Solutions for lack of marketing activities of viet phat uniform limited company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Le Ngoc Hai Trieu

SOLUTIONS FOR LACK OF
MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF VIET
PHAT UNIFORM LIMITED
COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – 2019


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Le Ngoc Hai Trieu

SOLUTIONS FOR LACK OF
MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF VIET
PHAT UNIFORM LIMITED
COMPANY
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: DR. LE THI THANH XUAN
Ho Chi Minh City - 2019

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Table of Contents
1.1.
1.2.

The company overview ................................................................................................. 6
Problem context ............................................................................................................ 7

CHAPTER II – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION............................................................. 1
0
2.1.

Symptoms analysis ...................................................................................................... 10

2.1.1.
Limited customer network ....................................................................................................... 10
2.1.2.Lack of brand awareness ..........................................................................................................
10
2.1.3.
Ineffective digital marketing .................................................................................................... 12

2.2.

Problem analysis ......................................................................................................... 14

2.2.1.
Potential problems .................................................................................................................... 14
2.2.2.

Main problem validation .......................................................................................................... 17
2.2.3.Problems – Symptoms Map ......................................................................................................
21

CHAPTER III – CAUSE ANALYSIS .............................................................................. 2
2
3.1.

Potential causes........................................................................................................... 22

3.1.1.Lack of attention from the board of directors (B.O.D) ..........................................................
22
3.1.2.
Lack of resources ....................................................................................................................... 22
3.1.3.
Wrong personnel ....................................................................................................................... 24

3.2.

Initial Cause-Effect Map ............................................................................................. 25

3.3.

Main cause validation ................................................................................................. 25

3.3.1.Lack of B.O.D’s attention .........................................................................................................
25
3.3.2.
Wrong personnel ....................................................................................................................... 28
3.3.3.

Lack of resources ....................................................................................................................... 30

3.4.

Final Cause-Effect Diagram........................................................................................ 32

CHAPTER IV – ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS AND ACTION PLAN............................ 3
4
4.1.

Alternative solutions ................................................................................................... 34

4.1.1.Establishing a marketing department .....................................................................................
4.1.2.Investing more capital budget to conduct marketing activities .............................................
4.1.3.Hiring employees to support marketing activities ..................................................................

4.2.

34
36
38

Action plan ................................................................................................................. 39

CHAPTER VI – SUPPORTING MATERIALS................................................................ 4
5
References ...................................................................................................................... 6
2

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List of tables
Table 2.1........................................................................................................................................................ 10
Table 3.1........................................................................................................................................................ 26
Table 3.2........................................................................................................................................................ 27
Table 4.1........................................................................................................................................................ 41

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List of figures
Figure 1.1...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 1.2...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 2.1...................................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 2.2...................................................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 2.3...................................................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 2.4...................................................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 3.1...................................................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 3.2...................................................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 3.3...................................................................................................................................................... 33
Figure 4.1...................................................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 4.2...................................................................................................................................................... 40

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Executive summary
Nowadays, as the world has developed continuously, the living standard has

been improved rapidly. In order to meet those standards, more and more businesses
have been established. Specifically, in the garment industry, there are many firms that
are able to providing uniforms for both schools and businesses. However, there is just
a few companies meet the required standards of customers. Therefore, Viet Phat
Uniform Limited Company has been established to offer high quality uniform with
reasonable price.
As a new and small business, Viet Phat Uniform Limited Company has many weak
aspects that need improvements, especially the marketing field. Firstly, it is realized that it
has limited customer network, lack of brand awareness from the customer, and ineffective
digital marketing. From the above symptoms, it is considered that Viet Phat is facing some
potential problems, such as high price and poor product’s quality, lack of marketing
activities and poor training for sales staffs. Nevertheless, through analyzing and
synthesizing data and information, it is realized that the main problem that it has faced is
lack of marketing activities while its B.O.D just focus on expanding the customer network
based on their relationships. At the beginning, it is considered that because its B.O.D does
not pay enough attention to the marketing aspect and they chose wrong personnel to cover
the marketing job that lead to its main problem. However, based on the above analysis,
data and arguments of its B.O.D, CEO, staffs, and other stakeholders, it is found that the
main cause that leads to this problem is lack of resource. Particularly, because of the
difficulties in the initial stage of a startup business, its B.O.D cannot provide sufficient
resource including both human and financial resource to implement marketing activities.
After many internal and external factors have been considered, it is suggested that Viet
Phat shoud recruit more employees to support its CEO who is simultaneously in charge of
the marketing aspect in building an obvious marketing strategy and executing marketing
activities efficiently.

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CHAPTER I –

INTRODUCTION 1.1. The company overview
In Vietnam, students have to wear uniforms when they go to school, especially
in primary and high schools. Additionally, many businesses in Vietnam require their
employees wear uniform when they go to work. Although this is not a new market,
there is a few businesses having reputation in providing uniforms having good quality
for both schools and businesses. Therefore, Viet Phat Uniform Company Limited was
established at the end of 2018 with the ambition of meet the needs of a great number of
customers, gain a big market share in the niche market, and build good reputation to
become one of the most famous uniform brands in Vietnam. Its organizational chart is
as below:

B.O.D

CEO
Sales
Department
3 staffs

Accounting
Department
1 staff

Figure 1.1. The organizational chart of Viet Phat
Its board of directors (B.O.D) consists of 2 persons, they are responsible for investing
money to the company when it needs, making important decisions and also building
the business strategies. The company has a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with
responsibilities of managing all activities of the company, cooperating with BOD to
make business strategies, communicating with departments to deliver tasks to them as
well as it is suitable for its strategies and directions, and work with manufacturers. As
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Viet Phat has just been established for a few months, CEO has to work in many roles to
save costs, especially in marketing aspect. She is responsible for developing business’s
goodwill, conducting marketing activities, such as advertisements on media channels,
marketing campaigns, etc., and suggesting ideas to let customers know about Viet Phat
and its products. It also has an accountant to do accounting tasks as the company does not
have too much accounting activities to do in this initial stage. There are 3 sales staffs in
sales department to approach potential customers in order to boost sales revenue up and
widen customer network. They have to find customers, meet them, and introduce its
products and benefits that customers can get if they cooperate with Viet Phat.
Viet Phat is a startup business which offers uniforms for not only schools but also
businesses. In order to gain more market share, Viet Phat offers customers higher discount
rate than its rivals. Particularly, it offers 30% discount rate for customers when rivals offer
approximately 25%. It competes with other rivals by discount rate in not only the initial
stage but also later. Additionally, Viet Phat always tries to provide customers products
having high quality material and beautiful seam but with competitive price. Because Viet
Phat is a new comer in the market, its target customer concentrates on schools in Vietnam
in initial stage. As those schools have new students every year, they have to order
uniforms for both new and current students. It will bring Viet Phat stable order and income
each year. However, Viet Phat still serves businesses that have demand in order uniforms
to develop the customer network. However, it will be focused more after the company has
certain market share and goodwill in Vietnamese market. The mission statement of Viet
Phat is providing uniforms with high quality material with the competitive price. Viet Phat
does not manufacture clothes, it is the intermediary between the manufacturer and
customers. It finds customers, deals with them, receives orders, and brings them for the
manufacturer. Then, it gives finished products for customers. To assure that Viet Phat can
provide high quality material uniform, it has to deal with manufacturer to get the
agreement of using chosen material. If there is any mistake of finished products, Viet Phat
has responsibility to work with the manufacturer to fix them and give customers products

having high quality.

1.2.

Problem context
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Vietnam’s garment sector has had speedy and sustainable development over the
last few years which have played a crucial role in the country’s socio-economic
development, especially there are approximately 6000 textile and garment
manufacturing firms operating in Vietnam (1). However, almost garment manufactures
in Vietnam produce clothing majorly for export, not focusing on local consumption
market. Vietnam held the 4th position in the top 10 global garment exporters in 2016.
For example, Viet Tien, Nha Be, Garco 10 are familiar brands in garment industry in
Vietnam that concentrate on exporting clothing.

Figure 1.2. World Ranking Among the Top Garment Exporting Countries in 2016
(WTO Reports World Textile and Apparel Trade in 2017)
Because almost big and famous garment brands focus on export market, domestic
market is a “promising land” for small businesses, especially in niche market like
supplying uniforms. Obviously, for the Vietnamese garment market, the demand has been
growing thanks to the higher income and higher living standard of Vietnamese. There are
many opportunities for domestic garment brands if they accept the challenges
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and have a strategy to reach the market. As Viet Phat is a new business in Vietnamese
market, it has many weak aspects that need to be improved and developed.
Particularly, the most important aspect that needs to be developed is the marketing

strategy. Marketing refers to a process in which a product or service is introduced and
promoted to any potential customers. Since it was established, Viet Phat has just
depended on the relationship of its owners to develop the customer network. Thus, it
has not had marketing strategy yet to build the image, brand position, and reputation
although it is very essential in developing business in fierce competitive market.
Customers should have known about its brand name, reputation, and also the image, so
it can gain more market share and widen its customer network. Nowadays, there are
many competitors in the market that already has had reputation and trust from
customers. Rivals can provide products that are not as well as Viet Phat, but they
communicate their value for customers better, so they gain trust from customers.
Hence, more customers prefer to incorporate with them to Viet Phat. They have
effective marketing strategies to communicate to their customers, such as advertising
on social media channels, having their own website, brochures, do some marketing
campaigns and so on. Therefore, if Viet Phat has not had marketing strategy, it can
offer the best products in its niche market, however, no one can even hear of it.

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CHAPTER II – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
2.1.

Symptoms analysis

2.1.1. Limited customer network
Every business would like to widen its customer network as broadly as possible,
Viet Phat also wants the same thing. Nonetheless, it reaches current customers
depending on the owners’ relationships. Specifically, Viet Phat’s owner has good
relationships with those customers, then he convinced them to cooperate with Viet
Phat. In particular, Viet Phat has about only 6 current customers depending on the

owners’ relationship, and they are only schools not businesses. It has not had any
marketing strategies to enlarge its own customer network. Though it is good to
approach certain customers initially, it cannot be considered as a long-term strategy if
Viet Phat has a chance to develop more and more in the market.
CUSTOMER LIST
Name

District

Nguyen Van Thanh Primary School

2

Dong Den Secondary School

Binh Chanh

Hung Long Primary School

Binh Chanh

Phu Tho Primary School

11

Vinh Xuyen Primary School

6

Thang Long Secondary School

3

Table 2.1. Viet Phat’s customers list
2.1.2. Lack of brand awareness
As Viet Phat does not have any marketing activities, customers do not know anything
about them. It cannot reach its target customer because its products and services have not
been introduced to them. They do not apprehend factors that products can offer for them.
Therefore, it loses a great number of customers as they do not know the benefits when
they do business with it. In particular, a survey was conducted by interviewing some
people about their awareness of some Vietnamese uniform brands, all of people who are
interviewed that whether or not they knew anything about Viet Phat said that
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they had never heard anything about Viet Phat. They do not know that what services or
products Viet Phat can offer to them and benefits when they choose its products. For
example, a respondent stated that she thought about Saigon Uniform, Dony Uniform
when she was asked about the famous and popular uniform brands in Vietnam, and she
did not have any idea about Viet Phat. She shared:
“My company requires all employees wearing uniforms from Monday to Thursday,
and we are allowed wearing “free styles” on Friday. I see that uniforms we received
from the company having tag of Dony uniform and Saigon uniform. Then I asked some
of my friends about those brands, they told me that they were very popular in the
uniform market.” (Ms. Vy Vo, 29 years old, an employee of a logistics company)
Then she was asked that how she had known those brands, and she replied:
“My company choose those companies as a partner to provide uniforms for us.
Moreover, I had saw their advertisements on social media channel like Youtube and
Facebook, they were very interesting. Then I search them on Internet, there is lots of
information on their own websites that helped me a lot to understand more about

them.” (Ms. Vy Vo, 29 years old, an employe of a logistics company)
Even though sales staffs find new customers and introduce them Viet Phat’s
products, the amount of customers they can reach is very small to make customers
have brand awareness about Viet Phat and build goodwill in the market. Particularly, a
sales staff calls, emails, and meets approximately 15 to 20 people, not all of them
however answer the phone or take time to listen to sales staff, read emails, and meet
him or her. Therefore, brand awareness affects significantly to the performance of sales
staffs. A sales staff shared that because customers do not apprehend anything about
Viet Phat, it is very difficult for them to convince customers listen to them or meet
them. Hence, sometimes they feel discouraged and they did not want to do their job
anymore. Some sales staffs stated:
“I had put all of my effort to convince customers cooperate with Viet Phat but they
said that they did not know anything about Viet Phat, they were afraid that it would
not offer high quality products for them.” (Mr. Binh Vo, sales staff of Viet Phat)
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“I had used knowledge and skills trained in the company to persuade customers,
however, they rejected to deal with me as they have not ever heard anything about Viet
Phat, they did not trust what I said.” (Ms. Minh Le, sales staff of Viet Phat)
2.1.3. Ineffective digital marketing
Viet Phat has not invested in digital marketing yet. Specifically, it has not had its
own website for customers to search it on Internet. It is very difficult for customers to
find out and recognize it. Because nowadays when people would like to do business
with any company, they will search it on Internet first to know necessary information
about it, then deciding to cooperate with it or not. If a company does not have any
information on Internet, customers feel that it is not reliable to collaborate. In addition,
while rivals have their own website to provide information about them, Viet Phat does
not have it, customers certainly choose to do business with its rivals. Although it has
the Facebook page, there is a few activities on this page to provide information about

the company, its services and products. Furthermore, the content on posts on Facebook
are not attractive enough to appeal more customers. Hence, it gets low interaction from
customers and a few followers.

Figure 2.1. The number of people approach posts on Facebook page

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Figure 2.2. The number of followers on Facebook page

Figure 2.3. The interaction of people on Facebook page
Regarding with those pictures above, it can be said that the CEO does not care much in
developing the Facebook page. Also, in order to save money it does not have any
advertisements on popular channels on Internet, so it cannot reach more potential
customers. As the CEO has many tasks, she does not have enough time to do some
marketing activities carefully. When the interview was conducted, she said that she
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sometimes really wants to do some marketing activities for the company, but she has to
take time for many other tasks.
2.2.

Problem analysis

2.2.1. Potential problems
2.2.1.1.

Lack of marketing activities

Marketing is considered as a heart of the business because most of activities
work based on marketing. In particular, selling products or services to customers is the
most important thing of a business because it brings profit for the company to maintain
and develop it. According to all of above symptoms, it can be said that Viet Phat has an
ineffective marketing strategy. Firstly, the owner of Viet Phat has not yet had any
activities to approach more customers. It develops customer network depending on the
relationship of the owner. Regarding with one of the owners of Viet Phat, he agreed
that Viet Phat depended too much on his relationship to reach customers:
“As one of the owners of Viet Phat, my responsibility is developing it by finding out
way to approach more and more customers, giving direction to its development, and
also managing it. However, currently Viet Phat depends too much on my relationships
to reach customers. It does not have any strategy to approach potential customers and
introduce our products.” (Mr. Quang Dang, one of the owners of Viet Phat)
Secondly, although it has introduced its products through sales staffs and on
Facebook page, it seems to be not effective. Particularly, there is no new customers
coming to Viet Phat because they see it on Facebook or they are introduced by sales
staffs. It can be seen from the symptom of low interaction and followers on Facebook
page. All of current customers come to the company via the owner of Viet Phat.
According to an interview with the CEO of Viet Phat and she is also the one directly in
charge of marketing activities in the company, she confirmed that the current
marketing activities like Facebook page and through sales staffs do not bring any good
result for the company:
“Although we still have some marketing activities like posting pictures and information
on Facebook page and let the sales staffs introduce products directly or via telephone
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to customers, they do not bring any good consequences for Viet Phat. Specifically,
those marketing activities do not approach new customers, so there is no new

customers working with Viet Phat because they see it on Facebook or they hear it from
sales staffs.” (Ms. Van Le, CEO of Viet Phat)
Next, lack of communication value to customers, especially providing
information of what benefits exactly it can offer, is the vital factors in marketing
strategies that leading to ineffectively approach new customers. Specifically, Viet Phat
does not have any website or advertisements on other website to introduce its products
to customers.
2.2.1.2.

Higher price and poor products’ quality

Nowadays, the competition among many rivals in the industry through price
and quality is so fierce. Every business would like to offer the product with good
quality but with competitive price. Also, it is the thing that every customers want to be
offered. Therefore, the question is whether the price that Viet Phat offers is higher than
its rivals but its products’ quality is not good enough, so it cannot have more
customers. Customers who received products from Viet Phat was asked that what they
thought about the price and quality of Viet Phat’s products, then all of them stated that
they were satisfied with products they had received, they are manufactured with high
quality material, beautiful seam and competitive price:
“When I received uniforms from Viet Phat, I was really surprised and satisfied
because those products had been manufactured carefully with good quality of material
and competitive price even though Viet Phat is a new business in the market.” (Ms.
Quynh Truong, an employees in high school that in charge of controlling the quality of
uniforms received from partners)
“We were very glad when we received Viet Phat’s uniforms as those products have met
the needs of our school with beautiful seam, high quality material and competitive
price comparing with our last uniform providers.” (Mr. Phu Tran, vice president of a
high school in Ho Chi Minh City)

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Although schools and businesses are the one who sign the contract to incorporate with
Viet Phat, they are not the ultimate consumers using those products. For example,
regarding with schools, the ultimate consumers are students and the customers who
pay for those products are students’ parents. According to Ms. Tuyen Nguyen, a
principal of a high school in HCMC, she said:
“My school had a problem with uniforms inventories in the last year. Particularly, as
the quality of uniforms provided by the last uniform provider is not good, students’
parents decided to buy uniforms from other shops instead of the school, then they
bought logo of the school and paste them on their uniforms. Thus, there is a huge
amount of uniform inventories from last year that has not been sold yet.” (Ms. Tuyen
Nguyen, a principal of a high school)
Therefore, as now customers has many choices in buying products, Viet Phat try its best to
bring products with high quality for customers but not with high price. Specifically,
because all schools had uniform provider before, but now they choose Viet Phat as a
uniform supplier, Viet Phat try to keep the same price as the last providers offered but with
the same or better quality than them. Hence, it can be said that Viet Phat has tried its best
to meet customers’ needs, so its products now can satisfy its customers.

2.2.1.3.

Poor training for sales staffs

Salespersons play an important role in doing business with customers because
they are the one that directly meet, communicate and deal with customers. Therefore,
training for sales staffs is a necessary process that every business need to do, especially
Viet Phat as it is very new to customers. Every sales employee coming to Viet Phat is
trained for selling skills by Mr. Tu Nguyen who is the one Viet Phat has incorporated

to train all sales staffs. He has had experiences in sales aspect for 5 years as a sales
manager. When he was asked about the performance of those staffs during training
session, he said that their performance was quite good, they paid attention for what he
had talked and try to remember them. He said:
“I tried my best to transmit knowledge and skills I had learnt and experieced that are
necessary for sales staffs. When I trained them, I saw that all of them had paid their
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attention too much to listen to me, write them down, and also tried to remember them
when I asked them again about some topics.” (Mr. Tu Nguyen, Viet Phat’s selling
trainer)
Furthermore, when 3 sales staffs were asked about the reasons why customers usually
refuse to incorporate with Viet Phat, they listed many reasons, such as customers
signed a contract with other uniform providers before they come, they have not known
anything about Viet Phat so they did not trust what the sales staffs said, their uniform
inventory in the last year had not been sold yet and so on.
“I had put all of my effort to convince customers cooperate with Viet Phat but they
said that they did not know anything about Viet Phat, they were afraid that it would
not offer high quality products for them.” (Mr. Binh Vo, sales staff of Viet Phat)
“I had used knowledge and skills trained in the company to persuade customers,
however, they rejected to deal with me as they have not ever heard anything about Viet
Phat, they did not trust what I said.” (Ms. Minh Le, sales staff of Viet Phat)
“Some customers said that their orgnizations had had problems about uniforms
inventory last year, their last providers manufactured products that did not meet their
standards, so there were a huge amount of inventories that they need to solve. Thus,
they were afraid that a new business like Viet Phat would not offer the high quality
products for them.” (Mr. Nam Tran, sales staff of Viet Phat)
Although they try their best to persuade customers cooperating with Viet Phat by using
selling techniques that had been trained, customers still say “NO” with them.

Therefore, it can be stated that the skills that had been trained of sales staffs is not the
reasons that customers reject to deal with Viet Phat that leading to the limited customer
network and lack of brand awareness.
2.2.2. Main problem validation
“A successful product has to fulfill a specific need in the market”, particularly, it
must perform its functions, benefits, and also features (2). Viet Phat has done it so well
because it has manufactured high quality products that are recognized by customers. With
the mission of offering products with high quality materials, beautiful seam, and
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competitive price, Viet Phat always tries its best to satisfied customers by both its
products and price. As mentioned above, according to customers that had received
products from Viet Phat, they were really satisfied with them. They shared that:
“When I received uniforms from Viet Phat, I was really surprised and satisfied
because those products had been manufactured carefully with good quality of material
and competitive price even though Viet Phat is a new business in the market.” (Ms.
Quynh Truong, an employees in high school that in charge of controlling the quality of
uniforms received from partners)
“We were very glad when we received Viet Phat’s uniforms as those products have met
the needs of our school with beautiful seam, high quality material and competitive
price comparing with our last uniform providers.” (Mr. Phu Tran, vice president of a
high school in Ho Chi Minh City)
Regarding with the price, as Viet Phat would like to keep the same price as its
competitors but providing higher quality products for customers and also with higher
discount rate, the uniform price is considered as a competitive price in the market.
When being asked about the price of Viet Phat, some customers said:
“With the experiences of working with many uniform providers before, I think that the
price Viet Phat offering for schools and organizations based on the price of last
providers but with higher quality products was very suitable and competitive.

Customer can try its products with the same price as they had to pay before. Then
when they received Viet Phat’s products, they were very happy with them. It seems to
be an excellent idea to develop Viet Phat and help it gain more market share.” (Mr.
Phu Tran, vice president of a high school in Ho Chi Minh City)
“In my point of view, offering the same price its competitors is a good idea for Viet
Phat because the competitor’s price is very suitable and competitive for customers to
agree dealing with them. Therefore, if Viet Phat provides higher quality products with
the same price as its competitors, it will satisfy customers’ needs. As a customer of Viet
Phat, I think that it offers customers not only good products but also good price.” (Ms.
Tram Nguyen, a principal of a high school in HCMC)
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As Viet Phat is the new business in the market, it does not have enough figure to prove
that the product and price is not a problem. However, according to all of the interview
conducted to collect data, feedback, and comments from stakeholders, it can be stated
that the product and price of Viet Phat is not a problem that it is facing and needed to
be solved.
Regarding with the training sales staffs, Viet Phat always tries its best to do it in
the best way as they can even though it is a new business that has not experiences and
lots of money. Because Viet Phat comprehends that the company will lose more time,
money, and also effort when employees are not trained adequately to perform their
duties (3), its board of directors has paid their attention in training their employees. As
mentioned above, Viet Phat cooperate with Mr. Tu Nguyen to train for sales staafs. He
is the one that has had many experiences and knowledge in sales aspect as 5-yearexperience sales manager. Being asked that what they think about the selling trainer
and what they had learnt from him, some sales employees stated:
“In my opinon, Mr. Tu Nguyen is not only a professional trainer but also a
experienced sales manager. He has good expertise and knowledge in sales aspect that
can teach us. I had learnt many skills and knowledge from the case studies in reality
that he had opportunities to experience in the past. Some important skills for a sales

staffs that I had learnt are selling skill, communication skill, persuading skill, dealing
skill and so on. I think they are very useful for my job.” (Mr. Nam Tran, a sales staff)
“According to his performance, I think Mr. Tu Nguyen is a a good sales manager that
has a good background of sales knowledge and lots of experiences in this field. His
performnace was very impressive as he was so professional. He used the real case
studies to teach us essential skills in sales field, such as communication skill, problem
solving skill, persuading skill and etc.” (Mr. Binh Vo, a sales staff)
“After the training courses, I recognized that I had learnt many necessary skills and
knowledge from Mr. Tu Nguyen. He attracted our attention by using practical case
studies and also his sense of humour to release the stress in the training course.
However, it still gained good result because we could learn many things from him. In
the end of the date, we had an exam to test what we remember after training to remind
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us about the knowledge that we had learnt. I think it was a good method in training
employees.” (Ms. Minh Le, a sales staff)
As a new business,Viet Phat does not have enough figure to prove any problem. Thus,
synthesizing from aboved arguments, it can be stated that Viet Phat has done training
course for employees very well. As a result, it cannot be a problem that lead to limited
customer network and lack of brand awareness.
Based on symptoms analysis and above arguments, lack of marketing strategy can
be considered as a main problem of Viet Phat. Particularly, its customer network is limited
and customers even cannot regconize its brand because it had not had any marketing
strategy to communicate with customers. Marketing plays an essential role because it
refers to all activities that associated with selling the company’s products or services (4). It
is very effective in communicate the business’ value proposition to its customers.
Simultaneously, marketing is a useful way for customer education. In order to decide to
buy or use a product or service, customers need to have solid understanding about the
product or service, such as what it is and how it works with them (5). A marketing strategy

of a business refers to its marketing activities and decisions related to generating and
sustaining competitive advantage of the business (6), concentrating on ways in which the
business can differentiate itself from its rivals by capitalizing on its distinctive strengths to
deliver better value to its customers within a given environment
(7). Therefore, building a marketing strategy for a business refers to making a plan
including marketing activities in order to communicate the business’s value proposition to
customers and distinguish itself among many competitors in the market. As a result, if a
company does not have the marketing activities and strategy, it will not have any diretions
to align to develop its products and bring them to customers. Furthermore, it makes every
decision made based on risky guesses. It can waste the company’s resources, time, and
money on efforts when the business’s owners have no idea about what they would do with
their businesses. Without the marketing activities, not only customers do not know about
Viet Phat as it does not have any methods to communicate to them but also it may put
itself into risky situation. Hence, it can be stated that lack of

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marketing activities is the main problem that Viet Phat has to face with and needs to
solve immediately if it would like to develop more and more in the future.
2.2.3. Problems – Symptoms Map

Figure 2.4. The Problems-Symptoms Map of Viet Phat

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CHAPTER III – CAUSE ANALYSIS
3.1.

Potential causes

3.1.1. Lack of attention from the board of directors (B.O.D)
Currently, the marketing strategy has not had a clear direction for Viet Phat to
align to do and all of marketing activities are not conducted effectively. Therefore, the
question is whether the B.O.D of Viet Phat does not pay enough attention for it. Being
asked that if they concern about the development of the marketing strategy, one of the
owner of Viet Phat replied:
“As Viet Phat is a new business, I really concern about the marketing strategy and
also would like to marketing its products and brand to customers so as to more and
more customers know about it. Nonetheless, I would like to develop the customer
network through my relationships in the initial stage to save costs. Although our
company has an employee responsible for marketing field, it has not brought any good
result for the company.” (Mr. Quang Dang, one of the owner of Viet Phat)
According to Mr. Quang Dang, it can be said that the B.O.D of Viet Phat has paid
attention to the marketing strategy to develop it, but it does not attract more attention
because it takes more costs. Because its B.O.D concentrates too much on expanding
the customer network through the owners’ relationships, they had not build an obvious
marketing strategy yet. They just do anything that they think it would impact Viet Phat
in the good way. Specifically, being interviewed that if Viet Phat has any marketing
strategy and activities, the one that is in charge of marketing department shared:
“We do not have any long-term marketing strategy to develop Viet Phat. Regarding
with the short-term one, we just brainstorm about the ideas, think that it would be a
good one, then we try to conduct it.” (Ms. Van Le, CEO and the one in charge of
marketing aspect of Viet Phat)
Therefore, it can be stated that its B.O.D had paid attention for marketing department
to promote its products and brand to customers, but it may not enough because of the
difficulties in the initial stage of a new business like Viet Phat.
3.1.2. Lack of resources
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As a new business, Viet Phat facing many obtacles of resources in the initial
stage. Particularly, it has limited capital because its has only 2 owners that invest
capital for it and there is no outside investors. It can be considered as its disadvantage
as it would not have adequate capital investment when it needs. For example,
regarding with marketing field, because of limited capital, Viet Phat cannot conduct
more marketing activities to promote its products and brand and also build a marketing
strategy. Building a marketing strategy needs a lot of money, time, and also human
resource, so the company that would like to do it should spend a great amount of
resources. One of its owners said:
“I absolutely agree that we do not have a lot of money to invest in Viet Phat. It is so
risky that if Viet Phat needs a huge amount of capital immediately to run a project or a
marketing campaign. As it is in the initial stage, we try our best to use capital that we
have to operate it. However, whenever it comes to sustainable growth stage, we will
consider to allow other investors join with us.” (Mr. Quang Dang, one of the owner of
Viet Phat)
In addition to capital, human resource plays a vital role in building an effective
marketing strategy because they are the one that directly do those tasks. Hence, hiring
qualified employees contributes to the success of the company. Nevertheless, as Viet
Phat is a new business, it cannot offer attractive salary and benefits for employees, so
that the qualified employees do not want to work for it. Moreover, in order to save
more cots, its B.O.D decided that its CEO would be in charge of marketing
department. It means that she has responsibilities to all activities of marketing
department. CEO of Viet Phat stated:
“I would like to hire qualified employees for Viet Phat, but sometimes they do not really
want to work for Viet Phat because it is a new business and it cannot offer very good
salary and benefits. Moreover, it is a small business and does not have the reputation, so
the B.O.D decided that I would cover the marketing department to save more costs in the
initial stage.” (Ms. Van Le, CEO and marketing manager of Viet Phat)

As a result, she has to do everything in marketing aspect to develop business. She can
suggest good marketing activities and strategy, however, it may not the best one for Viet
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