Application process of Internet Marketing in Vietnamese small and medium enterprises

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INTRODUCTION
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effect. Therefore, there is necessary to evaluate and choose whether any theory, how
the application of IM is consistent with the conditions in Vietnam, especially with the
possibility of applying of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - accounted for over
90% of businesses in the country, but limitation about resource. That's what inspires
author selected this research topic: "Application process of Internet Marketing in
Vietnamese small and medium enterprises ".
2. The research background
To be able to have objective, reasonable and feasible assessments, we must
recognize the context of implementation of the subject, with the following contents:
- The IM application in the world is growing strongly, due to the IM brings many
benefits for the enterprises.
- In Vietnam, the Government has a clear direction for the development of ecommerce in general and business on the Internet in particular, creating a boom in
recent years and continuing to maintain strong momentum of growth of these
activities in the coming years.
- Although the infrastructure conditions for the development of IM in Vietnam is
not yet evaluated as good, completely meet for the application of IM activities of
SMEs at a basic level. At the same time, the enterprises need to overcome the
difficulties caused by the conditions of this infrastructure that is not good.
- Internet users in Vietnam have both the same characteristics as the Internet users in the
world, and the different characteristics due to the impact of cultural, social, economic
environment … and language. These characteristics also promise that the application of
IM in Vietnam has opportunity, and businesses need to adapt when the application of
IM tools in the world in Vietnam - especially cultural characteristics in behavior of using
Internet and consumer behavior.

- The Vietnamese SMEs accounte for over 90% of the businesses in the country
that have many restrictions on business resource, technological level, the scale of
operation. MKT activity of these enterprises is constrained by low investment
costs, no MKT professional workforce that is usually done by salesman. The
activities of lacking the long-term strategy are often performed disjointedly and
fragmentedly, only focused on activities that directly support and promote sales.
Due to the domination of all these conditions and characteristics so SMEs have
difficulies to "keep" model or IM applications under models of the advanced countries
to apply, which need to have researches to buld the way of operating in accordance
with the environmental condition and operational characteristic of Vietnamese SMEs.
3. The objective of study
3.1 The overall objective
The thesis focuses on researching to suggest process and way of Internet
marketing activity in accordance with the environmental condition and the applied
ability of SMEs of Vietnam, is expressed as a brief modeling, helping businesses easy
to visualize and absorb, so that when they look at it, it will:
- There is the most appropriate and overall look about the IM activities:
understanding the nature, role and task of the IM, as well as the relationship
between IM with other strategic activities of businesses, understanding the process

1. The urgency of topic
Recognizing the popularity and role of the Internet, as well as the impact of
Internet to change the behavior and demand of customer, from the early 2000s, the
practical activists have studied and developed the way to apply Internet in Marketing
(MKT) activity, then the researchers summarize and generalize these ways of
application, since it appears a new branch of science of modern Marketing called as
Internet Marketing (or Online Marketing). Since its inception in the developed
countries, Internet Marketing (IM) has become a popular form of marketing and
brought huge profits for enterprises using it. Because of the basic advantages of the
Internet to bring to business in general and marketing in particular - such as the ability

of updating, fast responsed speed and low cost, high efficiency ... - IM is proven in fact
and recognized as very effective.
Vietnam is considered as a country with high potential in the development of
electronic commerce (EC) in general as well as online business activities in particular,
with over 31 million users - equivalent to 33.9% population. Along with the investment
direction of the Government, it can certainly say that in a not too distant future,
Vietnamese consumer will be completely familiar with the using of Internet. Besides,
the life, behavior and their demand are affected by the Internet that has been strongly
changed. Adapting to this, Vietnamesse businesses also self-correct Marketing
activities follow the direction that they consider as appropriate.
However, because of the theory of IM in the world is too new and has not been
tauch formally in Vietnam, the spontaneous process in applying IM of Vietnamese
enterprises does not bring good result, influenced by technical perspective of
information technology of companies providing IM service, so this process has a
number of characteristics:
- The businesses have many mistake conceptions about IM activity: for example
considering Internet as just a tool or media means, online sales, or IM acitivity is a
very difficult technique problem, to need specialized personnel in information
technology or outsource with the expensive cost ...
- Because of incorrect concept so the businesses applied incorrectedly about IM: They
usually think of some advertised tools on the Internet when have communication
demand; implementing very little and asynchronously the tools of IM and the MKT in
real environments; If implemented, outsourcing is often done once and then "leave it"
or do not know how to manage, Separating the management of IM operations from
activities of MKT strategy ...
- With such an application so actually causes a huge waste of resource of the
businesses, the effectiveness based on the cost of effective investment for IM is
very low because not promote the inherent potential of IM - which is considered
as efficient way of doing MKT, many benefits for businesses and society with low
investment costs.

Meanwhile, in the world, many ways of application and various IM tools are
introduced; each method has its advantages, limitations and conditions for taking


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and IM tools, the relationship between the tools themselves and with MKT tools of
real environment in coordinating in order to carry out a strategy of IM.
- Using IM, process, steps and tools applied in each step of that process.
3.2 Mission and the specific research questions
In order to achieve these overall objectives, the thesis will need to answer the
objectives and research questions such as the following:
(1) Analysing the way of typical IM activity as a theoretical basis for proposing the
IM application process in Vietnam:
- What is the applied way of typical IM activity in the world currently?
- How does each way of application during its operation reveal the strengths and
limitations?
- If applying in Vietnam is appropriate or not? What are difficulties and obstacles
when applying in Vietnam?
(2) Analysing of the actual conditions of Vietnam to make factual basis of proposing
IM application process for Vietnamese SMEs:
a. The objective and external conditions of business:
- How are economic, social, technological, legal ... environment that have
characteristics affecting the implementation of IM solutionss?
- How do customer/consumer’s habit and behavior affect to use and contact to the
Internet?
b. The subjective and inside conditions of business:
- How have businesses been doing IM?

- The businesses understand that how IM is, which solution of IM they applied and
how? Why do they do that? Effective or not? If not, why?
- What is characteristic in activity of Vietnamese SMEs in accessing the IM theory?
Which businesses do need the support in terms of rationale and what and how does
support them?
- Do SMEs only lack the awareness about the strategic process, or need the solution
of specific tools? Do they have the ability to make tools, which level?
- How do Vietnamese SMEs have ability in building strategy and implementing the
IM solutions: human, financial resources and other issues?
- Proposing the process of applying IM activity for Vietnamese SMEs:
- Proposing the process of applying IM suitably
- Proposing specific solutions follow applied conditions of Vietnamese SMEs
(specific content of each step in the model)
4. The object, objectivity and scope of research
- The object of research: Theory and practice of applied process of IM in enterprise
- The objectivity of research: Vietnamese SMEs identified by Decree 56/2009/NĐ-CP
- The scope of research:
Related to object of research:
• The thesis only focuses on IM, not its branches, these are connected devices and
data exchange on the Internet, such as mobile-internet MKT, MKT interactive
television ...

• The thesis approaches from the perspective of principle of IM applications, not to
mention the problems of technology and engineering making IM, no research in a
specialized field or specific branch as MKT to customer, MKT services…
• The thesis does not focus on introducing IM tools and techniques applied them in
specific situations, such as marketing techniques through search engine - SEM
(Search Engine Marketing), Marketing on social networks - SMM (Social Media
Marketing) ...; only focus on studying process of IM activity in general, from
analysing information, planning, building strategy, selecting tool and

implementing the plan and testing the correction.
Related to respondents: Survey of SMEs, satisfying the conditions:
• Serving consumers; there are no elements of foreign investment.
• Focusing on researching the moving online businesses, these are companies have
operated in the real environment, only moving a part of MKT activities and business
on the Internet to meet the changes in consumer’s behavior.
• Not the businesses specialize in communication, information technology, or have
too much experience in this field.
Reason for choosing this respondent: this is the group of businesses that have many
limitations about business resources, have no or less condition to access to information about
new and modern means, tools or forms of business. These characteristics make the
effectiveness of their business that is limited. Thus, this thesis defines that these are group of
businesses that need the support in terms of scientific to find a suitable way with the condition
and available possibility, improve operational efficiency for developing. At the same time, the
thesis also removes from the sample those firms that do not have typical or representative
characteristic for the other conventional businesses.
Related to time and space of research and survey:
• In terms of space: the research focuses on Hanoi and expands to other businesses in
another area, but not affect to the representativeness of the sample for overall study.
• Time: Because of new subject so the author has many difficulties in the research
process, which makes the whole process is prolonged in the period of 6 years from
September 2006 to December 2012. However, the activity of sociological
investigation of official sample is made within 7 months from April 2012 to
November 2012. This ensures the time for result.
5. The methodology of study
5.1. The methodology of approaching: Practical viewpoint, system viewpoint; historical
viewpoint.
5.2. Data source of the thesis
5.2.1. Sources of secondary data
- The theory of IM: colleting from textbooks and reference materials of many major

universities around the world.
- Data on environmental business condition in Vietnam and applied condition of ecommerce in general, IM in particular: the editions are officially publiced by the
prestige organizations and agencies in Vietnam and the world; the researches and
dissertations are recognized.


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- Data on business resource and capability of enterprise: taking from published data of
Vietnam association of SMEs and business surveyed reports are officially announced.
5.2.2. Sources of primary data
For have practical basis to propose IM process, the thesis applies sociological
investigated method in studying marketing that is used to model the applied behavior of IM of
Vietnamese SMEs made through 3 steps:
- Step 1: Synthesizing the sources of secondary data
- Step 2: Designing and implementing the qualitative research (in-depth personal
interview, semi-structured), with 28 leaders and business managers.
- Step 3: Designing and implementing the quantitative research, the sample size is 491
units (satisfying condition ≥ 400 form element, based on deductive formula of sample
about rate and application of non-repeating selection, reliability of 95.44% and scope
of sampling error ≤ 5%); the method of non-random sampling (convenient method
combined with the cumulative sampling), the method of contacting with audience
directly or indirectly (sending cards for respondents filling).
5.3. Methods of processing and analyzing data
5.3.1. Analysing the secondary data
- Data is theory and IM application process, applying methods: (1) Analysing and
synthesizing theory, (2) classifying and systemizing the theory (3) modeling; (4)
thinking of scientific and inductive.
- Data on environmental practice and condition for implementing IM of the enterprises,
applying methods: (1) scientific observation, (2) expert.
5.3.2. Analysing the primary data

- Qualitative data: transcribing and processing manually (synthesizing comments,
counting the frequency of important words, building tree of idea ...).
- Quantitative data: the variables using scale of identifier and hierarchy that is processed
by the math of basic descriptive statistics (analyzing frequency, processing the group
split, calculating mode), with the variables using scale of distance that is handling some
maths on the arithmetic average and standard deviation. Application of inference
statistics is the inspection of rate in order to test the result from the sample for overall.
The software using is SPSS 20.0.
6. The result and new contributions of thesis
6.1. The results of thesis
- Systemizing and contributing to clarify theoretical issues about the concept, nature
and benefit of IM.
- Studying the models of IM application in the world for using in the construction
process of IM activity model in Vietnam.
- Collecting, surveying, analyzing and systematic assessing about cognition, condition,
application capability and the status of the IM application in Vietnamese SMEs VN.
- The thesis shows specific solutions, high feasibility for applying IM in Vietnamese
SMEs.
6.2. The new contributions of thesis:
The new contributions of academic, theoretical and practical aspect:

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Collecting and identifying 4 processes of applying IM typically in the world today,
includes (1) e-commerce marketing (2) Web 4S - marketing, (3) consumer behavior
on the Internet and marketing - mix; (4) IM strategy model. In which, each process
identified the steps, tools, major concerns, and analyzed the advantages and limitations
on the ability to deploy in applicating this process in Vietnam.
- Basing on actual investigation, discovering the the most underlying causes that affect

to the restriction in applying IM in Vietnamese SMEs VN, including::
• Misunderstanding or incomplete about the nature, role, effectiveness, conditions of
applying and the tools of IM.
• Restriction on the ability to perform IM activity, as well as the ability of
management in case of outsourcing.
• The tendency to separate the management of IM from Marketing strategy and
Marketing activities in the real environment.
- From the result of investigation, the thesis finds that the more business understand
what is right and enough about IM, the better application and result, thus more willing
to invest in this activity and vice versa.
The new proposals drawn from research results
- The process of applying IM in accordance with peculiarities of SMEs and in the
context of Vietnam, in which some new points compared to the existing process are:
• Applying the understanding about customer and consumer behavior at every step in
the process.
• Coordinating the steps and tools of traditional MKT with the steps and tools of
MKT on the Internet.
• Content strategy and managing the e-presence.
- The way to build, organize, and exploit information systems of electronics MKT,
with emphasizing on two important issues: (1) using the Internet to gather information
about behavior at all exposure points, (2) using methods of studying MKT in Internet
environment.
7. The structure of thesis:
The thesis includes the following sections:
- Intrododuction
- Chapter 1: The overview of theoretical research findings about the process and way
of applying IM
- Chapter 2: Surveying the reality as a basis for proposing the IM process for
Vietnamese SMEs
- Chapter 3: Proposing the process of applying IM in Vietnamese SMEs

- Conclusion
CHAPTER 1
THE OVERVIEW OF THEORETICAL RESEARCH FINDINGS ABOUT THE
PROCESS AND WAY OF APPLYING INTERNET MARKETING
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1.1 The understandings and the scope of Internet Marketing
There are many ways to call and understand related to IM that introduced around the
world, from the broad meanings as e-MKT, electronic MKT, MKT on Internet or MKT


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online, e-commerce, e-business... to the callings with a narrower meaning and very shortsighted as MKT email, online advertising and marketing. Like the misunderstanding about
MKT in Vietnam in the past, these ways of calling and understanding lead to different
applications, thus the efficiency and capability of applying form of MKT are very different
in the businesses.
From this understanding, we can see that, first of all, in terms of form, although it
appears under many different names as IM, e-MKT, online MKT, digital MKT ..., the
content mentions to the application of digital technologies that connect and exchange
the data on the Internet to make MKT, including computer, interactive TV, telephone,
digital devices .... However, as mentioned, the scope of this topic only focuses on the
Internet, not focusing on its branches arising, ie connected and data exchanged devices
on Internet, or in other words the thesis does not research on specific issues such as
MKT via mobile, MKT on interactive television or location based MKT.
The nature and principles of MKT do not change, there is a process of exchanging
information and economic behavior, from identifying needs, planning to conducting
and supervising the use of appropriate tools of MKT to put product, service, and idea
to customer. However, there are some fundamental differences:

- The mothod of conducting IM is different from MKT in real environment: on
procedure, tool, focused content of the strategy, the guiding principles ...
- The elements of the operating environment of MKT on the Internet are changed,
expanded, and there are changes about the ability that have influence to IM activities
of enterprise.
- The market of current and potential buyers changes due to the accessibility of the
Internet, the mode and rule of dealing with customer also change.
Besides, it is necessary to distinguish IM with related concepts:
- Electronic business (E-business) is the set of all operations of the business functions
of a business undertaken, related to attract and maintain the customers and business
partner for companies, that is performed in an electronic environment.
- E-commerce is the exchange of information through electronic network, at any stages
of the supply chain, whether it is done within an organization, or between different
enterprises, between enterprises and customers, or between public sector and private
sector, whether it is paid or not.
- Direct MKT, in terms of nature, is one of the tools of mixed promotion or MKT
media, which is a form of modern communication, it combines the traditional forms of
media such as advertising, sales promotion and personal selling, impact to customer,
the aim is to sell goods without intermediate distribution. The goal of direct MKT is to
provide the information of product for customers that can meet their needs and desires
to create the reactions of purchasing directly and measureably in market.
Thus, compared to the above concepts, IM has a partial interference but does not
match about the inner, scope, approach as well as tool.
In addition, the thesis also collects the researches and perspectives on the role,
benefit and capability of applying of IM in business operation of the enterprises.
1.2. The research of applying the process of typical Internet marketing in the
world

During the research, the author has not found any material that presents
comprehensively and authoritatively on this issue, the types of process or the way of

operating Internet marketing presented below that is the synthesis from the simalarity
of theories, guidelines and the way of applying in practice of the enterprises, with the
name of each type of model is set by author that reflect the main content and spirit the
of every types succinctly.
1.2.1. The model of e-marketing
This is the operational model of Internet marketing based on e-commerce, or in
other words that is the way to do online marketing of companies to support the
marketing activities in real environment, in order to consume goods produced, toward
the customers who have a habit of using the Internet.

Figure 1: The process of applying IM follow the model of e-commerce

This model is relatively simple and has been applied in many enterprises in the
world, especially in the early period of e-commerce in general and IM in particular.
The advantage of it is easy to apply, does not require a lot of manpower with high level
and the coordination between parts of enterprise, it’s suitable for both enterprises that
its IM activity at the simplest level, relatively easy in applying to businesses operating
in both market of institution and individual.
But the limitation of model is too simple, more operational rather than strategic,
not cover the factors dominating the success or failure of an online MKT strategy,
therefore it is only suitable for the commercial enterprises with small scale and limited
scope of activities in a (few) line / type of certain product. The other limitation is that it
is not useful in case of assessing to upgrade the electronic marketing activitiy to a new
level or in case of responding to the changing of environment. This model can be
easily applied in Vietnamese SMEs that have similar conditions.
1.4.2. The model of 4S web – marketing
This model was established in about 1997s, later developed by Dr. Efthymios
Constantinides (Netherlands). It is built on the spirit of perfect matching between the
activities in the virtual environment into business strategies, real marketing plan and
the organizing process of enterprise.

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Figure 2: The process of applying Internet Marketing follow the model of 4S-web

The advantage of this process of application is that it identified the strategic
issues, operation, organization and technology dominated the success of IM activity,
this method also introduces the approach to both strategic problems and operational
issues of the IM process.
However, this applied process has some limitations or disadvantages. The most
obvious thing is the complexity, difficulty in applying because it requires a very strong
knowledge of online consumer behavior, as well as specialized knowledge, marketing,
information technology and other media. It will obstruct the applicability of the model,
because not always such knowledge is available, especially in Vietnamese SMEs
today. An another disadvantage is that it is too focused on the factor of website without
mentioning the presence of electronic factors beyond the website and other IM tools, as
well as their content. Therefore, applying this model is easy to fall into the shortsighted and narrow about the IM, it is difficult to effectively promote with the
generation of interactive Web 2.0 today. In addition, this model is developed for B2C
applications, so enterprises can operate separately or simultaneously on the field of
B2B that is difficult to apply to achieve optimal efficiency.
1.4.3. The model of customer behaviour on Internet and marketing mix
This model is developed based on the spirit of taking target customer as the center
and the starting point of all marketing efforts. This model is introduced by the U.S.
researchers and is used the most in this country, with the authors of George E. Belch,
Philip Kotlers, Judy Strauss and colleagues, ... This model is preferred by the
enterprises follow the school of traditional MKT, because it has the same philosophy
compared with strategy of MKT in real world environment. And the reason why it is
called such by authors is that the focused content/core of model is about consumer
behavior on the Internet and to identify strategies of MKT mix to meed and exploit

them.
The advantage of this model lies on its friendly, especially for those who follow
the traditional theory of MKT, and because of its friendly, it also becomes easy to

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apply, especially when the model gives a formulaic process allowing user can easily
apply through the implementation of sequential steps of the model, and easily reference
the materials abundantly and diversely about the techniques to increase the efficiency
of applying. Applying this model also allows for a review of the factors affecting to
online MKT strategy, including both strategic and tactical elements. Moreover, the
starting point and core of the model is the understing of customer - Internet user, this
can allow the business make more strategies and efforts of MKT and win the sympathy
of customer - the key to keep the loyal customer on Internet.
However this model also has some limitations. Firstly, it has not fully covered the
factors that affect the IM strategy, such as the elements of technology, engineering,
resources of enterprise especially human resource, issues of infrastructure and
technology, design, implementation and management of website ... The feature of no
detail of this model will require the application must have broad and deep knowledge,
and further research and collect more additional knowledge. In scientific terms,
equating the CRM is one of the tools of MKT-mix that making the application does not
see its strategy and importance affecting the entire MKT programs that tend to favor
the "implementation" without seeing its strategy. In addition, the attractiveness of
electronic presence is only considered as a part of the media strategy of electronic
MKT and MKT of online relationship, this have not made the application understands
and applies effectively this content. This is the fundamental reason for a lot of
companies that only focus on website investment with superior software that
overlooked the investment continuously for content strategy to maintain the
attractiveness of the electronic presence - reality of many Vietnamese businesses when
operating e-commerce in general and IM in particular. An another limitation of this
model is to separate the marketing activities on Internet with the MKT activities in real

environment, thus not promote the efficiency of MKT operations as a whole, at the
same time the application will feel confused in arranging and organizing staff. The
disadvantages would be hindered element that many Vietnamese SMEs applied model,
because most of them are simultaneously online, offline and in real environment.

Figure 3: The process of applying Internet Marketing follow the model of consumer
behavior on Internet and Marketing mix


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1.4.4. The model of Internet marketing strategy
The quite popular model in all over the world is developed by famous
researcher of IM Dave Chaffey and his colleagues, this process has now been
widely popular in the U.S. and Europe.
The advantage of this model is similar to the advantage of the model 3, this is
friendly process with users, especially Vietnam. Another advantage is that it studies
quite completely and details the factors that affect and influence to the marketing
strategy in internet of businesses, including strategic and tactical elements. A finer
point of this model compared to the model 3 is that the important factors are seprated
in studying in detail, and showed the interaction and interplay between the elements of
the model, making the application both had detailed look and covered the strategic of
model.

circumstances of life, the advantages, limitations and conditions of application each
group. With all four groups, the author says that there is not a process or the way of
application that suitable and easy to use in conditions of Vietnamese SMEs as analyzed
in the context of the topic. This is due to the general limitations of this model,

including: (1) not friendly, not suitable for this way of thinking, doing and managing
the marketing activity of the current Vietnamese businesses; (2) not enough to
generalize all the factors related to IM strategy, and not enough detail to guide
implementation, (3) not focus on finding consumer behavior to provide strategies and
tactics consistent with the behavioral characteristics of Vietnamese people particularly in the electronic presence and content strategies associated with Internet
users. Therefore, it’s necessary for researching additional to be able to build process
and the way of applying Internet Marketing suitably in Vietnam.

Figure 4: The strategic of model of Internet Marketing

Limitation of the model is to require the good knowledge of the application, both
general and detail knowledge. In addition, although the model shows that the strategic
level but lacks practical guidance in details. Therefore, with limited knowledge and
awareness of Vietnamese businesses about IM, to apply successfully it needs to be
detailed, but still ensure the simply. In addition, it also makes reader easier to
understand that it is independent with marketing activity in real environments. This
model does not emphasis on finding in detail the behavior of target customer that this
is only regarded as one of elements of the micro-environment. This is difficult to
ensure the success of interactive activities and personalized IM. An important
drawback is the electronic presence that is made after determining the IM strategy, as
well as selection of tools of marketing mix and customer relationship programs. This
will lead the electronic presence is not oriented absolutely about location and content,
easily lead the enterprises create arbitrarily for their electronic appearance, so the brand
will lose the focus and/or cause unwanted effects to images.
In summary, although the study of IM is not a new problem, due to its
characteristics (characteristics of the technology, fast changing, applied condition ...)
so the research results both at home and abroad are still scattered, unfocused and
inconsistent. The studies of IM application are gathered in 4 groups by the author,
according to process and way of applying, from that analysing the content and

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CHAPTER 2
SURVEYING THE REALITY AS A BASIS FOR PROPOSING THE IM PROCESS
FOR VIETNAMESE SMEs
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With this assumption, the study is conducted on object of Vietnamese SMEs that
is designed follow 3 the basic contents: (1) IM application conditions, (2) Awareness
and understanding of IM; (3 ) IM application behavior.

2.1. Study Design
2.1.1. The frame of study content
2.1.1.1. The rationale as a basis for study design

With the author's experiences accumulated in working, and through exchanges and
contacts, discussions with experts, researchers as well as market activists, the author
discoveres that way of thinking, and doing marketing in general and IM in particular of
Vietnamese SMEs is now strongly influenced by school of theoretical Marketing and
principle of Marketing of Philip Kotlers - as well as theory of MKT is being taught
popularly in Vietnam. Therefore, the author selects this theory as the leading rationale
for the research. Accordingly, the logical framework of strategic marketing process
consists of 5 steps as shown in the figure below:

Figure 5: The model of theoretical frame used for study design about the reality and condition of
applying IM of Vietnamses SMEs

In addition, to evaluate the companies properly selects and applies the tools and
practices the principles IM or not, the author bases on studies and other theories about tool of
IM from typical researchers of IM as Judy Strauss and Raymond Frost, Dave Chaffey, Paul
Richardson, Rafi A. Mohammed, Robert J. Fisher, Bernard J. Jaworski, Gordon J. Paddison.
2.1.1.2 The frame of content oriented research design

To learn about the perception, behavior and condition of applying IM of the
enterprises, the author design ands implements a marketing research on Vietnamses
SMEs. Basic assumption for the study is: Behavior of applying IM of businesses is
dominated by two basic factors: (1) conditions of applying IM of the enterprises,
including resources on human, finance and computer - the Internet network, (2)
Awareness and understanding of IM of the enterprises, namely the leaders of
businesses and people in charge of marketing activity of the company, as these
awareness and understanding will affect their investment, budget allocation, direction
and implementation of IM . These two factors can be seen as a necessary and sufficient
condition for the implementation of IM of the enterprises.

Figure 6: The frame of study content about the reality and IM application condition of Vietnamese
SMEs

In this content, the description of the application condition, or assessing the
readiness for IM of enterprises, including assessment of telecommunications
infrastructure and Internet, the use of computers and IT,the training using IT and ecommerce, human resources have capable of applying interntet Marketing of
companies. All this information has suitable and reliable secondary data, so in part of
surveying in companies, the author does not take this content to the questionnaire
again.
2.1.2. The process of implementation and method of study
The research is implemented through 3 main steps:
- Steps 1 Synthezing the secondary data sources. Forming an overview picture about the
way that Vietnamese enterprises are understanding and applying IM, as well as the

condition and the level of readiness for IM applications.
- Step 2: A qualitative study to explore the perception and understanding of leaders and
managers in Internet Marketing – the applied method is in-depth personal interview
directly based on interview guidelines. These results help author get information to
design the study and form the hypotheses that should be tested through quantitative
research.
- Step 3: Quantitative research is conducted for the purpose of describing the behavior
of process and the way of applying IM by Vietnamese SMEs, and to test the research
hypothesis forming.
The content of the steps in the survey process is shown in the figure:


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Figure 7: The process of implementing the finding awareness, condition, and applied behaviour
IM of Vietnamese SMEs by the author

The research tool is defined as questionnaire, prepared in accordance to the respondent
can complete without assistance of interviewer. The questionnaire consists of 14 major
questions, besides the fundamental information of enterprise this is divided into four main
contents: (1) The first section’s content focuses on testing the hypothesis of cognitive and
understanding about IM of the enterprises, (2) the second part’s content learns the reality of
IM activities and tools that enterprises are adopting; (3) the third part finds the process and
the way of conducting IM activity of enterprises; (4) the fourth part learns the assessment of
businesses about IM activity and investment intentions for the next activity.
After building, the questionnaire is tested to examine their relevance to the research
objectives and the research subjects, as well as the form of contact with the study subjects
selected. After collecting data, data has collected with 491 votes, sorting, coding and
entrying and processing by SPSS 20.0 software.
2.2. The result of studying about the condition and reality of applying IM in

Vietnamese SMEs
2.2.1. The condition of applying IM of businesses
The reality of investment for IT and e-commerce of Vietnamese enterprises is
synthesized and evaluated in the thesis through the following basic operations:
- Computer and Internet connection
- The rate of applying the IT and e-commerce software
- Human resources in IT and e-commerce; staff training applying IT and ecommerce
- Investing for website
In the reliable secondary data and collected and accumulated data over the years
by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, we can find that, although the rate is still low,
the Vietnamese companies gradually awares the importance of IT and e-commerce in
general. However, it must be confirmed that, with the current investment possibility for
e-commerce in general and IM in particular, enterprises will still face many difficulties

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if applying the too complex principle model, requiring the major investments, such as
separate departments in charge of IM activity, businesses have to hire private servers to
manage website ...
2.2.2. The awareness about IM of businesses
2.2.2.1. The results of qualitative research in order to detect awareness about IM of
businesses
a. The awareness about the benefit and possibility of Internet application and IT
in business in general and marketing in particular:
The managers have different perceptions about the Internet - IT and the ability of
its application in business operation, including the vague and general or short
understand. However, managers do not understand all the effects of the Internet that
can bring to the business. This also reflects the behavior of using Internet of managers
- when they do not understand the Internet and IT so it is hard to use and have
orientation in supporting and developing for using in the besinesses.
b. The awareness about the concept and nature of IM:

This content is done through collecting three open questions: (1) understand how
the IM is; doing IM is doing what particular activities are, (2) how companies are in
accordance with doing IM; (3) what can IM do for businesses, or in other words what
are roles and functions of IM for the operation of a enterprise.
The result shows that the managers have misconception about the nature of IM.
Thus, IM needs to be perceived as a tool to increase operational efficiency and
competitiveness of businesses, then it is seen as an end (not true) for the businesses
"having problem" , or in other words, companies “having matter” in business in the
real environment that apply IM. From here, the author has formed the hypothesis that
the demand of proving through research sample surveys is: the social community exists
a lot of different interpretations of IM, in which there are many ways or
misunderstand, or not enough about the nature of it.
From these different perceptions, obviously they have different attitudes about
investing using this form of marketing in businesses. Due to misunderstanding or not
full understanding, they will inevitably spend the level of attention undeservedly for
the development and using IM, IM does not to promote its inherent efficiency. This, in
turn, leads to the companies think that the effectiveness of IM is low - ie contributing
to reinforce their misconceptions or incomplete. This is a vicious circle coming from
the misconception of society, there should be a "nudge from the outside" to help
changing this misconception in the community.
c. The awarness about managing IM in businesses:
The awareness of this issue is explored through three open questions: (1)
businesses need to prepare what conditions to apply IM; (2) When do companies need
to perform IM, outsource or not, IM activity is managed by what departments in
business; (3) the next intention of the company to invest to IM.
The results indicate that managers also have the inappropriate way of managing, as if
implementing IM assigned to the departments out of Marketing charge, working with
partner hired to perform IM activity also does not manage by the way aiming to serve the
Marketing target, separating IM from marketing activities of the business ...

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From here, the author also formes more hypotheses that need to verify through
quantitative surveys: the way of managing of enterprises to IM is inappropriate.
d. The awareness about process and tool of IM:
Due to the simple or false interpretation of IM that managers have
misunderstanding about the process and tool of IM.
In terms of process, no one fully understands the process steps doing IM. In terms
of the tools can be applied in IM, the majority, if not all, focus on email, website and
online advertisement (on the electronic media or social networking sites). From here,
the author establishes more hypotheses that should be tested through practical
quantitative investigation: the enterprises are adopting wrongly or incompletely about
process and tool of IM.
In addition, in-depth interview about the process of applying IM also helps the
author reinforce the identify: way of thinking, and doing marketing in general and IM
in particular of Vietnamese SMEs are currently under strong influence of the theory of
Marketing of Philips Kotler, this theory is also being taught primarily in Vietnam. This
is one of the important bases for the author chooses the logical framework of
quantitative research design.
2.2.2.2. The results of quantitative study examine the hypotheses about awarness of
Internet Marketing for businesses
The test result says that the research hypothesis are formed after studying steps 1
and 2 that are accepted in terms of statistics when infering that the rate of enterprises
having awareness of IM bigger or equal to the proportion of firms in the sample, with
the testing rate is 60% . With these assumptions having enough statistical evidence to
accept as above, it can be concluded that:
- Most of Vietnamese SMEs understand that IM is advertising on the network, or

the IM is to create a website and advertise on it
- Most of Vietnamese SMEs say that, activities of IM are technical, due to the
company / personnel have qualification of technology implemented rather than a
normal technology company.
- Most of Vietnamese SMEs consider that if implementing IM activity should be
outsourced, but they embarrass in controlling the process of implementing of
partner that often depend on the partner's suggestion.
- Most of Vietnamese SMEs tend to separate the management of IM activity from
the marketing strategy, not consider that it is a work of the Marketing function but
also this activity relates to IM (specifically relating to website) will be provided
by the administrative office or the technical department.
- Most of Vietnamese SMEs when implementing the specific activities of IM that
do not follow the principle of "the 2Is" of IM, ie they do not seem to respect
personal opinion and haves no one to track interaction with customers.
Besides, not enough statistical evidence or not strong statistical evidence to accept
the hypothesis including: (1) the companies tend to understand IM as doing the
traditional marketing in the network, ie no adaptation to the rules on the Internet, (2)
businesses tend to no need to develop strategy and manage the implementation of IM
activities under the strategy.

Thus, it can be concluded that the majority of Vietnamese enterprised have
misperceptions about the nature, benefit, procedure and guideline implementing IM;
this dominates incorrect in principle and not enough behavioral process in their IM
application.
2.2.3. Behaviour of applying IM of businesses

The study results are classified, arranged and presented in 4 groups according to
the level of applying IM of enterprises, including, the businesses that do not apply IM
completely (83 firms, or 16.9% of the sample), the businesses use IM as a tool of
online advertising (191 firms, equivalent to 38.9% of the sample), the businesses use

IM as a form/tool of direct IM marketing (152 firms or 30.96% of sample size), the
businesses apply partial or relatively complete operating procedures of IM (65 firms, or
13:24% of the sample).
Four groups are described in detail on the way of understanding and using IM,
including the known IM tools and the strategy in process and the way of applying. The
result indicates the level of applying IM increases in a positive direction from group 1
to group 4. If the application of IM in enterprise is more strategic, procedural, IM tools
are applied as fully as they promote high efficiency, which in turn improves the
positive perception of business about the role and the effect of IM, so companies will
be more interested in developing activities. Conversely, if companies adopt it as a
unsystematic, arbitrary way with nature of the situation ... it is less likely to promote
efficiency and this can not improve the awareness of enterprises on IM, they will be
less confident in the effectiveness of this method of doing marketing and no tendency
to develop it.
In addition, the survey result in fact also shows that no companies fully comply
with the procedures IM. They also do not understand all of IM tools, the cases of using,
and the steps in the process of implementing IM, the necessity to coordinate with each
other and with the marketing activity in real environments. The issue of managing
electronic presence, creating the content associated with users/customers, maintaining
the attractiveness and strategic rationality of e- presence are not also fully awared fully
and done properly follow nature by businesses.
Based on these findings after reviewing the theoretical model of IM, analyzing the
condition of applying tham in Vietnam, and learn the way of thinking, doing as well as
the condition of applying IM in Vietnam, the author proposes the IM application
process in chapter 3.


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CHAPTER 3
PROPOSING THE PROCESS OF APPLYING IM IN VIETNAMESE SMEs
*****
3.1. The model of applied process of IM in business reality of Vietnamese SMEs
3.1.1. Overview of model
The applied process of IM that the author proposes for Vietnamese SMEs is
modelized as in Figure 7.

these businesses must analyze not only the elements of real environment, but also the
the Internet environment, both customer in real and Internet environmental, especially
when IM towards target customers that are different from traditional objective
customers of businesses.
The next step is to build a common strategy of MKT (choosing target customer,
positioning strategy, differentiation strategy, brand strategy ...) with 2 major
components as MKT strategy for real environment and Internet environment.
Meanwhile the enterprises need to identify the individual part of each strategy and the
interference. For example, with identifying the target market, it’s necessary to identify
what is the objective customer in real environment, which customer that can reach and
serve by the tools of IM, which customer only for the Internet environment.
With MKT strategy in real environment, and the current MKT trend, we need to
be interested in the strategy of MKT mix tool, brand strategy with the brand's presence
on the point of contact with customer, and strategy of customer relationship
management (CRM). With enterprises moving operation to the Internet environment
(moving online), also need to identify strategies of MKT-mix online, manage the
brand's presence on the online point of contact and online customer relationship
management strategy. For each component strategy, we should also determine what is
private sector and interference. For example, when managing the brand's presence to
ensure the brand image goal, we need to ensure the consistency of image in real and
Internet environments, as well as choose to coordinate the tools between 2

environments. Especially, it’s noted that content strategy or content of electronic
presence, it means that in addition to the unity of "appearance" image, then "inner part"
or depth of the electronic presence is very important. This is to ensure the
attractiveness and durable adhesion to the target customers of the product/brand, and
this is a very important cultural characteristic or characteristics of Vietnamese
consumer behavior- as the research context indicated. Or such customer relationship
management, the companies need to take note of information about customer on real
environment resources and Internet resources, the customer portfolio management
activities, experience management of customer, creating value for customer or
customer lifecycle management (win, keep and develop customer) ... also require the
coordination in two environments reasonably and consistently. Also, we need to note
the specific in activity in the Internet environment, especially problems "the 2Is" – the
interactivity and personalization of each and every component strategy. This means
that, for each activity in the Internet environment, the enterprises need to care about the
interaction with customer and use the deep understanding about customer to make
"material" for such interactive activities, and through that have better understanding
about customer, from that having marketing activities with personalization for each
customer, creating the long cohesion, converting them from potential customer into
actual faithful customer. These interactive and personalized activities will provide
additional information for the sales and marketing department in real environment to
optimize marketing activities of the entire enterprise, including activities in real and
Internet environments.

Figure 8: The process of implementing IM for Vietnamses SMEs from the thesis

This model is built based on coordinating 2 models (1) consumer behavior on the
Internet, and (2) strategic model of IM (analyzed in chapter 1), combined with practical
development of IM activity, and adjusted to suit the specific conditions of the business
practices of Vietnam and limited the weaknesses of the two models when applying in
practice and also in accordance with the condition and reality of applying IM

(cognitive and applied behavior) of the companies.
3.1.2. The main content of model
The model describes the way and process of applying IM, the starting point is the
analysis of marketing operating environment and understanding the behavior of
customer. This understanding is not only applied in making strategic decisions, but
also it can be used to bring out the action of interaction and personalize with customer
in the entire chain of IM operation, in turn, these activities helped more profound
understanding of each individual client and help businesses make more accurate
decisions of Marketing. When having business orientation with Internet environment,


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The next step is to plan for marketing actions and IM, ie the assignment,
allocation of resources and organizations to implement the strategy planned. With this
model, we can easily see the departments that undertake IM activity should not be
technical or administrative department as companies are applying, but it must be the
responsibility of the marketing department, other related parts will support and
coordinate to implement.
Next, the companies need to determine the budget, plan implementation and
evaluating the implementation of plan, so that having the necessary adjustments. The
speed and scope of no border and multi-dimensional interactions of Internet require
companies need to be managed more closely to performance, does not exclude the
assignment a full-time person.
Why is the model sutable with Vietnamese SMEs?
This model is suitable for Vietnamese SMEs for some reasons:
- This model is quite friendly and easy to use for Vietnamese enterprises, in
accordance with the way of thinking, and doing MKT of Vietnamese SMEs, as

well as for enterprises operating in both real environment and moving online a
part of its operations MKT.
- It’s consistent with the analysis of the behavioral characteristics of Vietnamese
people.
- The model can be easy in applying, even to those businesses that may not have
anybody understanding IT and high-level technology who is responsible for the
management of marketing activity on the Internet - which is the drawback of
Vietnamese enterprises.
3.2. The specific content of steps of IM applied process
This section presents in detail about the content of each step in the application
process of Internet Marketing by the proposed model, including the content of steps:
- Analysing the operation environment of Marketing and IM
- Analysing the customer and online behaviour of customer
- Establishing objectives and marketing strategy, including the content of strategy
- Marketing in real and internet environment.
- Developing the policy of E-marketing mix, managing the e-precence and online
customer relationship management in the close relation with these policies in real
environment.
- Planning for actions, implementing and testing the assessment.
The new features of the model compared to other models are:
- The steps of the process and the relationship of the steps in the model, the
combination of steps and tools of MKT in real environment with the steps and IM
tool.
- Applying the understanding with customer and customer behaviour on all steps and
specific actions to suit the specific characteristics "The 2Is" (the interaction and
personalization) of IM.
- The detal content of each step in model, especialy the stratgy and managing the epresence.
3.3. Supportive solutions and recommendation

3.3.1. The solution of buiding the IM information system

To be able to make and implement policies and tools of IM effectively, decision
makers need information system that support for decision making, with collecting and
processing information that is diverse, rich in very quick time. Therefore, the author
proposes the solution of building information system of electronic Marketing with four
components. Therefore, the author proposes the solution of building information system of
electronic Marketing with four components:
- The system of internal data
- The system of information from the outside
- Study electronic Marketing
- The system of analysing information and supporting to make decision
In particular, the building of electronic information system aims at specific targets
following:
- Improving the efficiency of collecting and processing information to support decision
making of MKT in general and IM in particular thanks to the adoption of available
support of Internet.
- Gathering information regularly and detail about customer through contacts with
customer that data can be connected to electronic databases: the point of purchase,
product display, customer care, the appeared point of customer on the network ...
3.3.2. The macro proposals with the relevant departments to build a favorable
environment for the application of Internet Marketing
In addition to the proposals about IM process for enterprise, the thesis also gives
some macro suggestions to create a favorable environment for enterprise that applying
IM
- To be rapid in deploying the building and approving the plan of developing ecommerce of ministries and local authorities
- Continuing to complete the legal framework for applying Internet Marketing in
particular and E-Commerce in general
- Continuing to promote the propaganda and dissemination of e-commerce and Internet
Marketing, changing perceptions of companies about the nature, benefit and IM
applied capability in practical of the enterprises, and show them how to implement
Internet Marketing.

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CONCLUSION
*****
Internet Marketing has been widely used and provided many benefits to
businesses in the world. However, in Vietnam, its application is still limited due to
many reasons, the most prominent of which is misperceptions and/or incomplete about
the nature, benefit, process and tool of Internet Marketing.
With the studies on theoretical and practical basis, the thesis buids and proposes
the process of applying Internet Marketing for Vietnamese SMEs, based on a
combination of the two models that are applied in the world and adjusting to suit the
applied conditions of Vietnamese SMEs (including environmental condition of ecommerce business in Vietnam, and cognitive condition and "routine" in the behavior
of applying Marketing of businesses, the conditions of infrastructure and resources for
applying Internet Marketing). For detailed instructions about the process, how to apply
and Internet Marketing tools, hoping that Internet Marketing application model that the
authors propose useful to contribute actively to improve the efficiency of business
Vietnam SMEs. For detailed instructions about the process, the way of applying and
Internet Marketing tools, the author hopes that the model of applying Internet
Marketing will contribute usefully to improve the effectiveness of business of
Vietnamese SMEs.
Limitations of the thesis and subsequent research
Due to the limitations of time, resource and capability of itself, the author only
stops studying in principle of applying Internet Marketing commonly for SMEs,
without going into the way, process and tools of applying Internet Marketing in the
specific conditions of different types of businesses, including :
- The different types of businesses by size, such as enterprise with many branches,
many different products, many different brands that will apply how Internet Marketing
is
- The different types of businesses by field/branch of specific business,

- The types of businesses is different by the type of market that it directs, such as the
consumer market, market of governmental institutions, production materials market,
middlemen market, international market ...
- The specific conditions of enterprise, such as customer or different target market will
apply how Internet Marketing, if only doing a part of online marketing activity - for
example only performing advertised operation on network or only performing
marketing on searching tool, or marketing on social networking sites ... it should be
noted that how to select tool and implement …
Each of these ideas can research to develop deeply in the later works of the author
or other researchers, based on preliminary general research result principle about this
principle of applying Internet Marketing. It is hoped that this research will soon be
made to bring useful resources of materials guiding for Vietnamese enterprises to
increase their operational efficiency.