Closed up

Close-up toothpaste is one of famous products at Unilever Company in Vietnam. The slogan of Close-up is “ long lasting fresh breathes to get people closer”, so the special feature of close up is breath freshness. Although Close-up has been in Vietnamese market for a long time, it has not been very popular. The aim of this marketing plan is helping Chose-up become a market leader, building strong relationship with customer, developing new market in school and increase profit to 20 million dollars.

Close-up has been sold all over Vietnam and the market share of this product is 25% at the moment. However, it has not use promotion absolutely such as advertising and services after sale. Base on the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat, the marketing plan gives some ideas to make Close-up become more popular. Close-up toothpaste provides mostly for youth and people who have from average to high salary in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh cities.

Unilever will introduce new product of Close-up in the future such as new flavor and new size of toothpaste. The price of our product still follows the same for more strategy. It has physical and bundle price. In the future, Close-up will open more outlets and expand more distributors focusing mainly in Ho Chi Minh City. Close-up also has to make some activities to attract customer such as discount, advertising and make some events. Some action programs are created to manage time and achieve them in one year from January to December 2011.

* Unilever was established for more than 100 hundreds years. Since today, they are a very successful company with the slogan: “ helping people to look good, feel good and get more out of life”. Most of their products target many parts of daily life such as: food, home care brands and personal care brands. Some of Unilever’s famous brands are Savory, Spreads Dressings, Omo, Close up and Lipton. Unilever is very well-known in Vietnam. One of their most famous product in Vietnam is Close up toothpaste.

Close up approximately owns 25% of the toothpaste market share, the third largest in Vietnam. Close up has many products such as: Close-up Red Hot, Close-up Milk Calcium nutrient, Close-up Menthol Burst, Close-up Crystal. These products help people to have a freshness and shiny white teeth. * To achieve the position of market leader in Vietnamese toothpaste market in one year, this market plan will focus on building a strong relationship with customers and developing a new market in schools.

* The market for toothpaste in Vietnam is an active market because the Knowledge of oral hygiene is becoming popular. That leads to a demand of a higher quality of toothpaste. In Vietnam, there are many competitors of toothpaste such as P/S, Colgate and others local toothpaste companies. Close up now is one of the top in the market share, they are currently having around 25% in the market.

* Vietnam is the developing country with a big market and cheap labor, as the result more and more reputed brands of toothpaste want to enter the market. The annual income per person in Vietnam is increasing each year, many people now can buy high quality toothpaste for their family, this is the market that Close up want to focus on. They produce toothpaste that offers not only strong teeth, but also a good breath and cosmetic benefit such as shiny white teeth. With this strategy, the market share of Close up is increasing slightly each year.

* Demographic environment: Target consumers of Close up are the youth in Viet Nam. Unlike their older generation, Vietnamese youth tends to pay more attention to their appearance. Acknowledged opportunities from that changing trend, Unilever launched a brand with offerings of ‘ superior fresh breath’ and ‘ shiny white teeth’ – Close up. It promises to make its young consumers more confident in eyes of people they care and love.

* Economic environment: After gaining the independence in the year 1975, Vietnamese economy has been recovering very fast. According to a recent survey, “ Viet Nam has been consistently topping the economic growth performance in ASEAN since 1990”. The market place was large and people’s demands of personal care products were gradually increasing. In 1994, Unilever was the first company launched gel toothpaste and toothpaste with mouth wash in Viet Nam. Thanks to stable foundation, until now, close up has a premium position, around 25% of the market in Viet Nam.

* Cultural environment: Vietnamese market can be divided into many segments based on cultural differences between different regions such as Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang, Hanoi and Can Tho. Additionally, Close-up has more than 200 system distributions throughout Vietnam. According to “ TNS Pink Pages” (2008 – 2009), people who live in Ha Noi prefer to shop in the stores near their houses. That behavior can affect negatively to distribution strategies of a company serving their products in this market segment. On the other hand, toothpaste shoppers in Ho Chi Minh frequently shop and spend higher in per trip. Therefore, Unilever focuses on selling their oral hygiene products – Close up in Ho Chi Minh versus other areas.

* Customers: Close up is available product for youth. Therefore it focuses on lasting fresh breath for the long time. * Intermediaries: Two main offices of Unilever in Vietnam are in HaNoi and HoChiMinh City. Moreover, close-up is sold through big supermarkets such as metro, coop mark, citimark and Big C. Besides, this product is distributed by wholesalers and small and independent outlets in Vietnam. * Competitors: Although close up was the brand toothpaste gel in Vietnam and achieved high reputation, its potential competitor is Colgate now. In addition, many famous brands attract customer attention such as Colgate, Aquafresh and Darlie.

* Strength: * Unilever invests in Vietnam about 120 million dollars. Therefore, Close-up is received a part of the total investment. * Close-up has potential human resources because the working environment in our companyis active with high salary. * Our company usually updates and enhances our technology to produce the product effectively. * Weakness:

* Customer loyalty. According to small scale survey at RMIT University, many students try to use different products to compare about their quality or their price and they normally do not like use the fixed product. * Limitation of advertisings in media, campaigns or events to attract customers’ attentions. * The price of close up is still higher than the other products such as Colgate and P/S.

* Opportunities:

* Over the past five years, Vietnamese has witnessed a significant increase in population and migration. Therefore, that leads to an increase in individual usage, especially personal care products like toothpaste. * The average consumption per capita of toothpaste is 370 grams per person per year in urban Vietnam. Compared to other Asian countries, it is predictable that toothpaste has potential opportunities of growth in future. * In recent years, customers seem to convert their habit of using traditional toothpaste. Instead of that, they tend to try new types that can give manufacturers chances to upgrade in term of value.