(HD) MP Assignment 3
(HD) MP Assignment 3
I. INTRODUCTION 3
1. Company 3
2. Products 3
1. Environment analysis 3
1. Differentiation 4
1. Products 5
2. Promotion 6
VIII. CONCLUSION 7
IX. REFERENCES 7
X. APPENDICES 11
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I. INTRODUCTION
1. Company
Saigon Beer is the flagship brand of Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco),
one of the leading names in Vietnam’s beer industry with over 146 years of history. In terms
of mission statement, Saigon Beer aims at "developing Vietnam's beverage industry to keep
pace with the world" and "promoting the culinary culture of Vietnamese people". Currently, its
CEO is Mr. Neo Gimm Siong Benett, an experienced Singaporean entrepreneur (Sabeco
n.d.a).
2. Products
So far, Saigon Beer has launched 5 product lines with distinctive flavors mixed from
Saigonese's spirit of liberality and the fertile Southern land (Sabeco n.d.a). Its most prevalent
products are Saigon Export and Saigon Special (Vietnam Things 2021). As shown in figure 1
(just-drinks 2021), Sabeco, with the main sales from Saigon Beer, accounted for 35% of the
total market in 2020, ranking second after four years of dominating the Vietnam beer industry.
1. Environment analysis
a. Macro analysis:
Legal: In January 2020, Decree 100/2019/NĐ-CP started banning alcoholic intake among
drivers for safer road traffic (VNS 2020). This new law made traffic participants select other
drinks such as mineral water or non-alcoholic beverages, negatively influencing the beer
industry (General Statistics Office 2020).
Political: Last 2021, Southern Vietnam experienced the fourth outbreak of the COVID-19
pandemic, leading to the strict lockdown policy (Sabeco 2021a). As a result, alcohol
businesses had to shift their focus from on-premise channels to off-trade or online channels
instead (VNA 2020).
Social: COVID-19 lockdown increased anxiety and stress of most people, making them drink
more in response (OECD 2021). Another survey by Q&Me (2021a) also revealed that some
drink more due to boredom and inability to get out. Such social factors have led to a new
customer’s drinking habit: individually drinking at home.
b. Micro analysis:
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of beers regardless of their segments. Since they are easy to switch brands, their bargaining
power should be accessed high, requiring better taste from breweries to attain them finally.
As Ameyibor, Anabila, and Saini (2021) indicated, successful branding must place the product
in customers' minds and create a strong connection with them. Saigon Beer performs superior
in this case as in a survey by Q&Me (2021b), its products were voted to be in the top 5 of the
“Beer for home drink” category. In an industry with multiple players, this result should be
perceived as a good start for Saigon Beer to get closer to home-based customers.
b. Opportunities
c. TOWS matrix
Since Saigon Beer could appear in one’s mind in terms of drinking at home, it should enhance
this strength to take advantage of the home drinking tendency. In detail, it should promote
itself as a companion of them over challenges post COVID-19 lockdown, helping them achieve
optimistic mental health.
Early adulthood (20-35 years old): Sabeco has paid more attention to early adulthood in
recent years. According to Tuoi Tre News (2015), the young usually drink more to prove their
maturity or "exhibit a proper manner at work". This perception seems to maintain for years,
making them the greatest pattern of beer consumers last 2021, as shown in figure 3 (Statista
2021). Furthermore, this is an increased customer group in COVID-19 pandemic since they
suffer from severe stress (Kieu 2021). In terms of income, Nguyen (2021a) argued that Saigon
Beer’s activities towards the enlightened youth must be a part of its strategy to develop the
premium segment.
1. Differentiation
Brand identity: During its prolonged history in Vietnam, Saigon Beer kept delivering a
consistent Vietnam-centric image. The brand uses the logo of a golden dragon to represent
the power and prosperity of Vietnam (Sabeco 2020, p. 66). Also, as shown in figure 4 (Luu
2021), to welcome 2022, Sabeco launched the "Ban Sac Viet" collection with drawings of 63
provinces and cities' stunning landscapes on the beer cans, stressing its effort to preserve and
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spread the national beauties (Nguyen 2021b). Such activities touched customers' patriotism
and sympathy, thus increasing brand awareness and sales.
2. Positioning
Prices: Huda beer is the cheapest with the regular price of 10.000 VND/can and falls under
10.000 sometimes (So Sanh Gia 2022a), followed by Habeco and Saigon Beer (So Sanh Gia
2022b and So Sanh Gia 2022c). On the other hand, Tiger and Heineken are a lot more
expensive. Heineken costs around 18.000 VND/can, almost doubling the cheapest of Huda
(So Sanh Gia 2022d). Therefore, it makes sense to evaluate Saigon Beer price as affordable.
Alcohol level: According to Bach Hoa Xanh (2019), both Tiger and Heineken have the same
level of 5%, meaning relatively high. Saigon Beer follows this order at around 4.9%. Habeco,
with its most prevalent classic 450ml can, registers the lowest alcohol level of 4.2%. Thus,
Saigon Beer’s alcohol level should be considered medium.
Value proposition: As can be seen from the map, Saigon Beer is one of the most economical
beer brands with a quite good alcohol level. Also, its products are always delivered with high
quality favored by customers. Therefore, Saigon Beer implements the proposition of “same for
less”. With less payment, customers can experience qualified products compared to other
more expensive rivals.
1. Products
a. Product values: There are several core values that drive one customer to consume Saigon
Beer. He can purchase it to quench his thirst, to enjoy himself or to start a sharing session
with his friends. In terms of actual product, it is Saigon Beer products and its brand name.
Besides, to deal with COVID-19 pandemic, Saigon Beer extended its augmented product to
encourage customers’ purchases. For example, it offers home delivery service to assist
customer’s at-home consumption (Sabeco 2021b, p. 67).
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b. Product life cycle: From this paper's point of view, Saigon Beer is in its early maturity
stage. After hundreds of years in the Vietnam market, it has had a significant market share of
35% and a stable number of main competitors. Also, as shown in figure 5 (Phuong 2020),
Sabeco reached its record profits in 2019 with over five thousand billion of post-tax profits
before declining in 2020 due to macro factors. However, since these factors are unpredictable
and influence the whole business, it is reasonable to expect that Sabeco in common and
Saigon Beer in specific have not reached their peak and would recover and increase their
sales again.
In this phase, Saigon Beer is recommended to diversify its brands and models and accentuate
its differences to encourage brand switching.
Line extension strategy: Saigon Beer regularly extends its current products to new sizes,
colors or forms. As presented in figure 6 (Woods 2021), to welcome the 2021 New Year, it
released a limited edition of Saigon Gold redesigned and repackaged. In this way, line
extension provides customers more selections and helps promote the products better.
Brand extension strategy: Saigon Beer also extends its brand names to new product
categories. In such a harsh context with COVID-19, in 2020, it launched two new product lines
of Lac Viet and Saigon Chill, reflecting the corporation's attempts to diversify their product
lines and serve all types of customers with different preferences (Woods 2021).
New brands: Apart from beer categories, Saigon Beer’s parent company, Sabeco, also owns
two other brands of 333 and Chuong Duong (Sabeco n.d.c). Hence, it can be conceived that
Sabeco is implementing the new brands strategy and Saigon Beer is a part of this tactic.
c. Evaluation: Saigon Beer has done an outstanding job in diversifying its brand with new
product categories, which is highly suggested in its maturity phase. Also, it adapted to the new
environment fast with new services such as home delivery. However, more small adjustments
in terms of products are required to touch the young generation, a potential group consuming
alcohol at home.
2. Promotion
a. Promotion strategies
Saigon Beer utilizes both pull and push strategy. It “pulls” customers with qualified products
and a combination of promotion tools. Besides, by managing 26 subsidiaries (VNS 2021a),
Saigon Beer definitely adopts leadership tactics to “push” them to achieve the sales target.
b. Promotion tools
Advertising: As can be seen in figure78, Saigon Beer works diligently on its Youtube platform.
It uses Youtube to display really short, vibrant and clear-content videos, in which celebrities
are also invited to attract more attention from the public. So far, its highest-view video is the
6M-view video related to Vietnam's national football team with familiar faces like Quang Hai,
Trainer Park Hang Seo… posted last August. Compared to Habeco’s almost blank Youtube
homepage (figure 8), Saigon Beer seems to have more advantages in this competition.
Public Relations: Saigon Beer has made an endless effort to create community values by
sponsoring several huge events. For example, last June, it started to be the sponsor of
Vietnam’s national football team (VNA 2021). Most recently, it also became the diamond
sponsor of the upcoming 31st SEA Games in Vietnam (VNS 2021b). Overall, it tends to
sponsor sports events that attract a huge number of viewers in Vietnam, especially men. Such
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a precise combination helps promote its products to the true customers and expresses its
socially responsible brand image.
c. Evaluation: Saigon Beer applied well online promotion tools, which better reached
customers in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, promotion tactics are conducted in a
professional manner, thus delivering the consistency of the whole brand. Such strong
promotion is also beneficial in its maturity phase, encouraging others’ brand switching.
First of all, Saigon Beer should provide more advertisements stressing its role as a companion
or a listener. It is because in Vietnam's culture, a traditional drinking session involves many
people gathering and talking (Dang & Long 2021). However, when it came to home drinking
in COVID-19 lockdown, people tended to drink themselves, which, according to Creswell
(2021, p. 20), was due to negative feelings and loneliness. Therefore, being a customers'
companion helps Saigon Beer connect with them individually, touch their personal feelings,
and take a space in their minds.
2. Product
Saigon Beer should add more "augmented products," tapping on one's feelings. For example,
it can leave a random wish in the bottle cap's inner side to bring customers joy. Another
example is to offer the service of wish delivering: a person can order and send products with
his elective wishes to send to another one, wishing her happiness in such a stressful context.
VIII. CONCLUSION
COVID-19 lockdown has led to multiple changes, especially the customer’s new habit of
home-drinking that will be maintained even post COVID-19. This paper, thus, recommends
Saigon Beer to promote its brand image as a companion of customers during this harsh time,
focusing on their personal feelings to become their first priority of home drinks.
Overall, Saigon Beer is having a solid foundation in the Vietnam beer industry. Considering
Saigon Beer in the maturity stage, it has conducted suitable product and promotion strategies,
successfully building up a consistent Vietnam-oriented brand image and diversifying its brand
to reach customers more effectively. Apart from new recommendations, Saigon Beer should
maintain these performances, attempting to recover and achieve success in this industry.
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X. APPENDICES
Figure 1: Leading beer brewers based on market share in Vietnam in 2020 by just-drinks,
2021
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Figure 3: Distribution of beer consumers in Vietnam in 2021, by age group. Statista by
Statista, 2021
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Figure 4: 63 provinces and cities displayed on SABECO’s products by Luu Thuy, 2021
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Figure 6: Saigon Gold was redesigned and repackaged for a limited edition release for Tet by
Oliver Woods, 2021
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Figure 8: Habeco Vietnam 2022, screenshot
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