Marketing plan for kaspersky anti virus software

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP.HCM
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL

MBMM5

Bùi Hương Thanh

MARKETING PLAN FOR
KASPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

MASTER PROJECT
MASTER IN BUSINESS & MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Tutor’s Name: Lê Thái Thường Quân

Ho Chi Minh City
(2012)


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Words of guarantee
This academic project is a research project that was written by Bui Huong
Thanh in fulfillment of the requirement of the degree of Master Business &
Marketing Management at Solvay Business School and Ho Chi Minh City Open
University, course MBMM5.

Ms. Bui Huong Thanh

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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my sincere thanks to professors of Solvay Business School –
University of Brussels for the profound knowledge that they managed to impart to me, for
the time they had spend to instruct me. My thanks are reserved for Mr.Ngo Tran Vu for his
advice on conducting choosing the topic and his recommendation to help me finish my
final project. I would also like to extend my gratitude to colleagues and friends, who
helped me to complete the questionaires.
My deepest gratefulness goes to Professor Lê Thái Thường Quân, lecturer of the Ho Chi
Minh City Open University and aslo my tutor, who enthusiastically helped me from project
outline until to project finishing.
Lastly, I would also like to thank Mr.Serge Bywaski and Ms.Nguyen Thi Mong Thuy,
Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Hien, our co-ordinators, who have been with us throughout the course,

for their enthusiastic connection between the class and Solvay professors.

Bui Huong Thanh (Ms.)


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Tutor’s comment
Comment on project
Marketing Plan for Kaspersky Anti-Virus Software
By Bui Huong Thanh

This is practical project for real business situation. Although there are many rooms for

improvement in the report, it covers basic information and analysis which bases on survey
data and gives sensible suggestions.

Le Thai Thuong Quan


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Table of content
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

- Page 7

INTRODUTION

- Page 8

1. Introduction

- Page 8

2. Objectives of the project

- Page 8

3. Project scope

- Page 8

NAM TRUONG SON CORPORATION & KASPERSKY LAB

- Page 10

1. Company profile

- Page 10

2. Kaspersky Lab Vietnam mission

- Page 11

3. Kaspersky Lab Vietnam vision statement

- Page 11

MARKET ANALYSIS

- Page 12

1. Macro-environment analysis – SLEPT

- Page 12

2. Micro-environment analysis – Porter Five Forces

- Page 13

3. General anti-virus market

- Page 14

4. Customer demand

- Page 15

5. Competitor analysis

- Page 16

6. Consumers behavior

- Page 18

MARKETING PLAN FOR KASPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS

- Page 21

1. Company SWOT analysis

- Page 21

2. Marketing strategy

- Page 22

2.1 Product

- Page 22

2.2 Price

- Page 23

2.3 Positioning

- Page 24

2.4 Promotion

- Page 24

2.5 Place

- Page 27

3. Break-event analysis:

- Page 27

CONCLUSION

- Page 28

APPENDIX

- Page 30


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Abbreviation list
Abbreviation

Meaning

BSA

Business Software Alliance

NTS

Nam Truong Son

PR

Public Relation

SI

System Integrated

SLEPT

Social, Legal, Economic, Political, Technology

VINASA

Vietnam Security Association

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List of Chart
Figure 1

The Porter’s five forces model

Page 13

Figure 2

Rate of copyrighted / non-copyrighted antivirus
software

Page 15

Figure 3

Intention of changing to copyrighted software

Page 15

Figure 4

Key drivers affect the consumers

Page 16

Figure 5

Overview of the antivirus market share

Page 16

Figure 6

Rate of customer satisfaction

Page 17

Figure 7

Top of mind brands

Page 18

Figure 8

Reasonable price for anti-virus software

Page 18

Figure 9

Why consumers not using copyrighted software

Page 13

Figure 10

Source of information about anti-virus software

Page 19

Figure 11

Key affects of decision making

Page 20

Figure 12

Reasons of changing to a new software

Page 20

Figure 13

Kaspersky local awards

Page 22

Figure 14

Kaspersky products

Page 23

Figure 15

Positioning of the sales

Page 24

Figure 16

Promotion banners

Page 25

Figure 17

Sample of banner “Discovering Kaspersky Contest "

Page 26

Figure 18

Booth designed for the VCW 2012 expo

Page 26

Figure 19

Distribution system

Page 27


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Vietnam with over 33.4 million internet users (1) and over 10 million computerowned persons is a promising market for software selling. But according to BSA (Business
Software Alliance), rate of software counterfeiting in Vietnam is over 80%. This raises a
big question for Nam Truong Son – Kaspersky antivirus software distributior: if anti-virus
software encounters the same rate, how the company can make people use copy-righted
license and how Kaspersky could increase its foothold in the market.
In this study, a research is conducted to identify the market, understand the consumer
behaviors then propose a marketing plan to achieve the two objectives: help the consumers
get closed approach to copy-righted anti-virus software and improve the market share.
The marketing plan summary of Kaspersky anti-virus software for year 2012:
Category
Target Market

Offering to customers

Strategy
Officers
Diversify products / Vietnamese version /

multi-channel

support service

Price Strategy

Market price

Distribution

Indirect & Direct system

Sales Strategy

Based on reseller to enlarge the market rapidly
Support center 13/7
Hotline number

Service Strategy
Emergence clean virus at home
Promotion Strategy

PR & Sales promotion

Marketing Research

185 samples: brand power / Consumer habit research


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INTRODUCTION
1.

Introduction:
More and more people access to the internet nowadays, these people realize they

need a tool to protect themselves and their data from many hackers and harmful stuffs on
the global network. So they use anti-virus (or security) software. But in Vietnam most of
the internet users prefer cracked software, the only reason because it’s free. These people

don’t see the differences between copy-righted and cracked ones then they don’t want to
pay.
The anti-virus market is huge but currently, domestic vendors as well as other
foreign vendors didn’t play their good role because domestic products are lack of technical
ability while foreign products are high price and lack of localization ability.
In front of this opportunity, if Kaspersky Vietnam can help the consumers know the
benefits of using antivirus software and besides its own high quality, Kaspersky set up the
price suitable with Vietnamese income, it’s so sure that Kaspersky will win the market.
2.

Objectives of the project:
With the fact that Kaspersky took over 33% market share while BKAV 41%,

Synmantec 12% and others 14% (2). Besides, based on the collected data from Kaspersky
Vietnam, there are 5 millions Kaspersky software downloaded from the data centre but
only 630,000 software licenses are activated (12.6%), most of the licenses are cracked or
trial (87.4%). This project aims to understand the consumers’ and make them buy
Kaspersky antivirus instead of competitors’ products.
This project is valued only for Ho Chi Minh market, based on the survey results. The
purpose of this project is:
- To increase the market share of Kaspersky (up to 50%)
- To increase the percentage of copyrighted software compare to cracked or trial
license.
3.

Project scope:
To analyze the overall environment of the business to see how potential the market

is, this project use the SLEPT and Porter’s 5 forces model.
To understand the consumers’ behaviors, this study includes a primary data research

conducted in Ho Chi Minh City by interviewing 185 office staffs:


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Age from 20 to 30, regardless of gender.
Places: companies (SK telecom, Artsign, HSBC, YAN JSC, Riverbank…); Youth
Culture Centre, Han Thuyen Park, evening classes, home interviews…
Form of survey (see appendix)
Secondary data research also is taken from website.
The 5Ps marketing strategy is applied for the implementation plan.


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NAM TRUONG SON CORPORATION
&

KASPERSKY LAB
1.

Company profile
Nam Truong Son Corporation (NTS corp.) was founded in December 1998, NTS

corp. offers system integrated hardware and IT security devices (IT infrastructure, servers,
firewall, wifi generator…). The corp. includes 9 companies: NTS ICT, NTS Distribution,
NTS training, NTS System Integrative, NTS Distribution Ha Noi, NTS Ha Noi, NTS Da
Nang, NTS Can Tho and NTS Security (www.nts.com.vn )
Founded in 1997, today, Kaspersky Lab (www.kaspersky.com) is firmly positioned
as one of the world’s top four leading vendors of endpoint security software. Kaspersky

Lab continues to further improve its market position, demonstrating significant growth in
all regions. The company’s headquarters are located in Moscow, Russia, and it operates in
more than 100 countries worldwide. Kaspersky Lab currently employs over 2,400 highly
qualified specialists. The company has its own territory offices in 29 countries and its
products and technologies provide protection for over 300 million users worldwide.
From year 2007, Kaspersky Singapore and NTS Corp. signed the strategic
agreement, appointed NTS the exclusive distributor and service supporter of Kaspersky
antivirus software all over Vietnam under the company NTS security. NTS security represent for Kaspersky Vietnam - is responsible for developing Kaspersky trademark,
taking care of distribution channel and marketing activities in Vietnam. During the last 5
year, Kaspersky Viet Nam has proved its foothold in Vietnam market through over 7,000
resellers and 5 millions users.


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2.

Kaspersky Lab Vietnam mission:
To be number One in Vietnam anti-virus market (personal product line).

3.

Kaspersky Lab Vietnam vision statement:
Accessible and Affordable
-

Accessible: consumers could buy the product through nationwide distribution
channel, use Vietnamese language and 13/7 customer support service.

-

Affordable: set up a reasonable price system.


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MARKET ANALYSIS
1.

Macro-environment analysis – SLEPT
The same as other industries, software business also is affected by the environment

around it.
Social. More and more spam mail and advertising sent to the personal’s mailbox.
People realized that most of this caused from the website where they sign up for the free
services or free software. They are annoyed and will buy a copyrighted software when the
price is affordable. Besides, the risks of being hacked or losing important data also make
the consumers wonder when they use the crack software.
Legal. The 47 governmental decree 47/2009/NĐ-CP came into effect on 30th June
2009 designated person or entity who use the software is not genuine or murky software
will be fined up to 500.000.000 VNĐ and can be responsible for criminal prosecution.
Economic. From July 2007, Vietnam officially became the 150th member of WTO,
this mean the businesses in Vietnam have to follow the existing regulations between the
participating countries including intellectual property rules. For example in The United
State, some states force the countries exporting to their market have to use the licensed
software within the whole business, from administration to sales and manufacturing.
Antivirus software isn’t an exception.
Political. The government encouraged the consumer using licensed software by
defined the VAT for software is 0%.
Technology. Nowadays, the antivirus vendors have tools to tracking which software

is running with or without licensed. Those are not a copyrighted software will be rapidly
locked and come into the blacklist. In addition, more and more viruses and malware are
written and broadcast on the internet, they threaten the information security.


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2.

Micro-environment analysis – Porter Five Forces
Learning the competitive advantage model of Porter, the company can strategize the

actions in order to create competitive advantages
POTENTIAL ENTRANTS
(Threat of new entrants: high)
-

Growing market
Common concept
Low consumer switching cost
Low capital investment

BUYERS POWER

SUPPLIER POWER

(Powerful)

(Not so powerful)
RIVALRY among EXISTING FIRMS

- Buyer low switching cost

- Product is not really different

- No. of Antivirus brands in the market: above
10.

- Anti-virus is not a “must
have” software

- Supplier low switching cost

- Compete in price / promotional program

- Customer is powerful
(acceptable price, accessibility to
the distribution channel…)

- Market share: BKAV 41%; Kaspersky 33%;
Synmantec 12 %; Others 14%.

- Depend on the local
distributor

- Price sensitive
- Substitutes are available

SUBSTITUTES
(Threat of Substitute: high)

- Open-source / free software
- Integrated firewall / security components in
the Operating System (Ex: Malicious Software
Removal Tool in windows 7)

Firgure 1. The Porter’s five forces model (3):


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The competition among vendors in the anti-virus market is high and there are a lot of
threat from the substitutes and potential entrant. So Kaspersky Vietnam have to see clearly
what is the strong point of the company, then deliver an appropriate strategy.
The buyers in this case are the most important. The mission of NTS is how to draw
and retain the customers by its marketing program.
3.

General anti-virus market:
Although antivirus sales is not as big as other operating software / hardware’s, it has

quickly still become a favorite destination of many antivirus software producers since mid
2009, such as Kaspersky, Symantec and BitDefender, BKAV…. In early 2010, new brands
came to Vietnam, including Panda Security, PC Tools and Avira. Apart from the two longstanding options, BkavPro and Kaspersky, two new big names Symantec and McAfee are
stirring up the market. Bitdefender Antivirus software officially made debut in Vietnam in
October 2005 through its distributor VIAMI. Although this software is very popular in 100
countries in Europe and the Americas, most Vietnamese computer users do not see it as
their choice. In middle 2010, Panda Security officially presented in Vietnam after 20 years
of operation, with offices in more than 195 countries.

Avira Company is the latest

antivirus software foreign company entered Vietnam, after it named Red Umbrella
Services Company as its distributor in September 2010.
When looking at the anti-virus market, we see there are two types of anti-virus
software: domestic – developed by local vendor and foreign – developed by foreign
company.
With domestic software, the updating and virus detecting ability is not meet the
customer requirements but it has its own advantage is Vietnamese language. While foreign
antivirus brands are superior in updating new virus patterns and threats worldwide but only
have English version and high price.
If Kaspersky can overcome the disadvantages of foreign softwares, it can be the first
choice of the consumers.


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4.

Customer demand:
Based on the surveys, more than half of the office staffs using non-copyrighted
non

antivirus software. But most of them are ready to change into copyrighted software if the
software can meet their requirements.

Types of software used

Noncopyrighted
software
54%

Copyrighted
software
46%

non copyrighted antivirus software
Figure 2. Rate of copyrighted / non-copyrighted

Intention of changing to copyrighted
software
No
28%
No idea
23%

Ready
49%

Figure Intention of changing to copyrighted software
Figure3.
Facing many risks when surfing internet, Vietnam consumer realized they need a tool
to protect their data, their applications on the computers. The needs of the anti-virus
anti
/
security software become high.
This study conducts the survey to clarify the factors that consumers care when they
choose an anti-virus
virus software.

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Most people choose 4.9
Advisory from others 8.6
Reputation
23.8
Easy to buy 7.6
35.1
Easy to use
Technical support
16.2
Virus update ability
67
49.2
Price
Virus detecting

0

20

97.8

40

60

80

100

Figure 4. Key drivers affect the consumers
The key drivers for choosing
ch
anti-virus
virus software: effectiveness, update ability, price
and easy to use.
5.

Competitor analysis:
Vietnam has quickly become the hot destination that many antivirus software

producers jumped in since mid 2009. Besides Kaspersky, there are many other brands
b
from
new: Panda Security, PC Tools and Avira to long-standing
long standing brand: BkavPro, Symantec and
McAfee. They are stirring up the market. According to VINASA, the three main players in
anti-virus
virus market is BKAV, Synmantec and Kaspersky:

Others 16%
Synmantec 12%

BKAV - 41%

Kaspersky 33%

Figure 5. Overview
Overvie of the antivirus market share: (by VINASA – 11/2011) (4)

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In the survey of this study, the office staff shared their evaluation about the softwares that they knew:

2. Part II: The marketing plan

Rate of customer satisfaction
Bkav

Norton

Bit Defender

Kasperky

40.3

49.1

Virus updating
Technical support

27.1
24.1

Easy to buy

39.6

Easy to use

26.7

76

48
61.4
50

41.7

Price/Cost of license

78.1

45

39.4

Protection effectiveness

57.6

79.6

53.9
60.4
53.6

47.8
51.5

67.7

89

62

Figure 6. Rate of customer satisfaction
The strong points of domestic antivirus software BKAV is to kill domestic viruses
which are sometimes immune to renowned foreign software brands, the technical support,
easy to buy – easy to use and the suitable price.
To compete with foreign brands, Vietnamese antivirus software brands are making
efforts to strengthen the Vietnamese market positions. The typical local representative is
BKAV, this antivirus producer started selling commercial versions in 2005 to personal and
corporate users besides its free antivirus software limited version. BKAV also join the
antivirus software testing of Virus Bulletin (a famous organization of antivirus software
testing) to get the international certification. This domestic brand paid a lot for the TV ads.


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6.

Consumers behavior:
When asked about anti-virus software, the research collected the brand in the

consumers’ top of mind as bellow:

%
Bkav

43.7

Kaspersky

35
9.3

Symantec
6.6

AVG
Bit Defender

2.7

Others

2.7
0

10

20

30

40

50

Figure 7. Top of mind brands
Because of the inflation, the price increase during the economic crisis, most of the
people are not ready to pay much for software license.

Reasonable price for an antivirus
software (Unit: 1000 VNĐ)
Below 100

100 - 200

200 - 300

Over 300

2%
17%

26%

55%

Figure 8. Reasonable price for anti-virus software


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For the group of people don’t use copyrighted software, the study dive into their

th
reasons why:

Why not using copyrighted software

No idea/no information about copyrighted software

9.1
57.6

Like free software
40.4

No much differences between copyright/crack license
31.3

Hard to find a shop selling anti virus software

75.8

PC / Laptop is ok with the crack / free license

85.9

Pay money

Figure 9.
9 Why consumers not using copyrighted software
In order to have a suitable approach to convince the market use software license, the
study define their ways of achieving anti-virus

anti virus software information and which factors
factor
affect their decision making.

Sourcce of information about
Antivirus software
Others (banner/poster…)
Introduction of salesman

6.5
13.5
60.5

From friends, relatives
Professional magazine / newspaper

28.1
69.2

Online search engine
Daily newspaper

23.8

Figure 10. Source of information about anti-virus
virus software


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Key affects of decision making
In promotion / free gift

9.8

Much advertising
Lower price than other software

15.2
11.4

Advice form professional

19.6

More advantages than other softwares

41.3

Refference from friends

33.2

Loyalty

19.6

Easy to buy
Others

12.5
8.2

Figure 11. Key affects of decision making
Based the Porter 5 forces model, we knew the consumers in antin-virus market can
switch to another product easily. In order to gain the market share from other competitors,
the study investigated why the consumer change their current software.

Figure 12. Reasons of changing to a new software

Figure 12. Reasons of changing to a new software


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MARKETING PLAN FOR
KASPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS
1.

Company SWOT analysis:
Strength

-

Weakness

NTS Security is the exclusive

-

distributor in the whole country. The

service.

company can totally control the price.
-

Marketing / sales team is strong and
innovative, supported by the experts in

-

Foreign language.

-

Distribution channel is not strong
enough.

Singapore.
-

Not a large team for customer support

Well-known worldwide software in the
world, high technology.
Opportunities

-

More and more people realized they
must protect their computer by an
security software

-

Threats

Intellectual right protection policy from
the government, especially IT
software.

-

Strong competitors from local and
international products.


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2.

Marketing strategy:
2.1 Product:
Although Kaspersky had achieved many international awards but it only makes sense

when it has the local awardd. That why NTS built long term relationship with PC World (a
reputation IT magazine) and CIO & CEO forum which have yearly award for softwares.
When took part of the contest “the best antvirus chosen by Vietnam CIO & CEO
association”, Kaspersky won the first prize in four consecutive years from 2008 to 2011.

Kaspersky is also voted the best product in 3 consecutive years by PC World’s readers.

Figure 13. Kaspersky local awards
To be different from other foreign anti-virus soft-wares and compete with the local
program, Kaspersky invest in developing Vietnamese version. So the Vietnamese can use
software with local language but international quality.
In order to meet the customer requirements, Kaspersky was segmented in two types of
license: Kaspersky internet security for professional and who doesn’t care much about
price, Kaspersky anti-virus for common users with affordable price


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Figure 14. Kaspersky products
2.2 Price:
The market price for a security software is about 300,000 VNĐ:
• BKAV:

299,000 VNĐ/lic

• Synmantec: 420,000 VNĐ/lic
• Norton:

295,000 VNĐ/lic

• Kaspersky: 300,000 VNĐ/lic ~ the market price.
For the customers who hesitate spending too much money for an anti-virus software
and these customer are ready to pay only 100,000 VNĐ – 200,000 VNĐ as the survey
showed, we propose the Kaspersky Anti Virus packet with full functions of protecting a
personal computer from virus/spyware/worms …at lower price: 160,000 VNĐ.

Applying the up-sales technique, we encourage the groups of people buying licenses
by setting up an attractive price for a 3 license packet:
•

Kaspersky Internet Security: 580,000 VNĐ / 3 users ~ < 200,000 VNĐ /user

•

Kaspersky Anti Virus:

300,000 VNĐ / 3 users ~ 100,000 VNĐ / user

License type

Kaspersky Internet Security

Kaspersky Anti Virus

1 user / lic

300,000 VNĐ

160,000 VNĐ

3 users / lic

580,000 VNĐ

300,000 VNĐ

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2.3 Positioning:
In software selling/consulting industry, the most important factor is customer. If a
company want to be successful, it has to consider customer its centric orientation.
Kaspersky position itself as a high quality product with the best customer support by local
team.

Figure 15. Positioning of the sales
NTS will invest strongly in customer support team in order to response to all
questions of customer regard technical matters.
2.4 Promotion:
PR. Nowadays, people are more and more caring about sharing difficulties within
community. NTS continue to develop its fund for poor pupils by taking 3,000 VNĐ on
each license sold to support the fund. This action not only showed the company
responsibility to the social but also can get huge supports from the customers.