Marketing plan for LG laptop in vietnam market

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP. HCM
HO CHIMINHCITYOPEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITEÙ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
SOLVAYBRUSSELSSCHOOL

MBMM5

TRƯƠNG NGỌC NHÃ ĐOAN

MARKETING PLAN FOR LG LAPTOP
IN VIETNAM MARKET

MASTER PROJECT
MASTER IN BUSINESS & MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Tutor’s Name: Dr. LÊ THÀNH LONG

Ho Chi Minh City
(2012)


Commitment:
This is the marketing plan I have created myself base on the knowledge I gained
from many interesting subjects during the Master In Business & Marketing
Management course year 2010 -2012 of Solvay Brussels School and the Ho Chi
Minh City Open University
I commit that this project is completed with my high honesty. I’ll fully take
responsibility for any mistakes or incorrect information given in this project.

Acknowledgements:
Firstly, I would like to send my great thanks to all professors of Solvay Brussels
School and the Ho Chi Minh City Open University for the useful marketing
knowledge in the Master In Business & Marketing Management course year 2010
-2012.
Secondly, I would like to send many thanks to my tutor – Dr. Le Thanh Long who
has help me a lot in giving guidance, advices and comments on how to build up an
effective marketing plan.
I also want to say thank you to my mentor – Mr. Ho Quang Hai who teach me a lot
about IT market which help me to deeply understand the company’s business and
also give me a lot of the useful data to set up this marketing plan.
Finally, I want to send my special thanks to my family and also my friends who
have heartily supported me to successfully complete this project.


Table of Contents
Executive Summary: ............................................................................................. 1
Part 1: INTRODUCTION: ...................................................................................... 3
1.1

LG Electronics: ........................................................................................... 3

1.2

LG laptop: .................................................................................................. 3

1.3

Vision and Objective of the project: ............................................................ 4

1.4

Scope and Limitation of Project: ................................................................ 5

1.5

Methodology: ............................................................................................. 5

Part 2: SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ........................................................................ 5
2.1

Environment analysis (PESTEL) ................................................................ 5

2.1.1

Political: ............................................................................................... 5

2.1.2

Economic: ............................................................................................ 5

2.1.3

Social:.................................................................................................. 8

2.1.4

Technological: ..................................................................................... 9

2.1.5

Environment: ....................................................................................... 9

2.1.6

Legal & laws: ....................................................................................... 9

2.2

IT market analysis: ................................................................................... 10

2.2.1

Market overview: ............................................................................... 10

2.2.2

Market attractiveness: ....................................................................... 12

2.2.3

Market trend and market demand:..................................................... 15

2.3

Competitors’ analysis: .............................................................................. 17

2.4

Company analysis: ................................................................................... 21

2.4.1

Value Map: ........................................................................................ 21

2.4.2

Performance in IT market: ................................................................. 21

2.4.3

SWOT analysis: ................................................................................. 22

Part 3: MARKETING STRATEGY ....................................................................... 24
3.1

Segmentation: .......................................................................................... 25

3.2

Targeting: ................................................................................................. 26

3.3

Positioning: .............................................................................................. 26

Part 4: MARKETING TACTICS (4Ps) ................................................................. 27
4.1

Product:.................................................................................................... 27

4.1.1

Product strategy: ............................................................................... 27

4.1.2

Product road map (PRM) for Vietnam market: .................................. 28

4.2

Price: ........................................................................................................ 29

4.3

Place: ....................................................................................................... 30

4.4

Promotion:................................................................................................ 33

4.4.1

Above the line (ATL) .......................................................................... 33

4.4.2

Below the line (BTL) .......................................................................... 36

Part 5: ACTION PLAN AND BUDGET PLAN ..................................................... 39
5.1

Action plan for period August ~December 2012....................................... 39

5.2

Budget plan: ............................................................................................. 40

5.3

Detailed action plan with budget: ............................................................. 41

Conclusion: ......................................................................................................... 42
REFERENCES: ...................................................................................................... a
APPENDIX:............................................................................................................. b
APPENDIX1: Samsung ATL & BTL image .......................................................... b
APPENDIX 2: Product USPs and specification: ................................................... c
APPENDIX 3: MOT report form ........................................................................... h
APPENDIX 4: Information about HDD’s shortage ................................................ i


Abbreviations:
ATL

Above the line

BA

Brand awareness

BTL

Below the line

CE

Consumer Electronics

CPI

The consumer price index

FSM

Floor salesman

GFK, IDC

Name of market research company

HDD

Hard Disk Drive

HQ

Head Quarter

IT

Information technology

ITP team

Information technology product team of LGEVN

LGEVN

LG Electronics Vietnam

M.VND

Million Vietnam Dong

M/S

Market share

MD

Master dealer

MKT

Marketing

MOT

Moment of Truth

PC

Product consultant

PESTEL

Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental,
Legal & laws

POSM/POP Point of sale material/ Point of purchase
PRM

Product road map

Q1/2/3/4

Quarter 1/2/3/4

SS

Samsung

SWOT

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

TR

Telecom Retailer

USP

Unique selling point

VN

Vietnam country/ Vietnam market


Figures and Tables:
Figure 1.1

: LGEVN organization chart

Figure 2.1

: Vietnam – GDP Year-On-Year Growth

Figure 2.2

: GDP Growth – Vietnam versus ASEAN countries

Figure 2.3

: Vietnam – Inflation Rate Evolution

Figure 2.4

: Vietnam – Consumer Confidence

Figure 2.5

: Total laptop market size from Q1/2009~Q3/2011

Figure 2.6

: Laptop market share between brands

Figure 2.7

: Laptop market channels

Figure 2.8

: Growth rate of IT market from Jan ~ Nov’11

Figure 2.9

: Porter’s 5 forces Model

Figure 2.10 : Laptop market - competitor analysis
Figure 2.11 : Budget for media of 6 biggest Electronics brands (2008~2011)
Figure 2.12 : Value map of LG
Figure 2.13 : Top of mind Survey for LG
Figure 4.1

: LG distribution system for IT product

Figure 4.2

: Portion in Acer’s distribution systems (2nd haft of 2011)

Figure 4.3

: LG’s standard POSM

Figure 5.1

: LG laptop action plan for Aug~Dec’12

Figure 5.2

: LG MKT expenses vs. Sale revenue 2009~2011

Table 2.1

: Banking Interest Rate during 2011

Table 2.2

: Internet Usage and Population Statistics

Table 4.1

: LG incentive scheme

Table 5.1

: LGEVN’s laptop budget (2012~2014)

-1-

Executive Summary:
Vietnam IT market in year 2011, the demand for desktop decreases 25% in
quantity base and 30% in value base, in contrast, the demand for laptop increases
up to 31% in quantity base and 24% in value base (Source: GFK data Nov 2011).
Portion between desktop and laptop in recent years are as below:
Year 2010: desktop: laptop – 65%: 35%
Year 2011: desktop: laptop – 56%: 44%
Year 2012: desktop: laptop – 50%: 50% (forecast)
Year 2013: desktop: laptop – <40%: >60% (forecast)
Thanks to the technology innovation, the production costs of laptop are reduced a
lot day by day so there is just a small gap between price of laptop and desktop.
Due to the convenience, mobile function, small size laptop gets more and more
familiar with end-users and become their choice more often.
According to key research companies like GFK, IDC, Display Search, the growth
of laptop in 2011 in Vietnam market is really outstanding, it has exceeded all the
previous expectation. And they forecast that laptop will replace desktop some day
in the future and the ultrabook (super thin laptop – as Intel’s definition) will be the
king of the IT market in late 2012, 2013. Demand for ultrabook will take more than
50% of the total laptop market by 2014. Many big guys such as Apple, Dell, Sony,
Asus, Acer, and Samsung…have already developed their new ultrabook.
From 2007 up to now, LG Electronics Vietnam is quite successful in Desktop
segment with the product Monitor, market share 28%, position No.2 after
Samsung 35% (source: GFK data Nov’11). These two Korean brands have gone
together in Monitor market for more than 4 years to defeat many big monitor guys
such as View Sonic, HP, Dell to keep the first and the second position. Samsung
has already launched laptop in early time of 2010 and get some success with

-2-

awareness up to 90%, market share 7% compare with many big guys such as
Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, Acer…LG still not have any plan to launch laptop in VN.
Even though LG laptop still has a very low awareness among LG products like TV,
washing machine, refrigerator, air conditioner…There are a small part of endusers now using LG laptop which is bought directly from aboard or be sold in the
market by unofficial importers/ smugglers without after sale service. Now external
factors show that laptop is really a potential product with high demand in Vietnam
market. So it’s time to invest and officially launch laptop in VN. But LGEVN still
have many problems need to be solved such as:
-

Lack of support from Head Quarter (HQ) in Korea about strategy, product
road map, budget, guideline, unable to utilize the economics of scale from
LG Global network

-

Not confident enough to compete in such a tough market with many big
competitors, facing with newcomer’s difficulties: no support from IT platform
manufacturers (Hardware: Intel, AMD…; Software: Microsoft, Google) and
OEM vendors (Compal, Foxcon & WISTRON…)

-

Not deeply understand the end-users, no experiences in laptop field in
Vietnam market.

So through this final project, by analyzing the market, environment, competitors,
company situation, I want to point out the reasons why LGEVN should launch
laptop and I also propose a full MKT plan to successfully launch LG laptop in
Vietnam market.


-3-

Part 1: INTRODUCTION:
1.1 LG Electronics:
-

LG Electronics global:

LG was established in 1947 as Korea's first chemical company then becoming the
nation's first electronics company with its expansion into home appliances in 1958.
The new Corporate Identity was launched including the change of the group name
from Lucky-Gold Star to LG in 1995. With an over 65-year history, LG Electronics,
is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, employing
more than 93,000 people working in 120 operations around the world. With annual
worldwide revenues exceeding $49 billion, LG Electronics comprises five business
units: Home Entertainment (HE), Home Appliance (HA), Air Conditioning (AC),
Information Technology (IT) and Mobile Communications (MC).
-

LG Electronics Vietnam:

LG Electronics Vietnam (LGEVN) is one of the members of LG Electronics Global
which was established in 1995 with 850 employees working in 5 subsidiaries
(Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Nha Trang, Da Nang) and 02 factories (Hai

Phong, Hung Yen). With annual revenue exceeds $350 million USD.
+ Vision: Become TOP 1 Electronics companies in Vietnam
+ Objective:Achieve revenue 400 million USD in 2012 and Lead in Premium
Segment for almost product (HA, HE, AC, IT, MC).
+ Mission: bring value to customer, share holder & people
1.2 LG laptop:
LG laptop was firstly launched in Korea in year 2000 under the name Xnote. LG
laptop is in Top 12 laptop brands all over the world. It’s quite popular in Euro
market with 5~7% market share (depend on countries). In Asia, it already
presented at many countries like Australia, India, Thailand, Singapore...LG has
developed full model line-up for laptop, from entry to premium (ultra book, 3D).
Currently, in Vietnam, LG laptop was presented and sold at some small IT shops
or online website by some importing/smuggler guys. It’s time to officially launch it


-4-

by LGEVN. Together with monitor, this product belongs to IT division with same
distribution system and development strategy.

Figure 1.1: LGEVN organization chart
Note: Influence level from High to Low
LG manage the Marketing activities by division base (HE, HA, AC, IT and MC) not
by activities base (media, promotion, decoration…) so the marketing plan of IT
team is mainly under the control of product management (PM) and is mostly
influenced by sales team. It is also influenced by other departments more or less.
There is also a Corporate MKT team in charge of branding for LG brand in total.
1.3 Vision and Objective of the project:
LGEVN’s vision is to be number one company in Vietnam. In order to achieve this,
LGEVN should maximize its sales performance of all kinds of product categories.

However, its IT business is now getting weak due to market demand for desktop
going down while laptop increasing every day but LGEVN has not yet had plan to
launch the laptop. So the objective of this project is to make a MKT plan for
launching laptop in VN in 2012~2014 in order to expand product category, occupy
5~7% turnover of LGEVN, make LG laptop to be a popular product in IT market,
increase the brand awareness up to 90% and gain at least 3~5% market share.
But how to successfully launch LG laptop in Vietnam market? Select entry or
premium model? Choose which target market (B2C, B2B) or target customers
(officer, entertainer, student…)? Directly compete with Samsung-the current
competitor in Monitor field or choose another suitable competitor? We should
analyze all internal& external factors to find the answers for all above questions.


-5-

1.4 Scope and Limitation of Project:
The project will analyze IT market and IT consumers in nationwide of Vietnam but
focus more on Ho Chi Minh City which cover more than 50% of the total market
both in quantity and value share.Project‘s period is within period 2012 ~2014 and
the objective product is laptop only (not apply for netbook or tablet).
1.5 Methodology:
Decide to use a desk research with information get from professional research
companies such as GFK, IDC, and Display Search to construct a deep and
profound picture about laptop market. Base on that, design a 360 degree MKT
plan to successfully bring LG laptop to VN market.
Part 2: SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
2.1 Environment analysis (PESTEL)
2.1.1 Political:
This is relating to government controlled elements, profound changes in political
philosophy, laws, and taxes.

Year 2012, no more support from Government for VAT (value added tax) like in
2009, VAT for IT products and accessories are now fixed at 10%.
At this moment, VN are on the way set up the E-Government which has high
demand about PC.
In addition, the Vietnamese government recognizes the threat that corruption
presents to its legitimacy, and has acted to clamp down on graft among parties.
Above all, it shows a good signal for reforming a market – oriented economy in
Vietnam. With the Vietnamese government effort, the average income will
increase and consumers have greater capacity in approaching hi – tech products.
2.1.2 Economic:
GDP growth rate in recent yearsis really unstable &have down trend especially in
Q1&2 of 2011 under the influence of economy downturn.


-6-

Figure 2.1: Vietnam – GDP Year-On-Year Growth
(Source: Vietnam Economic Times, 2009 estimate by Vietnam Government;
General Statistics Office of Vietnam)
Compare with other countries in Asia, Vietnam GDP is also down while these
others have increased, 2010 & 2011 are really un-good years for VN.

Figure 2.2: GDP Growth – Vietnam versus ASEAN countries
(Source: World Bank Report June 2011)
Interest Rate is also un-stable. In Feb 2011, banking interest rate suddenly
increase from 19,500 up to 20,870 VND (more than 7%) equal to floating interest
rate. It causes many difficulties for IT companies which import 90% material and
accessories from abroad.

-7-

Table 2.1: Banking Interest Rate during 2011
(Source: Vietnam Eximbank, www.eximbank.com.vn)
Inflation is in same situationand reach 18.2 % in 2011 (details is in below tables).

Figure 2.3: Vietnam – Inflation Rate Evolution
(Source: World Bank, General Statistics Office& Ministry of Planning and Investment)
Consumer Confidence index 2011 is also down and down compare with 2010.

Figure 2.4: Vietnam – Consumer Confidence
(Source: MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence)


-8-

The inflation, economy downturn, unstable price of Gold &USD, customers cut
down expenses…cause many difficulties for IT companies in maintaining their
business in 2011 and affect much on the price, consumer demands. According to
the research of IDC, IT market in the 1st Haft of 2011 has faced with many
challenges but the demand for laptop is still huge & its price gets more reasonable.
Despite of big inventory and tough pricing war, laptop market keep continue going
up. 2011 had been a fruitful year for the laptop due to strong demand for low price
laptop (under 10 million) which experienced double-digit growth year-to-date in
value and units (increase 31% in quantity, 24% in value compare with 2010 Source: GFK data Nov’11). In contrast, the demand for desktop decreases much
than bargain for (25% in quantity, 30% in value). Reasons are: low demand from
end-users for desktop, Government has cut down expenses for many public
projects which are 70% choose desktop instead of laptop. The desktop market
was expected to experience another downturn in 2012.In Q3 of 2011, the market
is a little bit improving just in a very short time thanks to Back to school season.

After that, it is suffered from serious Hard Disk Drive’s (HDD) shortage because of
the flood in Thailand. This disaster made all the HDD producers such as Western
Digital, Toshiba, Seagate and Samsung fall into the crisis. The flood led to a
shortage of supply in the PCs market in Nov 2011, causing a decline in sales and
an increase in price. The average price of a laptop moved up by 5% compared to
Oct2011. Immediately, laptop in VN market increase price at least from 25 USD.
Seasonally, in back to school time, all most brands down price sharply to compete
with these others to attract the customers but this year, they must increase the
price. This matter more or less affect on the customers demand. As forecast of
many experts in this field, maybe from Q2 of 2012, we can overcome this problem.
2.1.3 Social:
Vietnam has young population with around 89.5 million people (2010). Segment
from 18~40 years old occupy more than 60% (Source: General Statistic Office,
website:www.gso.gov.vn). It is really potential market for any IT company because
there will be millions of young and new customers continue entering into this
market in the coming years.


-9-

Besides that, the internet usage is 24.3 million users as of June, 2010; equal 27%
of the population. This demand will continue increase fast in the next coming
years. It opens a very good opportunity for IT market.
Year
2000
2005
2007
2008
2009
2010

Users
200,000
10,711,000
16,737,129
20,669,285
22,779,887
24,269,083

Population
78,964,700
83,944,402
85,031,436
86,116,559
88,576,758
89,571,130

% Pop.
0.30%
12.80%
19.70%
24.00%
25.70%
27.10%

Table 2.2: Internet Usage and Population Statistics
(Source: Internet Usage Stats & Marketing Report, www.internetworldstats.com)
2.1.4 Technological:
Innovation technology: Laptop with super slim design (ultra book), 3D laptop
without class, Eco friendly technology (saving energy, safe for the environment).

Advanced technology help to reduce price gap between laptop and desktop.
Microsoft will launch Windows 8 in Quarter 4 of 2012 which can lead to many
changes, revolution in PC field.
2.1.5 Environment:
Vietnamese end-users have not yet paid much attention on environmental issues
and social responsibility when choosing a laptop because they still consider much
about the price. Anyway, many IT company develop laptop with Eco friendly
technology such as saving energy, safe for the environment…LG already
developed a laptop using natural battery (material: natural gas, methanol&other
liquid mix) and OLED screen which are friendly to the environment. It’s possible to
officially produce and launch it to the market but the most consideration is price.
2.1.6 Legal & laws:
Legal and laws are covered by the political environment. Up to now, no any of
special law for IT market in 2011& 2012 was announced.


- 10 -

2.2 IT market analysis:
2.2.1 Market overview:
Market size: According to GFK report Nov’11, total market size of laptop is:
-

Quantity: 1.05 Million units

-

Value: 630 Million USD (average unit price: 600 USD/ 1 laptop)

Laptop accounts for 56% of total IT market. The market is on the way of

developing with high growth rate in both quantity (31%) and value (24%).

Figure 2.5: Total laptop market size from Q1/2009~Q3/2011
(Source: GFK data Nov 2011)
Market players: All most famous IT players all around the world such as Dell, HP,
Sony, Acer, Asus, Samsung…join this market. This is really a high competitive
market. Acer, Dell, HP are top 3 market leaders.


- 11 -

Figure 2.6: Laptop market share between brands
(Source: GFK data, Q3/2011)
Customer: Main Customer of this market is now student, white collar who have
demands to buy a laptop for their working, studying. Those customers are divided
into many segments such as: Premium seeker (over 1000 USD laptop, 7% market
share), Entertainer (800~<1000 USD, 16% market share), Bargainer (>600~<800
USD, 20% market share), and Simple access user (under 600 USD, 54% market
share). So customers still consider much about the price, low price segment is the
most attractive one and occupy more than half of the market.
Channel: Laptop is now sold in three main channels. They are:
Telecom retailer (TR) : this is the shop where mainly sell mobile phone (60%)
such as Mobile World, Vien Thong A, Phuoc Lap…
Consumer Electronics (CE) Store :

this is a big store where mainly sell CE

products (90%) such as TV, washing machine, refrigerator, home theater system,

- 12 -

air conditioner and a small part of IT products. Famous CE store are Nguyen Kim,
Phan Khang, Cao Phong, Pico….
Traditional IT:

this is shop just only sell IT products such laptop, desktop,

accessories (mouse, speaker, keyboard, digital storage…). IT customers still
prefer to buy IT products at IT shops like Phong Vu, Hoan Long, Tran Anh due to
their professionalism but this habit recently change. It moves to CE channel a lot.
Should be considering in order building an effective distribution system

Figure 2.7: Laptop market channels (Source: GFK data)
2.2.2 Market attractiveness:
Forecast from professional research companies GFK, IDC, Display Search, laptop
market in 2012 will be as following:
-

Market size: 1,250,000 laptops or more

-

Market growth rate: 30~40%

Among many IT products in below table, just only laptop (mobile computer) has
green signal in 2011 and to be green in 2012. This market is really potential for
players and also attractive to end-users

- 13 -

Figure 2.8: Growth rate of IT market from Jan ~ Nov’11
(Source: GFK Market Information (GMI) report)
Porter five forces model from Michael Porter will help us to understand more about
current status of laptop market through analyzing 5 factors as below:

Figure 2.9: Porter’s 5 forces Model
(Source: The Five competitive Forces that shape strategy” by Michael Porter,
Harvard Business review, Jan 2008)


- 14 -

Rivalry among existing competitors:There are many competitors joined this market
such as HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Lenovo…so the level of
competition is quite fierce. How to make LG laptop be different with the others is
really a big question to LGEVN.
Potential entrants:Threat of new entrants is low because all most the players on
the market are fixed. Even though no barriers to entry but there are just some
small

new

players

such

as

Fujitsu

(Japan),

Axioo

(China),

Hanel

(Vietnamese)…join this laptop market. Newcomers with low sales and low margin
are not interesting enough to dealers/ distributors. It‘s not easy to compete in such
a tough market like this one.
Bargaining power of Supplier: There are no big differences (material cost, design,
quantity, after sale services…) between suppliers in IT market. All most suppliers
are concentrating on the biggest portion:

low & middle price segment with

acceptable quality, after sale services, warranty …The demand for laptop is higher
and higher so IT manufacturers continue launching many new models to attract as
many customers as can.
Substitutes:In this part, we mention about other industries producing product
covering the same need. In this market, we see this need as desktop and tablet.
-

Desktop:Portion between Desktop and Laptop in 2011 is 56% vs.44%, in
2012 will be forecast as 50% vs. 50% and in 2013 it will be less than 40%
for desktop and more than 60% for laptop. These figure show that demand
of laptop is day by day increasing. It does not cost much to transfer from

desktop to laptop with more conveniences. It’s easy to upgrade a laptop to
higher configuration than previous time with more attractive design. There
are not much gap in quality, price so laptop can replace desktop sooner or
later.

-

Tablet:market size in 2011 is around 70k units (= 6.7% market size of
laptop)(Source: GFK 2011). Tablet gets more and more concentration from
customers because of it portable size, light weight, fashionable, multi
functional. But it’s inconvenient to work with; its price is still high so it’s just


- 15 -

suitable for premium segment with main using purpose is for entertainment.
Customers are still not willing to replace desktop or laptop by a tablet.
Bargaining power of customers:There are 2 main customers: dealers (B2B) and
end-users (B2C). The quantity of them is huge. In negotiating with customers, the
more famous the brand is, the more power they have. Laptop is a product which is
really sensitive in price. In low and middle segment, a small price gap can make
customers choose competitors instead of you. With the boom of internet and other
information channels, it’s easy for customers to search information, to find out
what is the advantage or disadvantage of each brand then give decision. So make
yourself be different is the only way to bring customers to you.
2.2.3 Market trend and market demand:
There are some big trends for laptop market in 2012 as below:
Firstly, demand for low and medium price laptop with acceptable configuration is
huge. The most favorite configuration is now Core i3 processor, 2GB Ram and
500GB HDD. Main target customers for this segment are pupil, student who really

needs a laptop for studying.
Secondly, the market is really expecting for the launching of Ultrabook, a new
“lighter, thinner, sleeker laptop with high configuration, more responsive, long
battery life, more secure but mainstream price and have ULV (Ultra low voltage)
chip” as Intel definition. Demand for Ultrabook will take more than 50% of the total
laptop market by 2014 as forecast of many IT experts

Ultrabook will become trend in 2012


- 16 -

Think of Ultrabook in previous time we think of premium models of big guys such
as Macbook Air, Vaio Z of Sony or Adamo XPS of Dell with so high price, from
1,500~2,500 USD. But now things are changed. In the beginning of 2012, there
are around 50 ultrabook samples will be presented at the CES Exhibition in USA.
After that, the appearance of Intel new microprocessor name Ivy Bridge together
with the launching of Window 8 from Microsoft will make Ultrabook become the
hottest trend in laptop market than ever before.
MacBook Air of Apple is the most successful ultrabook up to now; all current
ultrabooks were developed mainly to compete with Macbook Air. Here are some
first images and information of Ultrabook of some brands up to now:

Thirdly, premium products with advanced technology such as 3D laptop with glass
or without glass always get big attention from the customers. It’s really a good tool
for branding for any company who want to become the market pioneer.


- 17 -

Besides that, netbook is recently losing customers’ attention. Year 2010 is the
golden time of it but from year 2012, IT market has witnessed a big change when
the netbook – queen of 2010 – losing share and the new king-ultrabook-come and
get a lot of attention of both media channels and end-users. However, because of
cheap price (4,9 M VND ~ 5,9 M VND), Netbook is still suitable for a small
segment of end-users who have demand for content consumption and not heavy
content creation.
In addition, with a strong attack of Ipad on the market, in 2011 tablet becomes one
of the hottest product, laptop and netbook have to seriously compete with it. But
customers are still not willing to choose tablet instead of laptop due to its
disadvantages just for entertainment not for working so that it’s still so far the day
tablet can replace laptop. After a year compete to defeat Ipad, IT companies get
tired of it and come back again to laptop with more focusing on ultrabook.
Last but not least, desktop still survive together with laptop and B2B market will go
together with B2C market. According to experts from Gartner research, PC market
increase mainly thanks to B2B market than B2C market. B2B market is still a
potential for any IT company cause of having huge budget and big demand to
replace the old PC by a new one.
These are all about the market demand and market trend in 2012 and 2013 as
forecast of IT experts and professional market research companies.
2.3 Competitors’ analysis:
Among many players of laptop market, should consider these four brands Acer,
Dell, HP and Samsung as the potential competitors of LG. Because:
-

Acer, Dell, HP are now top 3 market leaders

-

Samsung has same origin - Korean brand name- and is the main

competitor of LG in monitor market (SS: 1st position with 35% market share,
LG: 2nd position with 28% market share).


- 18 -

Figure 2.10: Laptop market - competitor analysis
(Source: LG Internal analysis)
From above cobweb diagram, we see that Acer choose for itself the low segment
with the most competitive price. HP &Dell are all most same in all aspect. SS &LG
have many same points: reasonable price, elegant design, acceptable after sale
service, quite good quality except LG awareness is lower compare with SS (cause
its brand is very new on the market). Base on these things, LG should consider SS
as a benchmark and learn from their strategy to enter VN market.
Samsunglaptop:is popular in many countries. In 2008, it stands in top ten laptop
brand all over the world. In 2010, at China market, its share is at No.4. It was high
evaluated by nice design, colorful and strong battery. SS is a famous brand in VN
which is known by TV, Mobile phone, monitor. SS officially joined laptop market
from the beginning of 2010 with 4 models belong to series N &R price from 9~20
Million VND. Up to now, after 2 years, SS laptop share in VN is 7.1% (Source:
GFK data Nov’11). It can be proved as a big effort of SS in this tough market.
Samsung laptop road map in VN: (Source: SS website: www.samsung.com/vn):
+ Premium (Thin & light): Series 9 with 2 models: NP900X3A-B01VN 29.9M VND
& NP900X3A-A01VN 34.9M VND. USP of these series are super bright plus LED
screen, Duralumin featherweight, Fast start technology, Compact design and vivid