Course title: Principle of Marketing Course code:MKTE302.

Group number:03 Business sector:Coffee,tea

Name of enterprise:SoulCoffee Product line:Coffee

Full name of student:Pham Hà Anh Student ID:2013250239

Question 1: Applying SWOT analysis to determine the enterprise's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats. Forecasting changes in the pandemic's impediments. Proposing some strategic strategies for attaining

the advantages and overcoming the obstacles.

Full name of student:Pham Thi Lan Anh Student ID:2012250009

Question 2:Utilizing the collected marketing data, exploring consumer insights, drafting a customer persona, and
making recommendations to optimize the customer touchpoints.

Full name of student: Pham Vũ Phuong Anh Student ID:2012250011

Question 3: Identifying types of buying behaviour decisions, assessing target customer' buying behaviour, and
discussing the driven factors at each stage.

Full name of student: Phan Ngô Quỳnh Anh Student ID:2012250012

Question 4:_Performing market segmentation and identifying target markets. Explaining the reason for choosing
those segments and making recommendation to businesses in that market segments.

Full name of student: Trinh Hai Ngoc Anh Student ID:1913340008

Question 5:Proposing Marketing Mix policies (4Ps) for the specific market segment.
 Introduction

Soulcoffee is a local brand in the field of specialty coffee.They have main product lines: Soulcoffee cafe(including
3 branches located in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Buon Ma Thuot), specialty coffee products and premium coffee
lines. They started from a coffee shop with a certain number of loyal customers, then expanded their business to
selling packaged specialty coffee.Their packaged specialty coffee products are meticulously processed,not pre-
packaged, customers have to pre-order to ensure the aroma and freshness of the coffee.However,the delivery
time is not long as they always have carefully stored coffee available,only needing to pack it and deliver to its
owner.

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Question 1:Pham Hà Anh-2013250239

Applying SWOT analysis to determine the enterprise's strengths,weaknesses,opportunities and

threats.Forecasting changes in the pandemic's impediments. Proposing some strategic strategies for attaining

the advantages and overcoming the obstacles.

STRENGTH WEAKNESS
S1: Strong design team that creates aesthetic and W1:No retail system in convenient
outstanding packaging,website,fanpage stores, supermarkets, only 3

→Attract customers online,especially young people, physical stores in the South of

art lovers, and coffee connoisseurs. Vietnam

->harder to increase brand
->Their 2 pangages have a total of 13,5k followers
awareness,especially to the middle-
S2:Unique flavor of speciality coffee,only ground and
aged who are not likely to search
packaged when customer orders
for
>ensure the aroma,freshness of coffee
a brand online
> Soul's exclusive house blend product is the
combination of Vietnam Speciality Arabica and Fine
Robusta,together with the flavors of herb, apricot,
raisin,caramel,ginseng...

OPPORTUNITY THREAT
O1:Rising consumer preference for Roast & Ground T1: The price of raw coffee in
coffee especially in the pandemic Vietnam market fluctuates in an
-→People have more time at home so they want to enjoy increasing trend because of Covid-
19
roast coffee which takes longer wait
->Lockdown policies has made
->The Statista Consumer Market Outlook estimates
production difficult,
that by 2025 revenue of roast coffee in Vietnam will supply
rise to 7.2 billion USD while instant coffee revenue decreases and demand increases
will stand at 693 million USD -> In July 2021, the price of
O2: Social lockdown has brutalized traditional
coffee
retailers
like convenient stores or supermarkets increased by more than 7%

-> Many of its competitors lose a significant approach compared to June 2021

to their customers,for example Thiên Phúc,MêHyCô, T2:Customers tend to cut down on

King Coffee,... spending due to the pandemic effect

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 ->Even not suffering from financial
pressure, they still form a mindset
of saving for unexpected situations

SOME STRATEGIC TRAJECTOIRES:

·SO:use strengths to take advantage of opportunities
S2+01:Try to maintain and improve the quality and flavors of the product. Optimize production time while ensuring quality to
get ready if the orders go high.
·ST:use strengths to avoid threats
S1+T1: Create a luxury-looking box for its new coffee collection so that it is more suitable for gifting on special occasions or
aim at higher-income customers
S1+T2: Use the many followed fanpage to launch a discount season, at the same time convey a positive message about Soul
sharing difficulties during the epidemic, which can enhance the relationship with customers.
·WO:overcome weakness by taking advantage of opportunity

W1+O2:Continue pushing online commerce with collaborations with e-commerce platforms like Grab,Shopee, Tiki,...and

upgrading the current brand website to optimize customer experience.

Question 2:Pham Thi Lan Anh-2012250009

Utilizing the collected marketing data, exploring consumer insights, drafting a customer persona, and making
recommendations to optimize the customer touchpoints.
1. Customer persona

·Hùng,male,26,single,income:~18 M/month,graphic designer,lives in Ho Chi Minh city

An old customer of Soulcoffee's café, he drinks coffee every day for the sake of staying awake, avoiding drowsiness due
to working condition.
Motivation: to be free in art and expressing an exclusive artistic personality
Personality: liberal, creative,profound, has a great artistic ego.
Lifestyles:Chillful,life-enjoying.
Pain Point: His work is often under pressure from clients so he rarely has works that express his own artistic identity.
Related touchpoints:Soulcoffee's cafe,workshops of soulcoffee,social media (Instagram, Facebook),e-
commerce(Shopee,Lazada)

2. Insight

·I believe that objects that stick with me have to be unique and express myown “signature”identity.
· I am always looking for products with a profound, relevant, meaningful story and attaching a special personality instead
of the normal common products.

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 3. Touchpoints

A,Pre-purchase

Soulcoffee currently does not promote advertising through social networking platforms (Facebook, Instagram), but mainly
through word of mouth. While the posts are updated regularly with aesthetic designs, none of them stand out and are
advertised. Besides, the content of the posts just provides product information, it does not tell a profound,relevant and
sympathetic story enough to leave a deep impression in the mind of the target customer. This makes the product lack
individuality.

The website is very simple,easy to see, however, there is no focus on the key product line, making it difficult for
new customers to follow.

B,Purchase

This is the point where Soulcoffee is doing well to introduce new products and sell them directly.They organize
workshops where attendees get to be the first to taste the flavors of new-crop coffee,share in-depth knowledge
of pre-processing methods,and stories about coffee.However, the workshops lack interactive activities between
people,the content of the workshop is not really exotic and interesting.

C,Post-purchase

Soulcoffee's packaged specialty coffee products receive very good reviews on Shopee (5.0/5.0) and
Foody(8.3/10).Soulcoffee's existing customer group has a lot of conditions to connect with each other, but Soulcoffee has
not yet taken advantage of this to create its own community. They do not create groups for old customers to connect with
brands and connect with each other, so customer loyalty also decreases.

4. Recommendations

Soulcoffee should brand itself as a “My own coffee” (Cà phê cho riêng bạn) product, which focuses on
personalization and distinct user experience to attract customers with great artistic egos.To improve customers'
touchpoints,they should:

About products, take advantage of its own cafes and organize mini-workshops for customers to experience
its coffee products, in which customers will be the ones to decide the ingredients,proportions, and flavors
oftheir own products with the help and suggestions from bartenders, then they can experience directly till they
find the most suitable taste. (It also calls Co-creation)
Bartenders are people who tell customers stories about coffee,about the meaning of each taste,especially
humanizing different flavors to different traits through their stories.Besides,Soul should offer options to design
their own coffee product. packaging by putting their own designs, stories and perspectives on packaging, with
the help of bartenders. Therefore, each product is created with a personality that is closely related to its owner.
About media, the content of social media posts should be short stories about their own customers or about
each flavor's humanized personality to arouse attention and

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 empathy.Besides,Soulcoffee should pick some most featured posts to run ads on
Facebook and Instagram.
About website,Soulcoffee should create a separate "Soul Specialty Coffee" section on the homepage for
new customers to easily find products they need.
About old customer's care,Soulcoffee should create a community on Facebook to interact with old
customers by listening to their sharing about products, in addition, it is also a bridge for customers to interact
with each other through sharing the coffee products they use, their own recipes of making coffee, and their own
stories surrounding the coffee cup. The close relationship between the customer and the brand is built naturally,
thereby, improving customer loyalty.

Question 3:Pham Vu Phuong Anh-2012250011

Identifying types of buying behaviour decisions, assessing target customer' buying behaviour, and discussing the
driven factors at each stage.

3.1.Type of buying decision behaviour: Variety-seeking buying behaviour

a)Description
·Low involvement with the purchase
·Significant brand differences
·Low cost of switching products → Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than because of
dissatisfaction.
b) Recommendations
Apply promotion, free samples, advertising to attract this type of customer:
·Promotion & advertising:
Branding focused on the assorted, unique tastes (the mixture of original coffee with
tropical fruits)
Collab with other local brands for branding campaigns, such as: “Soul Package Design
Competition", ...
Emphasize key message: To try something new & unique!
·Free samples and coupons/voucher spreading:
>Hold mini cafe workshops & tasting events at offline stores
→Optimize these events to give out samples and coupons as presents for attendees.

3.2 Access target customer's behaviour

a) Psychological
·Motive:Frequent caffeine consumption due to preference and working conditions.
· Perception: assessing Soul's product quality and display on online channels: website, Facebook,Instagram
and consumer rating groups.
·Attitudes & beliefs:have a preference for fresh tastes with cultured story
b) Personal

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 Lifestyle preferences:explorative,life-enjoying
·Personality:creative,liberal,profound,art-lover.
·Strong & confident opinions on their personal identities and social issues.

c) Social
·Word-of-mouth influence:peers and family referrals
·Social media influence: take reference from KOLs' purchases, reviews on consumer rating groups/group of
interest (Arts, Coffee,....)

d) Cultural
·The cultural shift and preference for domestic goods from local brands.
·As technophiles, online evaluation and consumer referrals strongly affects their buying decision.
·Social class: Young adult with middle income

3.3 Driven factors & Recommendations

Stage Description Driven Factors Recommendations

Need -Frequent caffeine 1.Internal factors:

recognition consumption due to +the need to stay sober
preference and in the morning or night
working conditions.
shift.
-Search for:Unique
+hobby and preference
and personally
+gifting
representative
2 External factor:
product.
marketing campaigns,
referrals,environment

Information Obtain research 1 Personal sources 1.1 Referral programs with

search information from: (family, coupons/vouchers to attract
-Personal sources friends,
new customers
- Commercial
colleagues,...)
sources 1.2 Enhance stable product
- provide product quality and customer
-Public sources
evaluation services → for good
-Experiential
feedback/recs.

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 source 2.Commercial+Public 2.1 Persuasive marketing
sources strategy:Emphasize on TA'
(advertising,
pain points:
packaging + mass
+Assorted taste
media)
↓ provide product +Attractive packaging

overall analysis + raise +Soul's inspiring story of

awareness
finding the“Right” spirit
in
making Cafe.
2.2 Collaborative Branding:
-Collab with Vietnam
Local Artist Group for
Creative
Illustration
competition:“My Cafe
corner" - present artist's
personal taste and feelings
for Saigon cafe culture.
→Target artistic young
dults with an urge to
represent themselves.

3.Experiential sources 3. Workshop or tasting

(sampling,handling...) events at offline stores.

Question 4: Phan Ngô Quynh Anh-2012250012

Performing market segmentation and identifying target markets. Explaining the reason for choosing those segments and
making recommendation to businesses in that market segments.

SOUL COFFEE MARKET SEGMENTATION

To determine the market segmentation of Soul Coffee, we will base on 4 indicators including
geographic, demographic, psychological and behavioral with 11 variables: density, age,
gender,income,occupation, personality, occasions, benefit soughs, attitudes toward products,
loyalty status, types of customers buying behavior.

From these variables, Soul Coffee can draw a total of 2 market segments

· Segment 1:urban, 36-45, male, more than 20 million VND,entrepreneurs,ambitious and compulsive,occasional, quality,
medium.
Segment 2: urban, 24-35, male, 11-20 million VND, creators, creative and self- expressive, regular, quality, strong.

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However,we consider the second one as the most profitable and potential segment because of
following reasons. Firstly, due to the high economic condition and high educational standard
of people, urban areas are more of a potential market compared to rural areas for coffee
industry.Secondly,according to Vietnam coffee market analysis of MayBanHang,it can be
seen that men consume more coffee than women in both hot coffee and cold coffee,which is
75%-25% and 65%-35% for men and women respectively, and coffee consumed frequently
by people aged from 24 to 35.Moreover,they also mentioned that people go for coffee
mostly because of their preferences.With Soul Coffee Specialty, coffee is only grounded and
packaged at the time customers order, therefore,it can ensure the aroma,freshness with
unique, strong, bitter and tasty flavor of coffee, and deliver to customers the best taste.Soul
also organizes workshops where attendees get to be the first to taste the flavors of new-crop
coffee,share in-depth knowledge of pre-processing methods,and learn to brew their own
coffee which is really suitable for creators, such as artist,designers who always want to
express themselves in different ways. And simultaneously customer can see the process of
making specialty coffee and become reassured about the product quality. Finally,Soul Coffee
has an affordable and competitive price which is suitable for creators with income between
11 and 20 million VND.

For this target market segment, we have 2 recommendations. The first one is product packaging. Currently,Soul
focuses on “specialty" coffee,therefore,product packaging should be designed with images of Vietnamese regions,
historical buildings to promote and make customers remember Soul Coffee as a specialty of Vietnam. Because the
target customer is creator, Soul could make a packaging co-creation contest for them to help them express
themselves freely. Secondly,due to Covid 19,Soul Coffee could make a cooperation with some television
channels,instead of workshops, to establish a new series about how to enjoy specialty coffee correctly. In this
series, Soul Coffee could provide some methods of brewing coffee to get the best flavor, for example cold brew,
and what dishes should be served with coffee to enhance Soul coffee flavor or how to prepare some Vietnamese
dishes with Soul specialty coffee as the main ingredient,such as coffee tao pho, coconut coffee or coffee pig- skin
cake which is a delicious and familiar dish of the Southwest region. By doing these,Soul Coffee can attract a greater
number of customers who want a strong coffee flavor as well as who are willing to try different ways to savor
coffee and engage people in enjoying specialty coffee.

Question 5: Trịnh Hai Ngoc Anh-1913340008

Proposing Marketing Mix policies (4Ps) for the specific market segment.

Product
Strengths: The product has its own characteristics,hitting the trend of users wanting to drink specialty coffee
and having a clear origin. Diverse products, creating a variety of experiences for customers.Customers focus on
young people with their own taste.The Arabian product line is of much higher quality, aimed at people with a more
refined taste. If it is a gift, it should be given to foreign tourists to visit because arabia from Vietnam has a very
unique taste. Meanwhile, Robusta is the most grown in the central highlands due to its suitable soil characteristics,
it has a strong taste, a lot of bitterness, a little sour, it suits the taste of Vietnamese people more than foreigners.
Weakness:

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+)Soul Specialty hit a small niche in the coffee industry.However,the company's coffee lines focus on the taste in
the South rather than the North market. Most of the coffee lines are Cold Brew,ready-made coffee. Although
easy-to-mix product lines such as Cold Brew are available, they are not suitable for Northern tastes.
Moreover,with the line of ready-to-drink bottled coffee of Soul Specialty, the use time is only 5 days. This product
line is almost impossible to sell in the market outside the North, because Soul Specialty coffee only has branches
in the South,the shipping time to the North takes a long time.

+)The company focuses on roasted coffee instead of instant coffee.However,in the Vietnamese market,roasted
coffee only accounts for 1/3 of the market share while instant coffee accounts for 2/3 of the market share. This
somewhat limits the consumption of products, and limits the customer base. Moreover, the instant coffee market
is dominated by many big brands such as Trung Nguyen,Nescafe.
+) The product packaging is beautifully designed, but the material is not high-grade enough, not suitable for
giving as a gift.
Recommendations:
+) Change the design, add a model to the product to add a premium quality, suitable for giving as a gift
+) Expanding some product lines related to instant coffee with high quality and special taste because instant
coffee has high convenience,suitable for those who have little time to prepare. This will be a big challenge in
product research because the instant coffee market is subject to a lot of competition from big brands.
+)There are mobile baristas and customers can make their own coffee according to their preferences.
Price
·Equal the average price of the market,equal to the roasted coffee price of brands such as Trung Nguyen,King
Coffee,Highland Coffee
·There haven't been many attractive discount policies yet.
Recommendations:
+) Add many attractive gift policies, included when buying in bulk. Discounts on special occasions.
+) Give discount vouchers to customers who come back to buy many times,customers who have feedback on the
product after using it and customers share photos about Soul Specialty Coffee' products on social platforms.
Place

·Head office and warehouse are in Da Nang and Dak Lak, with a shop cum cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. It can be

seen that the new sales points are only concentrated in the Central and the Southern market. It makes it difficult

to meet the supply in the Northern market, and also takes more time for delivery products here.
Recommendations:

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+) Maintain focus on online sales channels via website, e-commerce platforms such as Tiki, Shopee and Lazada.
+) Open a cafe in Hanoi.Because the direction of Soul Specialty Coffee is towards old customers who have
experienced at the shop. Having one more cafe in Hanoi increases the brand's awareness with the market
outside the North.
+)Create more experience workshops at shopping centers, mobile barista in many area, to save costs and expand
the brand's image.
+)Soul Specialty Coffee's line of roasted coffee can be a favorite ingredient for small cafes to use in dispensing
different beverages.Soul Specialty Coffee products can be sold at these small cafes and they sell products on
behalf of Soul Specialty.Then,Soul Specialty Coffee will provide ingredients for these cafes at a highly discounted
price.
Promotion
·Soul Specialty Coffee's recognition in the domestic market is still limited,because customers only know
famous brands such as Trung Nguyen, Nescafe, Highlands, ...
Recommendations:
Advertise through social media platforms like Facebook,Instagram
Giving products as a gift to KOLs,to PR brand's image

References
moit.gov.vn, (2021). Bộ Công thương Việt Nam. Dịch bệnh đang tác động đến cây cà phê của Việt Nam
[online] Available at:https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/thi-truong-trong- nuoc/dich-benh-dang-tac-dong-den-cay-ca-
phe-cua-viet-nam.html [Accessed 12 Oct. 2021].
Statista Research Department.(2021).Coffee revenue in Vietnam from 2012 to 2025,
segment [online] Statista.com. Available at:
https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1219374/vietnam-coffee-market-revenue[Accessed 12
Oct.2021].
May Ban Hang(2016)Vietnam coffee market analysis [online]. Available from:

https://maybanhang.net/2016/12/phan-tich-thi-truong-ca-phe-viet-nam-nam- 2016/[Accessed 2016].

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