HANOI UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Management and Tourism

POM ASSIGNMENT REPORT

STITUATION ANALYSIS OF
OMO DETERGENT

Tutor: Ms. Nghiem Huyen Anh

Class: Tut 2_AC
Group 4’s members:
Nguyễn Thị Lan _ 1004010045
Nguyễn Thị Phượng _ 1004010073
Nguyễn Thị Phương Thu _ 1007010255
Nguyễn Thị Phương Thùy_1004010073
Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _ 1004010096

Hanoi, 05/04/2012
MAJOR ASSIGNMENT MARKING SCHEME (total: 200 marks)

Name of Students in the group Nguyễn Thị Lan _ 1004010045

Nguyễn Thị Phượng _ 1004010073

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thu _ 1007010255

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thùy_1004010073

Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _ 1004010096

Title of Assignment STITUATION ANALYSIS OF OMO DETERGENT

Date

Word count 5,400

Criteria Very Poor OK Good Very Total

Poor Good
Executive Summary 10

Company Analysis 20

Environmental Analysis 30

Competitor Analysis 25

Customer Analysis 30

Brand Analysis 40

SWOT Analysis 30

Conclusion 15

Tổng
200

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 Acknowledgement

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Tuan Anh, the lecturer of Principle of
Marketing subject for providing us an opportunity to do this useful assignment. Moreover, he
gave us a guideline so clearly and sufficiently, making us easily to understand and do this
assignment. Secondly, we want to give many thanks to our tutor Ms. Huyen Anh, for your
guidance and encouragement in carrying out this project work. We also wish to express our
gratitude to other members in our team and also in our class who rendered their help during
the period of our project work and supported, shared with us lots of useful things to complete
our assignment on time. Last but not least, we would like to thank the authors on the internet
and books with the convenient, easy to use and quickly transfer with more accurate and update
information to help us do this project more effectively.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary....................................................................................... 1

I. Company Analysis ................................................................................. 2

II. Environmental Analysis ........................................................................ 3
1. Economic ....................................................................................... 3
2. Demographic ................................................................................. 4
3. Political .......................................................................................... 5
4. Natural ........................................................................................... 5
5. Technological ................................................................................. 6
6. Cultural .......................................................................................... 7
III. Competitor Analysis ............................................................................ 7
IV. Customer Analysis ............................................................................ 10
V. Brand Analysis ................................................................................... 13
1. Review the product-life cycle of OMO ......................................... 13
2. 4P analysis ................................................................................... 14

2.1. Production ............................................................................ 14

a. Product ............................................................................... 14
b. Product assortment ............................................................ 16

2.2. Price ..................................................................................... 16

2.3. Placement ............................................................................. 19

2.4. Promotion............................................................................. 20

VI. SWOT Analysis .................................................................................. 21

VII. Conclusion ....................................................................................... 24

References .................................................................................................. 26

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In this situation analysis, we choose OMO - one of the most famous products of Unilever and

also the leading brand of washing powder in Vietnam market as our research object. This report

aims to provide a gathering of relevant market information that needs to be examined before any

market related decision is made. In the first part called Company analysis, we will identify the

company’s mission as well as the objectives that will guide the present and future development

of the company together with its mission over the next 12 months. Second, there will be an

Environmental analysis which demonstrates external forces affecting the market. With OMO, we

investigate five macro environmental factors including economic, natural, technological, cultural

and political. Next, we assess strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors and

make a compare between the position of OMO and its competitors, which are specifically Tide

and Vi dan. In the customer analysis, we describe four customer segments including: people who

are usually exposed to more dirt, people who prefer expressing themselves and saving fabric

conditioner, people who use washing machine and those who offer no detergent residue and their

characteristics based on demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentations. After that,

we go on with brand analysis in which we review OMO’s current performance and describe the

current marketing strategy for the brand as well as offer some recommendations relating to the

situation. Last but not least, we summarize all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats of OMO Company and also determine some possible actions that are needed to deal with

each area of the SWOT. In the end, all of our key findings and recommendations are outlined

and highlighted which can help this analysis more clarified and understandable.

Page 1
 I. COMPANY ANALYSIS

In recent year, the competition of Vietnamese companies and foreign companies was drastic,

especially multinational firms, which present and dominant in Vietnam. Among them, the one

that should be mentioned is Unilever.

Unilever is one of the world leading multinational corporations in term of consumer goods with

food and care products for personal hygiene and family. Having been in Vietnam since 1995, this

corporation has invested more than $ 120 million and became one of the most successful

investors in our country with two fields which are specializing in personal care and household

products (such as Lux, Viso, Soap, Lifebuoy, Dove, etc…). For those products of this company,

we choose Omo, which is a leading brand of Vietnam washing-powder, to examine and analyze.

Along with the growth of country, the development of children is the first priority concern of

society in general and of each family in particular. According to this trend, Omo has chosen their

mission which is aimed at children under slogan “Dirt is good” (http://www.unilever.com.vn)

and this idea that “Dirt is good” is not simply a catchphrase for this company. In fact, it lies at

the core of Omo brand, going consistently through all brand activities and innovations.

In order to develop the company in line with its mission, Omo has two objectives: profit

maximization and product quality leadership. In the first place, company aims to provide the best

quality product in the market, and therefore charges more than its competitors (http://tailieu.vn).

Actually, Omo uses price to signal high quality in an attempt to position their product as the

quality leader, making their company becomes leading brand of washing powder in Vietnam

market. In the second place, Omo charges high price for their product to have highest profit and

to cover its costs. Moreover, in order to get profit maximization, Omo also develops many

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activities that bring its product closer to the public by means of brand positioning; to be more

precise, through PR activities (http://www.scribd.com). To apply these campaigns, this company

uses advertising strategy “boomed” on television, newspaper and Internet. In addition, they also

make them more excited by associating with a series of marketing activities to promote the brand

like” vui cung vet ban”, “Bi quyet cua me”, “Nang dong cung be”, etc.

(http://www.omovietnam.com). From that, Omo has achieved as the largest brand in Vietnam

because it is not only in high quality, but also launched impressive campaigns such as “Dirt is

good” or “White clothes Bright clothes.

II. ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

1. Economic

Today, as the quality of life has been improved more and more along with higher income, many

families use washing machines. Therefore, OMO not only develops hand washing powder but

also produces detergent for washing machine with features that overcome disadvantages when

washing clothes by washing machine. In addition, in recent years, inflation rate of Vietnam have

been high, with the figure of 2010 and 2011 was 11.5% and 18.6% respectively

(http://www.bbc.co.uk). Moreover, according to vnexpress, inflation rate of Vietnam in 2012 is

predicted to be still high. Beside, based on the figures of vneconomy.vn, we know that GDP

growth rate of Vietnam tends to decrease, from 6.78% in 2010 to 5.89% in 2011. Also, the online

newspaper nguoiduatin.vn showed that the unemployment rate in Vietnam has risen rapidly

between 2010 and 2012. These figures demonstrate that Vietnamese economy has to cope with

many difficulties and challenges ahead. That result in many strong effects on consumer

spending, therefore, influences many companies as well. In the trend of poor development of the

economy, consumers tend to spend less and save more. For detergent product line, OMO is

3
considered the best and most expensive one. In the trend of poor development of the economy,

consumers tend to spend less and save more. Thus, it is possible that there are a large number of

people will choose other products which are much cheaper than OMO. This is one of the

challenges facing OMO. To deal with this problem, the company needs to create some strategies

to adjust the price, retain current customers and attract more consumers by using promotion

techniques. They may decrease the current prices or produce a new washing powder with

average price which is suitable for most customer segments.

2. Demographic

Besides the extended family, there is an increase in the number of other family models such as

nuclear family, single parent, married couple…leading to a big difference in consuming

behaviors among different family models. This affects marketing decision of OMO, the company

need to make plans to meet the different needs of all types of family. Additionally, Vietnam has

a large scale population of 86 million people (13th world), with the increase of 1 million each

year (http://www.vietnamonline.com). Educational level of Vietnam is relatively high, especially

in the urban areas. Graduations rates from universities and colleges are quite high compared with

other countries together with intellectual labors in Vietnam are good at technology. Therefore,

there are abundant and qualified human resources for OMO. However, according to Vietnamese

census throughout the years (http://en.wikipedia.org), the structure of Vietnam’s population is

aging. This fact influences adversely the company because the major customers that OMO aims

at are children and youngsters. With an aging population structure, the current products of OMO

seem to be quite luxurious. The middle-aged and older people may not want OMO and prefer

other cheaper ones but still meet their needs and demands.

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 3. Political

The legal system of Vietnam is more and more complete; particularly the policy of Vietnamese

Government is to build an industrialized and modernized economy, creating favorable conditions

for foreign companies like OMO-Unilever to promote investment and business. Furthermore,

Vietnam is a country of religious freedom, so the distribution and advertising of products are not

strictly restricted as many other countries. However, there are some obstacles resulted from the

Trade law such as increase in tariff (http://ketnooi.com). Thus, the price product of OMO in

Vietnam is still higher than many other countries and OMO is reckoned as the luxury good

compared with other types of washing powder, so customers have more considerations in making

decision. This requires the company to set out reasonable pricing strategy for the market in

Vietnam.

4. Natural

Nowadays, resources supplying for the production have become exhausted. In the case of

powdering industry like OMO, their ingredients mostly come from crude oil like fat acid

(pametic, oleic, stearic…). In recent years, the oil price goes up that leads to the rise in costs of

inputs for production, causing the price of OMO increase (http://www.scribd.com). For nature, if

we do not take into account the impact of industry waste, that will be a shortage. Of course, the

company must follow the government laws, and take their responsibility to protect the

environment and that will cost their product higher. Unilever is successful with their waste

treatment water process and that receive good feedbacks from society. A good thing is there is

none of information about increased pollution from the manufacturing of OMO, so OMO retains

its reputation in the market in contrast to many other companies that were charged because of

5
contaminating the environment. Thus, consumers still puts their belief in OMO’s products. It is

good for OMO to reinforce their brand.

5. Technological

Unilever is global leader in research and development, who believes that powerful vitality based

innovations are crucial to delivering sustainable growth. In 2008 Unilever appointed first chief

research and development officer. The Company spent 927 million Euros on R&D worldwide

and also has five laboratories around the world that explore new thinking and techniques to help

develop their products. (http://www.ukessays.com). In particular, the emphasis on investment in

technology development of Unilever has created beneficial conditions for the development of

OMO. There are many outstanding innovations for the products of OMO, namely:

 In 2003, Omo is the first brand to provide detergent for machine wash. Until now, OMO

Matic has been recommended by 80% of washing machine manufacturers in Vietnam.

 In 2004 Omo launched break - through formulation which cleans dirt even in hard-to-

reach places.

 In 2004, OMO launched Omo Bleach, which delivers safe bleach laundry.

 In 2007, OMO Comfort with long lasting fragrant is introduced to consumers.

 In 2009, with new enzyme formulation and super soaking technology, OMO can remove

tougher stains more efficiently than ever before. OMO is now known to Vietnamese

people as stain – removal expert

(http://www.unilever.com.vn).

All these above innovations have extremely positive impacts on the development of OMO,

helping manufacturing a wide range of new products, creating market opportunities; hence,

OMO is increasingly closer to consumers.

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 6. Cultural

Culture deeply influences consumers’ selection of products such as product usability, product

features they need, design ... OMO has produced many product lines to meet the variety of

needs:

 Those who prefer white clean clothes: Clean White Omo, beating out 99% of stains

 Groups of people who prefer pure white and fragrant to assert themselves, Unilever launched

Thousands of Flowers Incense Omo, Omo matic...

According to research results, Vietnamese market ranks eighth among the top 10 countries who

believe advertisement the most (http://www.scribd.com). Therefore, Omo has introduced many

impressive advertising tactics to attract more consumers to pay their attention to product quality

and design

III. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Along with the everyday demand of consumers, washing-powder becomes essential goods,

hence, manufacturers have created many new trends derived from the housewives’ psychology

which was keen on clearing the stain quickly and had no negative effect to their skin.

Understanding this psychology of detergent, firms have produced product lines to satisfy the

various types of customers. This leads to the competition in the market share of the business

between firms, especially for Omo and other types of washing powders. In fact, the strongest

direct competitor of Omo is a trademark Tide of P& G, and some others weaker ones like Sun,

Vi dan, Lix, Ariel (http://www.scribd.com). Moreover, Omo also has some indirect competitors

such as Amway, SA8, Magic clean and so forth. Actually, in this report, we will represent the

effect of two biggest direct competitors, Tide and Lix, on the development of Omo.

7
The following table compares the characteristics between Omo detergent brands and Tide, Lix:

Product Quality Safe for Brand Price Advertising Promote

skin

Omo Good Normal easy to expensive interesting, plentiful

remember plentiful, ,attractive
attractive

Tide quite Normal quite easy to expensive plentiful plentiful

good remember,
under
evaluated

Lix Normal Normal close with cheap shortage shortage

South-West
Vietnamese

(http://banhbeo.wordpress.com)

Tide, which is the most “heavy” competitor of Omo, has their own strengths to compete with the

big famous brand like Omo. First of all, Tide positions their trademark with high quality and

memorable name (http://en.wikipedia.org). While Tide positions their products as “harmless for

skin”, Omo’s product positioning is “pure white”; however, according to majority of consumers,

all type of washing powders always has detergent, so the harms for hand are inevitable. For this

reason, their status “harmless for skin” is failure, leading Tide to be second largest detergent

brand in Vietnam, following Omo. Secondly, this firm is well-known for its many attractive

advertising. In fact, they have launched the new message for their brand:” Tide knows the fabrics

best” through the clean white silk which showed the personality, confidence and each curve on

the women’ body (http://www.chienluocmarketing.org). Moreover, Tide also offers a sweet

8
combination of sweet fragrance with Downy, making its trademark not inferior to Omo. Last but

not least, attracting promoting campaigns are also used by Tide to conquer the customers. In

reality, consumers are always drawn to the attractive invitation of trying free products, attending

seminars to introduce new technology of super market; thus, they use this strategy to attract

buyers. Nonetheless, when Omo started the race with their advertising campaigns, the location of

Tide was no longer as strong as the previous period and the following example will make it clear.

In contrast, Tide also has their own weakness like positioning their products with high price.

Because consumers prefer buying products that have high quality and low price so high price

becomes weakness for not only Tide but also for Omo. However, depending on the situation of

income, interests, ages, each person or group of people has the different habit and behavior.

Actually, whereas the low-income people often pay special attention to prices, those with high

income tend to concern over the quality rather than price of the product. Thus, Tide and Omo

still have a strong position in the detergent market.

Today, Tide is still a direct competitor that has strong influence on Omo while other types of

washing-powder are not considered as potential rivals for a powerful brand like Omo. However,

there are several advantages of Lix brand that Omo should care about. First of all, Lix is

considered as Vietnamese high-quality goods in conformity with people who are in the middle

and low income (http://www.lixco.com). In addition, the product of Lix are also widely

distributed and extending across the country as well as other system such as Coop Mart, BigC,

Metro, etc.. However, small budget in marketing which is the major issue of Lix makes this

brand less competitive as Omo or Tide.

From the above analysis, we have a positioning map as following:

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Price (high)

(low)

Quality (high)

(Low)

Graph: positioning of Omo, Tide and Lix.

The graph shows that compared to other brands in market, Omo and Tide is the most expensive

detergent but ranked at the highest positon, while Lix is ranked at lower position with low

quality and price.

IV. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

The understanding of competitors is important but the understanding of customers is definitely

necessary for the growth and survival of a company. In order to meet customer’s needs and

wants, Omo uses target marketing because it helps sellers to find their marketing opportunities

more efficiently. Based on target marketing, sellers can develop the right product for each target

market and adjust their prices, distribution channels and advertising to reach the target market

10
efficiently (Kotler et al, 2006). Therefore, we summarizes for customer segments of Omo and

their characteristic that following variables as segmentation criteria in a table below:

Customer’s Characteristics

Customer Segment Demographic Psychographic Behavioral

Segmentation Segmentation Segmentation

1. People who -income: middle -lifestyle: - regular occasion

usually expose to income  working - benefits sought:

more dirt environment is caring more about

dirt quality of cleaning

 people are active stains

and easy to get - loyalty & readiness

sweat like children stage: strong loyalty,

aware product

- positive attitude

toward product

2. People who prefer -income: middle -personality: - regular occasion

expressing income expressed yourselves - benefits sought:

themselves and through scent caring more about

save fabric saving fabric

conditioner conditioner, -

readiness stage: aware

product

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3. People who use -income: higher -lifestyle: do not have - regular occasion

washing machine income time to hand washing - benefits sought:

caring more about the

appropriateness

between detergent and

washing machine

- readiness stage:

aware product

4. People who offer -income: middle - regular occasion

no detergent income - benefits sought:

residues disliked detergent

residues in clothes

- readiness stage:

informed product

Moreover, detergent is necessity in our life so customers will have variety-seeking buying

behavior with low consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences. Hence,

Omo, leader in detergent’s market share, should encourage habitual buying behavior by

dominating shelf space, keep shelves fully stocked and running frequent reminder advertising

(Kotler et al, 2006).

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V. BRAND ANALYSIS

5.1 Review the product-life cycle of OMO

All producers want their product to have a long and happy life; although their products are not

expected to sell forever, they want to get profit to cover all their efforts and risks. Hence, each

product has a life cycle. (Kotler et al, 2006). Omo, now, has various types of products including

Omo matic, Omo comfort, Omo bleach, Omo matic and Omo in liquid form to serve 4 customer

objects (http://www.unilever.com.vn).

Some of those products are belong to maturity stage being Omo matic, Omo comfort, Omo

bleach. In this stage, many producers have numerous products to sell, which leads to greater

competition and a slowdown in sales growth; to compete with others, they must enhance

advertising campaign; improve quality, feature and style, (Kotler et al, 2006). As we can see that

on the detergent market, Omo has been launching with a lot of new features such as Omo

comfort, Omo matic. Style of this product is also improved by adding more new colors like

bright blue and orange. Recently, producer has organized some projects towards the community

such as project of clean planet; they also increase advertising concentrating on some programs

like “cho be cung don tet”, “nang dong cung be” or “ vui cung vet ban”.

(http://www.omovietnam.com). In this stage, with product and marketing modifications, Omo

has positioned successfully with the first brand in customer’s mind on Vietnam detergent market.

Additionally, Omo producer launched the newest product 2 years ago; that is Omo in liquid form

being in growth stage. According to Kotler (2006), a lot of money will be spent on product

improvement, promotion and distribution but giving up the maximum current profit and

competition is unavoidable. Although Omo washing water was launched on the market for a

13
short time, it has attracted a lot of housewives by advertising, they are curious about new product

and want to buy it for trial; they also share the experience of using on the media like newspaper

online. (http://www.tin247.com). It is clear that advertising campaign for new product of Omo is

extremely successful.

5.2. 4P analysis

5.2.1 Production

a. Product

A product has three levels being core product, actual product and augmented product (Kotler et

al, 2006). Hence, we analyze Omo in terms of those levels:

Core product: Omo has bleach stain higher than other kinds of washing powder and can

wash completely the dirty spot on clothes.

Actual product:

 Brand: Omo is easy, short, catchy name to remember.

 Packaging: the packaging of Omo is very bright, prominent and catchy.

Traditional colors of Omo are red, white and deep blue. Packaging has

increasingly improved to make it convenient, the most aesthetical for users while

preserving product best through time and space (http://www.scribd.com). New

model of Omo has the image displayed on two sides of the package; besides the

traditional color, there are more two colors being bright green and orange- splat-

which is the symbol of the dirty namely” learn to play”. All are designed in a

harmonious, friendly and lively style. A remarkable new enhancement is no need

14
 to cut package and can be easily torn by hand for using. Omo also was packed in

paper bag to protect environment.

 Size: Omo has various type of size: 400g, 800g, 1.5kg, 3kg, 4.5kg and

5boxes/barrel to meet customer needs and demand. (http://www.scribd.com).

Augmented product:

 Warranty: In recent years, Unilever Vietnam specially emphasis on anti-

counterfeiting to protect consumer interests, intellectual property and reputation

of Omo. Products of company have “ stamp warranty” or “ logo warranty” to help

users identify counterfeit goods (http://vietbao.vn)

 Service: Omo Company has the center of caring customer to serve and consult

consumers about their products.(omovietnam.com).

To reinforce the belief of users, producers should provide more convenient

service for customer. For example, when people use product, they realize that

they purchase a wrong or low quality product because of counterfeit good; they

can return it and take a new one.

Product classifications

On detergent market, since there are many types of products like Tide, Vi Dan, customers

usually compare their quality, style, suitability, and price in the process of selection and

purchase. Therefore, Omo is considered as shopping product.

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 b. Product assortment

The number of versions offered of each product in the line creates the depth in product mix

decision. Because Omo has some versions like Omo matic, Omo comfort or Omo in liquid form,

Omo is the depth of product mix to satisfy users in 4 segmentations.

To conclude, although Omo is a famous brand on the market now, producers face with the fierce

competition; so they should improve their product more and more. They might create more

versions of Omo to diversify it or improve the service by delivering the close customer card for

people who buy Omo regularly.

5.2.2. Price

OMO brand has set a target to reduce production costs in order to bring reasonable prices to

consumers who have high and middle income. Company has relied on small business in local to

find alternative materials in place for import materials. This decreases both the purchasing cost

and tax rate. Omo has been using product line pricing strategy which is when management must

decide on the price steps to set between the various products in a line, based on cost differences

between the products, customer evaluations of different features and competitors’ prices (Kotler

et al, 2006). Omo matic, Omo comfort and Omo in liquid form are typical examples for various

versions and different features. Producers set the price for those products as follow:

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 Price
Image Product information
(VND)

Omo Comfort 2in1 3kg

Prodcucer: Unilever Vietnam

Type: washing by hand 118,000 VNĐ

Feature: save fragrance

Omo Matic 3 kg

Producer: Unilever Vietnam

Types: washing by machine 130,000VNĐ

Feature: saving – less foam

Omo in liquid form 1L

Producer: Unilever Vietnam

58,000 VNĐ
Type: washing by hand

Feature: washing strongly

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 Omo matic in liquid form 1L

Producer: Unilever Vietnam

58, 000 VNĐ
Type: washing by machine

Feature: washing strongly

(http://thitruongvietnam.com.vn)

Because prices between those versions do not differ too much, all products have been preferred.

During the first 5 years, Omo penetrated the market by using competition base pricing approach;

the company kept the same price and qualities though increase in the price of the similar type of

product due to the effect of increase price in raw materials and fuel. This strategy helps Omo

gain higher market share and compete with other competitors. In 2002, the market witnessed

price war between Omo and Tide and discount strategy was initiated at the beginning of August,

2002. P&G began the battle by decreasing Tide price from 8000d to 6000k per 400g package,

Unilever immediately reacted by reducing the price of Omo from 7500d to 5500d per 500g

package. P&G continued to dance battle with discount from 6000d to 4500d for Tide of 400g

while Unilever show the new method by courting agents “exhibiting a Omo package will receive

1000d”along with increased prices by reduce weight from 500gr to 400gr- 5500d. In grocery

stores, supermarkets, Omo brand flood the market .The price of Tide and Omo drop by 30% than

before respectively and consumers will have benefit first. After 6 months, two brands shook hand

and have together grown the price up to now. From 2002 to now, price of Omo and Tide has

increased by 10,000d/kg.

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This strategy of Omo can help Omo develop more and more. (http://www.scribd.com).

5.2.3. Placement

Omo is divided into 3 channels:

1. Manufactures-> Retailer--> Consumers.

Vietnam has 82 million people living in rural, accounting for 72 %; retail market is very

complexity and the majority with more than 450,000 stores. On the other hand, based on the

buying habits of customers, company choose distribution channel through agents, supermarkets

or distributors suitably. Vietnamese has the buying habit everyday instead of going to

supermarket at the weekend to buy goods for the whole week. Unilever takes advantages of

available channels as the market system, traders. Since the general trend of Vietnamese today is

increasingly closer to modern distribution channels such as supermarkets, company has

implemented a strategy that distributes its product through retail supermarket such as Big C, Co-

op mart, Maximax system, etc... Those supermarkets distribute directly product to the final

clients by giving them to choose favorite and fit product.

Distribution is focused the final user, consumed in small amounts but regularly.

2. Manufacturer Wholesalers Retailers Final user

With this channel, Omo is sold at the big commercial centers like Metro Binh Phu in HCMC or

at other Metro system in 5 major cities of Vietnam. Here Omo is provided with the large amount

for retailers, and then put to final consumers. This channel helps product line of Omo primarily

directed to retailers in large quantity.

3. Manufacturer WholesalerJobber-Retailer Consumer.

19
Accomplished products are taken to the agents representing the company to conduct transactions

with customers. Distribution center is located in Binh Duong with modern equipment and

scientific operating layout. Goods after production will be gathered on this center, then shipped

to dealers in Central (from Nha Trang southwards) and Southern, Western. This is also a transit

point from HCMC to Ha Noi and Da Nang. So, distribution strategy is to expand the market,

agents, increase the quantity and quality of channel distribution, but it creates more cost and the

price of Omo will be higher in hand of customers. (http://www.scribd.com).

Among 3 channels, channel 1 is the most effective since it has only one intermediary and save

more for transportation cost. If producers want provide Omo with the lowest price for customers

as possible, they should cut down the number of intermediaries.

5.2.4 Promotion:

Promotion is a series of mixtures of activity: Advertising, promotions, public relations, direct

sales and direct marketing.
The selection of promotional tools to spread the image and the message is extremely important.
Ads on television, newspapers (Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien), websites (http://www.omovietnam.com )
or the oral method are some programs which Unilever Vietnam has chosen to promote Omo.
Besides, the company also organized programs establishing study promotion funds for poor
children in each Omo package. Specially, the Omo’s ads programs usually use the image of the
family as a son always remembers his wearing with a white sun-scented laundry by his mother
and this is create a good effect for Vietnamese. As a result, customers pay more attention for
Omo.
Omo also constantly organizes and implements some programs to work with customers. For
example, program “Hoc dieu hay ngai gi vet ban” with the goal of creating opinion to support the
“Omo – ao trang ngoi sang tuong lai”; games of skill and chance “Nang dong cung be” support to
Omo’s slogan “Ngai gi vet ban”. Besides, Omo is known as a leading brand with many social
activities. In these, poverty reduction is the most outstanding activity: Omo has developed the
project “Omo mai đo am tinh xuan,” helping build nearly 300 houses in 37 districts of five
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poorest provinces in Vietnam: Lai Chau, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Quang Tri, Quang Nam
(http://hanoimoi.com.vn). OMO recently deployed a “Cleaner Planet Plan” which related to
environmental protection - an issue that is concerned of everyone. Therefore, instead of
promoting the brand, hold and reward customer, get consumers to ‘load up’ on a mature product,
they have created the brand awareness for clients.

By implementing some consumer promotion tools, Unilever drew a lot of attentions and received
many positive responses for the company as well as the brand.

VI. SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Consider Possible actions

Good reputation Remain and develop its Increase quality, reduce

reputation price to satisfy customer

needs, develop marketing

activities, participate more

in public activities

Researching activities and Emphasize on and invest more - Increase budget for

developing technology are in research and innovation research and innovation

effective. department

- Know the need and want

of consumers; Identify

customer segments or sub-

segments to have the policy

that for each type of

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 detergent having various

price and sizes.

- Recruit more excellent

experts

Successful advertising and PR Develop and innovation those - Organize some

campaigns campaigns programs to find

talents in advertising

sector

- Improve technology’s

knowledge for staff by

some trainees

Weaknesses

Inconvenient service Reinforce service system - Open more caring

centers for customer

- Have some service

along with purchasing

for example: closer

customer card...

Price is still high in comparison Identify ways to use material, - Apply more technology,

to customer segment of low labor, capital more effectively machine in manufacturing.

- Train workers ‘skills

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income in Viet Nam. regularly and increase

reward level for workers

working effectively in

order to increase ability

of workers

Opportunities

Abundant and qualified human Improve intellectual Provide more trainee

resource knowledge and practical skills programs associated with

colleges and universities

Threats

In the context of greater Remain and develop its - Research market and

demand of consumers, position in the market and develop strategies to meet

Detergent market in Viet Nam customer ‘s mind customer ‘s needs

now is very aggressive. - Differentiate the

company’s courses and

offer superior values to the

partners.

Viet Nam’s population gets old Identify ways to avoid surplus Research market and predict

in future. in future when demand lower future demand from now

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Employees may be dissatisfied Identify the level of salary Find the suitable salary level

with their current wage level which the company can pay to and increase salary for

because of inflation. make employees more satisfied employees timely by asking

but still increase total profit accounting department and

thanks to benefits from wage other related departments work

efficiency together.

VII. Conclusion

To summarize, in Vietnam detergent market, at this time, OMO is the leader detergent with good

quality, friendly image, and impressive promotion programs. However, to prepare the best for

the unpredicted future, Omo has to pay attention and predict to changes in behavior of external

environment, strengths and weaknesses of its competitors, especially Tide and the needs and

wants of customers, hence, taking proactive approach. They should spend more concern about

positioning their brand through develop strategies for product, price, placement and promotion.

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In order to solve OMO’s weaknesses, develop and preserve their strong points, take

opportunities and cope with threats, we outline some specific recommendations as follow:

 Survey opinions of customers to investigate what they need and want, hence, developing

and exploit new innovative products that satisfy customers.

 Opening more caring service for customers; publish closer customer cards for groups use

large products of Omo and have some incentive programs for owners.

 Build trainee programs for third and forth student of universities. Those programs can be

informed through internal personnel, website of Omo and youth union of universities.

Two or three months in summer vacation should be chose to recruit.

 Hold or sponsor summer camping for children from 8 – 14 ages. In those camps, children

will play many games. After that, there should be a game for them that related to washing

clothes by using Omo.

 Provide incentive programs for personnel in inflation stage. It can be increasing wage or

if they do not afford to do that, they can give combo of two or three products of Unilever

at the end of each month, or organized tourist trips.

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