Digital Marketing Assignment - L'Oreal in Vietnam

2017
Loh Kah Huey
Lecturer: Mr. Jonathan Briggs
MKT615 Digital Marketing
8-December-2017
Proposal of digital marketing plan for
L’Oréal in Vietnam

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MKT615 Digital Marketing - Individual Assignment: Loh Kah Huey
Background & Objectives
L’Oréal has been successfully marketing Lancome and Vichy as premium products in Vietnam.
As part of the new business extension, L’Oréal is planning to launch a new skin care brand in
Vietnam. The target market for this new brand is young female generation which is aged 15 to
30 years old. This new brand is intended to be marketed as a mass consumer product with an
affordable price range. This brand includes facial cleanser and facial moisturiser.
This proposal is prepared to outline the proposed digital marketing plan for L’Oréal. Detailed
objectives of the proposal as below:
 To understand the existing situation of the skin care market environment in Vietnam.
 To uncover the insights of digital marketing environment for the target market.
 To craft the best but not limited to digital market strategy to launch this new skin care
brand successfully.
This proposal outlines the details of the marketing plan.
Audit of the existing situation
Overview of the market situation for Vietnam
Vietnam is a one-party communist state. It was a French colony until 1945. After that, it has
been through 30 years of wars. Vietnam became a unified country in 1975. Despite of the
damage that caused by war, Vietnam’s economy reform was successful even since then.
Vietnam enjoys the GDP growth rate of 6.2% in 2016 and the economic growth is expected to
stay strong and ahead of the countries in the region. The key success factors are its young
populations, stable infrastructure and politics as well as Government’s commitment to
welcome foreign direct investment.
Vietnamese population is 96 million (ranked 3rd
in ASEAN). Vietnam is the one of the highest
population densities in the world because of its uneven distribution of people. Urban population
is 34.9% of total population, with the rate of urbanization of 2.59% annual rate of change.
Urbanisation growth will increase the consumption volume of skin care products.
Consumer goods and skin care market trend
Market opportunities of consumer goods including skin care products in Vietnam is expected
to grow healthily because of the population and economic growth. Therefore, it is the right
target market for mass consumer products for L’Oréal since they current market share is only
from premium market of Vietnam. The overall sales of skin care products is VND 6.4 trillion
in 2016 and it is expected to reach compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of retail value of
10%. Growth in value for personal care products is not only in 4 urban Vietnamese cities but
also the rural areas, in the range of 3-4% (see exhibit 1). Forecast of the sales of skin care in
2021 will be more than VND 12 trillion (see exhibit 2). With the success of economic reform,
a culture of consumerism and westernised lifestyle are seen significantly especially among the

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younger generation in Vietnam. Skin care is becoming more common and moves from being
hedonic products to utilitarian products.
Competitive environment and digital marketing opportunity in Vietnam
Digital usage grows rapidly globally including Vietnam. Internet penetration rate is 53% while
mobile subscription is more than 130%. With the population of 96 million, about half are active
social media users (see exhibit 4 for details). These number will be higher for the target market
for L’Oréal’s new skin care brand who is the young generation i.e. 15 to 30 years old.
Most common social media platforms are Facebook and YouTube. This is supported with the
advertising revenue data which shows that Facebook and Google own the higher proportion of
the share (see exhibit 5 for details).
Despite of the high digital penetration rate, traditional marketing channels like TV are still very
prominent and important in Vietnam especially in rural areas where the mass consumers are
located. (See exhibit 6 and 7 for details).
Identification of a trend for skin care products
Skin care products are mainly targeted for female. Consumer preferences and trendi
for skin
care are identified as below:
 Because of the increased number of scandals about toxic chemicals in skin care
product, natural and organic products are the most preferred option for Vietnamese
consumers. Trustable distribution channels such as supermarkets, beauty specialists
are more common than other unverified channels.
 Demand for skin whitening facial products is higher because of the perception of fair
skin which symbolise beauty like many other Asian countries such as China and
Singapore.
 Promotional events and memberships marketing initiatives successfully a
significant growth of sales for the relevant companies in their respective target
markets. Other Vietnamese consumer behaviour and trend in general (see exhibit 3)
Web analysis for competitive environment for skin care brands
From Brand share of skin care, top 3 brands are identified i.e. Pond’, Shisheido and Olay.
Further analysis is conducted to understand the consumer insights in digital landscape across
the globe. With answerthepublic.com, a preliminary finding unveils that Pond’s focuses on its
specialisation e.g. anti-aging, sensitive skin or acne problems. Shiseido seems to have a wide
range of products which covers different age groups with different target messages. Target
markets for Shiseido include not only more mature female but also teenagers and men. Shiseido
is also associated as a brand for oily skin, combination skin and acne prone skin. Olay is more
focusing in mature skin, dark circles, oily skin or aged 30s and above. Hazeline is in the space
for young generation which is direct competing with L’Oréal’s new brand. Key messages for
Hazeline is skin whitening and natural ingredient (See exhibit 7 for details).

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Facebook page for key products in Vietnam are available for several key brands i.e. Shisheido,
Olay, Hazeline and The Face Shop. These brands set up a specific Facebook page to
communicate with the target audience in Vietnamese. Likealyzer.com shows that these specific
Facebook pages for Vietnamese are merely used as an information board with information on
the front page and about as introduction. However, these brand Facebook pages have less than
half responses and its activities are extremely limited. Activities are measured via post per day,
length of post, number of event, page liked, native Facebook video. Engagement level of these
brands are relatively low. Engagement level includes PTAT (People Talking About This), total
page likes and engagement rate. These analysis show that Vietnamese skin care consumers are
not currently engaged in the digital space for skin care product marketing at the moment.
Therefore, digital marketing strategy for L’Oréal needs to be done in collaboration with
traditional marketing channels in order to maximise the penetration of this new brand (See
exhibit 8 for details).
Job to be done (JTBD) for new L’Oréal skin care brand
Skin care products are used to clean and moisturising the faces. However, what it can deliver
should be more than just this. Beyond the functional effect as skin care products, consumers
show that they should enjoy the ‘feeling great!’ effect. Feeling great is attributed from
enjoying the outcome of good skin conditions, smart and healthy looks, attentions from other
when their faces are in radiant.
As a vehicle of achieving JTBD for this new brand, L’Oréal may need to consider to craft a
clear brand propose via storytelling to amplify the market trend for skin care products in
Vietnam with the support of brand campaign in delivery of JTBD elements i.e. “I want to

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show off to my friends”, “I need to feel excitement”, “make me feel smart” and “I am in
control”.
Customer Journey Mapping
To understand the entire process of the skin care product customer, a detailed map is as
below.
Growth hacking along the Customer Journey Mapping
Throughout the customer journey mapping, there are growth hacking opportunities that being
identified at different stages.

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Digital Marketing Plan in the Ecosystem
Different marketing initiatives are designed for different stage. During the pre-purchase
stage, social proof is important to address the concerns of suitability of the product. Sampling
and advertising including online ad and Facebook ad helps consumers to overcome the
obstacles and create the curiosity to search for more information. Landing page is critical to
support SEO and SEM during the searching stage. On-board strategies to encourage
purchase should be in place i.e. distribution via physical store and online platform via E-
commerce. During the stage of using the product, audience growth via reward and members
get members are useful. In addition to this, manual in print and online manual as well as
further skin care ideas should be made available. Chatbot can be prepared to address
consumers’ frequent asked questions in an interactive way at 24/7. At the last stage of
consumer journey map, the core JTBD, feeling great should be supported with community
via social media platforms. Both online and offline remarketing to stay in touch with the
consumers with new promotional activities to encourage repeat purchase.
Measurement Plan
Marketing effectiveness needs to be measured and tracked. Both direct and indirect data
analytics are required. Direct measurement can be done via primary market research such as
Brand Health Tracking, campaign awareness and qualitative market research to understand
emotional engagement and brand resonance. Web analytics should be scheduled to conduct
social media monitoring such as likealyzer, similar web, answerthepubic and moat. The goals

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of these online tools are to understand the online competiveness environment, how successful
each marketing channels reached out to the target audience as an impact of different market
strategy at different stage.
Experimentation and prototyping for Chatbots
Chatbots is useful to help the brand stays in touch with the consumers to address their
concerns and questions in an interactive waysii
. Conversional experience creates a virtual
one-to-one marketing feeling to the consumers to address their needs.
Conclusion
Digital marketing strategy for skin care products in Vietnam needs to be done in
collaboration of traditional marketing strategy Vietnamese is relatively less savvy then other
developed countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong in the Asian region. Digital
transformation is not completely ready yet in Vietnamiii
.
Building L’Oréal’s new skin care brand with digital channels will help to deliver the brand
campaign as a mass consumer product. This marketing plan will support the marketing
objectives of L’Oréal in extending its current market share from premium market to mass
market with this new skin care brand.
Reflection
Digital marketing is a clear combination of digital technology and marketing strategy. Skin
care market understanding will be enhanced with the digital technologies. Appreciation for
Mr. Jonathan Briggs who gave NTU a great 5-day module to explore the digital landscapes
and technologies which are the core of design for a winning marketing ecosystem.

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Appendix
Exhibit 1 Consumer and personal care product growth rateiv
Exhibit 2 Forecast of sales of skin care in Vietnam (Source: Eurometer International)

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Exhibit 3: Vietnamese consumer behaviour and trendv
& Population: urban vs. ruralvi

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Exhibit 4: Digital penetration for Vietnam. Source: We are socialvii

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Exhibit 5: online advertising revenue. Source: Vietnam Digital Landscape 2015 (Dung Tri)
Exhibit 6: TV watching behaviour in Vietnam. Source: Is TV still important in Vietnam?viii
Exhibit 7: Role of TV in Vietnam. Source: Rainstormix

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Exhibit 8: Brand shares and company share performance for skin care in Vietnam

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Exhibit 7: Analysis results from answerthepublic.com
Exhibit 8: Analysis results from Likeanlyzer.com for The Face Shop, Olay, Shiseido and
Hazeline

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About the author:
Loh Kah Huey
 Business owner of CalebREO to provide market research
and supporting expertise to delivery successful research
insights to the clients.
 17 years in market research industry, she started her career
with Ipsos (formerly known Synovate), spent significant
number of years with TNS/Kantar and left in 2012 to set up
CalebREO.
 Kah Huey graduated with Bachelor of Science, Major in Chemistry in 1999 from
University of Malaya. She is currently pursuing her study of Master of Science,
Marketing and Consumer Insight at Nanyang Business School, National Technology
University, Singapore.
 Publication: Understanding the Chinese healthcare consumer.
http://www.ephmra.org/user_uploads/11.%20asia%20parallel%203%20research%20pa
rtnership%20yates%20and%20loh.pdf
i
Euromonitor International Skin Care In Vietnam May 2017
ii https://edelmandigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2017-Edelman-Digital-Trends-Report.pdf
iii Ira Kaufman & Chris Horton, Routledge, 2014, ISBN 0415716756 Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy
and Tactics with Values, A Guidebook for Executives, Managers, and Students
iv
http://www.vneconomictimes.com/article/business/fmcg-market-to-see-growth-of-4
v
IE Singapore, Understanding Market Trends and Consumers in Vietnam
vi
https://www.slideshare.net/tinhanhvy/vietnam-digital-landscape-2015
vii
https://www.slideshare.net/truonghang297/digital-in-2017-southeast-asia-vietnam-we-are-social
viii
https://qandme.net/en/report/Is-TV-still-the-important-media-for-Vietnamese.html
ix
https://www.rainstormfilm.com/choosing-reliable-vietnam-video-production-service-story-telling-brand-
marketing/

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