Solution to enhance the effectiveness of advertising activities , a case of vietnam international bank (VIB)

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business
------------------------------

Nguyen Thi Nhat Linh

SOLUTIONS
TO ENHANCE THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF ADVERTISING ACTIVITIES:
A CASE OF VIETNAM
INTERNATIONAL BANK (VIB)
ID: 22130035

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2016


ACKNOWLEGEMENT
Writing this thesis needed a long duration of hard working from the author and careful
instructing from the team of Supervisor of International School of Business. The thesis
has been finished with the help of Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang - who has given us the
useful and excellent information about the way of identifying and solving problem in
thesis. We would like to give a special thank to Ms. Mai Trang and other Supervisors in
ISB for their help, guidance throughout the process of making this thesis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Executive summary......................................................................................................
II. The problem identification ........................................................................................
2.1

Company introduction ............................................................................................

2.2

Symptom and real problem .....................................................................................

2.2.1

Business situation of VIB and other banks in recent years ...............

2.2.2

The first in-depth interview .............................................................

2.2.3

Possible reasons of low revenue of VIB............................................

2.2.4

The most important problem: ineffective advertising activity ..........

2.3

Cause and effect diagram ........................................................................................

III. Solutions ....................................................................................................................
3.1

Alternative one: Enhancing advertising activities for VIB ...................................

3.1.1

Advertising on LCD screen in elevators ...........................................

3.1.2

Advertising on print media ...............................................................

3.1.3

Advertising on television..................................................................


3.2

Alternative two: Electronic word of mouth............................................................

3.2.1

Email..................................................................................................

3.2.2

Social media ......................................................................................

3.3

Choosing best solution for VIB ..............................................................................

IV. Implementation .........................................................................................................
V. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................
VI. Supporting Information ...........................................................................................
6.1

Research methodology ............................................................................................


6.1.1 Primary data......................................................................................................................................... 46
6.1.2 Secondary data.................................................................................................................................... 48
6.2 Result of the first qualitative research........................................................................................... 50
6.2.1 Interview five current customers of VIB.................................................................................. 50
6.2.2 Interview five customers of other banks................................................................................... 51
6.2.3 The common theme of the first in-depth interview.............................................................. 63
6.3 Result of the second in-depth interview on five customers................................................... 64
Reference........................................................................................................................................................ 85


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Chartered Capital of the four banks in 2015..................................................................... 5
Table 2. Revenue from business activities of four banks in Viet Nam in the past three
years................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Table 3. List of studies investigated the antecedents of revenue................................................ 7
Table 4. List of studies investigated factors affecting effectiveness of advertising ............21
Table 5. Expected cost of advertising on printed media and LCD in 2016............................28
Table 6. Expected cost of advertising on television in 2016........................................................ 31
Table 7. List of sources of secondary data.......................................................................................... 49
Table 8. The answers of current customers of VIB in the first in-depth interview .............50

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Revenue from business activities of four banks in Viet Nam in the past three
years................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 2. Cause and effect diagram of Low revenue...................................................................... 20


SOLUTIONS TO ENHANCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
ADVERTISING ACTIVITIES: A CASE OF VIETNAM
INTERNATIONAL BANK (VIB)

I. Executive summary
The thesis is to solve problem of insufficiency in advertising activities of VIB. The symptom
in VIB at present is low revenue in recent years when comparing the level of revenue of VIB
in recent years with three other banks that have the same chartered capital.
Basing on literature reviews, author identified fours aspects which were proved that they directly
impact on the revenue of corporation including advertising activities, product innovation,
product quality and capability of staff. To investigate these aspects, author used results of the indepth interviews and secondary data from VIB. The results showed that there is no problem with
product innovation, product quality and capability of staff of VIB. With advertising activities,
VIB is still launching many new programs but the customers cannot catch information as well as
pay more attention to them. Basing on literature review, result of the in-depth interview,
secondary data from VIB and the current situation of the bank, the author identified that
advertising activity is the main problem that leads to the low revenue of VIB. Solutions of
problem were proposed basing on four aspects. They include literature review, current situation
of VIB, secondary data from many sources, opinions of customers through the second in-depth
interview. There are two main solutions which are proposed. In first solution, there are three
small solutions and the second solution includes two small


solutions. Therefore there are totally five small solutions but there are four small solutions that

will be chosen basing on the analysis of their advantages and disadvantages. To be more
specific, the whole process of identifying and solving problem is presented clearly in the next
parts.

AI. Problem identification

2.1 Company introduction

According to Leung (2009), since 1990, Vietnamese banking system was divided into two
systems according to two levels, including Central Government banking and Commercial
banking system. After establishing in 1990, banking industry has had a strong developing
speed. Since 2007 to now, the rising speed of turnover in the whole industry is 19.47%,
higher three times than the rising speed of average GDP (2007 – 2014) of the whole
Vietnamese economy from 2007. About the industrial structure, Vietnam’s banking sector
includes four majors and one minor state-owned commercial bank (SOCB), thirty-one joint
stock banks (JSBs), six joint venture banks and six 100 per cent-owned foreign banks.
From the day of becoming the official member of World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, a
new era of opportunity and challenge is opened for the Vietnamese economy as well as the other
fields. According to the commitment of joining WTO, the foreign trading banks are established
with 100% foreign capital at Viet Nam. Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank,
th

abbreviated as Vietnam International Bank (VIB), was founded on 18 September
2


1996. Before the opportunity and challenge of the international integration, VIB has
continuously made efforts and improved the product quality in each filed of operation. Going
through eighteen years of operation and development, now VIB has become one of the leading
commercial joint stock banks at Viet Nam. VIB‘s area operations has spread on several

diversified products. For customers who are individuals, VIB provides products regarding to
saving, loans, insurance, etc. For customers who are organizations, VIB focuses on offering the
products of cash management, e-banking, loans, trade finance, etc. These information above
are taken from VIB website. On this research, the author focuses on both the customers who
are individuals and organizations to analyze and study about the problems that VIB is facing.
To increase the effectiveness in every fields of its operation, VIB has performed and followed
the aim of becoming the most innovative and customer-centric bank of Vietnam as the vision
for its whole system. VIB also defined the missions separately for each objects. For customers
who are individuals and organizations, VIB follows the way of providing innovative, customercentric solutions to satisfy their needs. For employees, VIB improves and encourages the high
performance culture, entrepreneurship and openness in the work environment. For
shareholders, the bank provides sustainable and attractive returns to their shareholders and also
support development for community. Besides, VIB also concentrates on the five main core
values including customer focus, excellence, honesty, teamwork and discipline.
In most banks, the main departments include Sales, Marketing, Investment, Human Resources,
Accounting, Risk Management, Transaction, etc. Marketing and Brand Department often take

3


the responsibility of accessing customers and advertising to them so many people can know
the bank’s brand name and use its products. The main tasks of Marketing team in banking
embrace planning for credit card marketing and branding objective, expanding cooperation
with merchants to develop and advertising campaigns, analyzing market trends and
recommend changes to card marketing and business development strategy, developing and
leading marketing team, execution new concepts, business models, channels, partners to
position business as innovator and leader, collaborating with sales to develop strategic
partnership activities and implement the execution, working with advertising, sales and
departments and branches to generate interest in product, etc. Advertising activity is also the
function that was focused to analyze in this research for supporting problem solving.

2.2 Symptom and real problem
Since the day of becoming the official member of World Trade Organization in 2007, many
new opportunities and challenges are opened for the Vietnamese economy and other fields.
This also causes the great challenges of competition for banks at Viet Nam.
VIB is a commercial bank at Vietnam and also cannot avoid the fierce competition among the
other banks. Competitors of VIB includes both Vietnamese and foreign banks at Vietnamese
market. Basing on the chartered capital at the latest time, there are about four banks which have
the same level of capital with VIB including AB Bank, Shinhan Viet Nam Bank and Nam A Bank
(see Table 1). They are seen as banks with same size because their chartered capitals are

4


in the limit from VND 4,000 to 4,800 million. All these banks also have the operating duration
more than twenty years at Vietnamese market and got their own achievement and valuable prizes.
The business result of four banks will be reflected through the figures in Table 1.

2.2.1 Business situation of VIB and other banks in recent years
As mentioned in the above part, the three selected banks having the same chartered capital
with VIB for comparison include AB Bank, Shinhan Viet Nam Bank and Nam A Bank. Table
1. Chartered Capital of the four banks in 2015 (Unit: VND Billion)

Bank
Chartered
Capital

(Source: Wikipedia.org)
Through the past three years from 2012 to 2014, each bank got a different level of income
from their products and services depending on their own capabilities. Below is the table of
revenue from business activities of four banks in the past three years.

5


Table 2. Revenue from business activities of four banks in Viet Nam in the past three years

Year
2012
2013
2014

(Source: Official Financial reports of banks in the website)
In the recent years, revenue from business activities of VIB dose just slightly rise. According to
figures getting from VIB website, growing speed of revenue in the past three years (from 2012
to 2014) is so small (just from 3% - 8% in 2012-2014 duration). In comparison with other
competitors, VIB does not have a very good level of revenue in the market.

2,0

1,8

1,6

1,4

1,2

1,0

8

6

4

2
2012

2013

2014

Figure 1. Revenue from business activities of four banks in Viet Nam in the past three
years (Drawing from Table 2)

6


Through the chart, we can see that VIB is holding the small revenue level in comparison with
the three same size-banks in Vietnamese market. It is just higher than Nam A Bank and lower
than the two other banks. This is not a good sign for business status of VIB in the future when
the competition is more and more cutthroat and having appearances of many more new banks.
The low revenue of VIB is just the symptom of a certain problem that VIB is facing and need
necessary solutions. To find the possible reasons of low revenue of VIB, an in-depth interview
with ten customers was conducted.

2.2.2 The first in-depth interview
Reasons of low revenue can come from many aspects in corporation. To identify reasons,
customers in qualitative research will be asked about the basic problems from different
aspects. These problems are proved that they have impact on the revenue of a corporation by
many previous studies. Below are the list of problems that having direct effect on revenue.

Table 3. List of studies investigated the antecedents of revenue
No.

Author
1

Uddin, Lopa and
Oheduzzaman (2014)

7


2

Olson and Bokor (1995)

Product innovation is the
most significant factor, next
is planning process

3

Chittithaworn, Islam,

Customer and market, SMEs

Keawchana and Yusuf

characteristics, resources

(2011)

and finance, external
environment are the most
significant factors, next is
product quality

4

5

Kessuvan, Parthanadee

Product quality is the most

and Buddhakulsomsiri

significant factor, next are

(2015)

place, price and advertising

Saeed, Lodhi, Mukhtar,

Brand image is the most

Hussain, Mahmood and

significant factor, next are

Ahmad (2013)

brand attachment and
environment effects

6

Hassan, Hamid,

Product quality is the most

Muhammad and Rahman

significant factor, next are

(2010)

marketing strategies, supplier
selection and influencers

7

Napompech and

Product quality is the most
significant factor, next are

8

Kuawiriyapan (2011)
8

Simanjuntak and
Tjandrawinata (2011)

9

Salvi and Prajapati
(2015)

10

Thagunna and Khanal
(2013)

With above list, there are many factors that affect the revenue of a corporation. Outcomes from the
problem of low revenue are mostly the poor performance of all works in corporation. If the low
revenue is not improved, the firm cannot invest more in its business channels to expand market
and enhance budget to invest in human resources quality. According to Hand (as cited in
Simanjuntak et al., 2011), many companies make serious efforts to generate their revenue

9


because it is the main business channel of company and can help increase the firm’s
performance. In the above list, the problems that have most impact on revenue including
advertising, product quality, product innovation, customer care service, etc. Therefore, the
problems are chosen for checking including the aspects of product innovation, product quality,

capability of staff in customer care service and advertising activity of VIB. The in-depth
interview was performed at Ho Chi Minh City with ten customers; among them are five
customers who have used products of VIB more than six months to investigate the advertising
programs, product innovation, product quality and capability of VIB staffs, and five customers
of other banks to investigate the advertising strategies of VIB. The jobs and locations of
chosen participants are different to collect diversified opinions for advertising activity. The age
of interviewees is from twenty to thirty years old because they are young people and office
staffs who are the target customers of VIB. The transcript of the first in-depth interview is
presented in the part of Supporting Information at page 50.
Firstly, with five current customers of VIB, they are asked six questions. They are people who
have used VIB products in a long time and have experienced with VIB products and services,
therefore they can give exact remarks on the brand recognition of VIB, the product innovation,
product quality and capability of VIB staffs. Through the interview, the answers of customers are
nearly the same in six questions. In the first question about the logo or main colors of VIB, there is
just one person can remember the color of VIB logo, the other ones do not remember exactly or
even cannot remember anything about it. Similar to the first question, customers also

10


do not know clearly about the recent advertising programs of VIB. These two questions play an
important role in defining the current problem of VIB because they are also possible reasons and
directly affect the low revenue of VIB in recent years. Romaniuk and Sharp (as cited in Abideen
and Saleem, 2011) stated that the main role of advertising is to affect the consumer buying
decision. Customer can buy and use a product or a service more thanks to their memories about
this brand through its effective advertising. In the third question, when being asked about the
innovation in VIB products, all of them answered they do not see it in VIB product because they
supposed that VIB does not have any difference or striking point against other banks. This factor
also has an important role in finding the reason of low revenue of VIB because when VIB does not
impress its image into customer’s memory, customers can not remember it in each of their

purchasing decision. Gjerdeet at. (as cited in Hamid, 2012) said that the demand of customers
increase when they are expecting the innovation from services. With the fourth question,
customers evaluated the quality of VIB products at a normal level with no complains and no
special compliments as well. Result of this factor also has impact on the matter of low revenue. If
customers find another bank with better quality, they will choose it instead of VIB.
Ackaradejruangsri (2012) made a research to examine about the effect of product and service
quality on consumer buying decision. In the dimensions of product and service quality, the most
important factors that have big impact on consumer buying decision include reliability, function
and durability. In the next question about the attitude and support of VIB staffs, customers gave
positive comments when they find the hospitality and

11


satisfaction with information and advice from VIB staffs of customer care service to solve their
requests. In the final question, they told that if having chance to introduce another bank for
their relatives, instead of recommending VIB, customers mentioned the other banks like
Vietcombank, Sacombank, Agribank, etc. because of their familiarization and good quality of
products and services.
With five customers from other banks, they are just asked about the advertising programs of VIB.
They are not current customers of VIB so they cannot evaluate about product quality or customer
care service of VIB. Therefore they are given opinions about the advertising activities. In the time
of making the in-depth interview, there are many advertising programs of VIB which are being
performed like Fulfill your Tet holiday with VIB, VIB offers preferential loans for home and car
buyers on Tet holidays, Enjoy Tet with Vietnam Airlines Holidays and VIB Cards, Waiver annual
fee for VIB credit cards, Get 500,000 VND when opening VIB current account online, etc. Most
of interviewees said that they do not know about these advertising campaigns. Some of them said
that they just care of advertising activities of the bank that they are using. Some of them indicate
that when seeing advertising programs of other banks, they will have attention if the advertisings
are attractive, exciting and suitable to their current demand. Then they will make comparison and

consideration on that advertising with many aspects like price, quality, reputation, etc. before
making purchasing decision. Hence, an advertising program can create opportunity of purchases
from new customers, with condition

12


that the content of advertisings must attract to the target customers and be communicated
on right channels.

2.2.3 Possible reasons of low revenue of VIB
Low revenue is one of the symptoms of a corporation that is so easy to recognize and it
reflects a certain implicit problem that we need to propose suitable solutions for improving the
corporation’s growth. Below is the analyzing each possible reason of low revenue of VIB to
identify the real problem.
2.2.3.1 Ineffective advertising activity
According to Kumar and Raju (2013), advertising is a form of communication intended to
convince a consumer to purchase or take some action towards products, information or services,
etc. of a corporation. Ineffectiveness in advertising activity is one of the reasons that lead to the
low revenue because its role has impact on consumers buying decision (according to Keller, as
cited in Tsuji et al., 2009). In the research of Tsuji et al., 2009, they found that brand awareness is
the ability of consumers to recall and recognize a particular brand from their memory and has a
positively impact on consumer decision - making process as well as indirectly affect the revenue of
corporation. One of conditions for customers to buy a brand is that they must be made aware of it
(according to Rossiter and Percy, as cited in Macdonald and Sharp, 2003). Therefore, advertising
activity is one of the ways to make customers know more about brand and attract customers to buy
it. The ineffectiveness in advertising activity of VIB is

1
3

got from two sources. First is the data getting from customers and VIB staffs. Interviewing
VIB staff (Ms. Hoang Thi Van Anh – Customer Service Department), VIB just launches the
advertising and promotional programs in the two big occasions in one year; they are New Year
Holiday and Christmas Eve. Each program just often lasts within one month. In addition, in
one report of VIB in April 2015, there are 18.18% of interviewed customers commented that
incentive or promotional program is not frequent. This may lead to the ineffectiveness in
advertising activity when Macdonald and Sharp (2000) stated that the repetition of advertisings
will help to keep the brand in the consumer’s mind and it positively affects the consumer
decision making. Secondly, five current customers in the in-depth interview also cannot
remember exactly the logo and colors of VIB as well as its current advertisings while they are
using products of VIB. Although bank also performed advertising programs in year but the
duration is too short and cannot bring a high effectiveness for VIB. When people do not
remember and recognize the image of VIB on the market, they cannot use its products or
introduce to their relatives. Keller (as cited in Fianto et al., 2014) implied that brand image is
also the perception of a product and reflected on the consumers’ memory about the product.
Cannon et al. (as cited in Fianto et al., 2014) also found that brand image can help to bring
benefit to the company in a long term. In the sixth question of the in-depth interview,
customers also indicated that they will introduce another bank for their relatives because of its
familiarization. Rossiter and Percy (as cited in Macdonald and Sharp, 2003) argued that one
condition for a consumer to buy a brand is that they must be made aware of it. With clearly

1
4


indications from staffs and customers of VIB, ineffective advertising activity is seen as the
most important factor that partly causing the low revenue for VIB.
2.2.3.2 Lacking of product innovation

According to Vadim Kotelnikor (as cited in Hamid, 2012), product/service innovation means
bringing a new way of solving customer’ s problem through launching a new product or service
that creating added value for both customer and the company. Other side which is considered to
study about the reason causing the low revenue of VIB is the product innovation. According to
the result of in-depth interview, customers gave their personal point of view that they do not
see any innovation from VIB in comparison with other banks. This also plays an important role
in purchasing decision of customers and affects the increasing or decreasing of revenue. Hamid
et al. (2012) stated that product and service innovation has a big effect on the market size and
the growth of corporation revenues as well. In the final question of in-depth interview,
customers also stated that they choose another bank to recommend for their relatives like
Vietcombank, Sacombank, Agribank, etc. because of the innovation in products that make
customers trust and feel be attracted. This factor plays an important role in finding the reason
of low revenue of VIB.
2.2.3.3 Normal product quality
According to Garvin (as cited in Wang, 2003), product quality includes eight attributes:
performance, features, conformance, reliability, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and
customer service. One reason may lead to the low revenue of VIB is the problem in quality of
1
5


products. In the fourth question of the in-depth interview, they do not have any complaint
about VIB quality. Deeply analyzing, in one report of VIB in April 2015, there are 42.42% of
customers said that VIB had uncompetitive interest rates which is lower than some other banks
in the retailing market. From information of VIB staff after interviewing one customer, Mrs.
Xuan commented that the saving rate of VIB is too low so she would like to choose another
bank to receive more values in the future. These evidences above are threats of revenue when
customers do not have any impression about it to re-use for the next purchasing. Product
quality is the third factor that is considered in finding the reason of low revenue of VIB. Smith,
(as cited in Hamid et al., 2012) also refers that the success or fails of a product or service in the

market are depended on the two factors including price and quality. Therefore, product quality
has a positively impact on customer buying decision.
2.2.3.4 Capability of VIB staffs
Rossan (2010) said that capability involves the mental components, both conscious and
unconscious, that allow people to choose appropriate ways to solve problems. One aspect
that is considered to find the real problem of VIB is the capability of VIB staffs in customer
care service Department. The limit of this study is that the author cannot approach the Board
of Director of VIB on identifying the problem. However, opinions of VIB staff was certified
as proofs for the problem. Interview VIB staff (Hoang Thi Van Anh – Customer Service
Department), bank provides training courses for new members in the first duration of joining
VIB team to learn about bank, products and working skills. Besides, bank also set up courses

16


for all members in suitable times, including online and offline courses to improve working skills
as well as other soft skills to work better with customers. According to information from VIB,
bank makes the periodic surveys in 153 branches across Vietnam (27 cities/provinces). Data is
based on N=5 customers/branch, 760 customers in one report. In the latest report on May 2015
(performed from April 15 to May 15, 2015 by Marketing & Communication Department of VIB),
result showed that the rate of customers are satisfied with all criteria is increase dramatically
(from 36% up to 57%). The percentage of customers having complaints about all criteria
declines, especially decreasing negative comments for staffs (down from

10.8% in March to 6.3% in April)(Source from Customer Satisfaction Survey in May, 2015 was
delivered by Marketing Communication Department of VIB). In addition, according to the
result of the in-depth interview, customers answered that there are no complaint about VIB
staffs. The consultant and sales officers are friendly, enthusiastic and supportive with all
customers. With these evidences about staff capability, this factor is eliminated in the reasons
of low revenue of VIB in recent years.

2.2.4 The most important problem: ineffective advertising activity
With the four possible reasons which may cause the low yearly revenue of VIB analyzing above,
we eliminated the factor of weak capability of VIB staffs while customers and VIB staffs also
gave positive comments and proofs for VIB staff skills, attitude, working capability, etc. The
remaining factors including advertising activity, product quality and product

17


innovation are also contained evidences that can be the reasons leading to the low revenue of
VIB. The evidences are taken from opinions of customers in the in-depth interview, current
customers of VIB and data which was supplied from VIB staff. Among these three factors, as
analyzing above, advertising activity is the most important factor that affects the low revenue
with clearly and detail evidences. The lacking of attention from current and new customers to
VIB brand image and advertising programs do not impulse their purchasing decision or
introducing VIB products to other people. With these reasons, revenue of VIB cannot improve
more and more in comparison with competitors. The evidences of this problem are collected
from current data about advertising programs of VIB, secondary data from results in VIB
report in April 2015 and opinions of current and new customers in the in-depth interview.
About the two remaining factors, product innovation and product quality, they are also containing
the own problems but the collected data is not strong enough to prove they are the main sources
leading to the low revenue. Therefore, in this research, advertising activity is the main factor that
will be focused to analyze and find effective solutions for improving the current situation of VIB.
According to Oxford Dictionary, “insufficiency” means something which are not strong or
important enough for a particular purpose or the inability of an organ to perform its normal
function. In the context of VIB, insufficiency of advertising activity means the bank has performed
it but these activities cannot reach the proposed targets. Customers do not know about advertising
programs and then revenue of VIB cannot be increased to be

18


adequate to the cost which is spent for advertising. Hence, advertising activity is the
problem that needs to solve to improve the revenue of VIB in the next time.

2.3 Cause and effect diagram
As analyzing on above sections, to find the real problem leading the low revenue of VIB in
recent years, author checked from many fields in VIB. Basing on literature reviews, author
identified fours aspects which were proved that they are directly impact on the revenue of
corporation including advertising activities, product innovation, product quality and capability
of staff. To investigate these aspects, author used evidences from three main sources including
current situation of VIB, secondary data from VIB and primary data from the in-depth
interview with ten customers. The result of these sources showed that there is no problem
with product innovation, product quality and capability of staff of VIB. With advertising
activities, author found many problems on this aspect basing on literature review, result of the
in-depth interview, secondary data from VIB and the current situation of the bank. Therefore,
it was identified to be the main problem that led to the low revenue of VIB. The below
diagram reflects the cause and effect of symptom.

1
9