Consumer markets of the company

Suppliers:

to make sure customers received the best quality and fresh snack, Poca actively cooperates with Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam and Dalat Central Researching of Potato, Vegetable and Flower to research and plant the best kind of potato in Lam Dong Province. All of the company’s raw potato is planted widely in Lam Dong Province, with Dalat farmers’ rich experience and supporting from agricultural experts, the company does not worry about the shortage of potato and its quality as well. As a result, customers are being received the best quality snacks from Poca, but with a very competitive price.

Intermediaries

1. Resellers: since Poca does not have its own store, so it is sold through PepsiCo’s distribution system such as Co.opmart or grocery shops, in which most of the customers buy snack from.

2. Physical distribution firms: Although the distance from the company to the final customers seems to be quite far, with the PepsiCo’s delivery trucks, all Poca snack are always delivered to the resellers very quickly, safely and on time.

3. Marketing agencies and financial intermediaries: with the support from some research market firms like AC Nielsen or AXISCO, marketing managers have given many strategic decisions to increase sales and make customer satisfied with the product. Moreover, many T.V stations and newspapers such as HTV, BTV or HOAHOCTRO magazine have helped to promote and increase more brand loyalty. Besides this, Vietcombank and Sacombank are one of the company’s best friends in helping to loan money and do transactions.

Customers:

There are two important consumer markets of the company: 1. Consumer market: our consumer targets are teenagers, young adults (in the late generation Y) and parents (generation X) as well, because parents are the one who usually choose, buy snack and pay for teenagers.

Reseller market

Working closely and supporting resellers with strategic marketing and selling are two of the most important factors to increase its sales and image. Some of Poca’s strategic resellers are schools, cinemas, grocery shops and supermarkets.

Competitors:

There so many competitors fighting to each other in the market now, so the company always try to provide better customer value and satisfaction to survive and earn profit in this fierce competition. These are some popular competitors: Sachi: It is made by Kind Do Corporation. Sachi is a high quality snack, but sold with very competitive price (2,900/packet) . Oishi: A kind of shrimp snack is made by LiWayWay Corporation (Philipine). It it sold from VND 1,000 – 2,500/ packet. Ruaypuan (imported brand): this prawn snack is very popular in Vietnam market due to tastily prawn flavour and low price (VND 2,500/ packet) . It is made by Friendship Company (a Thai company).

Pringles (imported brand): Procter and Gamble Company (U.S) is the maker of this product. Pringles is a very high quality potato crisp, and sold with high price (24,200 VND/ tube). Figure 1: Vietnam snack market share in Mid-2008. Source: The market newspaper 2008. 2.2.1 Demographic: Figure 2: Vietnam population by age group in 2005. Source: Chris Morley 2007. Vietnam population has been growing significantly until now with 85.1 millions (Population Reference Bureau 2008). Most of snack companies are targeting age groups from 5 – 24. As can be seen in the figure 2, these age groups are very high when comparing to others. Therefore, Vietnam market in general speaking and HCMC market in specific would be a potential and profitable market for Snack industry.

Economic environment:

Income growth in HCMC and Hanoi by 2009. Source: Chris Morley 2007. The figure 3 illustrates that the income of HCM people will increase steadily by 2009. As a result, when consumers have more income, they will tend to spend more for normal goods like snack (Jackson & Mclver 2008, p. 78). In addition, along with rapid growth of Vietnamese economy in the recent years, GPD has almost doubled from 4.7 to 9 since 2002 (Index Mundi 2008). Therefore, the demand for Snack will increase more and more in the future.

Natural environment:

Natural factors such as water, soil or weather play a very important role in growing potatoes and wheat, so if there are some changes on one of them, it could effect to the productivity of the whole industry. In addition, each year Vietnam often face with many disasters such as storms or typhoons. Therefore, the whole industry has to be aware about the weather in Vietnam in order to avoid shortage of main raw material.

Technology environment:

With the dramatic change of technological environment, it helps the whole industry a lot in non-stop creating new flavors such as chicken with lemongrass, Brazil BBQ pork rib, etc, and designing attractive packages. In addition, technology has been creating modern machines to produce snack that can keep fresh potato smell or longer expired day.

Political environment:

When Vietnam joints WTO, it also means that snack industry will be able to increase sales more because there will be more and more foreigners and experts coming to HCMC to do business and live. Additionally, in the first eight months of the year 2008, FDI into Vietnam increase doubly to US$47.15 billion comparing to last year US$20.3 billion (Ministry of Planning and Investment 2008). This number also means that Vietnam economy will continue sustainably developing in the future, so the industry will completely feel secure to invest and develop in Vietnam.

Cultural environment:

Besides two main meals a day, Vietnamese people usually have light meals to fulfill their hobby and stomach, so snack is one the best choices, especially with busy people. Moreover, Vietnamese also eat snack to entertain when hanging out, watching T.V or going to the cinema.