Research Project Assignment 2

The impact of Vietnam counterfeiting law on awareness and behavior of
PepsiCo’s customers

Transmitted to: PepsiCo

Prepared for:
Mrs. Nguyen Thanh Nhan (Lecturer)
Unit 8: Research Project
Banking Academy, Hanoi
BTEC HND in Business (Finance)

Prepared by: Maple Group
Vương Thị Quỳnh Anh - Lynn
Ngô Thị Huyền Trang - Jess
Nguyễn Phương Thảo - Key
Nguyễn Thị Kiều Anh - Snow

Submitted: 11/06/2013

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 4
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Research Background. ......................................................................................................... 5
1.1.1 History of the company ................................................................................................. 5
1.1.2 Mission and Vision........................................................................................................ 6
1.1.3 Value and Philosophy.................................................................................................... 7
1.1.5 PepsiCo’s Products........................................................................................................ 8

1.2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................... 9
1.3 Research Objective ............................................................................................................ 12
1.4 Significant of study ............................................................................................................ 13
1.5. Research Questions/ Hypotheses ...................................................................................... 13
1.5.1 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 13
1.5.2 Hypothesis ................................................................................................................... 14
1.6 Action Plan and Target Date .............................................................................................. 16
1.8 Research ethics................................................................................................................... 20
1.9 Layout of chapter ............................................................................................................... 21
LITERATER REVIEW ........................................................................................................... 22
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 22
2.1.1 Area ............................................................................................................................. 22
2.1.2 Topic............................................................................................................................ 22
2.2 Articles about problem ....................................................................................................... 23
2.2.1 Quality inspection factor ............................................................................................. 23
2.2.2 Regulation factor ......................................................................................................... 24
2.2.3 Customer awareness factor.......................................................................................... 24
2.2.4 Activity factor ............................................................................................................. 25
2.2.5 Living standard factor ................................................................................................. 26
2.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 27
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................. 28
3.1 Research Design................................................................................................................. 28
3.1.1 Type of research .......................................................................................................... 28
3.1.2 Research method ......................................................................................................... 28
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3.1.3 Research Design Technique ........................................................................................ 29
3.2 Research Sampling............................................................................................................. 30
3.3 Research instrument ........................................................................................................... 30

3.4 Data gathering procedure ................................................................................................... 33
3.4.1 Primary Data ............................................................................................................... 33
3.4.2 Secondary Data ........................................................................................................... 34
3.5 Methods of Data Analysis .................................................................................................. 34
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 101

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nowadays, counterfeit products become more and more development in the Vietnam market.
The negative consequences that it brings to society are not small. It effects on consumer
finance, undermine the confidence of consumers about the transparency of commodity
markets, and detract reputation of the genuine manufacturer. As a result, counterfeiting law of
Vietnam’s government is a tool to protect the benefits of company and customers. In
addition, it will reduce the effects of counterfeit products with the development and
reputation of company in customers’ perception.
The research title is: “The impact of Vietnam counterfeiting law on awareness and
behavior of PepsiCo’s customers”
PepsiCo is a famous brand, it leads in convenient snacks, foods and beverages with revenues
of more than 60$ billion and over 285,000 employees from over 200 countries in over the
world. Especially, all of PepsiCo products are very easy to counterfeit. This research with the
aims of investigates the Viet Nam counterfeiting law in situation of PepsiCo, and it based on
PepsiCo’s customer. The research includes 3 chapters which are introduction, literature
review, and research methodology.


Chapter 1: Introduction, the report gives the information of PepsiCo including
history, operation, and structure. Besides, there are some problem statements,
following by research objectives, research questions, action plan and target dates,

research limitation, and research ethics.



Chapter 2: Literature review includes all the definition or phrases related to the
research.



Chapter 3: Research methodology includes research design, research sampling,
research instrument, and methods of data analysis.



Chapter 4: Research findings includes present and summaries the findings using
suitable methods, charts, diagrams, and tables; evaluate the methodology used and
critically analyze the findings



Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations, proposes recommendations based on
the findings that identify, and justify areas for future research.

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background.
Currently, counterfeiting, piracy, poor quality goods is one of the big problem of the

society. The negative consequences that it brings to society are not small. It effects on
consumer finance, undermine the confidence of consumers about the transparency of
commodity markets, and detract reputation of the genuine manufacturer.
Therefore, in order to know how is the state of counterfeiting, piracy, the current poor
quality in Vietnam? And the causes of counterfeiting, counterfeit, inferior quality product
exist and develop? What ways are needed to curb counterfeiting, counterfeit, inferior
quality? This is the main reason why our group chose research" The impact of Vietnam
counterfeiting law on awareness and behavior of PepsiCo’s customers" to discuss in
the research.
1.1.1 History of the company
PepsiCo, Inc. is an America multinational company headquartered in Purchase, New
York, United States. Currently, it leads in convenient snacks, foods and beverages with
revenues of more than 60$ billion and over 285,000 employees from over 200 countries
in over the world. PepsiCo consists of PepsiCo Americas Foods (PAF), PepsiCo
Americas Beverages (PAB) and PepsiCo International (PI). According to detail
information which is posted in PepsiCo’s website, the company experiences more than 47
years with many development stages. Below is some main point in the history of
PepsiCo:


1965 - PepsiCo was formed by Donald M. Kendall, President and Chief Executive
Officer of Pepsi-Cola and Herman W. Lay, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of Frito-Lay, through the merger of the two companies.



1970 - PepsiCo moves from New York City to new world headquarters in
Purchase, N.Y. PepsiCo is the first company to respond to customer preference
with lightweight, recyclable, plastic bottles.



1974 - PepsiCo becomes the first American consumer product to be produced,
marketed and sold in the former Soviet Union.

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

1980 - PepsiCo Food Service International (PFSI) is formed to focus on overseas
development of restaurants.



1982 - Pepsi Free and Diet Pepsi Free, the first major brand caffeine-free colas,
are introduced. Inauguration of the first Pepsi-Cola operation in China



1985 - PepsiCo is now the largest company in the beverage industry. The
company has revenues of more than $7.5 billion, more than 137,000 employees.
Pepsi-Cola products are available in nearly 150 countries and territories around
the world. Snack food operations are in 10 international markets.



1986 - PepsiCo purchases 7Up international, the third largest franchise soft drink
operation outside the United States



1993 - Pepsi- Cola introduces Aquafina bottled water into test market.



1996 - Pepsi-Cola launches Pepsi World at www.pepsiworld.com (PepsiCo, n.d.)

1.1.2 Mission and Vision
At PepsiCo, they believe being a responsible corporate citizen is not only the right
thing to do, but the right thing to do for their business.


Mission

PepsiCo’s mission is “to be the world’s premier consumer Products Company focused on
convenient foods and beverages. PepsiCo try to produce financial rewards to investors as
we provide opportunities for growth and enrichment to our employees, our business
partners and the communities in which we operate. And in everything we do, we strive for
honestly, fairness and integrity” (PepsiCo, n.d.)
By always create the belief and trust for stakeholder, also always set themselves ethics in
business, PepsiCo deserve getting more succeed in the future.


Vision

Besides, PepsiCo also set a specific vision which is “PepsiCo’s responsibility is to
continually improve all aspects of the world in which we operate- environment, social,
economic social, economic- creating a better tomorrow than today” (PepsiCo, n.d.)
It can be said that vision of PepsiCo is very precious because they understand the role of

customer in business. They focus more on customers and environment around customers.
This proves that PepsiCo only interested in economic development - immediate benefit,

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that they ignored the long-term benefits of environmental protection and health of
customer as well. This makes increase the belief of customer with company. Therefore,
since established, the strategic vision of PepsiCo makes the company develop
significantly and in a short time, it becomes market leader of Fast-Moving Consumer
Goods (FMCG) industry.
1.1.3 Value and Philosophy
Values & Philosophy are the foundation for business decision of PepsiCo.
PepsiCo’s values are sustained growth, empowered people, responsibility and trust “They
are committed to delivering sustained growth through empowered people acting
responsibly and building trust”
The company maintains their values by 6 philosophies:
- Care for our customers, our consumers and the world we live in
- Sell only products we can be proud of
- Speak with truth and candor
- Balance short term and long term
- Win with diversity and inclusion
- Respect others and succeed together (PepsiCo, n.d.)
1.1.4 Organizational structure

Chart 1.1: PepsiCo’s organizational Chart (Source: PepsiCo.com)
For PepsiCo’s robust growth in recent years, PepsiCo felt it was time to manage the
company as three units instead of two to sustain our growth rate and also to develop
global senior leadership talent for PepsiCo’s future. Therefore, PepsiCo created three
operating business units: PepsiCo Americas Foods (PAF), PepsiCo Americas Beverages

(PAB), and PepsiCo International (PI). They believed that this organizational structure
will help them deliver strong top-line performance and profit growth (PepsiCo, n.d.)
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1.1.5 PepsiCo’s Products
Products

Pepsi, Twister, Sting
Beverages

Lipton Ice Tea,
Aquafina, Gatorade

Snack Poca, PocNutz,
Snack PocaSelectz

Foods

Snack Cheetos, Lays
Chip, Flat Earth
Snack

Table 1.1: PepsiCo’s Product
1.1.6 Overview of the PepsiCo’s operation in Vietnam


4/12/1991 - International Beverage Company (IBC) was established as a joint
venture between SP.Co and Marcondray-Singapore with capital contribution of
50% - 50%



2/ 1994 - The US Embargo to Vietnam was lifted marking the phenomenal
entrance of PepsiCo into new market. The diverse product portfolios including
PepsiCola, 7Up, Mirinda, Aquafina, Sting, Twister, and Lipton Ice Tea are widely

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and deeply distributed to Vietnamese consumers from the five operations branches
located across Vietnam.
- Officially, PepsiCo teamed up with International Beverages Company (IBC) – a
well-established local joint venture to manufacture and distribute Pepsi-Cola and
7Up products in Vietnam
- PepsiCo held 30% equity of the joint venture (JV) with the other two partners –
SP.Co (Vietnamese) and Macondray (Singapore) sharing the balance.


1998 - PI bought 97% stocks, SPCo 3%, up to $110 million invested.



2003 - Pepsi Cola Global Investment bought the remaining 3%, renamed the
company into the International Beverage Company PepsiCo Vietnam.



2005 - Officially became the company which has largest market share in Vietnam



2006 - Launch of the first food product (Snack Poca)



2007 - Development of new sector - Soy Milk



2008 - Inauguration of factory packaged foods in Binh Duong (PepsiCo, n.d.).

1.2 Problem Statement
Research title is about: “The impact of Vietnam counterfeiting law on awareness and
behavior of PepsiCo’s customers”
There are many problems in Vietnam counterfeiting law and applying Vietnam
counterfeiting law that cause impact on customers of PepsiCo. With each problem,
PepsiCo also has to face specific influences.
Problem 1: The difficulties in product quality inspection in Vietnam (Quality
inspection factor)
Director of market manager department of Hanoi said that the identification of
counterfeit and poor quality goods on the market is not difficult, but in order to prove it
is counterfeit products before handling is not easy.
According to Decree No.140-HĐBT (25/4/1991) assign about inspection, handling the
production, trafficking in counterfeit goods and Decree No.115-HĐBT (13/4/1991)
provides for the implementation of the Ordinance Measurement, it wrote:
- The handling of counterfeit and poor quality products required assessment concluded
counterfeiting
- The applicant must pay the amount of violation assessment (moi.gov.vn, n.d.)

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The fact is that the costs of inspection for counterfeit and poor quality products are very
expensive. Assessment agency must pay inspection fee in advance. After inspection, if it
is counterfeit goods, they will destroy it immediately and the violators will have to pay
penalty, but hardly do violators pay it. This is difficult for assessment agency to
complete their responsibility. Thus, it leads to many kinds of products which does not
ensure about quality still exist in market blatantly. Therefore, these problem effects
directly on PepsiCo’s operation and especially they make reduce the belief of customers
to company’s products.
Problem 2: There are many gaps in Vietnam counterfeiting law (Regulation factor)
Currently, Vietnam government is fighting against counterfeit goods by applying laws
strictly. However, Vietnam counterfeiting law still exist gaps leading to the appearance
of new criminal behavior. According to article 320 of Law of Trade “Since 2001 - 2011,
relevant agencies have conducted tests and discovered handled 2017 cases of
administrative violations, of which, poor quality service is 1752, counterfeiting and
violations of intellectual property rights, industrial designs of 265 cases” (moi.gov.vn,
n.d.).
According to Do Van Phuoc, the Director of Market Management Department, and
Deputy Minister Steering Committee 127/TG, the difficulties that the industry is facing
in fighting against counterfeit goods and trade fraud is:
- The regulations in term of counterfeit goods are unclear, for instance in many cases,
quality goods are very poor, but lack of basic legal to conclude that that is fake products
- The legal documents also lack of unity.
- There are not any methods strong enough or suitable for fighting against counterfeit
and poor quality products (dantri.com, n.d.)
This problem is very serious and it effects significantly on legal benefits of customers
and PepsiCo as well.
Problem 3: Citizens do not have high awareness in fighting against counterfeit

products (Customer awareness factor)
In some transactions, when customer purchases and uses goods, they hardly interested in
providing sufficient information to ensure legal benefits after buying goods. At the same
time disregard the reference manual goods manufacturers, which led to the dispute with
company when they buy fake and poor quality products.

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Moreover, almost Vietnam consumers do not concern more about detecting fake goods.
In contract, they only interested in product’s beauty (whether it are beautiful or not) and
product’s price (whether it cheap or not). However, in fact fakes products always more
beautiful, and especially their prices is cheaper than original products so consumers
always are attracted by counterfeit and poor quality products. Customers do not assess
serious impact of their counterfeit product to their health so they do not have high
awareness in fighting against counterfeit product. This also is a big problem make
difficulties in applying Vietnam counterfeiting law.
Problem 4: Vietnam government and company is lack of propaganda program to
help customer distinguish between original and counterfeit products (Activity
factor)
Nowadays, counterfeiting and piracy is the risk of the economy in Viet Nam; many
activity counterfeiting, piracy is going on around the world with various large and small
scale. The product counterfeiting, piracy increasingly in many forms such as: copy
brand, style or false geographical indication. One of the most reasons is because
consumer cannot distinguish between original and counterfeit products. PepsiCo produce
snack, foods, and beverages; all of them are products which easy to counterfeited. The
counterfeiter used the old packaging to make new fake products with the same brand but
the water inside is bad quality, inexpensive material; therefore, the health of customer
can be harm. In this case, the consumers have difficulty to identify. In Viet Nam, the
government and company do not have implemented the program to guide consumer

distinguish between original and counterfeit goods, leading to the weakness of the
company in helping customers choose the real products with good quality.
Problem 5: Consumer using counterfeiting product because of low living standard
(Living standard factor)
With the development of economy, the living standard is improved but when compare
with country in Asia, the living standard of Vietnamese people is very low. According to
figures of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2011 GDP estimated at U.S. $ 119
billion. Capita GDP reached $ 1,300 / person / year (moi.gov.vn, n.d.). This number is
low when compare with other country such as Chinese about $6,786 / person / year
(Mạnh, n.d.). Because of low standard living, people in Vietnam choose using fake

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products that is cheap and suitable with their financial situation instead of original
product. As a result, if government want to reduce counterfeit goods in market, one of
the most important things that government have to do is improve living standard
especially income of Vietnamese people. It can protect company and customer from
effect of fake product. In addition, it can bring more revenue for company and protect
customer especially health of customers from low quality product in the market.
1.3 Research Objective
In competitive business environment, Vietnam government has many ways to protect
benefits of companies and customers. One of them is counterfeiting law. For the research
topic: “The impacts of Vietnam counterfeiting law on awareness and behavior of
PepsiCo’s customers”, this research aims to achieve the following objectives:


To understand the advantages and the disadvantages of Vietnam’s counterfeiting
law which influence on awareness and behavior of PepsiCo’s customers



To find out the main reason that Vietnam government cannot prevent
development of counterfeit and poor products



To help PepsiCo have more information about regulations and new terms of the
counterfeiting law of Vietnam



To understand deeply ways that counterfeit product spread into market to prevent
its development



To know ways PepsiCo fight against counterfeit to reduce its effects on the
development of PepsiCo and customers’ health as well



To raise awareness of customers in distinguish fake and poor quality product



To help customers know their rights, and their benefits and give solutions for
them when buying counterfeit and poor product

With the clear objective, this research can help PepsiCo understanding about the benefits

and limitations of Vietnam counterfeiting law with company. Moreover, this research
can give some solution that company solve with anti- counterfeiting from that PepsiCo
can give best project to reduce the effects of counterfeiting product to revenue and
reputation of PepsiCo in Vietnam. In addition, customers can have knowledge and some
solution to solve when they met fake product in market so customers can choose original
product that good for their health.

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1.4 Significant of study
Research topic is “The impacts of Vietnam counterfeiting law on awareness and
behavior of PepsiCo’s customers”. As a result, this research will provide useful
information for specific group of people.
First, for company (PepsiCo), this research will help them understand more about
counterfeiting situation in Viet Nam. Then, it will be much easier for PepsiCo to find out
the solutions and they can feel comfortable to cooperate with the government to prevent
counterfeiting.
Second, for managers and employees, this research gives more knowledge about
regulations of Vietnam counterfeiting law so that managers and employees recognize the
important role of counterfeiting law. From this awareness, managers and employees can
give new ideas, give the best ways to fighting against counterfeit and poor products, and
improve the shortcomings in protecting their brand to remain the development of
company and PepsiCo’s leader position.
Third, for customers, the research help customers raise awareness in distinguish
counterfeit and poor product to ensure legal benefits and give some ways to deal with
problems when buying counterfeit and poor product.
Fourth, for students, this research helps student know how Vietnam counterfeiting law
impact on customers of specific company. Moreover, students have more experiences to
do research especially research about the Vietnam counterfeiting law and have more

understanding about the business environment in Vietnam.
Finally, for future researchers, by using our information and data, comparing with our
strong point and weakness; they can improve their research successfully.
1.5. Research Questions/ Hypotheses
1.5.1 Research Questions
The survey is the most useful method to help our group gather more information and
understand deeply Vietnam counterfeiting law. List of questionnaires are designed based
on factors existing in the fact and are modified to suit with the aim of the research and
achieve the best results.
The research question for this study will be:
1. What is the respondents’ profile in terms of?
1.1 Gender

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1.2 Age
1.3 Occupation
1.4 Education level
1.5 Civil status
2. What is the significant relationship between the respondents’ profile and their
awareness of PepsiCo’s customers about Vietnam counterfeiting law?
3. What are the problems in applying counterfeiting law in Vietnam?
3.1 Quality inspection
3.2 Regulation
3.3 Customer awareness
3.4 Activity
3.4 Living standard
4. What is the significant relationship between problems in applying Vietnam
counterfeiting law and behavior of customers of PepsiCo?

1.5.2 Hypotheses
There are 10 hypotheses for this research based on the conceptual frameworks below:
What is the respondents’
profile in terms of?
Awareness of PepsiCo’s customers

1. Gender

about Vietnam counterfeiting law

2. Age
3. Occupation
4. Education level
5. Civil status
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
5. Employment status

DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Figure 1: Conceptual framework 1
1. Is there a significant relationship between gender of respondents and their
awareness PepsiCo’s customers about Vietnam counterfeiting law?
2. Is there a significant relationship between age of respondents and their awareness of
PepsiCo’s customers about Vietnam counterfeiting law?

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3. Is there a significant relationship between occupation of respondents and their
awareness of PepsiCo’s customers about Vietnam counterfeiting law?

4. Is there a significant relationship between education level of respondents and their
awareness of PepsiCo’s customers about Vietnam counterfeiting law?
5. Is there a significant relationship between civil status of respondents and their
awareness of PepsiCo’s customers about Vietnam counterfeiting law?

Factors
1. Quality inspection
2. Regulation

Behavior of PepsiCo’s customers

3. Customer awareness
4. Activity
5. Living standard
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Figure 2: Conceptual framework 2
6. Is there a significant relationship between quality inspection factor and behavior of
PepsiCo’s customers?
7. Is there a significant relationship between regulation factor and behavior of
PepsiCo’s customers?
8. Is there a significant relationship between customer awareness factor and behavior
of PepsiCo’s customers?
9. Is there a significant relationship between activity factor and behavior of PepsiCo’s
customers?
10. Is there a significant relationship between living standard factor and behavior of
PepsiCo’s customers?
From these hypotheses, our group makes 20 questionnaires by using main methodologies

(Mono-method and Multiple-method choice) to collect and gather information from 100
respondents who are customers of PepsiCo and live in Hanoi. The most important
purpose of questionnaires is to take opinions and feedbacks of customers. However,
besides advantages, making the survey also has some disadvantage, for instance lack of

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depth and detail, significance of data can be neglected, responses may be inaccurate or
not fully honest.
1.6 Action Plan and Target Date
Activities
1

Creating a group (Maple Group)
Together reading the scenario for understanding

2

Reading scenario and understanding deeply tasks in assignment
1

3

Looking for a company which is within the limits of the scenario
(Choose PepsiCo)

4

Due dates

Members
Lynn (leader),

01/03/2013

Snow, Jess,
Key

02/03/2013

All members

06/03/2013

All members

07- 09/03/2013

All members

10/03/2013

All members

11/03/2013

All members

At home, all members had to:

- Think and choose are search title for PepsiCo
- Find any documents from books and Internet which related to
the research title

5

Holding 1st meeting for making 3 titles

6

Present research title before class and asking lecturer for a title
acceptance

7

The second submit titles and choose 1 research title for PepsiCo

14/03/2013

All members

8

Holding 2ndmeeting to make problem statements

16/03/2013

All members

9

Checking problem statements with lecturer

18/03/2013

Lynn

10 Preparing approval letter

19/03/2013

Snow

11 Meeting PepsiCo’s manager for a permission

21/03/2013

All members

12 At home, each member prepared a suitable questionnaire for the
next meeting

22 24/03/2013

All members

13 Holding 3rd meeting for making the questionnaire

25/03/2013

All members

14 Asking lecturer for checking the questionnaire

28/03/2013

Jess

15 Doing chapter 1:
- Leader divided works for each member with a deadline.
- Members went home and did their own tasks.

29 31/03/2013

All members

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16 - Members submitted their work to leader to complete chapter 1
- Submitted total chapter 1 for lecturer to give feedbacks
- Checking and fixing together chapter 1

01 03/04/2013

All members

- Dividing new tasks of chapter 2 for all members
17

Doing chapter 2:
- Dividing work and doing research about chapter 2

04-07/04/2013

All members

08/04/2013

Key

18 All members submitted their work to leader to conduct a
completed chapter 2
Submit to lecturer to receive feedbacks
19

- Checking together chapter 2 and fixing if there was any
problems
- Making a plan for giving questionnaires to respondents

09 10/04/2013

All members

- Summarising the results of doing questionnaire
20 Doing chapter 3:
Discuss the tasks for chapter 3 and divide work
21

Doing assigned tasks in chapter 3 at home

22 Asking lecturer for checking chapter 3
23

Fixing chapter 3

24 - Conducting a completed report including introduction,
conclusion, reference list, etc.

11/04/2013
12 14/04/2013
15/04/2013
16 17/04/2013
18 21/04/2013

All members

All members
All members
All members

All members

25 Submitting Assignment 1

22/04/2013

All members

26 Presentation and oral exam

9/05/2013

All members

11/05/2013

All members

13- 24/05/2013

All members

27 Holding 4th meeting
- Discuss tasks of chapter 4
- Make a plan for doing survey and assign work for each
members
28 Conducting survey at 5 chosen places and collect data and

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summary the results
29 Holding 5th meeting
- Divide work about calculating in chapter 4 for each members

27/05/2013

All members

- Discuss and understand tasks of chapter 5
30 - All members submitted their work to leader to complete
chapter 4

28/05/2013-

- Submit to lecturer to receive feedbacks

1/06/2013

All members

- Fixing chapter 4 if there was any problems
31 Holding 6th meeting to divide works chapter 5

2/06/2013

All members

3/06/2013

All members

4-10/06/2013

All members

11/06/2013

All members

32 Completed chapter 5 to submit draft for lecturer to receive
feedbacks
33 Conducting a completed report including fixing mistakes in
chapter 1, 2 and 3; updated action plans ; introduction,
conclusion, reference list, etc.
34 Submitting Assignment 2

Chart 1.2: The Gantt chart for action plan of Maple Group

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Chart 1.3: The Gantt chart for action plan of Maple Group
1.7 Research limitations
Our paper carries out a research into the impact of counterfeiting law on employees and
customers of PepsiCo. To complete the research, we had a survey from one hundred
customers which include 100 customers at BigC supermarket, Vincom shopping mall,
Indochina Plaza, National Economic University, and Banking Academy.
Our paper also has some limitation below:


Limitation of company support: In order to conduct the survey, we need the
manager of PepsiCo to sign a letter approval first. However, PepsiCo is big
company, so it is hard to contact and ask permission from the manager as well.



Time constraint: Collecting and analyzing of data need a long time for the good
result while we only have one month to complete the research, therefore, the paper

cannot avoid some mistakes.



Limitation of respondents quantity: The result may be not objectiveness and
accuracy because the number of respondents is too small (100) while the number
of consumers of PepsiCo products is very wide.



Limitation of respondents support: When conducting survey, employees of
PepsiCo, many people do not agree to answer our question because they do not
understand objectives of research to support it.



Limitation of words: Research is about counterfeiting law and we have difficulty
when want to analyze deeply in each case of law because of the limitation of
words.
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

Limitation of sources: We also have difficulty when the collecting information
on the Internet and others sources because counterfeiting law is not popular in
Vietnam; the State and PepsiCo also public much information about it.

1.8 Research ethics
Research ethics is a set of rules, regulations, implementation which researcher need to

comply; it describes the behavior and responsibility of researcher with their research
objects. The objective of research ethics is prescribe what researcher can or cannot to do
research, determine the power and responsibilities of researcher before doing research. It
also protects the safety and benefit of research objects to avoid abuse. To implement the
study, we have to follow some ethical below:


First, we respect the dignity, value and benefit of participant; all participants in
this research are volunteers, we do not force anyone to do survey and we protect
confidential communications.



We try to make them feel comfortable in helping us and when we complete results
of survey, we present all information related our survey honestly and objectivity.



Moreover, we informed fully about the purpose, methods and intended possible
uses of the research to participants.



Besides, we commit that all information, data, results, methods and procedures in
the research is true and reliable.



Especially, our research is about counterfeiting law, therefore we have to obey
relevant laws and institutional and governmental policies.

An informed consent form can be shown to participants. Here is an informed consent
form that group Maple used in research:

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INFORMED CONSENT
Research title: “The impact of Vietnam counterfeiting law on employees and
customers of PepsiCo”
 This survey is a requirement of Research Project, one unit for HND, in ITP,
Banking Academy.
 Your participation is voluntary and we will not pay for your participation.
 Your personal information will be kept secret.
 If you want to contact us:
Please call (+84) 1699663898 to meet Lynn
Or sending us an e-mail:
1.9 Layout of chapter
The study consists of the following 5 chapters


Introduction



Literature review



Methodology



Result and discussion



Conclusion and recommendation

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATER REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 Area
The key area of our research is “law”, it is very important not only for company, but
also the whole society. First of all, all people in the world need the law to ensure
fairness in society. According to Oxford Dictionary, ‘law is the system of rules
which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its
members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. Law has an
important role for the economic, social, political, and ethical ideas. For economic,
legal create the regulatory framework and a legal environment to ensure that all the
economic can active influence. For social, legal recognize and institute about the
freedom and interests of citizens. Legal is a tools help state and citizens protect their
rights and interests.
2.1.2 Topic
The topic of our research is “Vietnam’s counterfeiting law”. Counterfeiting,
nowadays appear in every field and category of goods. Nguyen Manh Hung, Vice
President Standards Association and the Vietnamese consumer protection, said

counterfeit goods, pirated goods from ordinary consumer goods such as clothing,
footwear, cosmetics, glasses ... to the high-value goods such as televisions,
refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, etc., materials for the production
such as rice seeds, fertilizers, crop protection products, building products such as
cement, building materials, sanitary ware, and even credit cards, airline tickets
(Long, 2011). Through the case has been the authorities discovered that the complex
nature of the production, trafficking counterfeit goods, pirated goods is increasing.
Act of producing counterfeit goods no longer surreptitiously and replaced by made
openly in the craft village through the import of components and semi-finished
products from abroad and sourcing, manufacturing, labeling of Thailand, Japan.
Counterfeiting are made in China and then illegally imported into Vietnam as
consumption of the Rinnai gas stove, shower Joden, ear Sony player, watches,
mobile phones, cameras. Because of the complex and sophisticated of counterfeiting
goods even smart consumers also difficult to distinguish between fake and original
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products by intuitive, even the authorities have the specialized equipment, collate,
verify to detect. Thus, the interests of consumers and genuine business are being
violated and counterfeiting, piracy is widespread. Despite the increased checks,
controls and many cases have been detected, but the counterfeit goods, pirated
goods; commercial fraud is still a challenge for law enforcement agencies. It is also
the reason why we need to have laws against counterfeiting to protect the interests
of consumers and businesses as well as the economy.
2.2 Articles about problem
2.2.1 Quality inspection factor
Quality inspection is an activity by performing inspections; companies are able to
identify problems early with the goal of eliminating the causes. Utilized correctly,
inspections save money by eliminating process problems and ensuring that the end
product meets customers' requirements and expectations (Product inspection, 2008).

Quality inspection is very important in anti-counterfeit product in Vietnam market.
It helps government identify fake product and low quality products, from that,
government have situation to reduce the number of counterfeit products in market.
There are many research and article mention the difficulties in product quality
inspection in Vietnam. Vietnam’s government use some ensure quality system to
evaluate the quality of product in Vietnam market such as ISO 9000, TQM (Total
Quality Management), and Q.Base... Although government used many systems to
management quality of product, they have many difficulties in product quality
inspection such as the lack of modern equipment; lack of knowledge... (Tuyết) In
other research, Mr.Manh said that one of the most difficulties is not enough people
that have knowledge and experiences to inspect the quality of product in Vietnam
market.
For example, according to a survey about management market forces in Thai Binh,
although in charge of the district wide with 30 - 40 communes and towns, but each
team is allocated from 5 - 7 people, each manager must charge market of several
communes (Mạnh). Both research above do not mention about the solution for
government to develop the effects of counterfeiting law, in our research, we give
some solution to deal this problem such as develop the ensure quality system,

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increase human force in management market force to cover all communes in market
and give strong financial institutions to decrease counterfeit products in market.
2.2.2 Regulation factor
Regulation of counterfeiting law is the regulation of government to provide
information about who make quality inspection, the fee that company must pay if
they produce fake products and so on. It is very important to protect company and
customer from the effect of fake product with revenue and profit of company and
benefit of customers (Anon, 2006).

Many research show counterfeit products are the result of lax management and
many gaps in Vietnam counterfeiting law. Currently, there are five administrative
agencies functioning and competent to handle administrative violations of
intellectual property including market management agencies, specialized inspectors
Science - Technology, Culture, Sports and Tourism, the economic police, the
Committee of the customs control of imported goods. Although management forces
have many people, the effort of that is not strong. Because of sporadic activity, there
are lack of uniformity in quality such as quantity, functions and duties between the
administrative agencies functioning. Although product in market is tested by the
agencies mentioned above but in counterfeiting, clones, poor quality on the market
is still flooded (NTH). In addition, according to Mr Nguyen - Market Management
Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), the Standing Steering Committee
127TU said the sanctioning acts of production and trade in counterfeit goods is only
handled by administrative measures or non-criminal measures. It is small part of
profit that counterfeit goods bring for seller (Hoa, 2010)
2.2.3 Customer awareness factor
Consumer awareness, which refers to a buyer's knowledge of a particular product or
company, allows the buyer to get the most from what he buys. Consumers know
more about their choices when they have product information and benefit from
knowing their rights, hearing about alerts and warnings and finding out about safety
issues (Thomas).
Beside quality and regulation, awareness factor is also an important reason that
makes counterfeit goods suffuse in market. There are many research, survey and

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article mention the level of citizen’s awareness in fighting against counterfeit
products. Many customers know goods that they buy are counterfeit goods but they
still accept because the price of this product is suitable with their financial situation.

This activity makes fake goods develop in market and maybe make original goods
decrease market share (NTH). Moreover, the limited of knowledge of customer
about the counterfeit goods can make them buy counterfeit goods that they do not
know.
According to a survey of Vinastas, up to 62% of consumers buy counterfeit goods,
counterfeit goods that they do not know (Dan, 2012). In a research of Nielsen
company, rate of counterfeit goods account for about 45% of retail sales in Hanoi
and 35% in Ho Chi Minh City. Demand of counterfeit goods is increasing because
of economic recession. It helps people understand the routine use of counterfeit
products is one of major cause contributing to the uncontrolled rampant
counterfeiting of the current market (Chống hàng giả/nhái: Cuộc chiến sống còn của
các doanh nghiệp, 2013).
2.2.4 Activity factor
Propaganda activity is the manipulation of public opinion. It is generally carried out
through media that is capable of reaching a large amount of people and effectively
persuading them for or against a cause. The exact meaning of propaganda is
constantly debated, however, and no specific definition is completely true. Some
argue that any persuasive communication is propaganda, while others hold that
propaganda specifically alters political opinions (Anon, n.d).
Many researches show that Vietnam government and company is lack of
propaganda program to help customer distinguish between original and counterfeit
products. On the afternoon of 11/3, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and
Trade launched the program in response to Consumer Day World (15/3) (Phương,
2013). Accordingly, there are many forms of communication, counseling to help
consumers identify counterfeit goods. It is the second propaganda program help
customer during 30 years when counterfeiting goods appears in Viet Nam while the
first hold more than 10 years ago; it shown that we need more and more
propaganda. Exhibition attract a large numbers of consumers to take are, find out.

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