Introduction
A plan is a statement of calculated intentions to organize efforts and resources to achieve a certain objective. A business plan or marketing plan is taken as an arrangement that consists of information of what a business enterprise will sell, to who, when, where, and how entirely including the business’s marketing strategy. For the effective business performance of any enterprise, the firm needs to carry out thorough research of its place of interest before launching its businesses to that place. The firm should try to determine the buying potentials of the people living there. This will include the marketing department carrying out research to determine the income of the people dwelling in their place of interest.
The research group should also identify the population in that area for the company to try and determine an estimate of customers they can get by expanding to that area. This will help to focus on whether their expansion to the given area will be profitable or not. When the research involves a company expanding to another country the marketing department must identify the policies that prevail in such places concerning the foreign investment of certain products. Similarly, the research undertaken will identify some of the cultural and cross-cultural communication challenges the company is going to experience and recommend appropriate solutions to overcome these barriers (Mencken1991,6) Vietnam is an ample marketplace for mobile services. This is because Vietnam has a considerable good population growth rate that is highly concentrated in the urban areas. This population is composed of medium and low-income earners. The high population in these urban areas can provide a good market for mobile services. Mobile companies need to take this opportunity and invest in this country.
The privatization of Telecommunication in Vietnam has boosted the mobile services market greatly. In 2005 the growth and penetration of the mobile services market were approximate 7% and promised to shot up greatly. This was due to the many companies that showed interest in investing in their mobile services business in the region. Therefore in 2006 many mobile services firms had expanded their mobile services to Vietnam, generating a lot of completions among themselves hence for their survival a lot of promotion for their products is needed in Vietnam (David 2005, 6)
Promotion
According to Mark T. 2003, 12 Promotion is defined as the process of disseminating information concerning a product, service brand, or company. Promotion is among the four elements of the marketing mix while the other three are pricing, distribution, and product management. Promotion is very effective in enhancing the awareness of a company’s product or services. Therefore firms that are successful in marketing their products and services usually have strong and very effective promotion strategies. In Vietnam, the privatization of the telecommunication industry has attracted many mobile companies to invest in the country. This created stiff competition among the companies and therefore strategic marketing strategies are vital for the survival of these companies. Vietnam being a state that is comprised mainly of low-income earners requires cheap marketing strategies.
This is because the majority of Vietnamese do not have expensive electronic devices such as computers to allow internet advertisement. Therefore a mobile marketing firm that has expanded its businesses activities to Vietnam for it to succeed will require establishing strong and cheap promotions for its products to Vietnamese residents. This can be achieved if the mobile company recruits and train local residents as salespeople. These salespeople will help the company to market its products through the door to an advertisement by visiting their customers and their homes or offices. These local salespeople will also help the company to organize an exhibition in strategic places in Vietnam that are highly populated to help the company sell its products to these people. The company should then use the local salespeople to explain to the local people how their products and services operate and why they should purchase them. The local company through this process will have an excellent opportunity to overcome the cross-cultural communication barriers that may exist to hinder effective marketing of their services and products since the salespeople can comfortably speak the Vietnamese local language.
The company put posters of their products and services in strategic places such as public gathering premises to alert residents of their new products and services. This will highly boost the awareness and sales of the company’s products and services in Vietnam at a very affordable cost. The foreign mobile firm should open new manufacturing plants in Vietnam. This can be easily be realized by the company alliancing with a local company that will help it to market its technology. Opening such a plant will greatly lower the cost of production. This will enable the mobile firm to sell its products in Vietnam at a lower price to allow its products affordable to the Vietnamese who are mostly low-income earners. Through this process, the company will also be in a position to offer better discounts to their customers than the other companies. This will greatly enhance the sale of their products since the low price is associated with high demand. Through these strategies, the company will greatly boost its performances in the country and have a chance of excelling very well in and survive in such stiff competition. (Rehmeyer 2007, 30).
References
Chaffey K. (2003) Tools of Marketing Strategies: Prentice Hall: New York Pgs 20-43 Jackson, B. (1985), build customer relationship, Harvard: Business magazine Issue Vol 4 No.6 Pg 3.
David S. (2005) Strategic marketing techniques Volume 5; 2005; page 8Chaffey A. (2003) International Marketing; Prentice Hall: New York Pgs 5-12.
Mencken, R. (1991), word of mouth marketing is everything, (Harvard Business Review Vol 3. Pg 6.
Mark T. (2003) Effective Promotion Methods: Prentice Hall: New York. Pg 12.
Rehmeyer, J. (2007), internet spreads information, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Pg 30.