Repositioning Highlands coffee

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & TRAINING UNIVERSITEÙ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY SOLVAY BUSINESS SCHOOL

MBMM PROGRAM



VO THI THUY HA

RE-POSITIONING HIGHLANDS COFFEE


FINAL PROJECT
MASTER IN BUSINESS & MARKETING MANAGEMENT



Tutor: Dr. Nguyen Dinh Tho





Ho Chi Minh City
2007

ii


STUDENT DECLARATION

I certify that the attached assignment is my own work. Material drawn from other
sources has been acknowledged according to unit-specific requirements for
referencing.



iii


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to Professor Nguyen Dinh Tho
for his guidance in the preparation and writing of this final project report. In
addition, special thanks to Mr. Simon Galbraith, Marketing Director of Highlands
Coffee, for his valuable input and feedback. Thanks also to Ms. Virginia
Garavaglia, Account Director of TNS Worldpanel Vietnam for her support, and
the members of the Postgraduate Office of Open University HCMC and Solvay
Business School for their assistance and encouragement in making this project a
reality.

v


TABLE OF CONTENT

Executive summary Page 1

Part 1: Introduction Page 3
1.1. Background Page 3

1.2. Highlands Coffee house chain Page 4
1.3. Highlands Coffee strategy Page 5

Part 2: Situational analysis Page 7
2.1. The hardware Page 7
2.2. The service quality Page 9
2.3. The image Page 13

Part 3: Repositioning Highlands Coffee Page 16
3.1. Repositioning via service quality Page 17
3.2. Repositioning via image Page 21
3.3. Long term product development Page 23

Conclusion Page 25
Reference Page 27
Appendix Page 28

1


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Highlands Coffee was established in 2000, main business is coffee shop chain.
Besides, Highlands Coffee also has packaged premium Roast and Ground coffee
distributing in hotels and supermarkets.
Being the leader in Premium Western style coffee shop segment, Highlands
Coffee chooses to offer consistent quality, great service in great environment
targeting young, working and high income urbanites. The target is quite the same
as its competitors as Gloria Jean, Illy, Terrace, Paris Deli… and potential
competitors as Starbucks, The Coffee Bean….What can guarantee Highlands

Coffee the long term growth and its unique positioning is Vietnamese origin and
values. Therefore, it is crucial for Highlands Coffee to be in its target customers’
mind as “the best coffee experience combining the best of the fast paced modern
world with the Vietnamese traditions and charm of yesterday”. This project aims
at finding out the barriers in achieving this positioning and working out the
solution for Highlands Coffee to reposition.
This positioning consists of the hardware, the service excellence and the
perceived image. This final project has based on Highlands Coffee marketing
information, market surveys and marketing theory. Results have shown:
Ü Service reliability and responsiveness are the two biggest problems. These
barriers happen as a result of high staff turnover
Ü Highlands Coffee is perceived western, as current product ranges at stores
are too much western oriented.

2


Ü The desired positioning is vague target customers’ mind due to lack of
communication mix especially advertising, direct marketing and e-marketing.
Based on these barriers, Highlands Coffee should reposition as follows:
Ü Reposition the service reliability and responsiveness via best people:
• Developing people by empowering them, creating teamwork and
shifting training programs towards more problem solving oriented.
• Retaining the best people by creating the motivation system with a
multi-scale rewarding system
• Hiring the best people by being the preferred employer in the industry
by developing Highlands Coffee corporate culture
Ü Reposition the image via:
• Increasing the importance of Vietnamese coffee and Highlands Coffee
brand name in the product ranges at stores

• Bringing the value and tradition of Vietnam, history of Highlands
Coffee into all the sales associated materials
• Delivering positioning message through selected advertising media,
carry out direct marketing and e-marketing
Ü Reposition among potential customers and create a back-up through via
launching the Instant coffee brand and re-enforcing current R&G coffee brands.
By these above solutions, author of this project hopes to contribute in solving the
problem that Highlands Coffee is facing on its way to achieve a desired unique
positioning in the mind of target customers.

3


Part 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background
Highlands Coffee is a coffee manufacturer established in 2000. Highlands
Coffee was launched with packaged premium Roast and Ground coffee (R&G)
in hotels and supermarkets. The first cafe was launched in October 2002 at
Metropolitan building in HCMC.

Highlands Coffee’s headquarter is based in Ho Chi Minh city, Highlands Coffee
belong to Viet Thai International group whose business lines are Food, Apparel
and Communication service. Highlands Coffee’s vision is to tirelessly lead as the
premium coffee brand in Vietnam. Highlands coffee’s mission is to continually
develop the premium coffee category by serving customer needs through a blend
of traditional values and modern innovation.

Since being established, the company has showed continuous growth and
impacting Vietnam coffee market. Vietnam is a tea and coffee culture, the north

is more about tea culture while the South is a typical coffee culture. This project
from now on focuses only on Ho Chi Minh city market.

Coffee market is divided into Instant coffee, R&G coffee and out of home coffee
shop. Instant coffee is mainly consumed in home (90% of the occasions are in-
home
1
). R&G is both for in home and out off home in the coffee shop (55% of


1
Source: Drink Usage Panel – TNS Worldpanel Vietnam, April 2007

4


coffee occasions take place on-premise
2
). Therefore, coffee shop plays a very
important role in this coffee culture country in general and in HCMC in
particular.

Highlands Coffee has products in R&G coffee and a coffee house chain. In the
R&G segment, Highlands Coffee offers three ranges Traditional, Heritage and
Gourmet coffee. Gourmet coffee is the most premium type whose price is 20%
higher than Heritage. Heritage in turn is 20% more expensive than Traditional.

In the coffee shop segment, at the time of writing, Highlands Coffee has 40
stores in 5 provinces – HCMC, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Danang and Vung Tau. As the
leading premium coffee chain, Highlands Coffee aims to have 100 cafes by end

of 2008. In HCMC, Highlands Coffee has 18 self-operated stores. The whole of
this project will focus on coffee shop segment with Highlands coffee chain.

1.2. Highlands Coffee shop chain
Highlands Coffee stores serve drip brewed coffee, espresso- and non-espresso-
based hot beverages, tea, and ice-blended drinks. It supplements these offerings
with pastries, salads, and sandwiches and Vietnamese office set lunch.
Coffee shops are segmented into: Low standard, Medium standard, Premium
standard and Western style Premium (see Appendix 1).

Highlands Coffee is competing with Ciao, Illy, Paris Deli, Terrace, Gloria Jean,
Reggina… among the Western style Premium coffee shops (see Appendix 2 for
Highlands coffee shop and Appendix 3 for Highlands Coffee competitors).


2
Drink Usage panel – TNS Worldpanel Vietnam, April 2007

5


Highlands Coffee is more premium than Ciao, Illy and a bit below Gloria Jean in
pricing. Highlands Coffee accounts for 47% market share and is at the moment
the largest coffee chain in this segment.

Store share%

Source: store audit – HCMC, May 2007

1.3. Highlands Coffee’s strategy
As a premium coffee chain, Highlands Coffee targets young 25-45, AB class
(monthly individual income VND6.5million and plus), college educated
urbanites. Consumer profile of Highlands Coffee is very much the same as that
of its direct competitors Ciao, Illy, Paris Deli, Terrace, Gloria Jean…Such
competitors as Paris Deli, Terrace and Gloria Jean are very much the same as
Highlands Coffee in terms of their modern atmosphere, drinks served while Ciao,
Illy, Reggina… are less premium.

CIAO
8%
ILLY
8%
HI GHL A ND
47%
TERRACE
3%
PARIS DELI
3%
GL ORI A
JEAN

3%
OT HERS
28%

6


Highlands Coffee positions itself as “the best coffee experience”. Being
similar in target consumers and in its modern looking, western style and premium
service as its competitors, in order to differentiate, Highlands Coffee chooses to
Vietnamize its image targeting Vietnamese consumers who think western and
respect tradition (hereafter called “Smart Traditional”). Highlands Coffee has a
positioning which is neither wholly international nor wholly Vietnamese but the
combination of the two. This space sits between the well known international
brands as Paris Deli, Terrace, Gloria Jean and local independent chains as Illy,
Ciao…The challenge for Highlands Coffee is to bring this positioning to life.
Current competitive scenario is not fierce for Highlands Coffee yet, Highlands
Coffee is leading the market however when Starbucks, the coffee Bean enter,
with strong financial supports and all the historical standards that they have built
and been famous for in all over the world, the only competitive advantage that
Highlands Coffee can tap into in this coffee culture country is to utilize the
“traditional and Vietnamese”. This is the only way that Highlands Coffee can
win the battle in long term. As it is multi dimensional, certain barriers are
unavoidable on the way to successfully win the power in the mind of customers.
The objective of this project is to identify the barriers and find out solutions to
reposition Highlands Coffee. The next part (part 2) of this project presents an
analysis of Highlands Coffee hardware, service quality and image. The final part
(part 3) proposes some recommendations to reposition Highlands Coffee as “the
best coffee experience combining the best of the fast paced modern world with the
Vietnamese traditions and charm of yesterday” among “Vietnamese Smart

Traditional”.

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Part 2: SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

Positioning of Highlands Coffee consists of three elements: the coffee and the
shop itself, the service excellence and the image. This chapter will analyze each
of the elements to find out barriers.

2.1. The hardware
The first component is the coffee itself. 60% of Vietnamese population are
coffee drinkers with average coffee consumption at 199 cups per capita per year,
higher than other countries in Asia such as Thailand, the Philippines or Indonesia
(data from TNS Worldpanel Vietnam - see Appendix 4). In such a coffee culture
country, especially HMC – the very heavy area in terms of coffee consumption
(see also Appendix 4), coffee drinkers are very selective on the coffee they
enjoy from aroma, caffeine level, taste… to the moment of enjoyment. Coffee
quality is of prerequisites for success in this coffee arena. Highlands Coffee
prides itself for offering what it believes to be highest quality Vietnamese coffee
bean. To enforce its exacting coffee standards, Highlands Coffee controls as
much its suppliers as possible. It works directly with the best coffee growers in
Vietnam to purchase the best green coffee beans. Highlands Coffee factory
controls very strictly also the processing of coffee. There are 12 steps of quality
controls in the coffee production, up to the final, if a mistake is discovered even
if the product has passed the previous 11 steps, to assure zero-defect in coffee
quality, the faulty will be destroyed no matter how much it costs Highlands
Coffee.

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Besides, every cup of coffee, glass of tea or glass of blended or juice is precise
by its temperature at serving time, amount of sugar added, amount of coffee, tea,
fruit… Together with the coffee quality and other drink quality, the atmosphere
when enjoying the drink is also important. Highlands Coffee aims to create great
atmosphere (music, seating, layout, design, wifi…) with great service to make
customer relax and indulge themselves. In order to have customer intimacy,
Highlands makes lots of efforts in designing the every little details of its shop:
• shop facility: there are wooden areas so that when customers enter into
that areas, the employee in charge will know and suggest to help
• The pinafore is designed with two big pocket for the waiters/ waitress to
keep their order book, pen, tower in a clean and tidy way
• In terms of innovation, Highlands coffee is the first coffee chain using
PDA in recording client’s orders

To control the quality of products by outlet, Highlands Coffee organizes their
outlets in a very professional way with specialized departments with expertise in
special area in order to take care of and therefore provide the best for specific
aspects (see Appendix 5 for organization chart of Highlands Coffee outlet)

There is no doubt that Highlands Coffee is able to offer customers with best
quality under very strict production control in a comfortable atmosphere and
hardly can the most selective and savvy coffee drinkers complain about the
products.

9


2.2. The service quality
Service excellent model consists of 5 dimensions
3
as below:
• Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately
• Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service
• Assurance: employee’s knowledge and courtesy and their ability to inspire
trust and confidence
• Empathy: caring, individualized attention given to customers
• Tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and
written materials

These dimensions represent how consumers organize information about service
quality in their minds. The service excellence analysis will be based on this
Service quality dimensions model

To evaluate the service of Highlands Coffee based on the above model, a
quantitative study was conducted in May 2007 with sample size of 100 young,
working, urbanites in HCMC (see Appendix 6 for questionnaire design) to
understand their expectations versus perception when having a drink at
Highlands Coffee shops. Findings from the survey have revealed that the gap of
client’s expectation versus Highlands Coffee performance is mainly due to
Reliability and Responsive dimensions, see below:

3
Service excellent model of Valarie A. Zeithaml, Majo Bitner and Dwayne D. Gremler – co writers of
“Service Marketing – Intergrating Customer Focus Across the Firm”

10


Highlands Coffee service expectation versus performance


According to psychological coffee segmentation, 40% of coffee drinkers are self
confident who are:
• Colleague education, white collar workers
• Up-market, AB class
• Dominant, strong and sophisticated personality
• Looking for “Staying alert, thinking, focusing”
Source: TNS Needscope study 2005, see Appendix 7

These 40% drinkers of coffee market are the target customers of Premium
coffee shop and especially of Highlands Coffee. To these drinkers with such
characteristics, Reliability, Responsiveness and Tangible are the most important
dimensions to win their heart
4
(see Appendix 8). Being very good in terms of


4
Source: importance of service dimension across cultures – Service marketing book

2
3
4
5
Reliability dimension Responsive
dimension
Assurance
dimension
Empathy dimentions Tangible dimension
important satisfaction

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Tangible however Highlands at the moment is not performing well in providing
reliable and responsive service. Let’s see what’s in detailed that make Highlands
Coffee perform lower than expectation:

Highlands Coffee Service quality mapping:

As clearly seen from the mapping, Highlands coffee is performing very well in
terms of tangible dimensions (see the blue bubbles).

In terms of Responsiveness, the key factors are about being always willing to
help, giving prompt service and being never too busy to response to a request
from client. These problems relate to the attitude of front line service people.

What makes Highlands weak in Reliability is mainly about problem solving.
Customers think that when there is problem, Highlands does not show its interest
when solving the problem.

Low
High
High
To improve
To maintain To de-emphasize
To maintain
Provide right service
Keep the promise
Solve problem w ith sincere interest
provides service in time
inform w hen services
w ill be performed
Mate r i a l
associated
make client feel safe
give you prompt service
alw ays w illing to help
Employee never too busy to
response to requests
make client confident
Employee are consistently polite
Employee's know ledge
employee give client personal
attention
care about client's interest
operating hours
Employee understand client
specif ic needs
modern looking equipment

physical
f acility
keeps records correctly
Employee appear neat
Highlands give client individual
attention
2
5
3
Attribute performance
Attribute
importance

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Assurance dimension shows no negative feedback from Highlands Coffee
customers however, this dimension has not been very good yet. An important
attribute that was rated low is Highlands Coffee employee knowledge.
Customers are not satisfied when raising questions and receiving answers from
front line service staff of Highlands Coffee. This can be part of the reason why it
seems to customers that Highlands Coffee does not show its interest when
solving their problems because employee’s knowledge is limited, to every
problem they cannot have a bigger picture, information or knowledge to explain
and solve problem properly.

In exploring more about this aspect, by conducting in-depth interviews with
outlet managers of Highlands Coffee (see Appendix 9), training has been
provided and systemized, however, employee turnover has been so high and
other competitors’ coffee shops have recruited Highlands Coffee staffs.

Therefore, even when Highlands Coffee has provided sufficient training about
the service skills, these problems are still happening. Current training programs
of Highlands Coffee are only about service skills of front line service people,
aiming to equip Highlands Coffee staff how to serve customers in a professional
manner.

In conclusion of the service quality barriers, Highlands is currently facing the
below barriers:
• First and most serious problem is responsiveness including speed of
service, willingness to help customers and not being too busy to answer
customers’ requests.

13


• Second problem is reliability including the ability to solve customers’
problem with interest
• Third problem also relating to second problem is assurance including
employee knowledge.

All the problems have originated under the sufficient training program on service
skills and in a situation of high staff turnover.

2.3. The image
A qualitative survey was conducted via in-depth interviews with (see Appendix
9), results show Highlands Coffee at the moment is perceived not Vietnamese.
The reasons are:

The first reason is about the shop layout. Highlands Coffee is decorated in
Western style. With international selected music in the stores and every little

detail of facility at international standard, people do enjoy the atmosphere in
Highlands Coffee stores. Highlands Coffee gives its customers a modern,
western and very relaxing, indulgent moment. Being asked about what is the
most important element when hanging out, majority of people claimed
atmosphere, drink quality comes the second. Moreover, drinkers prefer:
• modern layout
• store facilities providing convenience and relaxing
• western selected music

For all that elements, current Highlands Coffee drinkers are very satisfied with
what they have been offered.

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Therefore, the atmosphere is not a Vietnamese specification, yet it’s obviously
the relative competitive advantage that Highlands Coffee has successfully built
and should capitalize in the future. This is an important component of Highlands
Coffee positioning “the best coffee experience” among Vietnamese consumers
who think western and respect tradition. Thus, this will not be an element to
change to Vietnamize Highlands Coffee image.

The second reason is about the product ranges at stores:
• Highlands Coffee serves Italian coffee and oversea coffee, tea and
blended drinks. In the menu, traditional Vietnamese coffee is offered a
very limited space including just 3 types of Vietnamese coffee classified
based on product functions (with milk and iced, with iced, hot coffee) with
no special attention appealing.
• Vietnamese drinks are not emphasized enough. Names of the blended
juice or smoothie are general, not yet supporting the positioning.

• Majority of the food in the menu are western food.

This is where Highlands Coffee has not done enough and can make adjustments
to be more Vietnamese to the Smart traditional based on the strength of
Highlands Coffee.

The third reason is about Highlands Coffee communication strategy. Most of the
respondents say they got no message from Highlands Coffee that Highlands
Coffee is Vietnamese coffee shop for Vietnamese people. What they can see is
customers are many foreigners enjoying western coffee and drinks there. Since
establishment, instead of spending money in advertising, Highlands Coffee has

15


the strategy to locate in crowded area, adjacent to office buildings or shopping
complex to communicate its brand name however it’s not enough to deliver the
positioning message. Current strategy only helps Highlands Coffee to increase
awareness among the target customers. Current strategy has not helped
Highlands Coffee to build its power in the mind of customers.

Delivering a message and finding a position in the customers’ mind requires
consistently and continuously emphasizing the message through a
communication mix
5
(see Appendix 10) including: advertising, PR, Sales
promotion, Direct marketing, Sponsorship, Exhibition, E-marketing…

Current strategy of Highlands Coffee is lack of the very crucial parts of
communication mix which are advertising and direct marketing and e-marketing.

Highlands Coffee is not using advertising in any form from TV advertising to
print ad or advertorial…. Therefore, it cannot transfer the message to customers.
As Highlands Coffee is targeting quite a niche market compared to other coffee
shops, direct marketing is an important tool to efficiently build a strong customer
relationship however it has not been invested yet. Target customers of Highlands
Coffee has the profile of high daily internet using and can be accessed through
e-marketing however at the moment Highlands Coffee has not gone for e-
marketing yet



5
Complete model of communication mix to leverage a brand according to George E. Belch and Michael A.
Belch

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Part 3: REPOSITIONING HIGHLANDS
COFFEE

After analyzing all the three components of Highlands Coffee being “the best
coffee experience combining the best of the fast paced modern world with the
Vietnamese traditions and charm of yesterday” targeting the “Smart Traditional”,
key barriers highlighted are as follows:

Ü Service reliability and responsiveness are the two biggest problems that
Highlands Coffee is now performing under customers’ expectation. These
barriers happen as a result of high staff turnover
Ü Highlands Coffee is perceived western, not Vietnamese as current product

ranges at stores are too much western oriented, Vietnamese coffee and
Highlands Coffee brands are under-promoted and at low importance while
western coffee is dominating.
Ü Highlands Coffee positioning is vague in the mind of target customers due to
lack of communication mix especially advertising, direct marketing and e-
marketing which are the very efficient tools in positioning building and
especially efficient to transfer the message to Highlands Coffee target customers
This chapter focuses on recommendations and solutions to overcome the above
barriers



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3.1. Repositioning via service quality
Upon conducting in-depth interviews (see Appendix 9) with Highlands Coffee
front line service employees, their difficulties in servicing people are mainly:

Ü In dealing with some tough requests from clients, they are not empowered
to solve the situation and currently rely on their outlet managers. Therefore, it’s
easy that clients feel unhappy when their requests – simple to them being a
client, yet tough to the front line service staff who lack of power to decide and to
be responsible for it - are not solved at a fastening speed.

Ü They often feel embarrassed when problem occurs. Existing training
programs are designed to equip front line service staff soft skills about
knowledge of drinks, food, the service manner, sales succession… this is a very
good training program for front line service people however it still does not focus
on problem solving skills which is a criteria that Highlands Coffee target

customers have very high expectation when drinking at Highlands Coffee.

Ü Being checked whether the front line service staff is clear about the
company vision and mission, few front line service staff are aware of and know
exactly what is the company vision and mission Strategy, vision and mission
have not been communicated properly to employee by Senior managers of
Highlands Coffee.

In asking what could be the motivation for them to do be more loyal and better in
their job, the replies are:
Ü right time reward

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Ü recognition
Ü clear career path
Ü more training

A complete model of human resource strategies for delivering service quality
through people should be: Hire the right people, Develop people to deliver the
service quality, provide needed support system, retain the best people
6
(see
Appendix 11). Applying the model to Highlands Coffee situation, Highlands
Coffee should work more on:
Ü Develop people to deliver service quality
Ü Retain the best people
Ü Hire the right people

To develop people to deliver service quality, the focused points should be
training for interactive skill, empowering the people and promoting teamwork.

Ü Training for interactive skills can help to improve responsiveness and
Reliability especially as it will help to enhance problem solving skill. Highlands
Coffee should invest in equipping the staff with continuous soft skill training as
well as refresh training and encouraging staff to strive for better general
knowledge besides the servicing knowledge. This can be done by a combination
of soft skill training and general knowledge training. For service skill, current
training is already good and Highlands Coffee can capitalize this. One of the
ways to even make it better and especially to improve Highlands Coffee staff


6
According to Valarie A. Zeithaml, Majo Bitner and Dwayne D. Gremler – co writers of “Service Marketing
– Intergrating Customer Focus Across the Firm’

19


problem solving skills is to duplicate McDonald’s exam at work model. This
model allows Highlands Coffee to train and offer examinations on basic general
knowledge as well as situational problem solving knowledge. This creates a
study atmosphere and encourages people stay and improve themselves with
Highland Coffee. One other skill that Highlands Coffee can train their staff is to
remember customers’ favourite drinks. A very much the same coffee chain in the
world – Starbucks – has its front line staff remember customers’ favourite drink.
Making use of this will make Highlands Coffee have always- happy - customers
as this shows Highlands Coffee care about customers’ interest.

Ü Empowering means giving employees the desire, skills, tools and
authority to serve the customers. Authority is obviously necessary to empower
employees in making decision to solve the problem however it’s not enough. A
clear job description and responsibility as well as authority will be necessary.
Employees need the knowledge and tools to be able to make these decisions,
they need incentives that encourage them to make the right decisions.

Ü Promoting teamwork can be done by encouraging the attitude that
“everyone has a customer”. That is, even when employee are not directly
responsible for or indirect interaction with that final customer, they need to know
whom they serve directly and the importance of the role they play in the total
service picture is essential to the final delivery of quality service. Team
rewarding also encourages the team spirit and enhances the service level

To retain the best people, including employees in the company vision, measuring
and rewarding strong service are crucial:

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Ü The vision and mission should be communicated to employee frequently
by top managers. By having the company vision and mission communicated to
employees by the top managers, Highlands Coffee can send a strong message to
its employees that they are important to the development of the company,
making them more motivated and dedicated to the job and loyal to the company.

Ü Measuring and rewarding people is also another strategy, rewarding
system should be a multi-scale system from small wins to very tremendous wins,
also from individual to team excellent performance, giving by top managers,

department head or within small team, from tangible to intangible rewarding….

• By creating a multi-scale rewarding system, not only can Highlands
Coffee create stronger bind between employees and the company but also
between employees and employees. Sometimes employee – employee
relation is stronger and more motivating.
• Rewarding people can be done not only through material recognition
but also through career path. A rotation system can generate interest
among employees and help widen their knowledge, open for them new
opportunities. Promotion standards and requirement communicating
publicly make employees dream of the future and get them work hard
with the company for the future

To hire the right people, Highlands Coffee need to be a preferred employer in its
industry. Currently it is for its good training programs however, also because of
this good training program, competitors are recruiting Highlands Coffee staff. A

21


good training in terms of service skill is not enough to make people proud of
working in Highlands Coffee. General knowledge training (as mentioned in
previous part), career and advance opportunities, excellent internal support,
attractive incentives and quality of the goods and services can make employees
proud to be associated with

3.2. Repositioning via image
To reposition Highlands Coffee image, the following ideas can be applied:

First, the product range at stores should be restructured:

Ü Highlands Coffee has already been very careful in selecting coffee bean,
producing and serving coffee, why not to introduce a coffee range named
Vietnamese coffee. Coffee types are important to a coffee drinker
especially in this 2
nd
coffee export country in general and in the heavy
coffee culture city as HCMC in particular, Vietnamese coffee deserves
more space in the menu of Highlands Coffee. Developing its own
Vietnamese coffee brand can differentiate Highlands Coffee from other
competitors especially western origin competitors.
Ü Smart traditional are the people who think western while are proud of
their being Vietnamese and respect traditional value. Therefore, name of
coffee and drink (the Vietnamese coffee range to be developed and
tropical fruit juice) should reflect traditional and Vietnamese value.

Second, materials associated with the service can be used to emphasize the
Vietnamese elements