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Enhancing the marketing communication channels
effectiveness for the Kid's Edutainment Area
The case of VinKE Times City
Bachelor of Business Administration Thesis
Supervisor: M.A. Lưu Thị Thảo Nguyên
Group Members: Hà Bảo Ngọc – BA00235
Hoàng Quỳnh Ngọc – BA00262
Hoàng Thị Thanh Thủy – BA00247
Nguyễn Minh Quân – BA00321
Vũ Trọng Khánh – BA00216
Hanoi, August 2014
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................5
1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................6
1.1. Background .............................................................................................................6
1.1.1. Academic Background.....................................................................................6
1.1.2. Vin Kid’s Edutainment (VinKE)’s Background..............................................7
1.2. Research Questions and Research Objectives.........................................................8
1.2.1. Research Questions..........................................................................................8
1.2.2. Research Objectives.........................................................................................9
1.3. Research Method.....................................................................................................9
1.4. Justification of the Study.......................................................................................10
1.5. Research Scope and Limitations of Study ............................................................10
1.5.1. Research Scope..............................................................................................10
1.5.2. Limitations of Study ......................................................................................11
1.6. Thesis Structure.....................................................................................................11
1.7. Conclusion.............................................................................................................12
2. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL MODELS ......13
2.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................13
2.2. Marketing Communication ...................................................................................13
2.2.1. Definition of Marketing Communication ......................................................13
2.2.2. Communication Process Models ...................................................................14
2.3. Marketing Communication Channels ...................................................................16
2.3.1. Production Channels......................................................................................17
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2.3.2. Marketing Channels.......................................................................................18
2.3.3. Outside Channels ...........................................................................................23
2.4. Consumer Behavior and Marketing Communication Channels............................25
2.4.1. Consumer Behavior .......................................................................................25
2.4.2. Marketing Communication Channels ............................................................25
2.5. Gap in Literature Review......................................................................................30
2.6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................30
3. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY..................................................................31
3.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................31
3.1.1. Research Philosophies and Paradigms...........................................................31
3.1.2. Research Methods..........................................................................................32
3.2. Data Collection Methods.......................................................................................33
3.2.1. Secondary Data..............................................................................................34
3.2.2. Primary data...................................................................................................34
3.2.3. Sampling Techniques.....................................................................................37
3.2.4. Sample Size and Sample Characteristics.......................................................38
3.3. Data Analysis Methods .........................................................................................38
3.4. Ethical Considerations ..........................................................................................39
3.5. Limitations of the Research Project ......................................................................40
3.6. Validity and Reliability.........................................................................................41
3.7. Conclusion.............................................................................................................41
4. CHAPTER 4: ANALYSES AND FINDINGS ...............................................42
4.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................42
4.2. Analysis and Discussions......................................................................................42
4.2.1. Target Audience’s Characteristics.................................................................42
4.2.2. Effectiveness of Communications .................................................................51
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4.2.3. Evaluation influence factors in choosing a service and brand awareness about
edutainment centers of customer in Hanoi and VinKE Times City .............................55
4.2.4. Perception of VinKE’s Director ....................................................................61
4.3. Key Findings .........................................................................................................63
4.3.1. Key Finding 1: Target audience.....................................................................63
4.3.2. Key Finding 2: The Reality of VinKE Times City’s Communications.........64
4.4. Conclusion.............................................................................................................68
5. CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION ..................68
5.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................68
5.2. Recommendations for VinKE Times City............................................................69
5.2.1. Target Audience.............................................................................................69
5.2.2. Messages/Content and Sources of Messages.................................................69
5.2.3. Communication Channels..............................................................................70
5.3. Industry Suggestion...............................................................................................78
5.4. Limitations of the Research ..................................................................................79
5.5. Suggestions for Future Research...........................................................................79
5.6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................80
Appendix 1: Table of Figures.................................................................................82
Appendix 2: Table of Tables ..................................................................................82
Appendix 3: List of Interview’s Questions ...........................................................83
Appendix 4: Summary of Interview’s Result .......................................................84
Appendix 5: Sample of Questionnaire ..................................................................89
Bibliography ............................................................................................................96
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ABSTRACT
Edutainment – the combination of entertainment and education – is a new kind of business
in Vietnam. VinKE Times City, which is one of the most noticeable center that provide
this service for children in Hanoi, is chosen as the investigated firm for this report. Though
VinKE can be determined as a successful business with a big number of arrivals per day
(about 1,000 arrivals per weekday and 2,500 at weakend), which generates great income,
its communication activities are clearly not focused on yet and needs improving a lot.
Thus, the ultimate purpose of this research is to understand the situation of VinKE then
provide recommendations to enhance the firm’s communication effectiveness, which in
turn improve its performance.
The report contains five main chapters, which are: Introduction, Literature review,
Methodology, Analysis and Findings, and Recommendation and Conclusion. The
introduction chapter presents an overview of VinKE’s background and raises the two
research questions: “Who is the target customers of VinKE?” and “How has VinKE been
communicating with its customers?” The second chapter indicates the literature reviews,
clears the major concepts and reviews the academic knowledge which are applied to
analyze the findings. The chapter of methodology explains the data collecting method. The
study used primary research and secondary research. Both quantitative and qualitative
methods are employed which contains in-depth interview, offline and online survey. The
fourth chapter represents the collected results of conducted research with specific statistics
and figures, then three key findings of the study will be explored, which help to address
both two research questions. The main customer segmentation is the group of females
aging from 22 to 35 years old. VinKE has been using some communication channels such
as: Facebook, Youtube, Website, E-newspapers and Television. However, VinKE has not
been really successful in promoting its image. The last chapter is going to sum up the study
and recommend solutions for problems or demerits of VinKE, finally limitations of the
study and future research will be referred and included.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, we would like to send our sincere gratitude to Ms. Nguyen Luu Thi Thao
(M.A.), Department of Marketing at FPT University, our thesis coach and supervisor, for
her patience, motivation, guidance, and wide knowledge during the making of this thesis.
Under her persistent supporting and sincere encouragement, this dissertation was
successful. Secondly, we would like to express our truly appreciation to Mr. Tung Phan
Thanh, Marketing Lecturer at FPT University, who provides really useful advice for the
recommendation part of our thesis.
Besides, we are very thankful to Mrs. Hanh Nguyen Phuong, Manager of Edutainment
center VinKE Times City and Mrs. Hao Ha Thi Thu, Head of Administrative and General
Affairs, staffs and many customers of VinKE Times City for allowing and providing
generous support during conducting interviews and surveys, in spite of their busy
schedules.
Last but not least, we would like to show our thankfulness for our families, friends who has
enthusiastic help during this during our research for this dissertation.
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1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
1.1.1. Academic Background
Regarding the business issues of Promotion which are going to be researched and
analyzed, some core theories about Marketing Communication and Consumer Behaviors
will be mentioned, explained and applied in this report.
The reason of choosing to analyze the Marketing Communication and Consumer Behavior
is due to their imporant role in doing business. Communication, which can be described as
all the messages and media that companies deploy to communicate with the market
(Wiefels, 2002), plays a key part in connecting the company and the customers, which is
essential for the survival of every business. At the same time, consumer behavior
undeniably has to be taken into account while it is closely related to company’s marketing
and communication campaign. By understanding who buy the products, and why, when,
where, and how they do it, companies can fit the marketing strategies to target the market.
Besides, the theories, and models, along with the data and statistics which could be
collected from conducting research, will be able to provide the most complete
comprehension of the issues, from that recommend the best improvement strategy for the
company.
General Background of Edutainment industry in Vietnam
Edutainment is a new field not only in Vietnam but also in the world. This model combines
entertainment and career education to help children develop the characteristic and
personality so very attract parents and children. This model educate through the forms of
entertainment for children aged from 4-16 years; gives children an overview, the broader
of life around. Edutainment experiences at the center will be the first step to prepare
children to become good citizens, and can adapt to an ever-growing society (Kidzania,
2014).
Previously, play areas for children in Vietnam are purely places for children to participate
in entertainment activities, such as play areas in the park or in the commercial centers.
Since 2013, with the appearance of Kizcity center (Kizciti, 2013), the first edutainment
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zone in Hanoi and in Vietnam, has attracted great attention of parents and children. So far,
the year 2014 has marked the foundation of two other edutainment centers in Hanoi
(VinKE, 2014) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietopia, 2014). With the effectiveness of
combining learning and playing, this will be the new trend in the field of traditional
entertainment centers for children in Vietnam.
1.1.2. Vin Kid’s Edutainment (VinKE)’s Background
Vingroup
Vingroup Joint Stock Company (Vingroup JSC), formerly known as Technocom, was first
established in 1993 in Ukraine by an ambitious group of Vietnamese youth. Technocom
started its business with food production and soon became hugely successful with the
brand Mivina. From 2000, Technocom – Vingroup returned to Vietnam with a desire to
contribute to their motherland’s development (Vingroup, 2014).
Vingroup focuses on progressing their strategic brand names: Vinhomes (A system of
premium residential properties and services); Vincom (A system of high-end shopping
malls); Vinpearl (Tourism & Recreation) and expanding its high-quality Healthcare
Services (Vinmec); Education (Vinschool), etc. In every area, Vingroup always showcases
its pioneering stature with international standard products and services (Vingroup, 2014).
As one of Vingroup’s strategic brand names, started with Vinpearl resort NhaTrang in
2001 – the first high rank resort in Vietnam with full modern facilities, until the end of
2013, Vinpearlland strengthens its brand name more and more with series of excellent
tourism and recreation projects: Vinpearl Luxury DaNang, Vinpearlland Royal City
(Vinpearl Games, Vinpearl Water Park, Vinpearl Ice Rink and Royal Bowling), and the
newest Vinpearlland Times City with 2 attractions: Vinpearl Aquarium and VinKE
(Vinperland, 2014).
VinKE
In 24th December 2013, when Vincom Mega Mall City Times opened, Vinpearlland
created VinKE (Vin Kid’s Edutainment), which has area of nearly 6.000m2. VinKE was
organized with the idea of "A paradise for children entertainment from kindergarten to
minors - Where they can explore the colorful of world through field trips and practical
experience”.
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With the desire to create a space for children to experience their dreams; directly make
friend with each other, self-discovery, to acquire knowledge about their field of interest
and more confident harmony with the world around, VinKE has focused on developing the
educational experiences with a series of attractive models such as the Fire Station, Police
Station, Military Academy, VinKE Hospital, VinKE Dance Club, My master chef, Beauty
Kingdom, World of Arts, TV Station, Post Office, etc.
The children will be satisfied to enjoy the great pleasure to participate the game and feel
the happiness with childhood filled with laughter.
As one of the first companies operates this new service sector in Vietnam, Edutainment
center VinKE predefined difficulties from building to operation. After opening in 12-2013
along with Times City, VinKE attract a huge number of customers. But so far, step through
the opening period, VinKE having one problem is the decrease in number of customer. The
cause of this problem can be clearly seen from the implementation of marketing activities.
All marketing activities of VinKE ever depend on the activity of the Times City that does
not have the specific operation separately. Therefore, to look to the future ahead that the
company will open more Edutainment center in other provinces, VinKE must pay special
attention to the issue of marketing; particularly pay attention to the marketing strategy.
With the goal of building a clear picture in the customer's mind, VinKE need more focused
in the communication channels, targeting potential customers. This topic will analyze and
evaluate the operation and effectiveness of the communication channels was being applied
at VinKE, while providing appropriate solutions, to help achieve its objectives.
1.2. Research Questions and Research Objectives
1.2.1. Research Questions
Research Question 1: Who is the target customers of VinKE?
The very first steps in every marketing strategy are inclusive of having complete
identification and comprehension of the targeted market and customers. The more accurate
data one firm has about its audience, the more effective and efficient its marketing strategy
could be. Hence researches and surveys will be conducted to indicate who VinKE’s target
audience are, as well as the characteristics and behaviors of them such as which their prefer
communication preferences are, what content of the message that they would prefer, and
which channels they want the communication to process via.
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Research Question 2: How has VinKE been communicating with its customers?
1. What is the message and source of message that VinKE
has been using?
2. Which channels have been used?
Along with investigating about VinKE’s customers, this document also aims to mainly
analyze the Channel among the Promotion elements. Thus one big question is contrived
here that is how VinKE has been doing in term of promotion, or in other words, in term of
communicating with their audience.
In the detailed parts of findings regarding this issue, the report will clarify and analyze
communication channels which VinKE has been using, as well as the company’s
performance on each channel, and also which one of them is preferred by the audience.
1.2.2. Research Objectives
The research focused on literature reviews related to communication process,
communication channels, communication effectiveness and consumer behaviors toward
communication. Besides, the research is going to summary the customer’s habit of using
communication channels then exanimates communication effectiveness toward target
customerss. By applying relevant theories and models and conducting research about
VinKE’s issue, the ultimate purpose of this study is to provide logical and practical
recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the company’s communication.
1.3. Research Method
In this study, quantitative research method is used to uncover information and figures
related to customers’ characteristics and behaviors of VinKE as well as their habits in
using information channels. All of those data were gathered through questionnaires. And
those questionnaires were spread through both of online and offline channels. With online
channels, online surveys are sent to customers via social network sites such as Facebook,
forums as well as through emails. At the same time, hard paper surveys are given to
audience at VinKE’s center in Times City and other shopping centers, schools. Besides, the
study also included qualitative research method for clarifying the results of quantitative
research method. Through this study, the perception and expectation of VinKE’s customers
toward communication channels will be indicated.
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1.4. Justification of the Study
In recent years, the living condition in Vietnam is improved, therefore in big and more
developed cities such as Hanoi, parents spent more attention and money in education and
entertainment for their children. To capture this trend, VinKE has been launched in
Vietnam. VinKE is the combination of education and entertainment for kids. This type of
service is rather new in Vietnam currently, so there are not so many people really know
about it. Besides, VinKE still has not had any really noticeable communication activities
yet. That is the reason why this document is carried out with the main purpose of
improving communication of VinKE. To do that, this study points out the characteristics of
VinKE’s customers and then try to find out what the most effective communication
channels to customers of VinKE are. This study can help to increase amount of individual
customers coming to VinKE as well as brand identity of VinKE in customers’ mind.
Moreover, this paper can also apply for the whole edutainment industry and becomes the
premise for future researches related to edutainment service.
1.5. Research Scope and Limitations of Study
1.5.1. Research Scope
With the research objectives have been defined above, the determined customers
participate in the research are married people in Hanoi, include potential customers who
did not know Vinke and customers who have known and used VinKE’s service. The
research’s result will identify characteristics and behaviors of VinKE’s audience, how
VinKE used communication channels and which channels that audience preferred to
improve the communication effectiveness. The surveys will be conducted at VinKE Times
City center, other places such as other shopping centers and through Internet. This study
will not be researched on child objects and collective visitors, although these two objects
are target customer of VinKE Times City. It is difficult to research on children. According
to Salomon, children tend to be not credible respondents of their own behavior, their mind
are not good in remembering and it is difficult to them to understand abstract questions.
Moreover, their abilities to process the related information of product are different in age
groups (R.Solomon, 2011). Besides, this research also does not focus on collective visitors,
only focus on individual customers because the consumption behavior of business and
individual are much more different from each other.
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1.5.2. Limitations of Study
The study is implemented by a small group of undergraduate students so it surely contains
some unavoidable limitations.
Not to mention about the language, the first limitation of the study is the difficulty in
providing a full understanding and practical solutions to a rather big firm’s business issues
with insights of inexperienced mindsets.
The second challenge is about collecting data, statistics and report of the whole industry
generally and of VinKE, particularly. The available of secondary data are under
expectation since edutainment industry is quite new in the market of Vietnam. In addition,
VinKE was launched in 2013 so its data and reports were internal documents and it is hard
to ask for some certain information of a private company. Furthermore, all public
information about VinKE on the Internet are almost on positive perspectives. Hence, it is
somewhat confusing to find out and evaluate the real issues of the company.
The third limitation, although aware of the importance of the child object in this topic, this
study did not mention about because this subject is very difficult to research. Besides, this
research also not focused on collective visitors, only focus on individual customers
because the consumption behavior of business and individual has much different.
The next limitation might be the sample of the research. The group of sample will
represent for all target customers and can make some bias in the results and conclusion.
Finally, the limitation of time, budget, human resources management and the complexity
of the survey can lead to unable to interpret all questions in much details.
1.6. Thesis Structure
The final thesis includes the following five chapters:
Chapter 1 – Introduction: The first chapter provides some essential background
information about the Kid’s Edutainment area - VinKE and topic information. Moreover,
the research objectives will be stated, followed by the research questions, the research
scope as well as its limitation in the process of making research.
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Chapter 2 – Literature Review: The second chapter indicates the literature reviews,
clears the major concepts and reviews the academic knowledge which intended to use in
the final thesis to evaluate the communication activities in VinKE.
Chapter 3 – Research Methodology: The third chapter determines the research
methodology employed in the research. Furthermore, research paradigms and philosophies
are shown in order to connect with the research design methodology as well as the method
of collecting data to analyze the topic.
Chapter 4 – Analysis and Findings: The fourth chapter represents the result of research
then analyze by statistics and specific figures which collected in the research. Besides,
some key findings of the study will be explored.
Chapter 5 – Conclusions and Recommendations: The final chapter summarizes
conclusion about the key results of the thesis. Some limitation and recommendations were
taken out after research to improve the communication problems mentioned in the case of
VinKE.
1.7. Conclusion
In conclusion, the first chapter represents a general view of the study topic background and
the Kids’ Edutainment center VinKE Times City. This chapter also highlighted the
research objectives and defined the research question to find out the problems and analyze
the communication activities in the case of VinKE. Its scope and limitations were also
stated.
Last but not least, the thesis structure and conclusion also mentioned. While thesis
structure provides a view about structure of the final thesis, the conclusion summarizes all
information provided in the chapter 1.
The next chapter will present some literature reviews and academic knowledge as well as
some theoretical models which will be applied using in conduct the research.
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2. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND
THEORETICAL MODELS
2.1. Introduction
The reality in the realm of Marketing over years has shown that communication is the
means that brings customers to company, hence clearly it plays an absolutely crucial role
to every business’s success. The second chapter of this paper firstly reviews some
definitions, theories and applied models of the Communication Process, as well as ones
about the Communication Channels.
Besides, since one main purpose of this report is to understand the target audience of
VinKE and then to enhance the effectiveness of the marketing communication channels the
company has been using, some literature reviews about Consumer generally, and
Consumer Behavior particularly, are also concerned and concluded.
Specifically, this Chapter two of the thesis contains four main parts of literature review.
Not to mention about the Introduction, the first part is Marketing Communication writing
about its definition and explaining briefly about its basic model. The second part will say
about the communication channels. The next part of the chapter is all about consumer
behavior theories. To continue, models and tools for measuring the effectiveness of the
Channels are taken into account and put into the report. Finally are parts of literature gap
and the conclusion of the whole chapter.
2.2. Marketing Communication
2.2.1. Definition of Marketing Communication
Marketing communication is a fundamental and complex part of a company’s efforts in
doing marketing. In loose and brief definition, marketing communication can be described
as all the messages and media that companies deploy to communicate with the market
(Wiefels, 2002).
Especially within the realm of relationship marketing thinking, communication might be
understood as an act of persuasion. “Using three classical rhetorical elements, we may see
this process as developing an understanding of the communicator’s intentions and
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qualities (ethos) and the communication climate (pathos), both of which are necessary for
engaging in constructive dialogues with customers (logos)” (Andersen, 2011).
According to Belch G & Belch M (2012), communication has been variously defined as
the information and data transferring, the ideas and perspective exchange, or the process in
which commonness or oneness of thoughts between senders and receivers are established
or consolidated. These definitions indicates that for communication to happen, there must
be information passed from one person to another, and there must also be something
shared in common between the way the two parties perceive the messages transferred
(E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
For instance, in this thesis with the case of VinKE, the company’s message is bringing to
kids from kindergarten to minors an edutainment paradise where they can discover the
colorful world and enjoy their childhood time subduing games and challenges with great
fun. So the communication process of the company involves transferring this message to
families, parents and kids and making them share the same thought about the VinKE
edutainment area with the company’s orientation.
2.2.2. Communication Process Models
As mentioned before in the first part, communication is the process of transferring
information, exchanging ideas, or the process of establishing a commonness or oneness of
thought between a sender and a receiver (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). In order to make this
process clearer and more logical, over the years, specialists have developed a basic model
of various elements of the communication process which is shown the Figure 2.1 below:
Figure 2-1: The Basic Model of Communication
Source: (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012)
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The major participants in the communication process are the two elements Sender and
Receiver, while Message and Channel are the major communication tools. The four others
are the major communication functions and processes, which are Encoding, Decoding,
Response, and Feedback. Noise, the last element in the model, refers to any exterior factors
which may interpose among the elements in the process and unnerve the effectiveness of
the communication (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
Specifically, each element can be described as followings:
Information Source - Sender: The source of information or the sender is the person or
group of people that has certain information to share with the other ones. To say in other
words, information source is the place where the message is produced. The sender might
be an individual person who may appear in the company’s advertisements such as a
celebrity or an expert in a particular field, or a nonpersonal entity such as the company or
the corporation itself. Because the receiver’s perceptions of the source have impact on how
the communication is received, marketers must be careful to choose a communicator the
receiver believes is knowledgeable and trustworthy or with whom the receiver can identify
or relate in some manner (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
Encoding: The communication process starts when the sender(s) selects information and
data containing words, symbols, pictures, so on, which altogether interpret the content of
the message that will be delivered to the receiver(s). The Encoding process refers to the
step of putting the information into a symbolic form which should be as familiar to the
receiver as possible (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
Channel: This element involves the means by which the communication travels from the
source to the receiver. At the most extensive level, Channel is inclusive of two types that
are Personal and Non-personal channels (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). These concepts will
be deeper analyzed in the next parts of the paper with more details.
Message: As mentioned before, message contains the meaning of information the source
want to transfer to the target audience. The message may be verbal or nonverbal, oral or
written, or symbolic as well. Messages have to be put into a transmittable form that is
suitable with the channels of communication being used. In advertising, this may vary
from simply writing some words or copy to producing a television commercial. For many
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products, it is not the actual words of the message that determine its communication
effectiveness but rather the impression or image the ad creates (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
Receiver – Decoding: Receiver is the person(s) to whom the message is transferred.
Generally, receivers are the customers in the firm’s target market or the audience who read,
hear, and/or see the marketer’s message then decode it. Decoding is the process in which
receiver(s) transform the sender’s message back into thought. This step in communication
process is strongly affected by the receiver’s reference frame, or field of experience, which
involves the receiver’s perspective, experience, attitudes and values. So as to happen an
effective communication, the message decoding process of the receiver must match the
encoding of the sender. In other words, this means the receiver understands and correctly
interprets what the sender is trying to convey. Effective communication is more positive
when there are things in common between the two sides. The deeper comprehension the
sender has about the receivers, the better the sender can understand their needs, empathize
with them, and communicate effectively (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
Response – Feedback: The receiver’s reactions after getting the message are called
response. These reactions can be invisible like accumulating information in mind or
observable like ordering or purchasing a product. Feedback, which marketers are very
interested in, is receiver’s response communicated back to the sender (E.Belch & A.Belch,
2012).
2.3. Marketing Communication Channels
There are several forms of communication referred to as the marketing communications
mix. These show us the various ways we can communicate. The communication mix can
be classified into two main channels: those that are controlled by the organization and
those are not (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009).
The diagram below that developed by Adrian Palmer (Palmer, 2005) help us sees how
message has initiated inside and outside organization through various communication
channels. The diagram separated messages into 2 categories: Message originating within
organization and Message originating outside organization. In Messages originating within
organization field differentiate in two communication channels are Product Channels and
Marketing Channel. Each of them contains different communication channels. With
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message outside the channel, there are three communication channels that often use in
organization (Palmer, 2005).
Figure 2-2: Marketing Communication Channels
Source: (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009)
2.3.1. Production Channels
Front line staff (Customer Service Employees)
Front line employees-the people behind the counter, on the phone, in the cloud, and
walking the floor-possess a large measure of control over the customer experience.
Communication from front line staff takes the form of the core service and a variety of
supplementary service, including providing information, taking reservations, receiving
payments and solving problems (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Front line staffs are
always an important part of an organization. They will be one of the first images affect
customer perception about the company and brand. When a prospective client calls the
company for the first time, he or she will talk to a frontline staff who will give the call to
the respective department. When a prospective customer walks in to a shop for the first
time, the frontline staff is the one who greets him or her. If the first impression that staff
give are bad you will lose a customer. But when a frontline staff member does his or her
job well, those prospective customers may turn into loyal customers (Lance A.
Bettencourt, Kevin Gwinner, 1996).
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Service Outlets (Servicescape)
Service outlets also can be call servicescape is “the environment in which the service is
assembled and in which the seller and customer interact, combined with tangible
commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service” (Bitner, 1981).
The servicescape are the landscape, design, signage, packing, surrounding environment,
decoration, equipment, layout, air quality, temperature and ambiance. The servicescape is
not just a hint of the quality of services, but also affects the customer's evaluation of other
factors determine the quality of service. The servicescape has both direct and indirect
effect on perceived service quality. It is of greater importance in determining customers'
evaluations of the expected service quality in a hedonic service compared to a utilitarian
service (Reimer & Kuehn, 2005). It also does play an important role in determining
customer affective and behavioral response to the service. For example is the case of a
restaurant, when returning to a restaurant that you have already been to, you know what to
expect when it comes to the quality of the food and service, as well as the servicescape -
the ambiance, music, decor, lighting, temperature and "feel" of the restaurant. Even when
the food and service are absolutely perfect, if one or a few of these details are off, the
experience can be ruined. Or when visiting a restaurant for the first time, the only
preconceived expectations are usually based on recommendations, which typically only
mention the food and service, as the servicescape is only noticed when it is not what it
should be. When all elements of the servicescape are exactly what they are supposed to be,
they can make the experience even more memorable.
Self-service Delivery Points
Self-service Delivery channel can be defined as ways for customers to access information
and services by themselves without dealing directly with a member of staff. Some example
of this channel is Computers, Digital TV, ATM and vending machines. Self-service
delivery requires clear signage, step-by-step instructions on how to operate the equipment
and user-friendly design (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009).
2.3.2. Marketing Channels
Advertising
Advertising is a means of communication with the users of a product or service.
Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to inform
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or influence people who receive them, as defined by the Advertising Association of the
UK. As the most dominant method of communication in consumer marketing, advertising
is always the first point when marketers think about approach customer. The purpose of
advertising is to build awareness, inform, persuade and remind. Advertising can reach huge
audience with simple messages, it plays a vital role in providing practical information and
referral service, guiding customer on the features and use of the product (Lovelock, Wirtz,
& Chew, 2009).
 Advertising Media channel
Effective advertising refers to informing the public about the right product at the right time
through the right medium. Media plays a very important role in advertising. It helps the
companies to develop the market equity, creates the positioning of the company and
facilitates the image of the company which it wants to create in the minds of the customers;
and the most important is it helps to send the message to large audience.
Print media:
Newspapers and magazines are the two main types of print media. The print media are
most suitable for messages designed when already defined the target audiance. Magazines
can approach specialized audience and tend to be selective in terms of the messages they
carry. In contrast, newspapers approach a high percentage of the population and can be
referred to as a mass media. The messages that newspapers carry are usually for products
and services that have a general appeal (Fill, 2009).
Broadcast media:
There are two main forms of broadcast media, television and radio. Advertisers’ use this
media because this type of media can approach mass audience with their messages at a
relatively low cost per target reached (Fill, 2009).
 Television: Television was very popular back in the 1950s and nothing stopped it
from becoming one of the best advertising media today. TV advertisements are
highly engaging and it has the ability to make connections with the audience in an
instant. TV advertising allows the product to reach large number of people, both
at regional as well as at national level. It helps in conveying the message or
advertisements with sound, visuals and actions; when messages are conveyed
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successfully, the ad becomes more credible to the audience. TV has mass
coverage, various segments of people like house wives, young people and
children are targeted through different TV channels. TV is a powerful tool in
marketing communication nowadays but it still has some limitation. First of all is
the high cost. TV ads are very expensive. The longer the air time, the more
expensive it is. The cost will also depend on what time you choose to telecast your
ads. Also, you have to pay for the air time every time the ad is shown. Mistake
cannot happen in TV ads, compared to print ads, making changes is a lot cheaper
and easier. TV advertisements are short, thus they do not express much about the
product. TV ads should be shown at least five times to be attaining message
retention and to push for consumer action. Seeing the TV ad once or twice won’t
be enough and it’s just a waste of money.
 Radio: Radio transfers specialized programming, which attracts selective
audience. Radio is a mobile media (one that can travel with audience), so that
messages can be relayed to them. The cost for radio programming are low and it
has great flexibility, which management can use to meet the customer needs (Fill,
2009). Because there is a lack of visual stimuli, this type of media has low
influence and the ability to hold and enthuse an audience. Frequancy of not
appearance can be high, which means that a high number of messages are ignored
or missed. When this is combined with low average audience, high levels of
frequency are required to achieve acceptable levels of reach.
Outdoor media:
Outdoor media consist of three main formats: street furniture (such as bus shelters);
billboards and Transit (which covers the Underground, buses and taxis) (Fill, 2009). Some
of the most creative pieces in advertising are seen outside of the home. It’s an overlooked
advertising medium that’s great for reinforcing messages communicated through other
mediums such as television or magazines. What it is truly unappreciated by advertisers is
its ability to create buzz with its out-of-the-box abilities, which are seemingly infinite, and
its high target reach and frequency, which allows the advertisement to hit a many different
people more than once (due to habitual travel patterns) in selected markets. Outdoor
Advertising surely reaches audience. People can't "switch it off" or "throw it out." People
contact to it whether they like it or not. In this sense, outdoor advertising truly has a
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"captured audience” (Marketingscoop, 2012). They are messages work on the advertising
principle of "frequency." Since most messages stay in the same place for a period of a
month or more, people who drive by or walk past see the same message a number of times.
Public Relations
PRSA (Public Relation Society of America) (PRSA, 2011) defined “Public relation is a
strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between
organizations and their publics”. At its core, public relations revolve around the fact that:
people act based upon their perception of facts. By managing, controlling, or influencing
people's perceptions, PR professionals hope to originate a continuation of behaviors that
will lead to the achievement of an organization's objectives. When those in public relations
successfully create, change, or reinforce opinion through persuasion, their primary
objective is accomplished. Public relations activities varied but they have a same role: to
concentrate to the image of an organization using a ‘soft sell’ approach. Public relations is
not advertising under another name. Many of an organization’s clients/customers may view
advertising as a ‘hard sell’ and recognize it as having specific objectives. Public relations
activities often have a greater credibility with target groups. The basic premise for PR’s
role is that a positive image is essential to retain existing customers and clients and to
attract new business (Copley, 2004).
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and
nonprofit organizations to communicate straight to the customer. It is a term used to refer
to all media activities that generate a series of communications and response with an
existing or potential customer (Fill, 2009). This category includes tools like e-mail, direct
mailers and telemarketing (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Direct marketing is
concerned with the management of customer behavior and is used to complement the
strengths and weaknesses of the other communication disciplines. Underpinning the direct
marketing approach are the principles of trust and commitment, just as they support the
validity of the other promotion tools. If a meaningful relationship is to be developed over
the long term and direct marketing is an instrumental part of the dialogue, then the pledges
that the parties make to develop commitment and stability are of immense importance.
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Sales promotion
Sales promotion is generally defined as those marketing activities that provides extra value
or incentives to the sales forces, the distributors, or the ultimate customer and can stimulate
immediate sales (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). There are many sales promotion techniques,
but they all offer a direct incentive to encourage audiance of these promotional messages to
buy a product or use service sooner. The incentive such as price deals, coupons, premiums
is indicated as an added value to the basic product, one that is planned to encourage buyers
to act sonner rather than later. The role of sales promotion has changed significantly over
recent years. At one time, the largest proportion of communications budgets was normally
allocated to advertising. In some cases advertising no longer dominates the
communications budget and sales promotion has assumed the focus of the communications
spending. Some functions of sales promotions are differentiate your products, attract
customer, increase market share and control inventory (Fill, 2009).
Personal Selling
Personal selling is a method in which one party uses skills and techniques for building
personal relationships with another that result in both parties earn value. In most cases the
"value" for the sale party is understod through the financial result of the sale while the
customer’s "value" is comprehended from the benefits can get by consuming the product.
Unlike advertising, personal selling need a direct way to contact between seller and buyer
through various kinds of channel for example face to face or phone (E.Belch & A.Belch,
2012).
Trade show
Trade shows are a popular form of publicity, especially for B2B service and include
important personal selling opportunities (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Trade shows
help businesses increase sales, build brands and reputation for the company and have the
opportunity to contact potential customers.
Internet
Messages transmitted over the internet organization can come from the company's website
or in commercials at the other sites. Through the internet, on the company’s website, the
marketer can create consumer awareness and interest, provide information, communicate
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with customer, and measure the effectiveness of specific advertising or promotion
campaigns, etc. With the develop of Internet, internet advertising such as Online
Advertising (image, video, etc.) and Banner Advertising also give the marketer various
ways to communicate with customers. One more type of advertising can do through the
internet is Search Engine Advertising. Instead of advertiser broadcasting their message to
consumer, search engines let advertiser know exactly what consumer want through their
key word search (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009).
With the develop of Web 2.0, the internet has a new direction. It creates a platform is
Social network that many people use nowadays. Social networks are about people using
the Internet to share lifestyle and experiences. The participants in these networks not only
share information and experiences, but they can also use the interactive capacity to build
new relationships. The critical aspect of social networks is that the content is user-
generated and this means users own, control and develop content according to their needs,
not those of a third party. Social networks concern the Internet’s ability to enable people to
share experiences. Typical sites include MySpace, YouTube and Facebook, each of which
has experienced rapid growth in recent years.
With over 700 million active users, Facebook is the biggest platform if you want to
associate with many people at the same time. Although, Facebook is a new platform, but it
promises many potential benefits for business. The fact that it can help businesses in
growing and reaching out to a new customer base has added to its popularity. Having a fan
page on Facebook is really needed for any business nowadays. It can help to build your
brand, engage with existing customers, reach new audience, influence fans and friends and
create viral promotion.
2.3.3. Outside Channels
Word of Mouth (WOM)
Word of Mouth is the passing of information from person to person by oral
communication. WOM can greatly influence the decision to use or not use a service of
consumer. That's because the WOM makes customers feel more believe than the
company's advertising. A recent study conducted by Marketshare (Marketshare,
2014) proved that word-of-mouth marketing drives sales. In fact, it showed that word of
mouth increased marketing effectiveness by up to 54 percent. Blogs, online video, forum
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and social network give consumers chance to spread the word about products and services
they use. Before buy a product or use a service, consumers often ask friends and family
members for opinions and find on the Internet for information about the brands they want
to use. WOM is a powerful tool in communication with lots of advantages. It is the power
of recommendations. People trust recommendations from family and friends more highly
than anything companies can say through their various advertisment. WOM is also a cheap
method of marketing but have long time value. Research conducted by the University of
North Carolina’s Center for Integrated Marketing and Sales suggests customers who
purchase products or services based on a referral are more likely to buy more than people
who find your company through traditional marketing methods. Referred customers also
tend to stick with your company longer than people who find your business by other
means. Furthermore, as happy referred customers direct their friends and family to you, the
value of the first referral grows exponentially. But on the other hand, WOM marketing
does have disadvantages. No matter how much effort you put into providing a quality
product, giving great experience for customer, you still have at least one customer who is
not impressed with your product or service. Whether the customer think the price is too
high, doesn’t like a thing of product or stopped using the service soon after signing up, a
customer who does not see value in what you offer can cause a negative affect on your
business through word-of-mouth marketing. A lot of word-of-mouth marketing takes place
online, through forum, blog and social network, negative comments about a brand, their
employees or products appear in Internet search results. If potential customers who search
on the internet about a brand, they are able to find the negative comments, reviews and
other feedback and may use it to determine whether or not they'd like to buy a product or
use a service.
Blog and Media Coverage
Blog is a personal website where people post journal, diaries or about whatever they like.
Blog can be about anything, their author, known as bloggers, usually focused on narrow
topics. The information which blogger wrote on their page can affect the decision and
opinion of consumer.
Media coverage can be defined as the way in which a particular piece of information is
presented by media either as news, entertainment or as infotainment. It can affect the
extent of information dissemination as well as influence the audience opinion while giving
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out the information. Bad coverage can ruin the image of a company. On the other hand,
positive coverage can help create a better image and positive public opinion.
2.4. Consumer Behavior and Marketing Communication Channels
2.4.1. Consumer Behavior
Lars Perner (2014) states that firms and organizations can improve their marketing
strategies by studying consumer behavior.
There are some official definitions of consumer behavior and one of them is that Consumer
behavior is “the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select,
purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and
desires” (R.Solomon, 2011, p. 33).
Solomon (2011) also said that consumer behavior is the study of people and the products
that help to shape their identities in different settings. Consumer behavior not only is about
buying something; but also embraces the study of how having (or not having) things
influence ourselves and about each other – our state of being.
In this thesis, studying consumer behavior is very important for evaluating the
effectiveness of communication channels of VinKE; and then giving some
recommendations for this case.
2.4.2. Marketing Communication Channels
According to E. Belch & A. Belch (2012), maybe the most crucial aspect of building up
effective communication programs involves understanding the response process. As this
issue is concerned, a number of models have been created to indicate the stages which a
customer might go through from not being aware of a brand to purchasing a product. The
Figure 2.3 demonstrates four best known response hierarchy models, which are AIDA
Model, Hierarchy of Effects Model (developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner),
Innovation Adoption model, and Information Processing Model (developed by William
McGuire).
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Figure 2-3: Models of Response Process
Source: (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012)
AIDA Model
According to E. K. Strong (1925), the AIDA model was developed to express the stages
that a salesperson must take a customer through in the personal-selling process. In this
model, the customer was described as going through four stages: Attention, Interest, Desire
and Action. E. Belch and A. Belch (2012) stated that the first thing the salesperson must do
is gain the customers’ attention and evoke some interest in the product or service of
company. Customers just desire to own or use the product or service only when they have
strong levels of interest. The result is action stage: getting the customer to make a
purchasing decision and closing the sale (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). E.Belch and A.Belch
(2012) also said that action stage is not only the most important, but also the most difficult
stage to a marketer in the selling process.
For using AIDA model of advertising effectively, Ms. Priyanka Rawal (2013)
recommended that:
 The advertising should be attention grabbing whether it includes commercials, posters
or billboards. Attractive audio and pictures are often used to grab the potential client's
or customer's attention.
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 By using images related to potential customers, a marketer can arouse their interest.
This requires gaining information about potential customers. Company can do studies,
take surveys or even just ask questions to gain information about what interests of
customers are, and then use it in advertising.
 It must be clear that what benefits the product or service can bring to customers and
how this product or service meets the customers’ needs and wants. So, customers can
desire to own the product or use the service.
 In action stage, “encouraging the customers to act quickly can make the difference
between success and failure in marketing” (Rawal, 2013). To make customers act
quickly, offering time limitations sales or discounts is one of the best effective ways.
Hierarchy of Effects model
Hierarchy of effects model which is developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner for
setting and measuring advertising objectives is the best known of response hierarchies
(E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) also stated that “hierarchy of
effects model shows the process by which advertising works” and in this model, consumers
passes through six steps in sequential order: Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference,
Conviction and Purchase. The fundamental of Hierarchy of effects model is that there must
be the existence of advertising effects within each steps for consumers can move to the
next step in the model.
Hierarchy model of advertising effects was become the basic model of the communications
response process used in Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results
(DAGMAR) (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Colley (1961) stated that the communication task
be based on four stages of hierarchy model of communication process:
 Awareness – making the consumer aware of the existence of the brand or company.
 Comprehension – developing an understanding of what the product is and what it will
do for the consumer.
 Conviction – developing a mental disposition in the consumer to buy the product.
 Action – getting the consumer to purchase the product.
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Because Lavidge and Steiner hierarchy of effects model is more specific and more
effective to establish and measure results, some advertising theorists prefer this model
than others (Schultz, Martin, & Brown, 1984).
Innovation Adoption Model
The innovation adoption model developed from work on the diffusion of innovation, it was
created by Rogers in 1995 (Rogers, 1995). Like other models, this model says potential
adopter must be moved through a series of steps before taking some actions
The model describes a number of stages that a consumer passes through in adopting a new
product or service. Like other models, it says potential adopter must be moved through a
series of steps before taking some actions (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). According to
Rogers (1995), prospects progress continuously in the five steps: awareness, interest,
evaluation, trial and adoption. Awareness relates to the cognitive stage of the process,
interest and evaluation to the affective stage, and trial and adoption to the behavioral stage.
E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) said that the challenge that companies who want to introduce
new products must facing is to create awareness and connect customer and after that, get
them to assess the product favorably. A new product’s performance can be judged by
actual use. Therefore, demonstration or sampling programs or providing product with
minimal commitment for customers are the ways that marketers can stimulate trial. After
trial, consumers can adopt the product or reject it. For example, Google usually launches
its new products such as its Chrome Web browser by putting a “beta” label on them and
waiting for early adopters sign on and give feedback that can be used to make product
improvement (March 15th, 2010).
This adoption model provides clear direction for companies in using marketing
communications tools when they want to introduce new products or services to the market
(E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). These marketers recognize that there are some kind of
consumers whose interest in new products and ability to influence others are of particular
interest to them (March 15th, 2010). Because of that, marketers always try to determine
and communicate with these early adopters and to stimulate them to convey information to
other consumers (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
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Information Processing Model
The Information Processing Model of advertising effects, was developed by William
McGuire (1969), interprets consumer behavior in response to a persuasive messages.
Individuals exert control over the information acquisition process by determining how
much attention they will devote to the advertisement and the strategy that is used in
processing the information (Meryl Paula Gardner, 1979). The Information Processing
Model views the receiver of message as an information processor and problem solver
(Shah & D'Souza, 2009). According to McGuire (McGuire, 1969), receivers go through a
series of steps in being persuaded constitutes a response hierarchy: Presentation, Attention,
Comprehension, Yielding, Retention and Behavior.
McGuire’s model involves a stage not found in the other models: retention, or the
receiver’s ability to maintain the part of the comprehended information that people accept
as valid of relevant (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) state that this
stage is important since most promotional campaigns are designed not to motivate
consumer to take immediate action but rather to provide information they will use later
when making a purchase decision.
The model recommends that advertising will be failed if it is unable to convince the
audience at any stage (Shah & D'Souza, 2009). So each stage must be evaluated by
consumer surveys or other methods to get feedback to advertising effectiveness. The
Figure 5-4 shows the method to obtain the feedback in the response hierarchy.
Figure 2-4: Models of Obtaining Feedback
Source: (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012)
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The information processing model can be an effective model for planning and evaluating
the effects of a promotion campaign (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
2.5. Gap in Literature Review
There was a gap created by literature review in the research because of an unfamiliar
edutainment area in Vietnam. Edutainment is a new model of entertainment area in
Vietnam. There was no research about this topic in Vietnam market.
Furthermore, VinKE itself has not had any researches on customer before. Therefore, it is
very difficult to predict which communication channel are the best toward consumer
behavior, which activities are the most attractive with customers, which elements receive
the most complaints from the customers, etc. All information will only be revealed after
the research is conducted.
2.6. Conclusion
In conclusion, this literature chapter reviews the definitions, theories and applied model of
marketing communication process and marketing communication channel, respectively.
The basic model of communication includes information source, message, channel and
receiver. The communication channel includes production channels, marketing channels
and other outside channels. The consumer behavior toward marketing communication
channel can be measured by one of four best known response hierarchy models, which are
AIDA Model, Hierarchy of Effects Model (developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary
Steiner), Innovation Adoption model, and Information Processing Model (developed by
William McGuire) (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). It is also necessary to measure the
communication effective to evaluate the overall impact and effect that strategy has on a
target audience. Each communication channel has different assessment methods, through
different indicators.
The next chapter will introduce the data collection methods and data analysis methods. The
Hierarchy of effects model will be chosen to interpret consumer behavior toward
marketing communication channel and different measurement methods that have been
mentioned above will be applied to test the effectiveness of VinkE current communication
programs.
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3. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction
The previous chapter discussed the theoretical literature reviews and models used when
conducting this research. Within the literature review, it can be clearly seen that
communication plays an important role in marketing. In this chapter, we will show the
research design and methodology to reach our research objective. The research is a
combination of quantitative and qualitative method. The mix of both qualitative and
quantitative data could make this research to be more clearly and help us have more detail
view from many directions. Primary data accessed from interview and survey; secondary
data from reports are used to analyze the Firm’s situation and finally to figure out the best
solution for solving its problem. There were still some limitations when doing the research;
however, this research is still ethical when all information are obtained through trusted
resources and accepted to be used by board of managers.
3.1.1. Research Philosophies and Paradigms
Research philosophies were defined as the overarching term relating to the development of
knowledge and the nature of that knowledge in relation to research (Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2012). Understanding research philosophy is really important because
researchers make assumption at every stage of their studies. There are three reasons make
research philosophy become important. The first is the way researcher chose method will
make impact on the whole strategy of research. Secondly, by recognizing limitation via
assessing different methodologies, researcher will avoid unsuitable or unnecessary
methods. And finally, it supports research with new creative methodologies which they not
think of before.
There are two ways of research philosophies for business students: Ontology and
Epistemology. Ontology raises questions of the assumptions researchers have about the
way the world works and the commitment to particular views. This philosophy includes
objectivism and subjectivism. Objectivism is how social entities exist independent of social
actors. The subjectivist view is that social phenomena are created from the perceptions and
consequent actions of social actors
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Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study. It relates
more to the essence of knowledge and what knowledge can be approached to real life
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Research paradigm is a way of examining social phenomena from which particular
understandings of these phenomena can be gained and explanations attempted (Saunders,
Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Burrell and Morgan (1982) shows that the four paradigms are arranged to correspond to
four conceptual dimensions: radical change and regulation and subjectivist and objectivist.
They also note that the purposes of the four paradigms are to help researchers clarify their
assumptions about their view of the nature of science and society; to offer a useful way of
understanding the way in which other researchers approach their work and to help
researchers plot their own route through their research; to understand where it is possible to
go and where they are going.
When thinking about developing the effective communication channel for VinKE, this
research would be followed Positivism of Epistemology. Because research processes
requires highly science involvement; science theory of methodology research, data
gathering, and data processing was used to achieve objective questions. In addition, the
authors used ontology paradigm, which means common assumptions that are created to
understand the real nature of the society.
3.1.2. Research Methods
In the research methods, the primary research and secondary research will be applied. In
the primary research, qualitative and quantitative research are used to collect the data.
According to Guba and Lincoln (Cuba & Lincoln, 1994) , qualitative and quantitative
methods can be used appropriately with any research paradigm. Quantitative data in a raw
form, before these data have been processed and analyzed, they convey very little meaning
to most people. Therefore, they need to be processed to turn them into information and
useful (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Qualitative data includes from a short list of
responses to open-ended questions in an online questionnaire to more complex data such as
transcripts of in-depth interviews or entire policy documents (Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2009) for people to express their view.
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Quantitative and qualitative method also have advantages and disadvantages. Quantitative
method’s advantages are that they produce factual, reliable outcome data that are usually
generalizable to some larger population. The weakness of this method are the researcher’s
categories and theories that are applied might not reflect local constituencies’
understandings; the researcher might focus on theory or hypothesis testing rather than on
theory or hypothesis generation instead of focus on phenomena occurring (called the
confirmation bias) and knowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct
application to specific local situations, contexts, and individuals (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie,
2004), individual differences might not appreciated, researchers do not want statistical
outliers skewing their data.
In respectively, qualitative methods generate rich, detailed, valid process data that usually
leave the study participants’ perspective intact (Steckler, McLeroy, Goodman, & Sheryl T.
Bird, 1992). However, according to Claire Anderson PhD (Anderson, 2010), there are
some limitations of qualitative method such as the quality is strong dependent on the
researcher’s individual skills, the research can be interprets by the personal biased view
and idiosyncrasies of researcher; sometimes it is not as well understood and accepted as
quantitative research within the scientific community; the presence of researchers can
impact on the subjects’ responses and it can take more time to characterize in a visual way.
Both of them have disadvantages in some aspects, however, they can be limited when
qualitative and quantitative are integrated (Steckler, McLeroy, Goodman, & Sheryl T.
Bird, 1992).
3.2. Data Collection Methods
Collecting data is an indispensable step in research process. Researchers use data obtained
to provide and prove for clear answers for research questions; and then give
recommendations to solve the problems.
In this study, collecting meaningful data is very important to evaluate the effectiveness of
VinKE’s communication channels. Recommendations for improving the communication
channels of VinKE are going to be proposed after that.
To gain information, there are two main approaches: primary and secondary research
method. In this thesis, information is gained from both of two these methods.
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3.2.1. Secondary Data
In secondary research, data that have already been collected for some other purpose are
used to provide additional or different knowledge, interpretations or conclusions. There are
three main subgroups of secondary data: documentary, survey-based and multiple sources
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). In this study of VinKE, secondary documentary
data which are inclusive of VinKE’s databases of marketing strategies, records of arrivals,
etc. Other sources come from reliable articles of e- newspapers on the Internet and official
facebook fanpages are used. However, only secondary data is not enough for assessing the
effectiveness of VinKE’s communication channels. Therefore, primary data have to be
gained.
3.2.2. Primary data
If secondary data are unavailable or inappropriate, primary method will be used for
collecting data. Primary data are original data collected for a specific research objective
and it can be collected through a various methods (J.Hox & R.Boeije, 2005). Sometimes,
there is more than one method to collect data for a single problem.
According to the book “Research Methods for Business Students” (Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2012), there are three main methods to collect primary data:
 Collecting primary data through observation;
 Collecting primary data using interviews;
 Collecting primary data using survey instrument.
To collect necessary information, two latter methods are used: interview and survey.
Collecting primary data using Qualitative method – in-depth interviews
The research interview is a conversation between one or more people with certain
purposes. In this type of interview, questions must be concise and clear enough for
interviewees can understand easily and are willing to pay attention and give the responds
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
During the research process of the thesis, an interview with Director of VinKE was
conducted to be clear about marketing strategies and communication objectives of VinKE.
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In addition, 05 VinKE’s employees were also interviewed to show their knowledge about
marketing strategies of VinKE. From that, there was a comparison to find out any presence
of knowledge gap here. There is detailed questions sample in Appendix part.
Besides, there were some interviews with 07 target customers of VinKE and results of
those interviews were used to build form of questionnaire.
Collecting primary data using Quantitative method – survey instrument
Questionnaire is the most popular method within the survey strategy and it is often used for
descriptive or explanatory research. It may be more effective if combine questionnaires to
other methods in a multi-method research design (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
With different situations of research, there are different types of questionnaires:
Figure 3-1 Types of Questionnaire
Source: © (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012)
One of questionnaires used in this study are Self-completed questionnaires which are
completed by respondents. Those questionnaires are sent to customers through Internet or
delivered directly to them and then collected later (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Questionnaires used in this thesis are easy to understand; so there is no any difficulty for
respondents to complete them.
Besides, this study also applied Interviewer-completed questionnaires. Structured interview
is used for collecting questionnaires: coming to VinKE center to meet customers face to
face and ask them all questions in our questionnaires; while respondents answering the
Questionnaire
Self-completed
Internet (web-based) and intranet-mediated questionnaire
Postal (mail) questionnaire
Delivery and collection questionaire
Interviewer-
completed
Telephone questionnaire
Structured interview
Page | 36
questions, interviewer ticks options in questionnaire. The reason for choosing this type of
questionnaires is soothing the respondents: Although questionnaire in this thesis is easy to
understand, it is quite long and respondents may feel boring to complete it. While asking
the questions, interviewers can also have some small talks for changing the attention of
respondents.
Research Instruments
This study used self-completed questionnaires for survey. The basic questions were formed
from two research questions which mentioned in chapter 1. These contents focus on
audience’s behavior, habits and characteristics which relates to marketing communication
channels of the service. Each question was designed to be very clear and easy to
understand by basing on earlier interviews result with seven target customers. All of
interview results are in Appendix part. Questionnaires were designed with multiple choice
questions, scale questions and open-ended questions. To avoid confusion for respondent,
all rating question use one type of scale: Likert-style scale with five-point rating scale.
The question items divided into 4 variables included: Demographic; Consumer Behavior;
Hierarchy of effects model and Market (competitor). The name VinKE and edutainment
service are quite new in the market. Therefore, in Hierarchy of effects model, questions in
questionnaire mainly focus on Awareness and Knowledge stage of customers about
VinKE. Besides, there are also some extra questions belong to Purchase Stage.
Variable Sub-Variable Question Item Number
Demographic Sex, Location, Age, Income, Expense B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8
Target audience
characteristic
Preference Channel A1, A2
Advertising Attitude A3, A4, A5, A6
Perspective in raising children A7
Appropriate Time A8
Hierarchy of effects model
Awareness A10
Knowledge A11, A13
Purchase A15, A17, A18
Market Competitor A9
Page | 37
After there are completed questionnaires, 20 questionnaires were sent to respondents for
testing before deliver widely.
3.2.3. Sampling Techniques
As mentioned above, collecting data is very important, but the more important thing is how
to collect data. Sometimes, it is possible and necessary to collect data from all available
cases, it is also called census. But in many research, there are no time, no money and no
way to access every cases, every individuals in population, so sampling techniques are
necessary for these cases ( (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012) divided sampling techniques into two types:
 Probability sampling (or representative sampling);
 Non-probability sampling (or judgemental sampling).
Figure 3-2 below describes different types of sampling techniques:
Figure 3-2 Sampling Techniques
Source: (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012)
For applying Probability Sampling techniques, it must be a list of populations. But in this
study, it is impossible to list all available population. Therefore, Non-probability Sampling
was applied.
SAMPLING
Probability
Simple random
Systematic
Stratified random
Cluster Multi-stage
Non-probability
Quota
Purposive
Extreme case
Heterogeneous
Homogeneous
Critical case
Typical case
Snowball
Self-selection
Convenience
Page | 38
There are also many different techniques which belong to non-probability sampling. It is
important to choose the best suitable sampling. With initial aim that collecting information
from at least 100 people in VinKE center and 200 people outside VinKE center, there is
appearance of strata. Stratified sampling seems logical in this case, but it cannot be used in
this thesis because there is no sampling frame. That is the reason why Quota Sampling is
the best choice for gaining data in this thesis.
3.2.4. Sample Size and Sample Characteristics
This study was mainly focus on parents having children in range of 4 to 16 year old, who
mainly live and work in Hanoi. The reason choosing them to survey and interview was
they are potential customers of VinKE. However, married couples who have not had
children belong to our targets, too. Besides, online questionnaires were also used to
evaluate customers’ awareness of VinKE. There were 326 qualify questionnaires in total
included 101 questionnaires sent to customers in VinKE center and 225 others sent directly
or through Internet to people outside VinKE center. After analyzing those questionnaires, it
could be simpler to find out basic differences between people who have already come to
VinKE and people who have never come to VinKE yet. Besides, results of those
questionnaires can also show the customers’ awareness and knowledge about VinKE.
After analyzing all information obtained from above samples, it was easier to evaluate the
effectiveness of VinKE’s communication channels. From that, suitable recommendations
could be given.
3.3. Data Analysis Methods
The information and data collected from conducting researches have to be analyzed by a
proper analyzing tool to point out the accurate necessary findings which help to provide a
fulfill result for the report. And to prepare for an appropriate report, 518 surveys had been
compiled and issued to audience both inside (152 surveys) and outside VinKE (366
surveys). In addition, online survey was also conducted together with paper survey. All
those surveys are collected after that. However, after being filtered, the qualified surveys
for analysis were 326 included 101 surveys inside VinKE center.
The chosen analysis software is IBM – SPSS software. Firstly, SPSS stands for Statistical
Package for the Social Science. SPSS is a comprehensive and flexible statistical analysis
and data management solution (SPSS, 2014). SPSS can take data from almost every type
Page | 39
of document and use them to produce tabulated reports, charts, plots of distribution and
trends, descriptive statistics, and conduct compound statistical analyses.
The most current version of the software will be used, which is version 22.0.
3.4. Ethical Considerations
Ethics is critical aspect for the conduct of research. Research ethics relates to questions
about how we formulate and clarify the research topic, design it and gain access, collect
data, process and store, and analyse data then write up the research findings in a moral and
responsible way. It guides researcher for the responsible of conduct of the research by
providing them with a statement of principles and procedures which highlight what is and
what is not considered ethical (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Before doing this research, all of ethical considerations were analyzed and addressed to
avoid issues which related to ethical that could happen. According to Sanders, there are
five principles in research ethics. It includes: minimizing the risk of harm, obtaining
informed consent, protecting anonymity and confidentiality, avoiding deceptive practices,
and providing the right to withdraw (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Throughout the
progress of making the research, there is no individual or organization be harmed. This
research was launched with the permission of CEO VinKE. It is also supported by
marketing manager and staff of VinKE as well as customers in there to take the survey and
deep-interview.
The right of privacy needs to be respected and every individual will not feel pressurized or
coerced into participating. The researchers have to accept any refusal to take part in or any
individual. Another ethical issue is related to lack of consent. Although the research is
conducted with those who have agreed to take part in, but it still involve an attempt to
deceive participants in some ways: deceit over the real purpose, undeclared sponsorships,
etc (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Therefore, the researchers of this study pay
attention in fully disclose the presence and information about the real purpose of research.
The participant also be informed about the any equipment using in collecting data.
Specifically, they have control over the right to record any of their responses if the voice
recorder is used. Besides, there are fully useful contact information in survey to the
participants can contact if they have any questions about the research. Furthermore, using
the Internet also raise ethical issues. It may allow researchers to contact possible
Page | 40
participants more easily and even to do it repeatedly. (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill,
2009). The information of participants is kept safety in personal computer and used only
for the purpose of research.
Moreover, research questionnaire in this study aims to investigate and find out the most
effective communication channels which most of VinKE’s target customers have been
using, so as to help VinKE improve its performance. The maintenance of the objectivity
also relate to ethical issues. There is no selective data to report, misrepresent data statistic
accuracy. The data is guaranteed honestly from collecting data extends to the analysis and
reporting of the research.
3.5. Limitations of the Research Project
One of the limitations was related to research methods. Firstly, the quality of qualitative
method strongly depends on the researcher’s individual skills. The research can be
interpreted by the personal biased view and idiosyncrasies of researcher. Furthermore,
using the quantitative make researcher must focus on theory or hypothesis testing rather
than on theory or hypothesis generation instead of focus on phenomena occurring. Not
only that, knowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct application to
specific local situations, contexts, and individuals (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004) such as
the study just research people who live in Hanoi and married.
Another limitation was the use of quota sampling. Although this type of sampling is easy
to obtain but it seem to be prone to bias and influences that are beyond the control. The
interviewer can choose within quota boundaries whom they interview, therefore; these
samples may be subject to bias. Interviewers have a tendency to choose respondents who
are easily accessible and seem to be willing to answer the questions. Besides, the sample
cannot representatives for the entire population (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009).
Many customers don’t want to support this research because they think the research’ team
bothers them by try to promote any kinds of products, which made it difficult to conduct
research.
Moreover, because of using questionnaire, this study must consider the wording of
questions prior to the order in which they appear. There are some academic terms in
questionnaire leads to vague in understanding of respondents in doing the survey. Besides,
Page | 41
the way of collecting data from interviews also has limitations, which is bias. The
interviewee can pull their punches and not tell the whole truth.
Finally, there are several limitations in this research, including lack of time, human
resource, availability research equipment and low budget to conduct the research. Because
of lacking time and human resource, the research could not cover all area in Hanoi, the
survey was conducted by people in VinKE, some crowd places such as shopping centers
and on the Internet. Thus the result might not be applicable for other cities and other target
audience.
3.6. Validity and Reliability
Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be
about. Reliability refers to the extent to which the data collection techniques or analysis
procedures will yield consistent findings (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).The authors
of this thesis can assure that the data collected is completely reliable and trustworthy.
These were shown by a large number of samples: 326 samples. The respondents are
customers of VinKE or target customerss who are living in Hanoi and had children. Before
creating a final survey, the study made in-depth interview with seven peoples to collect
useful data and information to support for questionnaire.
3.7. Conclusion
In conclusion, this chapter defines the research designs and methodologies that are applied
in the study in detail. The study used primary research and secondary research. Both
quantitative and qualitative methods are employed include: in-depth interview, survey
online and offline. The results are used to design questionnaires and future interview
strategy. A wide sample were conducted can get more convincing and accurate. In
addition, the ethical issues and limitations are mentioned in this chapter. Several
limitations such as lack of time, human resource, availability research equipment and low
budget to conduct the research.
The next chapter will focused on analyze the findings after applying research method in
chapter 3. From the result, key issues are defined and evaluated to find out solutions for
VinkE.
Page | 42
4. CHAPTER 4: ANALYSES AND FINDINGS
4.1. Introduction
Generally, the fourth chapter of the report aims to write about the analysis, the findings and
discussion about all the research issues mentioned in the previous chapters. All the
necessary results collected from doing secondary research, conducting surveys or doing
interviews will be indicated, along with the critical findings, in the two major parts of this
Chapter 4, which are Data Analysis & Discussion and Key Findings.
Specifically, the first main part is going to expose some aspects of the target customers of
the investigated firm – VinKE Times City, as well as the evaluation of effectiveness and
efficiency of VinKE Times City’s communication via the proceeded surveyed data from
SPSS software. Besides, critical-thinking points such as comparison between perceptions
of VinKE Times City’s workforce and customers, and further explanations based on
secondary data and in-depth interview will also be added along to make the findings more
understandable, reasonable and meaningful. The next part can be seen as a summary of the
previous one while it will epitomize the most important findings of the researches and the
findings which are most related to the thesis’s research questions.
4.2. Analysis and Discussions
4.2.1. Target Audience’s Characteristics
Gender
As the result of surveys distributed in VinKE
Times City, there were 20.99% man came there
with their children while this ratio of women was
three times higher, 79.21%. It seems that mothers
have more time to play with children and they
have more power in making decision about
children’s edutainment. This information is so
important, it help VinKE Times City to define the
target customers and target audience of their
communication campaigns.
20.99%
79.01%
Male Female
Figure 4-1: Gender of Respondents
Page | 43
Age
The respondents can be divided into four
groups. The youngest group was under 22
years old. The second group was people from
22 years old to 35 years old. The third was
group of people from 36 years old to 55 years
old. The last was groups of people over 55
years old. The samples were distributed to
VinKE Times City’s customers and randomly
to married residents in Hanoi.
The pie chart above shows that the second group accounts for the largest percentage
(77.09%) while the percentage of youngest group is only 1.86%. The third group also
consists of a significant proportion (21.05%).
As the result, with the largest proportion, group of people from 22 – 35 is the potential
target customers and target audience of communication campaigns that VinKE Times City
must to notice. Discussing with the representative of VinKE Times City, it was surprising
that VinKE Times City has not defined specifically the age of their target audience yet.
Incomes
Base on the Household Income
Band (HIB) Classification System
overview of Nielsen (2012), the
household income per month of
people who do survey were
divided into 6 levels: under 3
million VND, from 3 million to
under 4.5 million VND, from 4.5
million to under 7.5 million
VND, from 7.5 million to under
15 million VND, from 15 million
to 30 million VND and over 30
million VND.
1.86%
77.09%
21.05%
Group Age
< 22 years old
22 - 35 years old
36 - 55 years old
> 55 years old
2%
6%
17%
27%
33%
15%
Household income per month
< 3,000,000 VND
3,000,000 -
4,499,999 VND
4,500,000 -
7,499,999 VND
7,500,000 -
14,999,999 VND
15,000,000 -
30,000,000 VND
> 30,000,000 VND
Figure 4-2: Group Age of Respondents
Figure 4-3: Household income per month
Page | 44
The pie chart reveals that most of people who responded the questionnaire have high
incomes. The most popular income level is from 15 million to 30 million VND per month.
It accounts for 33.45%. Comparing with the per capita income in Vietnam ($1960 USD per
year) (Linh, 2013), this level is higher than over 2 times. The highest level of income (over
30 million VND per month) also constitutes to a significant proportion (14.91%).
The price of ticket is from 100.000VND to 220.000VND which depends on time of
entrance and height of children. It seem to be that with the income level like that, most of
people are willing to pay for VinKE Times City’s entrance ticket.
Moreover, according to the result of the spearman correlation test by SPSS as shown in the
following table, there is a correlation between age group and average expense for children
although it is quite weak (correlation is significant at the 0.00 level and is coefficient at
0.233).
Table 4-1: The correlation between Income and Age Group
Age group
< 22 years old 22 - 35 years
old
36 - 55 years
old
> 55 years old
Count % Count % Count % Count %
Household
income per
month
< 3.000.000 VND 1 17% 4 2% 0 0% 0 0%
3.000.000 -
4.499.999 VND
2 33% 12 5% 4 6% 0 0%
4.500.000 -
7.499.999 VND
2 33% 39 16% 15 22% 0 0%
7.500.000 -
14.999.999 VND
1 17% 72 29% 14 21% 0 0%
15.000.000 -
30.000.000 VND
0 0% 90 36% 18 27% 0 0%
> 30.000.000 VND 0 0% 32 13% 16 24% 0 0%
Page | 45
Table 4-2: Correlation Statistics between Income and Age Group
Age group
Average expense level for
education & entertainment of
children
Spearman’ rho
Age group
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .233
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 323 310
Average expense level for
education &
entertainment of children
Correlation Coefficient .233 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 310 310
The two above tables illustrate the relationship between income and age range of target
customer. Focusing on the target audience (22 – 35 years old), it is clearly to see that they
have really high income level. Group of people who had household income per month
from 7.5 million accounted for almost of target audience, approximately 78%. It seems to
be a good point for VinKE Times City because of the potential of this group. Having high
income, people tend to spend more on edutainment for their children. Through the
Spearman correlation test of SPSS as shown in the following table, it can be seen clearly
that there is a correlation between income and expense for children’s edutainment. The
level of correlation coeffient is at a moderate level (0.523).
The following table shows that the increase of incomes leads to increase in expense.
Table 4-3:The Correlation between Income and Expense for Children' Edutainment
Household income per month
< 3.000.000
VND
3.000.000 -
4.499.999 VND
4.500.000 -
7.499.999 VND
7.500.000 -
14.999.999 VND
15.000.000 -
30.000.000 VND
> 30.000.000
VND
Count % Count % Count % Count % Count % Count %
Average
expense level
for education
&
entertainment
of children
< 500.000 VND per 1
children
0 0% 2 20% 12 27% 0 0% 10 10% 0 0%
500.000 - 1.499.999 VND
per 1 children
0 0% 6 60% 16 36% 21 25% 4 4% 5 11%
1.500.000 - 2.999.999
VND per 1 children
0 0% 2 20% 11 25% 32 39% 32 32% 4 9%
3.000.000 - 5.999.999
VND per 1 children
2 100% 0 0% 5 11% 23 28% 49 49% 8 18%
6.000.000 - 10.000.000
VND per 1 children
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 7 8% 6 6% 15 34%
> 10.000.000 VND per 1
children
0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 12 27%
Page | 46
Table 4-4: Correlation statistics between Income and Expense
Household income
per month
Average expense level for
education &
entertainment of children
Spearman’s
rho
Household income
per month
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .523
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 322 310
Average expense
level for education &
entertainment of
children
Correlation Coefficient .523 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 310 310
Expense
Figure 4-4: Expense for Children' Edutainment per month
The pie chart reveals that parents spend a lot of money on education and edutainment of
their children. Specifically, over a half of total respondents selected their expense level
from 1.5 million to under 6 million VND. It shows that parents willing to pay money for
their children.
8%
18%
29%
31%
10%
4%
Expense for education and entertainment per children per
month
< 500,000 VND/ 1 child
500,000 - 1,499,999 VND/1
child
1,500,000 - 2,999,999VND/1
child
3,000,000 - 5,999,999 VND/1
child
6,000,000 - 10,000,000
VND/1 child
> 10,000,000 VND/1 child
Page | 47
Moreover, from the result of survey about factors which parents take priority over any
others in raising children as the following table, physical and skills are 2 most priority
factors.
Table 4-5: Priority of Elements in Raising Children
Physical Soul Intellectual Skills
N Valid 326 326 326 326
Median 4 2 1 3
It means parents willing to pay for the activities which help improve physical and skills of
their children. This is an advantage of VinKE Times City because VinKE Times City
provides service which help children entertain and improve their skill.
Focusing on target audience group (22 – 35 years old), the expense level from 1.5 million
is accounted for the vast majority (approximately 72%). From this information, it strongly
emphasize that VinKE Times City should consider this age group as the target customers
and target audience of communication campaigns.
Table 4-6: The correlation between Age group and Expense on Children' edutainment
Age group
< 22 years
old
22 - 35
years old
36 - 55
years old
> 55 years
old
Expense level on
education and
entertainment of
1 children
< 500,000 VND/1 children 0 22 2 0
500,000 – 1,499,999 VND/1 children 0 37 15 0
1,500,000 – 2,999,999 VND/1 children 2 69 10 0
3,000,000 – 5,999,999 VND/1 children 1 63 23 0
6,000,000 – 10,000,000 VND/1 children 0 18 10 0
> 10,000.000 VND/1 children 0 5 7 0
Page | 48
Appropriated Time for Go-out with their children
Figure 4-5: The appropriated time for go out with children of Respondents
As the result from survey, parents usually go out with their children on weekend, holidays
and vacation. As the in-depth interview with VinKE Times City’s customer, at that time,
parents don’t have to work and their children also don’t have to go to school, therefore
they usually go to entertainment area together. Discussing with representative of VinKE
Times City, VinKE Times City serves a huge amount of customer at that time comparing
with another time. These information is useful to decide the time of launching
communication campaign.
31%
28%
26%
9% 7%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Weekend Holidays Vacations Lunar New
Year
Week days
The appropriated time for go out
with children
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City
Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City

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Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness of VinKE Times City

  • 1. Enhancing the marketing communication channels effectiveness for the Kid's Edutainment Area The case of VinKE Times City Bachelor of Business Administration Thesis Supervisor: M.A. Lưu Thị Thảo Nguyên Group Members: Hà Bảo Ngọc – BA00235 Hoàng Quỳnh Ngọc – BA00262 Hoàng Thị Thanh Thủy – BA00247 Nguyễn Minh Quân – BA00321 Vũ Trọng Khánh – BA00216 Hanoi, August 2014
  • 2. Page | 1 Table of Contents ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................5 1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................6 1.1. Background .............................................................................................................6 1.1.1. Academic Background.....................................................................................6 1.1.2. Vin Kid’s Edutainment (VinKE)’s Background..............................................7 1.2. Research Questions and Research Objectives.........................................................8 1.2.1. Research Questions..........................................................................................8 1.2.2. Research Objectives.........................................................................................9 1.3. Research Method.....................................................................................................9 1.4. Justification of the Study.......................................................................................10 1.5. Research Scope and Limitations of Study ............................................................10 1.5.1. Research Scope..............................................................................................10 1.5.2. Limitations of Study ......................................................................................11 1.6. Thesis Structure.....................................................................................................11 1.7. Conclusion.............................................................................................................12 2. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL MODELS ......13 2.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................13 2.2. Marketing Communication ...................................................................................13 2.2.1. Definition of Marketing Communication ......................................................13 2.2.2. Communication Process Models ...................................................................14 2.3. Marketing Communication Channels ...................................................................16 2.3.1. Production Channels......................................................................................17
  • 3. Page | 2 2.3.2. Marketing Channels.......................................................................................18 2.3.3. Outside Channels ...........................................................................................23 2.4. Consumer Behavior and Marketing Communication Channels............................25 2.4.1. Consumer Behavior .......................................................................................25 2.4.2. Marketing Communication Channels ............................................................25 2.5. Gap in Literature Review......................................................................................30 2.6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................30 3. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY..................................................................31 3.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................31 3.1.1. Research Philosophies and Paradigms...........................................................31 3.1.2. Research Methods..........................................................................................32 3.2. Data Collection Methods.......................................................................................33 3.2.1. Secondary Data..............................................................................................34 3.2.2. Primary data...................................................................................................34 3.2.3. Sampling Techniques.....................................................................................37 3.2.4. Sample Size and Sample Characteristics.......................................................38 3.3. Data Analysis Methods .........................................................................................38 3.4. Ethical Considerations ..........................................................................................39 3.5. Limitations of the Research Project ......................................................................40 3.6. Validity and Reliability.........................................................................................41 3.7. Conclusion.............................................................................................................41 4. CHAPTER 4: ANALYSES AND FINDINGS ...............................................42 4.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................42 4.2. Analysis and Discussions......................................................................................42 4.2.1. Target Audience’s Characteristics.................................................................42 4.2.2. Effectiveness of Communications .................................................................51
  • 4. Page | 3 4.2.3. Evaluation influence factors in choosing a service and brand awareness about edutainment centers of customer in Hanoi and VinKE Times City .............................55 4.2.4. Perception of VinKE’s Director ....................................................................61 4.3. Key Findings .........................................................................................................63 4.3.1. Key Finding 1: Target audience.....................................................................63 4.3.2. Key Finding 2: The Reality of VinKE Times City’s Communications.........64 4.4. Conclusion.............................................................................................................68 5. CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION ..................68 5.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................68 5.2. Recommendations for VinKE Times City............................................................69 5.2.1. Target Audience.............................................................................................69 5.2.2. Messages/Content and Sources of Messages.................................................69 5.2.3. Communication Channels..............................................................................70 5.3. Industry Suggestion...............................................................................................78 5.4. Limitations of the Research ..................................................................................79 5.5. Suggestions for Future Research...........................................................................79 5.6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................80 Appendix 1: Table of Figures.................................................................................82 Appendix 2: Table of Tables ..................................................................................82 Appendix 3: List of Interview’s Questions ...........................................................83 Appendix 4: Summary of Interview’s Result .......................................................84 Appendix 5: Sample of Questionnaire ..................................................................89 Bibliography ............................................................................................................96
  • 5. Page | 4 ABSTRACT Edutainment – the combination of entertainment and education – is a new kind of business in Vietnam. VinKE Times City, which is one of the most noticeable center that provide this service for children in Hanoi, is chosen as the investigated firm for this report. Though VinKE can be determined as a successful business with a big number of arrivals per day (about 1,000 arrivals per weekday and 2,500 at weakend), which generates great income, its communication activities are clearly not focused on yet and needs improving a lot. Thus, the ultimate purpose of this research is to understand the situation of VinKE then provide recommendations to enhance the firm’s communication effectiveness, which in turn improve its performance. The report contains five main chapters, which are: Introduction, Literature review, Methodology, Analysis and Findings, and Recommendation and Conclusion. The introduction chapter presents an overview of VinKE’s background and raises the two research questions: “Who is the target customers of VinKE?” and “How has VinKE been communicating with its customers?” The second chapter indicates the literature reviews, clears the major concepts and reviews the academic knowledge which are applied to analyze the findings. The chapter of methodology explains the data collecting method. The study used primary research and secondary research. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed which contains in-depth interview, offline and online survey. The fourth chapter represents the collected results of conducted research with specific statistics and figures, then three key findings of the study will be explored, which help to address both two research questions. The main customer segmentation is the group of females aging from 22 to 35 years old. VinKE has been using some communication channels such as: Facebook, Youtube, Website, E-newspapers and Television. However, VinKE has not been really successful in promoting its image. The last chapter is going to sum up the study and recommend solutions for problems or demerits of VinKE, finally limitations of the study and future research will be referred and included.
  • 6. Page | 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, we would like to send our sincere gratitude to Ms. Nguyen Luu Thi Thao (M.A.), Department of Marketing at FPT University, our thesis coach and supervisor, for her patience, motivation, guidance, and wide knowledge during the making of this thesis. Under her persistent supporting and sincere encouragement, this dissertation was successful. Secondly, we would like to express our truly appreciation to Mr. Tung Phan Thanh, Marketing Lecturer at FPT University, who provides really useful advice for the recommendation part of our thesis. Besides, we are very thankful to Mrs. Hanh Nguyen Phuong, Manager of Edutainment center VinKE Times City and Mrs. Hao Ha Thi Thu, Head of Administrative and General Affairs, staffs and many customers of VinKE Times City for allowing and providing generous support during conducting interviews and surveys, in spite of their busy schedules. Last but not least, we would like to show our thankfulness for our families, friends who has enthusiastic help during this during our research for this dissertation.
  • 7. Page | 6 1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background 1.1.1. Academic Background Regarding the business issues of Promotion which are going to be researched and analyzed, some core theories about Marketing Communication and Consumer Behaviors will be mentioned, explained and applied in this report. The reason of choosing to analyze the Marketing Communication and Consumer Behavior is due to their imporant role in doing business. Communication, which can be described as all the messages and media that companies deploy to communicate with the market (Wiefels, 2002), plays a key part in connecting the company and the customers, which is essential for the survival of every business. At the same time, consumer behavior undeniably has to be taken into account while it is closely related to company’s marketing and communication campaign. By understanding who buy the products, and why, when, where, and how they do it, companies can fit the marketing strategies to target the market. Besides, the theories, and models, along with the data and statistics which could be collected from conducting research, will be able to provide the most complete comprehension of the issues, from that recommend the best improvement strategy for the company. General Background of Edutainment industry in Vietnam Edutainment is a new field not only in Vietnam but also in the world. This model combines entertainment and career education to help children develop the characteristic and personality so very attract parents and children. This model educate through the forms of entertainment for children aged from 4-16 years; gives children an overview, the broader of life around. Edutainment experiences at the center will be the first step to prepare children to become good citizens, and can adapt to an ever-growing society (Kidzania, 2014). Previously, play areas for children in Vietnam are purely places for children to participate in entertainment activities, such as play areas in the park or in the commercial centers. Since 2013, with the appearance of Kizcity center (Kizciti, 2013), the first edutainment
  • 8. Page | 7 zone in Hanoi and in Vietnam, has attracted great attention of parents and children. So far, the year 2014 has marked the foundation of two other edutainment centers in Hanoi (VinKE, 2014) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietopia, 2014). With the effectiveness of combining learning and playing, this will be the new trend in the field of traditional entertainment centers for children in Vietnam. 1.1.2. Vin Kid’s Edutainment (VinKE)’s Background Vingroup Vingroup Joint Stock Company (Vingroup JSC), formerly known as Technocom, was first established in 1993 in Ukraine by an ambitious group of Vietnamese youth. Technocom started its business with food production and soon became hugely successful with the brand Mivina. From 2000, Technocom – Vingroup returned to Vietnam with a desire to contribute to their motherland’s development (Vingroup, 2014). Vingroup focuses on progressing their strategic brand names: Vinhomes (A system of premium residential properties and services); Vincom (A system of high-end shopping malls); Vinpearl (Tourism & Recreation) and expanding its high-quality Healthcare Services (Vinmec); Education (Vinschool), etc. In every area, Vingroup always showcases its pioneering stature with international standard products and services (Vingroup, 2014). As one of Vingroup’s strategic brand names, started with Vinpearl resort NhaTrang in 2001 – the first high rank resort in Vietnam with full modern facilities, until the end of 2013, Vinpearlland strengthens its brand name more and more with series of excellent tourism and recreation projects: Vinpearl Luxury DaNang, Vinpearlland Royal City (Vinpearl Games, Vinpearl Water Park, Vinpearl Ice Rink and Royal Bowling), and the newest Vinpearlland Times City with 2 attractions: Vinpearl Aquarium and VinKE (Vinperland, 2014). VinKE In 24th December 2013, when Vincom Mega Mall City Times opened, Vinpearlland created VinKE (Vin Kid’s Edutainment), which has area of nearly 6.000m2. VinKE was organized with the idea of "A paradise for children entertainment from kindergarten to minors - Where they can explore the colorful of world through field trips and practical experience”.
  • 9. Page | 8 With the desire to create a space for children to experience their dreams; directly make friend with each other, self-discovery, to acquire knowledge about their field of interest and more confident harmony with the world around, VinKE has focused on developing the educational experiences with a series of attractive models such as the Fire Station, Police Station, Military Academy, VinKE Hospital, VinKE Dance Club, My master chef, Beauty Kingdom, World of Arts, TV Station, Post Office, etc. The children will be satisfied to enjoy the great pleasure to participate the game and feel the happiness with childhood filled with laughter. As one of the first companies operates this new service sector in Vietnam, Edutainment center VinKE predefined difficulties from building to operation. After opening in 12-2013 along with Times City, VinKE attract a huge number of customers. But so far, step through the opening period, VinKE having one problem is the decrease in number of customer. The cause of this problem can be clearly seen from the implementation of marketing activities. All marketing activities of VinKE ever depend on the activity of the Times City that does not have the specific operation separately. Therefore, to look to the future ahead that the company will open more Edutainment center in other provinces, VinKE must pay special attention to the issue of marketing; particularly pay attention to the marketing strategy. With the goal of building a clear picture in the customer's mind, VinKE need more focused in the communication channels, targeting potential customers. This topic will analyze and evaluate the operation and effectiveness of the communication channels was being applied at VinKE, while providing appropriate solutions, to help achieve its objectives. 1.2. Research Questions and Research Objectives 1.2.1. Research Questions Research Question 1: Who is the target customers of VinKE? The very first steps in every marketing strategy are inclusive of having complete identification and comprehension of the targeted market and customers. The more accurate data one firm has about its audience, the more effective and efficient its marketing strategy could be. Hence researches and surveys will be conducted to indicate who VinKE’s target audience are, as well as the characteristics and behaviors of them such as which their prefer communication preferences are, what content of the message that they would prefer, and which channels they want the communication to process via.
  • 10. Page | 9 Research Question 2: How has VinKE been communicating with its customers? 1. What is the message and source of message that VinKE has been using? 2. Which channels have been used? Along with investigating about VinKE’s customers, this document also aims to mainly analyze the Channel among the Promotion elements. Thus one big question is contrived here that is how VinKE has been doing in term of promotion, or in other words, in term of communicating with their audience. In the detailed parts of findings regarding this issue, the report will clarify and analyze communication channels which VinKE has been using, as well as the company’s performance on each channel, and also which one of them is preferred by the audience. 1.2.2. Research Objectives The research focused on literature reviews related to communication process, communication channels, communication effectiveness and consumer behaviors toward communication. Besides, the research is going to summary the customer’s habit of using communication channels then exanimates communication effectiveness toward target customerss. By applying relevant theories and models and conducting research about VinKE’s issue, the ultimate purpose of this study is to provide logical and practical recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the company’s communication. 1.3. Research Method In this study, quantitative research method is used to uncover information and figures related to customers’ characteristics and behaviors of VinKE as well as their habits in using information channels. All of those data were gathered through questionnaires. And those questionnaires were spread through both of online and offline channels. With online channels, online surveys are sent to customers via social network sites such as Facebook, forums as well as through emails. At the same time, hard paper surveys are given to audience at VinKE’s center in Times City and other shopping centers, schools. Besides, the study also included qualitative research method for clarifying the results of quantitative research method. Through this study, the perception and expectation of VinKE’s customers toward communication channels will be indicated.
  • 11. Page | 10 1.4. Justification of the Study In recent years, the living condition in Vietnam is improved, therefore in big and more developed cities such as Hanoi, parents spent more attention and money in education and entertainment for their children. To capture this trend, VinKE has been launched in Vietnam. VinKE is the combination of education and entertainment for kids. This type of service is rather new in Vietnam currently, so there are not so many people really know about it. Besides, VinKE still has not had any really noticeable communication activities yet. That is the reason why this document is carried out with the main purpose of improving communication of VinKE. To do that, this study points out the characteristics of VinKE’s customers and then try to find out what the most effective communication channels to customers of VinKE are. This study can help to increase amount of individual customers coming to VinKE as well as brand identity of VinKE in customers’ mind. Moreover, this paper can also apply for the whole edutainment industry and becomes the premise for future researches related to edutainment service. 1.5. Research Scope and Limitations of Study 1.5.1. Research Scope With the research objectives have been defined above, the determined customers participate in the research are married people in Hanoi, include potential customers who did not know Vinke and customers who have known and used VinKE’s service. The research’s result will identify characteristics and behaviors of VinKE’s audience, how VinKE used communication channels and which channels that audience preferred to improve the communication effectiveness. The surveys will be conducted at VinKE Times City center, other places such as other shopping centers and through Internet. This study will not be researched on child objects and collective visitors, although these two objects are target customer of VinKE Times City. It is difficult to research on children. According to Salomon, children tend to be not credible respondents of their own behavior, their mind are not good in remembering and it is difficult to them to understand abstract questions. Moreover, their abilities to process the related information of product are different in age groups (R.Solomon, 2011). Besides, this research also does not focus on collective visitors, only focus on individual customers because the consumption behavior of business and individual are much more different from each other.
  • 12. Page | 11 1.5.2. Limitations of Study The study is implemented by a small group of undergraduate students so it surely contains some unavoidable limitations. Not to mention about the language, the first limitation of the study is the difficulty in providing a full understanding and practical solutions to a rather big firm’s business issues with insights of inexperienced mindsets. The second challenge is about collecting data, statistics and report of the whole industry generally and of VinKE, particularly. The available of secondary data are under expectation since edutainment industry is quite new in the market of Vietnam. In addition, VinKE was launched in 2013 so its data and reports were internal documents and it is hard to ask for some certain information of a private company. Furthermore, all public information about VinKE on the Internet are almost on positive perspectives. Hence, it is somewhat confusing to find out and evaluate the real issues of the company. The third limitation, although aware of the importance of the child object in this topic, this study did not mention about because this subject is very difficult to research. Besides, this research also not focused on collective visitors, only focus on individual customers because the consumption behavior of business and individual has much different. The next limitation might be the sample of the research. The group of sample will represent for all target customers and can make some bias in the results and conclusion. Finally, the limitation of time, budget, human resources management and the complexity of the survey can lead to unable to interpret all questions in much details. 1.6. Thesis Structure The final thesis includes the following five chapters: Chapter 1 – Introduction: The first chapter provides some essential background information about the Kid’s Edutainment area - VinKE and topic information. Moreover, the research objectives will be stated, followed by the research questions, the research scope as well as its limitation in the process of making research.
  • 13. Page | 12 Chapter 2 – Literature Review: The second chapter indicates the literature reviews, clears the major concepts and reviews the academic knowledge which intended to use in the final thesis to evaluate the communication activities in VinKE. Chapter 3 – Research Methodology: The third chapter determines the research methodology employed in the research. Furthermore, research paradigms and philosophies are shown in order to connect with the research design methodology as well as the method of collecting data to analyze the topic. Chapter 4 – Analysis and Findings: The fourth chapter represents the result of research then analyze by statistics and specific figures which collected in the research. Besides, some key findings of the study will be explored. Chapter 5 – Conclusions and Recommendations: The final chapter summarizes conclusion about the key results of the thesis. Some limitation and recommendations were taken out after research to improve the communication problems mentioned in the case of VinKE. 1.7. Conclusion In conclusion, the first chapter represents a general view of the study topic background and the Kids’ Edutainment center VinKE Times City. This chapter also highlighted the research objectives and defined the research question to find out the problems and analyze the communication activities in the case of VinKE. Its scope and limitations were also stated. Last but not least, the thesis structure and conclusion also mentioned. While thesis structure provides a view about structure of the final thesis, the conclusion summarizes all information provided in the chapter 1. The next chapter will present some literature reviews and academic knowledge as well as some theoretical models which will be applied using in conduct the research.
  • 14. Page | 13 2. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL MODELS 2.1. Introduction The reality in the realm of Marketing over years has shown that communication is the means that brings customers to company, hence clearly it plays an absolutely crucial role to every business’s success. The second chapter of this paper firstly reviews some definitions, theories and applied models of the Communication Process, as well as ones about the Communication Channels. Besides, since one main purpose of this report is to understand the target audience of VinKE and then to enhance the effectiveness of the marketing communication channels the company has been using, some literature reviews about Consumer generally, and Consumer Behavior particularly, are also concerned and concluded. Specifically, this Chapter two of the thesis contains four main parts of literature review. Not to mention about the Introduction, the first part is Marketing Communication writing about its definition and explaining briefly about its basic model. The second part will say about the communication channels. The next part of the chapter is all about consumer behavior theories. To continue, models and tools for measuring the effectiveness of the Channels are taken into account and put into the report. Finally are parts of literature gap and the conclusion of the whole chapter. 2.2. Marketing Communication 2.2.1. Definition of Marketing Communication Marketing communication is a fundamental and complex part of a company’s efforts in doing marketing. In loose and brief definition, marketing communication can be described as all the messages and media that companies deploy to communicate with the market (Wiefels, 2002). Especially within the realm of relationship marketing thinking, communication might be understood as an act of persuasion. “Using three classical rhetorical elements, we may see this process as developing an understanding of the communicator’s intentions and
  • 15. Page | 14 qualities (ethos) and the communication climate (pathos), both of which are necessary for engaging in constructive dialogues with customers (logos)” (Andersen, 2011). According to Belch G & Belch M (2012), communication has been variously defined as the information and data transferring, the ideas and perspective exchange, or the process in which commonness or oneness of thoughts between senders and receivers are established or consolidated. These definitions indicates that for communication to happen, there must be information passed from one person to another, and there must also be something shared in common between the way the two parties perceive the messages transferred (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). For instance, in this thesis with the case of VinKE, the company’s message is bringing to kids from kindergarten to minors an edutainment paradise where they can discover the colorful world and enjoy their childhood time subduing games and challenges with great fun. So the communication process of the company involves transferring this message to families, parents and kids and making them share the same thought about the VinKE edutainment area with the company’s orientation. 2.2.2. Communication Process Models As mentioned before in the first part, communication is the process of transferring information, exchanging ideas, or the process of establishing a commonness or oneness of thought between a sender and a receiver (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). In order to make this process clearer and more logical, over the years, specialists have developed a basic model of various elements of the communication process which is shown the Figure 2.1 below: Figure 2-1: The Basic Model of Communication Source: (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012)
  • 16. Page | 15 The major participants in the communication process are the two elements Sender and Receiver, while Message and Channel are the major communication tools. The four others are the major communication functions and processes, which are Encoding, Decoding, Response, and Feedback. Noise, the last element in the model, refers to any exterior factors which may interpose among the elements in the process and unnerve the effectiveness of the communication (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Specifically, each element can be described as followings: Information Source - Sender: The source of information or the sender is the person or group of people that has certain information to share with the other ones. To say in other words, information source is the place where the message is produced. The sender might be an individual person who may appear in the company’s advertisements such as a celebrity or an expert in a particular field, or a nonpersonal entity such as the company or the corporation itself. Because the receiver’s perceptions of the source have impact on how the communication is received, marketers must be careful to choose a communicator the receiver believes is knowledgeable and trustworthy or with whom the receiver can identify or relate in some manner (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Encoding: The communication process starts when the sender(s) selects information and data containing words, symbols, pictures, so on, which altogether interpret the content of the message that will be delivered to the receiver(s). The Encoding process refers to the step of putting the information into a symbolic form which should be as familiar to the receiver as possible (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Channel: This element involves the means by which the communication travels from the source to the receiver. At the most extensive level, Channel is inclusive of two types that are Personal and Non-personal channels (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). These concepts will be deeper analyzed in the next parts of the paper with more details. Message: As mentioned before, message contains the meaning of information the source want to transfer to the target audience. The message may be verbal or nonverbal, oral or written, or symbolic as well. Messages have to be put into a transmittable form that is suitable with the channels of communication being used. In advertising, this may vary from simply writing some words or copy to producing a television commercial. For many
  • 17. Page | 16 products, it is not the actual words of the message that determine its communication effectiveness but rather the impression or image the ad creates (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Receiver – Decoding: Receiver is the person(s) to whom the message is transferred. Generally, receivers are the customers in the firm’s target market or the audience who read, hear, and/or see the marketer’s message then decode it. Decoding is the process in which receiver(s) transform the sender’s message back into thought. This step in communication process is strongly affected by the receiver’s reference frame, or field of experience, which involves the receiver’s perspective, experience, attitudes and values. So as to happen an effective communication, the message decoding process of the receiver must match the encoding of the sender. In other words, this means the receiver understands and correctly interprets what the sender is trying to convey. Effective communication is more positive when there are things in common between the two sides. The deeper comprehension the sender has about the receivers, the better the sender can understand their needs, empathize with them, and communicate effectively (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Response – Feedback: The receiver’s reactions after getting the message are called response. These reactions can be invisible like accumulating information in mind or observable like ordering or purchasing a product. Feedback, which marketers are very interested in, is receiver’s response communicated back to the sender (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). 2.3. Marketing Communication Channels There are several forms of communication referred to as the marketing communications mix. These show us the various ways we can communicate. The communication mix can be classified into two main channels: those that are controlled by the organization and those are not (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). The diagram below that developed by Adrian Palmer (Palmer, 2005) help us sees how message has initiated inside and outside organization through various communication channels. The diagram separated messages into 2 categories: Message originating within organization and Message originating outside organization. In Messages originating within organization field differentiate in two communication channels are Product Channels and Marketing Channel. Each of them contains different communication channels. With
  • 18. Page | 17 message outside the channel, there are three communication channels that often use in organization (Palmer, 2005). Figure 2-2: Marketing Communication Channels Source: (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009) 2.3.1. Production Channels Front line staff (Customer Service Employees) Front line employees-the people behind the counter, on the phone, in the cloud, and walking the floor-possess a large measure of control over the customer experience. Communication from front line staff takes the form of the core service and a variety of supplementary service, including providing information, taking reservations, receiving payments and solving problems (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Front line staffs are always an important part of an organization. They will be one of the first images affect customer perception about the company and brand. When a prospective client calls the company for the first time, he or she will talk to a frontline staff who will give the call to the respective department. When a prospective customer walks in to a shop for the first time, the frontline staff is the one who greets him or her. If the first impression that staff give are bad you will lose a customer. But when a frontline staff member does his or her job well, those prospective customers may turn into loyal customers (Lance A. Bettencourt, Kevin Gwinner, 1996).
  • 19. Page | 18 Service Outlets (Servicescape) Service outlets also can be call servicescape is “the environment in which the service is assembled and in which the seller and customer interact, combined with tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service” (Bitner, 1981). The servicescape are the landscape, design, signage, packing, surrounding environment, decoration, equipment, layout, air quality, temperature and ambiance. The servicescape is not just a hint of the quality of services, but also affects the customer's evaluation of other factors determine the quality of service. The servicescape has both direct and indirect effect on perceived service quality. It is of greater importance in determining customers' evaluations of the expected service quality in a hedonic service compared to a utilitarian service (Reimer & Kuehn, 2005). It also does play an important role in determining customer affective and behavioral response to the service. For example is the case of a restaurant, when returning to a restaurant that you have already been to, you know what to expect when it comes to the quality of the food and service, as well as the servicescape - the ambiance, music, decor, lighting, temperature and "feel" of the restaurant. Even when the food and service are absolutely perfect, if one or a few of these details are off, the experience can be ruined. Or when visiting a restaurant for the first time, the only preconceived expectations are usually based on recommendations, which typically only mention the food and service, as the servicescape is only noticed when it is not what it should be. When all elements of the servicescape are exactly what they are supposed to be, they can make the experience even more memorable. Self-service Delivery Points Self-service Delivery channel can be defined as ways for customers to access information and services by themselves without dealing directly with a member of staff. Some example of this channel is Computers, Digital TV, ATM and vending machines. Self-service delivery requires clear signage, step-by-step instructions on how to operate the equipment and user-friendly design (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). 2.3.2. Marketing Channels Advertising Advertising is a means of communication with the users of a product or service. Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to inform
  • 20. Page | 19 or influence people who receive them, as defined by the Advertising Association of the UK. As the most dominant method of communication in consumer marketing, advertising is always the first point when marketers think about approach customer. The purpose of advertising is to build awareness, inform, persuade and remind. Advertising can reach huge audience with simple messages, it plays a vital role in providing practical information and referral service, guiding customer on the features and use of the product (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009).  Advertising Media channel Effective advertising refers to informing the public about the right product at the right time through the right medium. Media plays a very important role in advertising. It helps the companies to develop the market equity, creates the positioning of the company and facilitates the image of the company which it wants to create in the minds of the customers; and the most important is it helps to send the message to large audience. Print media: Newspapers and magazines are the two main types of print media. The print media are most suitable for messages designed when already defined the target audiance. Magazines can approach specialized audience and tend to be selective in terms of the messages they carry. In contrast, newspapers approach a high percentage of the population and can be referred to as a mass media. The messages that newspapers carry are usually for products and services that have a general appeal (Fill, 2009). Broadcast media: There are two main forms of broadcast media, television and radio. Advertisers’ use this media because this type of media can approach mass audience with their messages at a relatively low cost per target reached (Fill, 2009).  Television: Television was very popular back in the 1950s and nothing stopped it from becoming one of the best advertising media today. TV advertisements are highly engaging and it has the ability to make connections with the audience in an instant. TV advertising allows the product to reach large number of people, both at regional as well as at national level. It helps in conveying the message or advertisements with sound, visuals and actions; when messages are conveyed
  • 21. Page | 20 successfully, the ad becomes more credible to the audience. TV has mass coverage, various segments of people like house wives, young people and children are targeted through different TV channels. TV is a powerful tool in marketing communication nowadays but it still has some limitation. First of all is the high cost. TV ads are very expensive. The longer the air time, the more expensive it is. The cost will also depend on what time you choose to telecast your ads. Also, you have to pay for the air time every time the ad is shown. Mistake cannot happen in TV ads, compared to print ads, making changes is a lot cheaper and easier. TV advertisements are short, thus they do not express much about the product. TV ads should be shown at least five times to be attaining message retention and to push for consumer action. Seeing the TV ad once or twice won’t be enough and it’s just a waste of money.  Radio: Radio transfers specialized programming, which attracts selective audience. Radio is a mobile media (one that can travel with audience), so that messages can be relayed to them. The cost for radio programming are low and it has great flexibility, which management can use to meet the customer needs (Fill, 2009). Because there is a lack of visual stimuli, this type of media has low influence and the ability to hold and enthuse an audience. Frequancy of not appearance can be high, which means that a high number of messages are ignored or missed. When this is combined with low average audience, high levels of frequency are required to achieve acceptable levels of reach. Outdoor media: Outdoor media consist of three main formats: street furniture (such as bus shelters); billboards and Transit (which covers the Underground, buses and taxis) (Fill, 2009). Some of the most creative pieces in advertising are seen outside of the home. It’s an overlooked advertising medium that’s great for reinforcing messages communicated through other mediums such as television or magazines. What it is truly unappreciated by advertisers is its ability to create buzz with its out-of-the-box abilities, which are seemingly infinite, and its high target reach and frequency, which allows the advertisement to hit a many different people more than once (due to habitual travel patterns) in selected markets. Outdoor Advertising surely reaches audience. People can't "switch it off" or "throw it out." People contact to it whether they like it or not. In this sense, outdoor advertising truly has a
  • 22. Page | 21 "captured audience” (Marketingscoop, 2012). They are messages work on the advertising principle of "frequency." Since most messages stay in the same place for a period of a month or more, people who drive by or walk past see the same message a number of times. Public Relations PRSA (Public Relation Society of America) (PRSA, 2011) defined “Public relation is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics”. At its core, public relations revolve around the fact that: people act based upon their perception of facts. By managing, controlling, or influencing people's perceptions, PR professionals hope to originate a continuation of behaviors that will lead to the achievement of an organization's objectives. When those in public relations successfully create, change, or reinforce opinion through persuasion, their primary objective is accomplished. Public relations activities varied but they have a same role: to concentrate to the image of an organization using a ‘soft sell’ approach. Public relations is not advertising under another name. Many of an organization’s clients/customers may view advertising as a ‘hard sell’ and recognize it as having specific objectives. Public relations activities often have a greater credibility with target groups. The basic premise for PR’s role is that a positive image is essential to retain existing customers and clients and to attract new business (Copley, 2004). Direct Marketing Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofit organizations to communicate straight to the customer. It is a term used to refer to all media activities that generate a series of communications and response with an existing or potential customer (Fill, 2009). This category includes tools like e-mail, direct mailers and telemarketing (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Direct marketing is concerned with the management of customer behavior and is used to complement the strengths and weaknesses of the other communication disciplines. Underpinning the direct marketing approach are the principles of trust and commitment, just as they support the validity of the other promotion tools. If a meaningful relationship is to be developed over the long term and direct marketing is an instrumental part of the dialogue, then the pledges that the parties make to develop commitment and stability are of immense importance.
  • 23. Page | 22 Sales promotion Sales promotion is generally defined as those marketing activities that provides extra value or incentives to the sales forces, the distributors, or the ultimate customer and can stimulate immediate sales (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). There are many sales promotion techniques, but they all offer a direct incentive to encourage audiance of these promotional messages to buy a product or use service sooner. The incentive such as price deals, coupons, premiums is indicated as an added value to the basic product, one that is planned to encourage buyers to act sonner rather than later. The role of sales promotion has changed significantly over recent years. At one time, the largest proportion of communications budgets was normally allocated to advertising. In some cases advertising no longer dominates the communications budget and sales promotion has assumed the focus of the communications spending. Some functions of sales promotions are differentiate your products, attract customer, increase market share and control inventory (Fill, 2009). Personal Selling Personal selling is a method in which one party uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with another that result in both parties earn value. In most cases the "value" for the sale party is understod through the financial result of the sale while the customer’s "value" is comprehended from the benefits can get by consuming the product. Unlike advertising, personal selling need a direct way to contact between seller and buyer through various kinds of channel for example face to face or phone (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Trade show Trade shows are a popular form of publicity, especially for B2B service and include important personal selling opportunities (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Trade shows help businesses increase sales, build brands and reputation for the company and have the opportunity to contact potential customers. Internet Messages transmitted over the internet organization can come from the company's website or in commercials at the other sites. Through the internet, on the company’s website, the marketer can create consumer awareness and interest, provide information, communicate
  • 24. Page | 23 with customer, and measure the effectiveness of specific advertising or promotion campaigns, etc. With the develop of Internet, internet advertising such as Online Advertising (image, video, etc.) and Banner Advertising also give the marketer various ways to communicate with customers. One more type of advertising can do through the internet is Search Engine Advertising. Instead of advertiser broadcasting their message to consumer, search engines let advertiser know exactly what consumer want through their key word search (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). With the develop of Web 2.0, the internet has a new direction. It creates a platform is Social network that many people use nowadays. Social networks are about people using the Internet to share lifestyle and experiences. The participants in these networks not only share information and experiences, but they can also use the interactive capacity to build new relationships. The critical aspect of social networks is that the content is user- generated and this means users own, control and develop content according to their needs, not those of a third party. Social networks concern the Internet’s ability to enable people to share experiences. Typical sites include MySpace, YouTube and Facebook, each of which has experienced rapid growth in recent years. With over 700 million active users, Facebook is the biggest platform if you want to associate with many people at the same time. Although, Facebook is a new platform, but it promises many potential benefits for business. The fact that it can help businesses in growing and reaching out to a new customer base has added to its popularity. Having a fan page on Facebook is really needed for any business nowadays. It can help to build your brand, engage with existing customers, reach new audience, influence fans and friends and create viral promotion. 2.3.3. Outside Channels Word of Mouth (WOM) Word of Mouth is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. WOM can greatly influence the decision to use or not use a service of consumer. That's because the WOM makes customers feel more believe than the company's advertising. A recent study conducted by Marketshare (Marketshare, 2014) proved that word-of-mouth marketing drives sales. In fact, it showed that word of mouth increased marketing effectiveness by up to 54 percent. Blogs, online video, forum
  • 25. Page | 24 and social network give consumers chance to spread the word about products and services they use. Before buy a product or use a service, consumers often ask friends and family members for opinions and find on the Internet for information about the brands they want to use. WOM is a powerful tool in communication with lots of advantages. It is the power of recommendations. People trust recommendations from family and friends more highly than anything companies can say through their various advertisment. WOM is also a cheap method of marketing but have long time value. Research conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Center for Integrated Marketing and Sales suggests customers who purchase products or services based on a referral are more likely to buy more than people who find your company through traditional marketing methods. Referred customers also tend to stick with your company longer than people who find your business by other means. Furthermore, as happy referred customers direct their friends and family to you, the value of the first referral grows exponentially. But on the other hand, WOM marketing does have disadvantages. No matter how much effort you put into providing a quality product, giving great experience for customer, you still have at least one customer who is not impressed with your product or service. Whether the customer think the price is too high, doesn’t like a thing of product or stopped using the service soon after signing up, a customer who does not see value in what you offer can cause a negative affect on your business through word-of-mouth marketing. A lot of word-of-mouth marketing takes place online, through forum, blog and social network, negative comments about a brand, their employees or products appear in Internet search results. If potential customers who search on the internet about a brand, they are able to find the negative comments, reviews and other feedback and may use it to determine whether or not they'd like to buy a product or use a service. Blog and Media Coverage Blog is a personal website where people post journal, diaries or about whatever they like. Blog can be about anything, their author, known as bloggers, usually focused on narrow topics. The information which blogger wrote on their page can affect the decision and opinion of consumer. Media coverage can be defined as the way in which a particular piece of information is presented by media either as news, entertainment or as infotainment. It can affect the extent of information dissemination as well as influence the audience opinion while giving
  • 26. Page | 25 out the information. Bad coverage can ruin the image of a company. On the other hand, positive coverage can help create a better image and positive public opinion. 2.4. Consumer Behavior and Marketing Communication Channels 2.4.1. Consumer Behavior Lars Perner (2014) states that firms and organizations can improve their marketing strategies by studying consumer behavior. There are some official definitions of consumer behavior and one of them is that Consumer behavior is “the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires” (R.Solomon, 2011, p. 33). Solomon (2011) also said that consumer behavior is the study of people and the products that help to shape their identities in different settings. Consumer behavior not only is about buying something; but also embraces the study of how having (or not having) things influence ourselves and about each other – our state of being. In this thesis, studying consumer behavior is very important for evaluating the effectiveness of communication channels of VinKE; and then giving some recommendations for this case. 2.4.2. Marketing Communication Channels According to E. Belch & A. Belch (2012), maybe the most crucial aspect of building up effective communication programs involves understanding the response process. As this issue is concerned, a number of models have been created to indicate the stages which a customer might go through from not being aware of a brand to purchasing a product. The Figure 2.3 demonstrates four best known response hierarchy models, which are AIDA Model, Hierarchy of Effects Model (developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner), Innovation Adoption model, and Information Processing Model (developed by William McGuire).
  • 27. Page | 26 Figure 2-3: Models of Response Process Source: (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012) AIDA Model According to E. K. Strong (1925), the AIDA model was developed to express the stages that a salesperson must take a customer through in the personal-selling process. In this model, the customer was described as going through four stages: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. E. Belch and A. Belch (2012) stated that the first thing the salesperson must do is gain the customers’ attention and evoke some interest in the product or service of company. Customers just desire to own or use the product or service only when they have strong levels of interest. The result is action stage: getting the customer to make a purchasing decision and closing the sale (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) also said that action stage is not only the most important, but also the most difficult stage to a marketer in the selling process. For using AIDA model of advertising effectively, Ms. Priyanka Rawal (2013) recommended that:  The advertising should be attention grabbing whether it includes commercials, posters or billboards. Attractive audio and pictures are often used to grab the potential client's or customer's attention.
  • 28. Page | 27  By using images related to potential customers, a marketer can arouse their interest. This requires gaining information about potential customers. Company can do studies, take surveys or even just ask questions to gain information about what interests of customers are, and then use it in advertising.  It must be clear that what benefits the product or service can bring to customers and how this product or service meets the customers’ needs and wants. So, customers can desire to own the product or use the service.  In action stage, “encouraging the customers to act quickly can make the difference between success and failure in marketing” (Rawal, 2013). To make customers act quickly, offering time limitations sales or discounts is one of the best effective ways. Hierarchy of Effects model Hierarchy of effects model which is developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner for setting and measuring advertising objectives is the best known of response hierarchies (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) also stated that “hierarchy of effects model shows the process by which advertising works” and in this model, consumers passes through six steps in sequential order: Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference, Conviction and Purchase. The fundamental of Hierarchy of effects model is that there must be the existence of advertising effects within each steps for consumers can move to the next step in the model. Hierarchy model of advertising effects was become the basic model of the communications response process used in Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (DAGMAR) (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). Colley (1961) stated that the communication task be based on four stages of hierarchy model of communication process:  Awareness – making the consumer aware of the existence of the brand or company.  Comprehension – developing an understanding of what the product is and what it will do for the consumer.  Conviction – developing a mental disposition in the consumer to buy the product.  Action – getting the consumer to purchase the product.
  • 29. Page | 28 Because Lavidge and Steiner hierarchy of effects model is more specific and more effective to establish and measure results, some advertising theorists prefer this model than others (Schultz, Martin, & Brown, 1984). Innovation Adoption Model The innovation adoption model developed from work on the diffusion of innovation, it was created by Rogers in 1995 (Rogers, 1995). Like other models, this model says potential adopter must be moved through a series of steps before taking some actions The model describes a number of stages that a consumer passes through in adopting a new product or service. Like other models, it says potential adopter must be moved through a series of steps before taking some actions (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). According to Rogers (1995), prospects progress continuously in the five steps: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption. Awareness relates to the cognitive stage of the process, interest and evaluation to the affective stage, and trial and adoption to the behavioral stage. E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) said that the challenge that companies who want to introduce new products must facing is to create awareness and connect customer and after that, get them to assess the product favorably. A new product’s performance can be judged by actual use. Therefore, demonstration or sampling programs or providing product with minimal commitment for customers are the ways that marketers can stimulate trial. After trial, consumers can adopt the product or reject it. For example, Google usually launches its new products such as its Chrome Web browser by putting a “beta” label on them and waiting for early adopters sign on and give feedback that can be used to make product improvement (March 15th, 2010). This adoption model provides clear direction for companies in using marketing communications tools when they want to introduce new products or services to the market (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). These marketers recognize that there are some kind of consumers whose interest in new products and ability to influence others are of particular interest to them (March 15th, 2010). Because of that, marketers always try to determine and communicate with these early adopters and to stimulate them to convey information to other consumers (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012).
  • 30. Page | 29 Information Processing Model The Information Processing Model of advertising effects, was developed by William McGuire (1969), interprets consumer behavior in response to a persuasive messages. Individuals exert control over the information acquisition process by determining how much attention they will devote to the advertisement and the strategy that is used in processing the information (Meryl Paula Gardner, 1979). The Information Processing Model views the receiver of message as an information processor and problem solver (Shah & D'Souza, 2009). According to McGuire (McGuire, 1969), receivers go through a series of steps in being persuaded constitutes a response hierarchy: Presentation, Attention, Comprehension, Yielding, Retention and Behavior. McGuire’s model involves a stage not found in the other models: retention, or the receiver’s ability to maintain the part of the comprehended information that people accept as valid of relevant (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). E.Belch and A.Belch (2012) state that this stage is important since most promotional campaigns are designed not to motivate consumer to take immediate action but rather to provide information they will use later when making a purchase decision. The model recommends that advertising will be failed if it is unable to convince the audience at any stage (Shah & D'Souza, 2009). So each stage must be evaluated by consumer surveys or other methods to get feedback to advertising effectiveness. The Figure 5-4 shows the method to obtain the feedback in the response hierarchy. Figure 2-4: Models of Obtaining Feedback Source: (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012)
  • 31. Page | 30 The information processing model can be an effective model for planning and evaluating the effects of a promotion campaign (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). 2.5. Gap in Literature Review There was a gap created by literature review in the research because of an unfamiliar edutainment area in Vietnam. Edutainment is a new model of entertainment area in Vietnam. There was no research about this topic in Vietnam market. Furthermore, VinKE itself has not had any researches on customer before. Therefore, it is very difficult to predict which communication channel are the best toward consumer behavior, which activities are the most attractive with customers, which elements receive the most complaints from the customers, etc. All information will only be revealed after the research is conducted. 2.6. Conclusion In conclusion, this literature chapter reviews the definitions, theories and applied model of marketing communication process and marketing communication channel, respectively. The basic model of communication includes information source, message, channel and receiver. The communication channel includes production channels, marketing channels and other outside channels. The consumer behavior toward marketing communication channel can be measured by one of four best known response hierarchy models, which are AIDA Model, Hierarchy of Effects Model (developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner), Innovation Adoption model, and Information Processing Model (developed by William McGuire) (E.Belch & A.Belch, 2012). It is also necessary to measure the communication effective to evaluate the overall impact and effect that strategy has on a target audience. Each communication channel has different assessment methods, through different indicators. The next chapter will introduce the data collection methods and data analysis methods. The Hierarchy of effects model will be chosen to interpret consumer behavior toward marketing communication channel and different measurement methods that have been mentioned above will be applied to test the effectiveness of VinkE current communication programs.
  • 32. Page | 31 3. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1. Introduction The previous chapter discussed the theoretical literature reviews and models used when conducting this research. Within the literature review, it can be clearly seen that communication plays an important role in marketing. In this chapter, we will show the research design and methodology to reach our research objective. The research is a combination of quantitative and qualitative method. The mix of both qualitative and quantitative data could make this research to be more clearly and help us have more detail view from many directions. Primary data accessed from interview and survey; secondary data from reports are used to analyze the Firm’s situation and finally to figure out the best solution for solving its problem. There were still some limitations when doing the research; however, this research is still ethical when all information are obtained through trusted resources and accepted to be used by board of managers. 3.1.1. Research Philosophies and Paradigms Research philosophies were defined as the overarching term relating to the development of knowledge and the nature of that knowledge in relation to research (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Understanding research philosophy is really important because researchers make assumption at every stage of their studies. There are three reasons make research philosophy become important. The first is the way researcher chose method will make impact on the whole strategy of research. Secondly, by recognizing limitation via assessing different methodologies, researcher will avoid unsuitable or unnecessary methods. And finally, it supports research with new creative methodologies which they not think of before. There are two ways of research philosophies for business students: Ontology and Epistemology. Ontology raises questions of the assumptions researchers have about the way the world works and the commitment to particular views. This philosophy includes objectivism and subjectivism. Objectivism is how social entities exist independent of social actors. The subjectivist view is that social phenomena are created from the perceptions and consequent actions of social actors
  • 33. Page | 32 Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study. It relates more to the essence of knowledge and what knowledge can be approached to real life (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Research paradigm is a way of examining social phenomena from which particular understandings of these phenomena can be gained and explanations attempted (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Burrell and Morgan (1982) shows that the four paradigms are arranged to correspond to four conceptual dimensions: radical change and regulation and subjectivist and objectivist. They also note that the purposes of the four paradigms are to help researchers clarify their assumptions about their view of the nature of science and society; to offer a useful way of understanding the way in which other researchers approach their work and to help researchers plot their own route through their research; to understand where it is possible to go and where they are going. When thinking about developing the effective communication channel for VinKE, this research would be followed Positivism of Epistemology. Because research processes requires highly science involvement; science theory of methodology research, data gathering, and data processing was used to achieve objective questions. In addition, the authors used ontology paradigm, which means common assumptions that are created to understand the real nature of the society. 3.1.2. Research Methods In the research methods, the primary research and secondary research will be applied. In the primary research, qualitative and quantitative research are used to collect the data. According to Guba and Lincoln (Cuba & Lincoln, 1994) , qualitative and quantitative methods can be used appropriately with any research paradigm. Quantitative data in a raw form, before these data have been processed and analyzed, they convey very little meaning to most people. Therefore, they need to be processed to turn them into information and useful (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Qualitative data includes from a short list of responses to open-ended questions in an online questionnaire to more complex data such as transcripts of in-depth interviews or entire policy documents (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009) for people to express their view.
  • 34. Page | 33 Quantitative and qualitative method also have advantages and disadvantages. Quantitative method’s advantages are that they produce factual, reliable outcome data that are usually generalizable to some larger population. The weakness of this method are the researcher’s categories and theories that are applied might not reflect local constituencies’ understandings; the researcher might focus on theory or hypothesis testing rather than on theory or hypothesis generation instead of focus on phenomena occurring (called the confirmation bias) and knowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct application to specific local situations, contexts, and individuals (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004), individual differences might not appreciated, researchers do not want statistical outliers skewing their data. In respectively, qualitative methods generate rich, detailed, valid process data that usually leave the study participants’ perspective intact (Steckler, McLeroy, Goodman, & Sheryl T. Bird, 1992). However, according to Claire Anderson PhD (Anderson, 2010), there are some limitations of qualitative method such as the quality is strong dependent on the researcher’s individual skills, the research can be interprets by the personal biased view and idiosyncrasies of researcher; sometimes it is not as well understood and accepted as quantitative research within the scientific community; the presence of researchers can impact on the subjects’ responses and it can take more time to characterize in a visual way. Both of them have disadvantages in some aspects, however, they can be limited when qualitative and quantitative are integrated (Steckler, McLeroy, Goodman, & Sheryl T. Bird, 1992). 3.2. Data Collection Methods Collecting data is an indispensable step in research process. Researchers use data obtained to provide and prove for clear answers for research questions; and then give recommendations to solve the problems. In this study, collecting meaningful data is very important to evaluate the effectiveness of VinKE’s communication channels. Recommendations for improving the communication channels of VinKE are going to be proposed after that. To gain information, there are two main approaches: primary and secondary research method. In this thesis, information is gained from both of two these methods.
  • 35. Page | 34 3.2.1. Secondary Data In secondary research, data that have already been collected for some other purpose are used to provide additional or different knowledge, interpretations or conclusions. There are three main subgroups of secondary data: documentary, survey-based and multiple sources (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). In this study of VinKE, secondary documentary data which are inclusive of VinKE’s databases of marketing strategies, records of arrivals, etc. Other sources come from reliable articles of e- newspapers on the Internet and official facebook fanpages are used. However, only secondary data is not enough for assessing the effectiveness of VinKE’s communication channels. Therefore, primary data have to be gained. 3.2.2. Primary data If secondary data are unavailable or inappropriate, primary method will be used for collecting data. Primary data are original data collected for a specific research objective and it can be collected through a various methods (J.Hox & R.Boeije, 2005). Sometimes, there is more than one method to collect data for a single problem. According to the book “Research Methods for Business Students” (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012), there are three main methods to collect primary data:  Collecting primary data through observation;  Collecting primary data using interviews;  Collecting primary data using survey instrument. To collect necessary information, two latter methods are used: interview and survey. Collecting primary data using Qualitative method – in-depth interviews The research interview is a conversation between one or more people with certain purposes. In this type of interview, questions must be concise and clear enough for interviewees can understand easily and are willing to pay attention and give the responds (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). During the research process of the thesis, an interview with Director of VinKE was conducted to be clear about marketing strategies and communication objectives of VinKE.
  • 36. Page | 35 In addition, 05 VinKE’s employees were also interviewed to show their knowledge about marketing strategies of VinKE. From that, there was a comparison to find out any presence of knowledge gap here. There is detailed questions sample in Appendix part. Besides, there were some interviews with 07 target customers of VinKE and results of those interviews were used to build form of questionnaire. Collecting primary data using Quantitative method – survey instrument Questionnaire is the most popular method within the survey strategy and it is often used for descriptive or explanatory research. It may be more effective if combine questionnaires to other methods in a multi-method research design (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). With different situations of research, there are different types of questionnaires: Figure 3-1 Types of Questionnaire Source: © (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012) One of questionnaires used in this study are Self-completed questionnaires which are completed by respondents. Those questionnaires are sent to customers through Internet or delivered directly to them and then collected later (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Questionnaires used in this thesis are easy to understand; so there is no any difficulty for respondents to complete them. Besides, this study also applied Interviewer-completed questionnaires. Structured interview is used for collecting questionnaires: coming to VinKE center to meet customers face to face and ask them all questions in our questionnaires; while respondents answering the Questionnaire Self-completed Internet (web-based) and intranet-mediated questionnaire Postal (mail) questionnaire Delivery and collection questionaire Interviewer- completed Telephone questionnaire Structured interview
  • 37. Page | 36 questions, interviewer ticks options in questionnaire. The reason for choosing this type of questionnaires is soothing the respondents: Although questionnaire in this thesis is easy to understand, it is quite long and respondents may feel boring to complete it. While asking the questions, interviewers can also have some small talks for changing the attention of respondents. Research Instruments This study used self-completed questionnaires for survey. The basic questions were formed from two research questions which mentioned in chapter 1. These contents focus on audience’s behavior, habits and characteristics which relates to marketing communication channels of the service. Each question was designed to be very clear and easy to understand by basing on earlier interviews result with seven target customers. All of interview results are in Appendix part. Questionnaires were designed with multiple choice questions, scale questions and open-ended questions. To avoid confusion for respondent, all rating question use one type of scale: Likert-style scale with five-point rating scale. The question items divided into 4 variables included: Demographic; Consumer Behavior; Hierarchy of effects model and Market (competitor). The name VinKE and edutainment service are quite new in the market. Therefore, in Hierarchy of effects model, questions in questionnaire mainly focus on Awareness and Knowledge stage of customers about VinKE. Besides, there are also some extra questions belong to Purchase Stage. Variable Sub-Variable Question Item Number Demographic Sex, Location, Age, Income, Expense B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8 Target audience characteristic Preference Channel A1, A2 Advertising Attitude A3, A4, A5, A6 Perspective in raising children A7 Appropriate Time A8 Hierarchy of effects model Awareness A10 Knowledge A11, A13 Purchase A15, A17, A18 Market Competitor A9
  • 38. Page | 37 After there are completed questionnaires, 20 questionnaires were sent to respondents for testing before deliver widely. 3.2.3. Sampling Techniques As mentioned above, collecting data is very important, but the more important thing is how to collect data. Sometimes, it is possible and necessary to collect data from all available cases, it is also called census. But in many research, there are no time, no money and no way to access every cases, every individuals in population, so sampling techniques are necessary for these cases ( (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012) divided sampling techniques into two types:  Probability sampling (or representative sampling);  Non-probability sampling (or judgemental sampling). Figure 3-2 below describes different types of sampling techniques: Figure 3-2 Sampling Techniques Source: (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012) For applying Probability Sampling techniques, it must be a list of populations. But in this study, it is impossible to list all available population. Therefore, Non-probability Sampling was applied. SAMPLING Probability Simple random Systematic Stratified random Cluster Multi-stage Non-probability Quota Purposive Extreme case Heterogeneous Homogeneous Critical case Typical case Snowball Self-selection Convenience
  • 39. Page | 38 There are also many different techniques which belong to non-probability sampling. It is important to choose the best suitable sampling. With initial aim that collecting information from at least 100 people in VinKE center and 200 people outside VinKE center, there is appearance of strata. Stratified sampling seems logical in this case, but it cannot be used in this thesis because there is no sampling frame. That is the reason why Quota Sampling is the best choice for gaining data in this thesis. 3.2.4. Sample Size and Sample Characteristics This study was mainly focus on parents having children in range of 4 to 16 year old, who mainly live and work in Hanoi. The reason choosing them to survey and interview was they are potential customers of VinKE. However, married couples who have not had children belong to our targets, too. Besides, online questionnaires were also used to evaluate customers’ awareness of VinKE. There were 326 qualify questionnaires in total included 101 questionnaires sent to customers in VinKE center and 225 others sent directly or through Internet to people outside VinKE center. After analyzing those questionnaires, it could be simpler to find out basic differences between people who have already come to VinKE and people who have never come to VinKE yet. Besides, results of those questionnaires can also show the customers’ awareness and knowledge about VinKE. After analyzing all information obtained from above samples, it was easier to evaluate the effectiveness of VinKE’s communication channels. From that, suitable recommendations could be given. 3.3. Data Analysis Methods The information and data collected from conducting researches have to be analyzed by a proper analyzing tool to point out the accurate necessary findings which help to provide a fulfill result for the report. And to prepare for an appropriate report, 518 surveys had been compiled and issued to audience both inside (152 surveys) and outside VinKE (366 surveys). In addition, online survey was also conducted together with paper survey. All those surveys are collected after that. However, after being filtered, the qualified surveys for analysis were 326 included 101 surveys inside VinKE center. The chosen analysis software is IBM – SPSS software. Firstly, SPSS stands for Statistical Package for the Social Science. SPSS is a comprehensive and flexible statistical analysis and data management solution (SPSS, 2014). SPSS can take data from almost every type
  • 40. Page | 39 of document and use them to produce tabulated reports, charts, plots of distribution and trends, descriptive statistics, and conduct compound statistical analyses. The most current version of the software will be used, which is version 22.0. 3.4. Ethical Considerations Ethics is critical aspect for the conduct of research. Research ethics relates to questions about how we formulate and clarify the research topic, design it and gain access, collect data, process and store, and analyse data then write up the research findings in a moral and responsible way. It guides researcher for the responsible of conduct of the research by providing them with a statement of principles and procedures which highlight what is and what is not considered ethical (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Before doing this research, all of ethical considerations were analyzed and addressed to avoid issues which related to ethical that could happen. According to Sanders, there are five principles in research ethics. It includes: minimizing the risk of harm, obtaining informed consent, protecting anonymity and confidentiality, avoiding deceptive practices, and providing the right to withdraw (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Throughout the progress of making the research, there is no individual or organization be harmed. This research was launched with the permission of CEO VinKE. It is also supported by marketing manager and staff of VinKE as well as customers in there to take the survey and deep-interview. The right of privacy needs to be respected and every individual will not feel pressurized or coerced into participating. The researchers have to accept any refusal to take part in or any individual. Another ethical issue is related to lack of consent. Although the research is conducted with those who have agreed to take part in, but it still involve an attempt to deceive participants in some ways: deceit over the real purpose, undeclared sponsorships, etc (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Therefore, the researchers of this study pay attention in fully disclose the presence and information about the real purpose of research. The participant also be informed about the any equipment using in collecting data. Specifically, they have control over the right to record any of their responses if the voice recorder is used. Besides, there are fully useful contact information in survey to the participants can contact if they have any questions about the research. Furthermore, using the Internet also raise ethical issues. It may allow researchers to contact possible
  • 41. Page | 40 participants more easily and even to do it repeatedly. (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). The information of participants is kept safety in personal computer and used only for the purpose of research. Moreover, research questionnaire in this study aims to investigate and find out the most effective communication channels which most of VinKE’s target customers have been using, so as to help VinKE improve its performance. The maintenance of the objectivity also relate to ethical issues. There is no selective data to report, misrepresent data statistic accuracy. The data is guaranteed honestly from collecting data extends to the analysis and reporting of the research. 3.5. Limitations of the Research Project One of the limitations was related to research methods. Firstly, the quality of qualitative method strongly depends on the researcher’s individual skills. The research can be interpreted by the personal biased view and idiosyncrasies of researcher. Furthermore, using the quantitative make researcher must focus on theory or hypothesis testing rather than on theory or hypothesis generation instead of focus on phenomena occurring. Not only that, knowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct application to specific local situations, contexts, and individuals (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004) such as the study just research people who live in Hanoi and married. Another limitation was the use of quota sampling. Although this type of sampling is easy to obtain but it seem to be prone to bias and influences that are beyond the control. The interviewer can choose within quota boundaries whom they interview, therefore; these samples may be subject to bias. Interviewers have a tendency to choose respondents who are easily accessible and seem to be willing to answer the questions. Besides, the sample cannot representatives for the entire population (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Many customers don’t want to support this research because they think the research’ team bothers them by try to promote any kinds of products, which made it difficult to conduct research. Moreover, because of using questionnaire, this study must consider the wording of questions prior to the order in which they appear. There are some academic terms in questionnaire leads to vague in understanding of respondents in doing the survey. Besides,
  • 42. Page | 41 the way of collecting data from interviews also has limitations, which is bias. The interviewee can pull their punches and not tell the whole truth. Finally, there are several limitations in this research, including lack of time, human resource, availability research equipment and low budget to conduct the research. Because of lacking time and human resource, the research could not cover all area in Hanoi, the survey was conducted by people in VinKE, some crowd places such as shopping centers and on the Internet. Thus the result might not be applicable for other cities and other target audience. 3.6. Validity and Reliability Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Reliability refers to the extent to which the data collection techniques or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).The authors of this thesis can assure that the data collected is completely reliable and trustworthy. These were shown by a large number of samples: 326 samples. The respondents are customers of VinKE or target customerss who are living in Hanoi and had children. Before creating a final survey, the study made in-depth interview with seven peoples to collect useful data and information to support for questionnaire. 3.7. Conclusion In conclusion, this chapter defines the research designs and methodologies that are applied in the study in detail. The study used primary research and secondary research. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed include: in-depth interview, survey online and offline. The results are used to design questionnaires and future interview strategy. A wide sample were conducted can get more convincing and accurate. In addition, the ethical issues and limitations are mentioned in this chapter. Several limitations such as lack of time, human resource, availability research equipment and low budget to conduct the research. The next chapter will focused on analyze the findings after applying research method in chapter 3. From the result, key issues are defined and evaluated to find out solutions for VinkE.
  • 43. Page | 42 4. CHAPTER 4: ANALYSES AND FINDINGS 4.1. Introduction Generally, the fourth chapter of the report aims to write about the analysis, the findings and discussion about all the research issues mentioned in the previous chapters. All the necessary results collected from doing secondary research, conducting surveys or doing interviews will be indicated, along with the critical findings, in the two major parts of this Chapter 4, which are Data Analysis & Discussion and Key Findings. Specifically, the first main part is going to expose some aspects of the target customers of the investigated firm – VinKE Times City, as well as the evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of VinKE Times City’s communication via the proceeded surveyed data from SPSS software. Besides, critical-thinking points such as comparison between perceptions of VinKE Times City’s workforce and customers, and further explanations based on secondary data and in-depth interview will also be added along to make the findings more understandable, reasonable and meaningful. The next part can be seen as a summary of the previous one while it will epitomize the most important findings of the researches and the findings which are most related to the thesis’s research questions. 4.2. Analysis and Discussions 4.2.1. Target Audience’s Characteristics Gender As the result of surveys distributed in VinKE Times City, there were 20.99% man came there with their children while this ratio of women was three times higher, 79.21%. It seems that mothers have more time to play with children and they have more power in making decision about children’s edutainment. This information is so important, it help VinKE Times City to define the target customers and target audience of their communication campaigns. 20.99% 79.01% Male Female Figure 4-1: Gender of Respondents
  • 44. Page | 43 Age The respondents can be divided into four groups. The youngest group was under 22 years old. The second group was people from 22 years old to 35 years old. The third was group of people from 36 years old to 55 years old. The last was groups of people over 55 years old. The samples were distributed to VinKE Times City’s customers and randomly to married residents in Hanoi. The pie chart above shows that the second group accounts for the largest percentage (77.09%) while the percentage of youngest group is only 1.86%. The third group also consists of a significant proportion (21.05%). As the result, with the largest proportion, group of people from 22 – 35 is the potential target customers and target audience of communication campaigns that VinKE Times City must to notice. Discussing with the representative of VinKE Times City, it was surprising that VinKE Times City has not defined specifically the age of their target audience yet. Incomes Base on the Household Income Band (HIB) Classification System overview of Nielsen (2012), the household income per month of people who do survey were divided into 6 levels: under 3 million VND, from 3 million to under 4.5 million VND, from 4.5 million to under 7.5 million VND, from 7.5 million to under 15 million VND, from 15 million to 30 million VND and over 30 million VND. 1.86% 77.09% 21.05% Group Age < 22 years old 22 - 35 years old 36 - 55 years old > 55 years old 2% 6% 17% 27% 33% 15% Household income per month < 3,000,000 VND 3,000,000 - 4,499,999 VND 4,500,000 - 7,499,999 VND 7,500,000 - 14,999,999 VND 15,000,000 - 30,000,000 VND > 30,000,000 VND Figure 4-2: Group Age of Respondents Figure 4-3: Household income per month
  • 45. Page | 44 The pie chart reveals that most of people who responded the questionnaire have high incomes. The most popular income level is from 15 million to 30 million VND per month. It accounts for 33.45%. Comparing with the per capita income in Vietnam ($1960 USD per year) (Linh, 2013), this level is higher than over 2 times. The highest level of income (over 30 million VND per month) also constitutes to a significant proportion (14.91%). The price of ticket is from 100.000VND to 220.000VND which depends on time of entrance and height of children. It seem to be that with the income level like that, most of people are willing to pay for VinKE Times City’s entrance ticket. Moreover, according to the result of the spearman correlation test by SPSS as shown in the following table, there is a correlation between age group and average expense for children although it is quite weak (correlation is significant at the 0.00 level and is coefficient at 0.233). Table 4-1: The correlation between Income and Age Group Age group < 22 years old 22 - 35 years old 36 - 55 years old > 55 years old Count % Count % Count % Count % Household income per month < 3.000.000 VND 1 17% 4 2% 0 0% 0 0% 3.000.000 - 4.499.999 VND 2 33% 12 5% 4 6% 0 0% 4.500.000 - 7.499.999 VND 2 33% 39 16% 15 22% 0 0% 7.500.000 - 14.999.999 VND 1 17% 72 29% 14 21% 0 0% 15.000.000 - 30.000.000 VND 0 0% 90 36% 18 27% 0 0% > 30.000.000 VND 0 0% 32 13% 16 24% 0 0%
  • 46. Page | 45 Table 4-2: Correlation Statistics between Income and Age Group Age group Average expense level for education & entertainment of children Spearman’ rho Age group Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .233 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 323 310 Average expense level for education & entertainment of children Correlation Coefficient .233 1.000 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 310 310 The two above tables illustrate the relationship between income and age range of target customer. Focusing on the target audience (22 – 35 years old), it is clearly to see that they have really high income level. Group of people who had household income per month from 7.5 million accounted for almost of target audience, approximately 78%. It seems to be a good point for VinKE Times City because of the potential of this group. Having high income, people tend to spend more on edutainment for their children. Through the Spearman correlation test of SPSS as shown in the following table, it can be seen clearly that there is a correlation between income and expense for children’s edutainment. The level of correlation coeffient is at a moderate level (0.523). The following table shows that the increase of incomes leads to increase in expense. Table 4-3:The Correlation between Income and Expense for Children' Edutainment Household income per month < 3.000.000 VND 3.000.000 - 4.499.999 VND 4.500.000 - 7.499.999 VND 7.500.000 - 14.999.999 VND 15.000.000 - 30.000.000 VND > 30.000.000 VND Count % Count % Count % Count % Count % Count % Average expense level for education & entertainment of children < 500.000 VND per 1 children 0 0% 2 20% 12 27% 0 0% 10 10% 0 0% 500.000 - 1.499.999 VND per 1 children 0 0% 6 60% 16 36% 21 25% 4 4% 5 11% 1.500.000 - 2.999.999 VND per 1 children 0 0% 2 20% 11 25% 32 39% 32 32% 4 9% 3.000.000 - 5.999.999 VND per 1 children 2 100% 0 0% 5 11% 23 28% 49 49% 8 18% 6.000.000 - 10.000.000 VND per 1 children 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 7 8% 6 6% 15 34% > 10.000.000 VND per 1 children 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 12 27%
  • 47. Page | 46 Table 4-4: Correlation statistics between Income and Expense Household income per month Average expense level for education & entertainment of children Spearman’s rho Household income per month Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .523 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 322 310 Average expense level for education & entertainment of children Correlation Coefficient .523 1.000 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 310 310 Expense Figure 4-4: Expense for Children' Edutainment per month The pie chart reveals that parents spend a lot of money on education and edutainment of their children. Specifically, over a half of total respondents selected their expense level from 1.5 million to under 6 million VND. It shows that parents willing to pay money for their children. 8% 18% 29% 31% 10% 4% Expense for education and entertainment per children per month < 500,000 VND/ 1 child 500,000 - 1,499,999 VND/1 child 1,500,000 - 2,999,999VND/1 child 3,000,000 - 5,999,999 VND/1 child 6,000,000 - 10,000,000 VND/1 child > 10,000,000 VND/1 child
  • 48. Page | 47 Moreover, from the result of survey about factors which parents take priority over any others in raising children as the following table, physical and skills are 2 most priority factors. Table 4-5: Priority of Elements in Raising Children Physical Soul Intellectual Skills N Valid 326 326 326 326 Median 4 2 1 3 It means parents willing to pay for the activities which help improve physical and skills of their children. This is an advantage of VinKE Times City because VinKE Times City provides service which help children entertain and improve their skill. Focusing on target audience group (22 – 35 years old), the expense level from 1.5 million is accounted for the vast majority (approximately 72%). From this information, it strongly emphasize that VinKE Times City should consider this age group as the target customers and target audience of communication campaigns. Table 4-6: The correlation between Age group and Expense on Children' edutainment Age group < 22 years old 22 - 35 years old 36 - 55 years old > 55 years old Expense level on education and entertainment of 1 children < 500,000 VND/1 children 0 22 2 0 500,000 – 1,499,999 VND/1 children 0 37 15 0 1,500,000 – 2,999,999 VND/1 children 2 69 10 0 3,000,000 – 5,999,999 VND/1 children 1 63 23 0 6,000,000 – 10,000,000 VND/1 children 0 18 10 0 > 10,000.000 VND/1 children 0 5 7 0
  • 49. Page | 48 Appropriated Time for Go-out with their children Figure 4-5: The appropriated time for go out with children of Respondents As the result from survey, parents usually go out with their children on weekend, holidays and vacation. As the in-depth interview with VinKE Times City’s customer, at that time, parents don’t have to work and their children also don’t have to go to school, therefore they usually go to entertainment area together. Discussing with representative of VinKE Times City, VinKE Times City serves a huge amount of customer at that time comparing with another time. These information is useful to decide the time of launching communication campaign. 31% 28% 26% 9% 7% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Weekend Holidays Vacations Lunar New Year Week days The appropriated time for go out with children