1.3 Product Life-Cycle (PLC) Strategy

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 Since ASUS T101MT was intended to launch in Vietnam from January 2011, the PLC strategy was
used to decide the rate of desired advertising investment for this product.

Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

Q1, Q2, Q3 (2011) Q4 (2011) Q1, Q2, Q3 (2012) Q4 (2012)
Product High product quality Maintain quality Diversify by Reducing output,
& customer services Add more colors Upgrade Hardware Prepare new product
Price Market-skimming Reducing price Reducing price Stabilizing price
Place Main distributors Selective retailers Expanding retailers Few retailers
Ads & Sales Heavy ads & Medium ads & Focus on product's Few promotion
Promotion special promotion special promotion differentiation

2. Price
2.1 Pricing Objective
Product quality leader ship – reasonable price to cover high product quality and services
costs.

2.2 Optional-product pricing

Basic: $499 for Starter version which included
 Windows 7 Starter
 1GB DDR2 RAM
 160GB HDD
 Single-touch platform

Premium: $649 for Premium version which included

 Windows 7 Premium
 2GB DDR2 RAM
 320GB HDD
 Multi-touch platform
Price Adjustment:
 Every 6 months, price will be cut down $50 for each version (around $449 and $599).
 After 1 year, the new upgrade product will be released with the same initial price as the
previous ones ($499 and $649).

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 2.3 Product-bundle pricing: is used with ASUS Combo Pack ($90)
ASUS Accessory Pack with Seashell Optical
Mouse, Slim External DVD-RW Drive and 10''
PRECISION Sleeve to maximize the potential
of your netbook computing lifestyle:
o Protect your netbook while you're out and
about with the svelte velvet netbook sleeve.
o Install applications, play media, or store
data on-the-go with the slim and compact
Optical Disk Drive.
o The stylish optical Seashell mouse tracks up
to 1000dpi to give you precise control even
without a mouse pad.

3. Place (Multichannel Distribution System)

ASUS uses the distribution system model as below to deliver the products to customers:

ASUS VN

Distributors

Retailers

Consumers

Selective distribution channels of ASUS:

Main Retailers

Tran Anh JSC

Nam A IT JSC
North Vietnam Mai Hoang Informatics
Vinh Xuan – SPC Computer
Phuc Anh Computer
Phong Vu
South Vietnam Vien Son Computer
Hoan Long Computer

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 In next 2 years, ASUS VN may extend the distribution channel to
e-commerce, started with Online Shop for Notebook Accessories:
mouse, keyboards, case, and batteries and provide FREE shipping
fee for all order over $100.

4. Promotion
4.1 Combination of Push & Pull strategy

PUSH Objective: encourage retailers sell more products as much as possible

Campaign: increase commission if distributors have higher consumption
PULL Objective: attract more customers to buy more products
Campaign: discount, in-store sales promotion,

4.2 Advertising
 Print advertising
 Magazines: PC World VN ($1,900/page)
 Newspaper: Tuoi Tre ($3,250/page/day), Thanh Nien ($2600/page/day)
 Outdoor
 Bus stop ($50,000/year)
 Online*
 Websites: VNExpress.net, Vietnamnet.vn, Dantri.com.vn
 Social networks (Fan Page): Facebook.com, Zing.vn
 Forums: Tinhte.vn, vozForums.com, DDTH.vn

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 (*) All chosen websites are ranked as the most popular in Vietnam by Alexa.com and PC World VN 2010.
(**) All prices are referenced by Mindshare Vietnam.

Marketing strategy using for online forums are product review and unboxing video. The link
below is a good example of this:

http://www.tinhte.vn/threads/473767-Dap-hop-chiec-netbook-tuyet-dep-cua-Asus-eeePC-1018P

Authors who write articles on the selected forum is not required to be the marketer of ASUS, but
should be the one who have a good reputation on that forum (e.g. senior members, moderators).
However, the risk is that we cannot 100% warranty that all of comments are positive.

4.3 Sales promotion

After purchasing, customers could create a user account on ASUS VN Portal website by using their
unique product serial. This account can be used to control all information related to customer: user
profile, warranty status as well as the quarterly feedback survey about Asus products and services.
Furthermore, customer can use this account to take part in any promotion program of ASUS in
future.

Loyalty Program: customers have a chance to admit in ASUS Royal Club, which provide:

 Free virus checking and Windows software performance

 Free guide to use and maintain notebook
 Free 5% discount for next ASUS product purchasing.

Discount program:
 5% off for all fresh-man students buy in September (for their new Academic year)
 10% off for students who have an excellent result in the entrance test exam or in previous
academic year.

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Special promotion: when ASUS T101MT buyers login their account for the first time, they can
participate in a mini flash-game contest with several prizes for the winners (5 million VND in
total):
 First prize: one year MegaShare VIP account (360,000 VND) which included 300GB online
storage and one USB 3G of MobiFone Fast Connect (980,000 VND) which included 12-
month 3G Internet plan (bandwidth 750MB/month).
 Second prize: one USB 3G of MobiFone Fast Connect (980,000 VND)
 Third prize: one year MegaShare VIP account (360,000 VND)
 50 Consolation prizes: each prize is 1 month Megashare VIP account (45,000 VND)
Each user can just play once time only, and then their score/result will be recorded in order to
participate in a monthly contest.

MegaShare VIP account and USB 3G MobiFone are chosen as the prize since these are the valuable
add-in for netbook user: extended online storage and widely 3G Internet connection. Moreover,
MegaShare (VNPT) and MobiFone (VMS) are the 2 biggest providers in hosting & telecom
services, which also can cooperate in our promotion program to enjoy profit from advertising.
The game that user may play also depends on the occupation's information that they provided in
their profile when registered. These games are specially designed to show-off the best features that
Asus netbook gave for customer:
 Student: a mini game which required using multi-touch feature of T101MT – more fun and
enjoyable.
 Business: small typing skills flash-game which quite familiar with their daily work (email,
document editing) by using a comfortable keyboard of T101MT.

– Images just for illustration –

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4.4 Public relations
 ASUS V-Star Concert: a special event where
Vietnamese Star Singers represent the newest
products of ASUS throughout a musical night.
FREE limited entrance ticket may be collected by
playing small games on website's event or by
purchasing new ASUS products.

4.5 Personal Selling

 Trade shows: every July, ASUS Expo will be
held to introduce new product launch, perform the
newest technology along with special promotion
for all customers (e.g. http://www.asus-expo2010.com/promotion).

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VII. ACTION PROGRAM

VIII. CONTROLS
 Control points during the year: evaluate and control in the end of these months: March, June,
September, and December.
 Reason:
 The end of these months are also the end of each season, we estimate how much products
were sold and how much products stay in inventory to reduce or expand the budget which use
for next season and forecast for this season in next year.
 Collecting and estimating documents about the sale in each quarter and customer feedback.
 Setting up new plan and adjusting marketing program properly if needed in each quarter.

Projected P&L Statement: Applied for ASUS T101MT product only

2011 2012 2013

Unit sales 15,000 26,000 11,000
Net sales $ 9,750,000 $ 15,600,000 $ 6,050,000
Cost of sales $ 3,997,500 $ 6,396,000 $ 2,480,500
Gross profit $ 5,752,500 $ 9,204,000 $ 3,569,500
Administration & Selling cost $ 3,451,500 $ 5,522,400 $ 2,141,700
Operating profit $ 2,301,000 $ 3,681,600 $ 1,427,800
Interest expense $ 46,020 $ 73,632 $ 28,556
Profit before tax $ 2,254,980 $ 3,607,968 $ 1,399,244
Tax payable $ 676,494 $ 1,082,390 $ 419,773
Net profit $ 1,578,486 $ 2,525,578 $ 979,471
3-year net profit $ 5,083,534

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REFERENCES

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