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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1. UNILEVER VIETNAM OVERVIEW ......................................................... 4
1. Unilever Vietnam Background ............................................................................................ 4
2. Unilever Vietnam’s Situation............................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2. STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN ANALYSIS ......................................... 7
1. Current Unilever 4P’s in Vietnam ....................................................................................... 7
2. SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................... 8
CHAPTER 3. UNILEVER STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN ...................................... 11
1. Market Research ............................................................................................................... 11
2. Market Segmentation ........................................................................................................ 11
3. Marketing Mix 4P’s + 1H .................................................................................................. 12
4. Customer (CRM)............................................................................................................... 15
5. Evaluation ......................................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 4. MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL
MARKETING PLAN ..................................................................................................... 18
1. Multi-channel Marketing Management ............................................................................. 18
2. Financial Marketing Plan .................................................................................................. 19
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION................................................................. 23
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................ 24

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Unilever is known as a well-known brand all over the world, choosing Vietnam as a country to
expand its market in Southeast Asia. Based on economic development indicators, consumer
tastes, political stability, and increasing levels of social security. Thus, Unilever saw Vietnam
as a potential place for brand development, as well as expanding markets, it decided to choose
this place to set up the system. For a comprehensive overview of Unilever, this essay will take
a look at the overview, analysis and marketing strategy, SWOT analysis, channel marketing &
financial marketing plan, and finally the strategy. marketing strategy as well as goods
distribution channel.

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CHAPTER 1. UNILEVER VIETNAM OVERVIEW
1. Unilever Vietnam Background
Unilever is not only known as a leading global brand but also an international business that
achieved much success in Vietnam market with health care products and food, etc. Besides,
Unilever possesses a wealth of experience in the international market with more than 190
countries. In 1995, Unilever entered the Vietnamese market in two major city centers such as
HCM City and Bac Ninh. In particular, some of its achievements throughout the 22 years are
as follows:
In 2010, April: Unilever received the First-Class Labor Medal by the President of Vietnam for
its outstanding achievements in business and great contribution to the socio-economic
development.
In 2016 and 2017: Unilever Vietnam received the title of "Sustainable Development
Enterprise" by the Government of Vietnam.
 Unilever vision is to develop enterprise and be active in social activities to minimize
the impact of the environment on human life. For Unilever's vision in Vietnam "to
create a better life for the people".
 Unilever’s mission, through Unilever Vietnam's sustainable development plan, it has
achieved some outstanding and impressive achievements through projects such as "for
a healthier Vietnam", "Journey toilets clean bacteria", etc. These projects have a direct
impact on the life and health of the Vietnamese people. Especially, with the project
"Improving the quality of life for women through business development and health
education", this project has provided support to more than 44,600 poor women 's
households to access to financial resources, education, life skills, etc.
 Unilever Vietnam's strategy is to focus on creating a sustainable life for all people.
Therefore, in order to realize the vision of the business, Unilever has invested in a long-
term strategy for specific brands and industries to bring positive growth to all
stakeholders.
2. Unilever Vietnam’s Situation
Market share, there are 3 famous brands that attract many consumer choices such as Unilever,
Vinamilk, and Masan in order to maintain their position in Vietnam's market, it requires
diversity in the strategy of the product portfolio, it must meet market trends.

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As provided by Kantar World Panel (2019) Unilever continues to hold the leading position in
Rural area which is home to 60% of the Vietnamese population, and it is ranked 2nd in urban
areas.
For health and beauty

P/S is known to represent a brand of health and beauty in both Urban and Rural, Unilever has
owned 5 leading brands in the ranking, it has proved that Unilever is a big brand in the personal
care market. At the same time, the remarkable growth of the Close-up brand in rural areas, it
quickly captured market trends and launched two new product lines such as Dau Quat & Thao

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Duoc, and White Attraction Natural Glow, it achieved the target with more than 400,000 new
households over the period of 2018 (Kantar World Panel, 2019).
Home care

Based on the above results, it shows that Unilever has strengthened its dominance in Home
Care with 3 product lines such as Sunlight, Omo, and Comfort for both urban and rural areas.
In addition, Vim products have received many choices from consumers in the rankings
recently. For home care, some paper products have grown tremendously, expanding in rural
areas thanks to the daily needs of consumers (Kantar World Panel, 2019).

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CHAPTER 2. STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN ANALYSIS
1. Current Unilever 4P’s in Vietnam
To begin with Unilever's product, the company has used and applied all international
standards for its product development strategy with the goal of matching the actual needs of
the Vietnamese people. Unilever's strategy is to acquire products from the oldest and best-
known brands in Vietnam, including a number of typical products such as Viso, and P/S
toothpaste. Next, they applied new technologies to improve the formulas to develop packaging
to increase stimulation for consumers. In addition, Unilever has been deeply understanding
consumer needs in Vietnam to supplement auxiliary ingredients for their products, one of the
best examples such as Sunsilk shampoo that contains extra extracts. From the locust tree, it is
well known in folk products, it has succeeded in accounting for 80% of sales. According to
Michel, he said that thinking like a Vietnamese, they will understand their needs to create
products that meet the needs and suit the Vietnamese people. Therefore, Unilever establishes
professional human resources and particularly understands local customs and practices.

With the aim of brand development, Unilever has been in the process of fighting to protect
their brands and counteract other counterfeit products in the market, it is a way to protect the

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rights of health and the safety of the people, as well as the protection of intellectual property
rights and reputation in the market.
Unilever's price strategy, they have identified 80% of consumers who are living in rural areas,
and with low income, they have implemented a discount strategy to bring a reasonable price to
consumers. Unilever also seeks local businesses to hunt for raw materials to replace some of
the imported materials, which assists in reducing purchasing costs and import taxes. At the
same time, the allocation of production process and packaging of products is reasonable to
reduce transportation costs between regions and areas. Unilever also implements a financial
support policy to help local businesses upgrade equipment, technology transfer, etc.
For place factor, Unilever applied its distribution strategy to the Vietnamese market in 1995,
one of its key decisions being to create a nationwide marketing and distribution system with
more than 100,000 locations. It has provided a direct retail channel, using salespeople to each
retail store on each route, most employees are tasked with offering new orders, and shipping to
consumers. Moreover, retail locations are provided with equipment and furniture each year,
impressively designed to appeal to customers, it also assists in designing, distributing, and
arranging display merchandise, lending for transportation, training, and sales organization.
Promotion is the final factor of the 4P’s model, it has two main pieces in its image advertising
strategies such as “Above-the-line” and “Below-the-line”. For above-the-line, Unilever
performs image advertising activities on television channels, newspapers, etc. This advertising
method can achieve certain purposes in informing consumers about the new product, as well
as instructions on how to use the product. For below-the-line, it shows the opposite by
promoting activities without going through the media. In other words, some popular forms like
discount programs, coupons are applied in many forms, etc.
2. SWOT Analysis
Nowadays, Vietnam's market has a fierce competition between domestic and international
goods, one of the special problems is the products originated by multinational enterprises that
are present in the Vietnamese market. Unilever Vietnam is also a brand of consumer goods. It
is said to be a threat to domestic producers and an example for other companies to gain
experience. Its strategy is very thoughtful and creative in polishing the name and attracting
consumers by its brand. In parallel, businesses make full use of its advantages to promote
opportunities with the goal of bringing revenue to businesses.
Strengths
 Unilever Vietnam is supported by Unilever Global, so it has very strong financial
resources.

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  Strategies and policies to attract talent, its point is to develop a business based on the
human element, a number of events that take place in graduation sessions at prestigious
universities to find and Choose the right candidate. After that, Unilever conducted
personnel training to become professional. Besides, it also provides many benefits and
modes, bonuses for personnel, some courses are built to improve the professionalism
of personnel.
 Many research and development technologies of Unilever Vietnam are focused and
invested. In other words, its R&D work has been quite effective in challenging the
communication in products such as locust shampoo, toothpaste. Therefore, it is easy to
realize that it has been inherited the technical - technological line from the headquarters.
 Unilever Vietnam provides reasonable prices for its products with high quality that can
be compared with other foreign brands.
 It provides a dynamic working environment with a distinctive corporate culture, a team
of highly responsible employees, broad knowledge. All these factors focus on business
development goals, it also has a good relationship with the public.
Weaknesses
 Most of Unilever Vietnam's key positions are allocated to foreigners.
 Unilever Vietnam is facing many difficulties when cutting budgets due to the influence
of the economy.
 Limited in new technologies because of the high cost and the inability to fully utilize
the actual labor force of the business and their capabilities.
 Some products are priced higher than the average income per capita of Vietnamese
people in rural areas.
 Unilever Vietnam originated in Europe, its product advertising strategy is not suitable
for Asian cultures.
 Infrastructure and transportation is developing which is hard and create more cost.
Opportunities
 Based on national goals, the Vietnamese economy was built and developed in
accordance with the trend of industrialization and modernization, which prioritized
attracting foreign investors and multinational companies to national budget growth
 Infrastructure development in big cities HCMC, Ha Noi, Can Tho, etc. It is being
appropriately invested, it aids in the circulation and transport of more domestic goods.

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  The political stability of Vietnam, it is considered an ideal and safe destination for
foreign investors. Instead of investors choosing other countries with potential political
instability.
 The intellectual level of Vietnamese people is increasing day by day, the rate of
university graduates increases, the source of excellent intellectual labor in technology
leads to many opportunities in human resource management.
 Unilever's target customers are for young people aged 18 -29, who are more
independent, liberal and confident than the previous generation. In addition, they also
make purchasing decisions.
 Vietnam has freedom of belief and religion. Hence, Unilever is easy to distribute and
advertise its products without being too bound by other countries.
 Its population structure is quite young and popular with the extended family model, it
creates many opportunities for Unilever to develop its goals.
 Vietnam also owns a favorable and favorable position in Asia with its long coastline
and many large seaports creating many benefits for the export of goods. More
specifically, Unilever sees Vietnam’s potential market for brand expansion and
development.
Threats
 Vietnam's economic growth rate is still low
 Vietnam's financial and credit factors are not developed. Besides, the
telecommunication system, communication information, telephone charges, post office
and internet owns the highest price in the world. Therefore, bringing internet to business
is not possible for Unilever. Although, the company has repeatedly mentioned this goal
as a representative in reaching consumers through advertising.
 Commercial law has many disadvantages for foreign investors, including high tariffs
and tariffs, which lead to many risks and challenges for Unilever.
 For policy and population structure, it will have a negative impact on Unilever in the
future.
 Vietnam is a country with a hot and humid tropical climate, so it affects some products
with European origin.
 There are many direct competitors in the market, it requires Unilever to ensure the
quality of the product and meet the tastes of consumers.

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CHAPTER 3. UNILEVER STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN
1. Market Research
In 2018, beauty and personal care in Vietnam experienced healthy sales growth, mainly thanks
to higher living standards, a gradual increase in the average income and the strong development
of social networks. This along with strong GDP improvement brought Vietnam to see the
second-fastest value growth rate within Asia Pacific (World Bank, 2018).
Notably, skin care and Men’s grooming outperformed others in terms of Compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) 2012-2017 growth rate of 14.7% and 13.8% respectively while traditional
sectors commenced to reach maturity stage. There are some key trends in market. Oral care:
Charcoal toothpaste is drawing the attention from consumers thanks to its high quality. Skin
care: Japanese skin care products will gain more popularity owing to their natural ingredients
and high-quality formulas, which are suitable to the Asian skin type; Dermo cosmetics product
will expand future as the response to the rising health-consciousness trendline globally.
Shampoos and Bath & Showers: mid to high0end consumers are looking for organic or safe
ingredients products, rising demand for specialized products with different functions like the
shampoo (hair fall control, fight pollution, intensive repair) or Bath and shower (prefumed
shower gel, exfoliating body wash)
Also, the cosmetics and fragrances sector performed quite well during the reviewed period with
CAGR 2012-2017 growth rate of 12.9% and 18.7% respectively. Cosmetics: Korean make-up
style returns as the most popular trend due to the strong influences of idols and beauty bloggers,
Premium brand names are more preferred (World Bank, 2018).
2. Market Segmentation
The personal care and beauty market are segmented into 7 key segmentations: oral care, skin
care, haircare, bath & shower, men’s grooming, cosmetics, fragrances, others. All seven key
segmentations have key trends which are mentioned in market research above.
The total market value of beauty and personal care sector is estimated at 1.53 billion US dollar
in 2017, posting CAGR 2012-2017 growth rate of 13.3%. It is noted that the estimated market
size does not consider the online sales of individuals and hand-carriers. Thus, the actual market
size supposed much higher than this number as there were a lot of online stores providing
cosmetics products without registration or license. (Source: Stoxplus, industry preview
Vietnam Beauty & Personal Care Market 2018)
Amongst segmentation, Men’s Grooming and Skin Care products performed quite well,
reflecting the increasing demand for men’s personal care products and the rising health-
consciousness trend in Vietnam. Notably, Deodorants (especially for men) product is the key

11
driver behind the impress growth rate of others. In particular, deodorants grew from low base
of 30.1 millions US dollar (2012) to 73 millions Us dollar (2017), posting CAGR 2012-2017
growth rate of 19.4% - highest figure among segments.

Source: StoxPlus from EUI

On this paper, it will focus on the personal care and beauty range of products in Vietnam
market. The market segmentation based on the features and value propositions. The market
segmentation can be done by 4 areas which are geographic, demographic, psychographic and
behavioural.
Geographic will be Vietnam. The target will be the central cities in Vietnam which have high
population. Then, the provinces across Vietnam from the north to the south of Vietnam.
Demographic, the age will be from 15 to 60 years old. The products will be used for different
life stages. Both man and woman will can use those products. And people who have the low to
upper middle income can use those products.
Psychographic segmentation is quite similar to behavioural segmentation. The consumers are
believers, strivers, makers and thinkers.
Behavioural will divide consumers base on the behaviour patterns as their interactive with a
company. The behaviour’s consumers will focus on benefits, patterns and usage rate.
3. Marketing Mix 4P’s + 1H
Unilever implements a complex marketing mix that considers product differences and
variations among markets around the world. A firm’s marketing mix or 4Ps (Product, Place,
Promotion & Price) reflects the combination of business strategies designed to capture the
target market. In Unilever’s marketing mix, the product element and place element are most
significant. Still, the promotion element and price element ensure the company’s profitability

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(Bahadir et al. 2015). As a leading firm in the consumer goods industry, Unilever must maintain
a marketing mix that addresses competition and other challenges in the global market.
Unilever’s marketing mix (4Ps) involves a diversity of products and markets, which dictate
differences in pricing. Considering the scale of its consumer goods business, the company has
a complex approach to its marketing mix.
Unilever’s Products (Product Mix)
Unilever expands its consumer goods business through the years, resulting in a broadening
product mix currently composed of over 400 brands around the world (Unilever, n.d). This
section of the marketing mix identifies the company’s outputs, collectively known as the
product mix. Unilever has a wide variety of products under the following categories: Personal
Care and Beauty range of product (Goi, 2009)
The company’s Close-Up toothpaste, Vaseline lotion, and Dove soap and shampoo are sold
under the personal care category. These types of products indicate that Unilever’s marketing
mix is already highly diversified. Such diversification partly results from the company’s
acquisition strategy in the consumer goods market through the years.
Price
Unilever maintains a wide variety of price points, considering the level of diversification of its
products. Prices and corresponding pricing strategies are determined in this section of the
marketing mix. In general, the most significant pricing strategies in Unilever’s consumer goods
business are as follows: Market-Oriented Pricing Strategy, Premium Pricing Strategy and
Product Bundle Pricing Strategy (Rahmani, 2015).
The market-oriented pricing strategy entails setting price points based on consumer goods
market factors. For example, Unilever uses competitors’ pricing to determine the most
appropriate prices. On the other hand, the premium pricing strategy involves prices that are
higher than competitors. For instance, for products like Dove, Unilever applies moderately high
prices that correspond to the premium quality of the brand. Also, the company occasionally
offers products in bundles set at discounted prices. This section of Unilever’s marketing mix
shows a mixture of strategies that suit the variations in the company’s consumer goods and
target markets.
Promotion
Unilever needs to promote its products, considering the high level of competitive in the
Vietnam’s consumer goods market. This section of the marketing mix outlines the strategies
and tactics in the company’s approach to promote its products to target consumers. Unilever
uses the following promotional tactics, arranged according to significance: Advertising

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(primary), Sales Promotion, Public Relations, Personal Selling and Direct Marketing
(Hanssens et al. 2014). Advertising serves as the primary means of promoting Unilever’s
products. Many of the company’s brands have advertisements on television and online media.
The firm also occasionally uses sales promotion, such as discounts and product bundles. For
example, Dove soap bars are sometimes offered in bundles of three at a discounted price. In
terms of public relations, the Unilever Foundation’s activities enhance corporate image and
brand strength. The company sometimes implements personal selling in collaboration with
retailers to operate kiosks for certain occasions or promotional events. Direct marketing is the
least significant promotional tactic in Unilever’s marketing mix. This tactic involves directly
engaging client organizations to promote suitable products. Based on this section of the
marketing mix, Unilever heavily relies on advertising as the main factor that influences
consumer perception about the company’s consumer goods.
Place
The Vietnam operations of Unilever reflect the extensive reach of the business in the consumer
goods market. The venues or places where the company transacts with customers or target
consumers are identified in this section of the marketing mix. Unilever uses the following
places for distributing its products: Retailers (primary) and Stores (Unilever’s Annual Report
& Accounts, 2018). Retailers are the primary places of distribution for Unilever’s products.
For example, supermarkets are retailers responsible for distributing these consumer goods.
Also, Unilever offers some of its products through local stores.
People
Apart from the traditional 4P of Marketing Mix, one of the most important P's that Unilever
has been and continues to develop, is the human factor. Alone with the diverse production and
business activities, Unilever Vietnam always reaches great importance to the development of
human resources as a quality breakthrough for long-term sustainable development, even when
the society enters the " Knowledge "or" Biological Economics ". To "fully understand
Vietnamese consumers" and to develop a "root system" that helps the company cline to the
market, Unilever has built a professional and regular indigenous to focus on Employee training
programs. Unilever's view is "Developing through people", so the company always pays
a3envon to the rights of its employees and is ready to support them in the areas of work.
Currently, the Vietnamese management team has replaced the previous key positions held by
foreign experts.

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4. Customer (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management is recognized as a strategy for managing interactions of
company with customers, clients and sales. Technology is not only applied to organize,
automate, and synchronize business processes and sales activities, but also those
for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall targets are to find and win
new clients, reduce the costs of marketing and client service. An implementation is effective,
people, processes, and technology work in synergy to increase profitability, and reduce
operational costs. It is important to emphasize that CRM is a specialty within marketing, and
to implement CRM in a company which can use tools as CRM systems, mailers, databases etc.
CRM is easy to misunderstand, thinking it is an IT system.
CRM at Unilever Vietnam
From sourcing raw materials to delivering the product, the technologically advanced supply
chain underpins the growth of Unilever Vietnam, providing service excellence at competitive
costs. Unilever Vietnam has proactively developed new capabilities in customer relationship
management and supply chain for partnering the development. They now have a business
system in place that delivers excellence in customer service, while driving growth for the
company and the customers. In-store merchandising is a key enabler for their brands to stand
out prominently and attract the attention of consumers. Customised activation to drive trial and
preference for their brands is another key thrust. They keep interacting with the customers thus
providing them experience in several innovative ways (One Business, 2013)
Innovative Services for Customer Attraction and Retention
 Sunsilk mobile salons at stores providing consumers the opportunity to have a great
hair wash and try the new re-launched product.
 Dove Litmus test in stores demonstrating the brand’s compelling benefit of mildness
compared to other soaps.
 They plan to come up with self-service stores and supermarkets.
Pioneering New Ways for Customer Relationship
All these initiatives build convergence of product availability, brand communication and brand
experience in the current channels. But these current channels are somewhat constrained by the
existing formats and business models. Therefore, they need to go further in creating touch
points for the brands relevant to the scale and nature of the Vietnamese consumer opportunity.
Thus, they are creating a whole set of new channels that are designed on the principles of
holistic contact with consumers. These are across all consumer segments in both urban and
rural Vietnam.

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Customer Relationship – Front- end
The main purpose of this area is to understand customer needs and work together to solve
joint logistical challenges such as on shelf availability. Roles include order management,
working at the interface between warehousing and transportation, and ensuring the right
products arrive in the right place at the right time.
Customer Relationship – Plan
The planners are unique individuals who use great analytical and interpersonal skills to help
bring innovations to market. Working with all business functions, they are the key to the sales
and operations planning process. Demand planning uses models as well as market knowledge
to determine potential sales. Using this data, supply planning ensures factories can meet these
sales on time in the most cost-effective way.
The main objective of the project is to get the full knowledge of the products and what are they
doing to get the customer loyalty to maintain their market. This is also to find the preferences
of customer, their market knowledge, product information, and information about the presence
of the rivals and all the other options they have in the market. There are various techniques
they adopt to know the preferences and changing needs of the customer.
Unilever Vietnam has always looked to tap the market in rural sector. They always have taken
into consideration the needs and wants of the people in the rural and semi-urban areas. The
main reason behind this has been the potentiality of the rural market. The rural Vietnam
amounts for the major population though not financially sound. The bottom of the pyramid
consisting of the mass is being focused upon more than the so-called potential group. To meet
the needs of the rural population, Unilever Vietnam are studying the consumption habits of
these people, which would in turn not only benefit the company but also the inhabitants. Since
most of them are daily wage earners or small peasants, so it is vital to study their buying
patterns. This would help in understanding them better.
5. Evaluation
Evaluation of Unilever’s marketing content applications need to depend on 7 main criteria:
Message, Emotion, Trust, Goal, Idea, Story and Image. Message is an effective story will help
to enhance customers' trust in products, while maintaining its fundamental position in the target
market. Emotion is a factor that stirs inspiration in customers. That emotion is transmitted and
achieved effectively when it really touches the hearts of every viewer, and makes the viewer
always want to follow and remember the product image as well as the character of the product.
Trust is an important factor which does not make customers move to buy products from
competitors. This requires that the story given does not necessarily guarantee 100% true but it

16
needs to be built based on the actual values of the brand and product. Goal is the success of
any marketing campaign must have a clear goal and a plan to reach that goal. Stories are told
to be the way to bring audiences closer to their goals. Idea is unique, creative ideas will draw
more attention from the audience. A good idea which hit the audience psychology contributes
significantly to the success of campaign. Storyline is in order to attract customers, the story in
the campaign needs an interesting storyline. At the same time the story also needs to have
dramatic elements to create focal points for the story. Image brings stories to customers with
images that will deepen the subconscious and memory of customers. The more special the
image is, the more impressions customers have on.
Lessons for other business: for businesses that produce a wide variety of goods such as
Unilever, it is not necessary to use this marketing tool for all products and goods. The company
should only choose one or several products and services that are headed in a certain market to
actively implement content marketing campaigns. A lesson from the content marketing strategy
for Comfort products of Unilever Vietnam is the study of customers' tastes. With the target
customers are mothers and indirect customers who are children in the family, the company has
not invested much research on the figure of ambassadors in the campaign. Therefore, it led to
the failure of the campaign after 4 years of implementation.

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CHAPTER 4. MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL
MARKETING PLAN
1. Multi-channel Marketing Management
It is widely known as a mix of advertising and distribution channels aimed at marketing goods
to consumers. In other words, Multi-channel marketing is a choice, the goal of businesses is to
reach consumers as well as consumers easily access goods by selecting a purchase channel.
Some of its distribution channels include: Email, Videos, Blogs, Social Media Sites, Broadcast,
Web Ads, Your Website, Telesaminars / Webinars, Direct Mail, Articles, Print Ads, Business
Cards (Koral, 2018).
The importance of multi-channel marketing
For multi-channel marketing, it describes the niche market of the business because most of its
customers are present in all places, so enterprise tries to find marketing strategies through
advertising channels to approach consumers. As identified by Koral (2018), there are many
studies showing that consumers tend to search for goods and products in different media
channels, and they often spend 3-4 times on goods and services.
The benefits of multi-channel marketing
It provides customers with the freedom to find and choose the right products, consumers can
use any means of advertising to choose products, multi-channel marketing has a positive impact
on reaching customers. Moreover, business can take full advantage of the advertising channels
after collecting customer data, they can deploy other advertising methods to potential
customers (Koral, 2018).
Some challenges for multi-channel marketing
First, it requires that the marketing manager find the right message for the company's product
or service development goals. Besides, it is time-consuming and complicated to come up with
ideas for implementation, a typical example is that the company cannot expect customers to
change means and purchasing channels in the short time that businesses. It is necessary to spend
a short time and budget to optimize the programs and advertising campaigns by multi-channel
marketing, this easily maintains consumer confidence. Additionally, the application of
analytical tools is essential for businesses, if the business does not perform this step, the
business will never grasp the effectiveness of the advertising campaign and program (Koral,
2018).
In short, Marketing Manager applies multi-channel marketing to Unilever Vietnam because
this type of advertising supports direct access to consumers easily and quickly. An assumption
that some media channels are made to advertise products as well as images of Unilever such

18
as Social Media Sites, Email, Articles, etc. One of the particularly important advantages of this
advertising strategy is the cost savings for Unilever.
As provided by Doan (2019) leads Vietnam's social network Youtube with 96%, and Facebook
is 95% of the total number of respondents, it shows that the proportion of current social media
users is currently very high in the Vietnam market, so Unilever Vietnam 's approach to
consumers by this method can minimize advertising costs as well as traditional management
expenses. In particular, buyers will easily access their essential products, instead of buyers
having to go directly to the store to search for products to choose, these applications will
support customers best. such as reducing search time, travel costs, opportunity costs, etc.
Buyers can search for product information via the app to order goods.
At the same time, to implement this advertising strategy, the marketing manager allocates
financial plans for the advertising strategy for two main product lines in Vietnam: beauty &
personal care and home care. Moreover, financial indicators will be predicted, analyzed and
assessed the effectiveness of this plan in the next section.
2. Financial Marketing Plan
Beauty & Personal Care Home Care
2016 2017 2018 2016 2017 2018
Turnover 20.2bn 20.7bn 20.6bn 10.0bn 10.6bn 10.1bn
Turnover growth 0.5% 2.60% -0.3% -1.5% 5.6% -4.2%
Underlying sales growth 4.2% 2.90% 3.1% 4.9% 4.4% 4.2%
Operating margin 18.4% 19.80% 20.0% 9.5% 10.8% 11.5%
Underlying operating margin 20.0% 21.10% 21.9% 10.9% 12.2% 13.0%
Source: Unilever.com
Overall, Unilever's turnover accounted for a high proportion of beauty & personal care product
packages in the period of 2016 - 2018, in which, Unilever's turnover growth grew strongly in
2017 for both beauty & personal care and home care packages. However, it has a decreasing
sign of turnover growth in 2018 for both main product packages. In addition, the underlying
sales growth tends to decrease continuously for 3 years, while operating margin increases
slightly from 2016 to 2018, beauty & personal care it reaches 20% and home care reaches
11.5% in 2018.

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 Financial Performance
0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
2016 2017 2018 2016 2017 2018
-0.05 Beauty & Personal Care Home Care

-0.1

Turnover Turnover growth Underlying sales growth Operating margin Underlying operating margin

Through Unilever's results, as well as its potential market in Vietnam, it showed by outstanding
economic indicators in recent years. Therefore, Unilever decided to choose Vietnam as a
Southeast Asian country to expand its market. Unilever implements two main product packages
such as beauty & personal care, and home care. An assumption that the marketing manager of
Unilever Vietnam conducts surveys and analyzes the market situation and consumer tastes
before applying the most appropriate approach.
Assuming revenue of Unilever Vietnam
Items Quantity price Total Rate
Target Sales revenue 150,000 0.25 37,500 100%
Variable cost per unit 26,250 67%
Contribution margin ratio 12,375 33%
Fixed costs 5,742
EBIT 6,633
Revenue (BEP) 17,400
Assuming revenue of Unilever Vietnam
Items Quantity price Total Rate
Target Sales revenue 150,000 0.25 37,500 100%
Variable cost per unit 26,250 67%
Contribution margin ratio 12,375 33%
Fixed costs 5,742
EBIT 6,633
Revenue (BEP) 17,400

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Unilever Vietnam expected revenue for the first year is $37,500 Mil, of which the variable cost
assumes $26,250 (equivalent to 67% of the total Target sales revenue), contribution margin
ratio accounts for 33% (it accounts for $ 12,375 Mil), fixed costs are $5,742 Mil; EBIT is
$6,633 Mil; and Break-even point of revenue is $17,400 Mil. In general, through this
hypothetical example, Marketing Manager will have a new marketing strategy to reach
consumers as well as promoting the Unilever products in Vietnam market.
In parallel, the ROI of Unilever Vietnam is calculated at the following rate for the first year:
ROI = (Revenue – Costs) / Costs
= 37,500 – (26,250 + 5,742 + 48) = $5460 Mil
Thus, it is easy to conclude that with the expected revenue of 150,000 units, Unilever's ROI is
$ 5460 Mil.
Marketing budget plan
Marketing Budget Plan
Estimated Estimated Estimated
Category
Quantity Cost per Unit Subtotal

Research
Research market 4 $1,775.00 $7,100.00
Research Costs Total $7,100.00

Communications
Promotional brochures 5,000 $0.15 $750.00
Television 5 $4,000.00 $20,000.00
Radio 13 $350.00 $4,550.00
Web 1 $350.00 $350.00

Communications Costs Total $25,650.00

Networking
Memberships 3 $50.00 $150.00
Affiliations 2 $20.00 $40.00
Subscriptions 2 $32.00 $64.00

Networking Costs Total $254.00

Event
Number of attendees 100
Meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner)
Food $23.00 $2,300.00
Tax (10%) $2.30 $230.00
Food and beverage gratuity (20%) $5.06 $506.00
Meal Costs Subtotal $3,036.00

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Event Costs Total $3,036.00

Event Price per Person $30.36

Promotions
Product giveaways 50 $8.00 $400.00
Product discounts 300 $3.00 $900.00
Special offers 200 $2.50 $500.00

Promotions Costs Total $1,800.00

Advertising
Brochures (development and
5,000 $0.15 $750.00
production)
Mailings 15,000 $0.04 $600.00
Postcards 15,000 $0.03 $450.00
Television 2 $600.00 $1,200.00
Radio 4 $300.00 $1,200.00
Newspapers 6 $220.00 $1,320.00
Billboards 2 $556.00 $1,112.00
Bus sides 3 $125.00 $375.00

Advertising Costs Total $7,007.00

Public Relations
Charity events 3 $200.00 $600.00
Advertising 4 $200.00 $800.00
Employee promotions 6 $200.00 $1,200.00
Sponsorships 3 $200.00 $600.00

Public Relations Costs Total $3,200.00

ESTIMATED MARKETING GRAND TOTAL $48,047.00

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
After conducting an overview analysis of Unilever Vietnam, Unilever's strategic marrketing
plan, multi-channel marketing and financial marketing plan, one of the key issues that
positively affects the operation as well as product deployment. To directly reach consumers,
Marketing Manager needs to implement many advertising strategies suitable to the culture and
tastes of consumers. Moreover, the channel of distribution of goods is also considered as an
extremely important factor in entering the market because the topography of each region is
different so it will create many obstacles in the distribution of goods between region. Therefore,
a problem is posed for Marketing Manager to implement distribution strategies as well as
product advertising.
For goods distribution channel, the characteristic of Vietnam is the distribution of local people
widely living throughout the territory, so it is the cause of many difficulties for businesses. To
handle this problem, the marketing manager needs to implement a key strategy for each region,
such as associating with transport companies to transport goods to densely populated areas. For
example, an agreement between Unilever Vietnam and a freight business is a way to minimize
management costs, equipment, and assets of Unilever. In other words, it has difficulty in
distributing and transporting goods between regions, so it needs to work with a partner
specializing in transport services to maximize profits.
As for advertising strategy, Unilever Vietnam should apply multi-channel marketing to reach
consumers, according to a survey by Statistic.com, which shows that 90 out of 100 people use
social networks. Therefore, this form is considered an effective advertising channel for
administrators. Moreover, to implement this advertising strategy, it assists in responding to
consumer needs in an instant, and delivers the message quickly. Although there are many
advertising channels, Unilever will implement marketing strategies through multi-channel
communication channels.

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