chance for vietnamese fast food brands

MARKETING RESEARCH BBRS4103

CHANCE for VIETNAMESE FAST FOOD BRANDS

Group 2 – 12MK

TABLE OF CONTENTSContents

OUTLINE__________________________________________________________________________________3

RESEARCH TOPIC PROGRESS__________________________________________________________3

WORKS DISTRIBUTION_______________________________________________________________3

BACKGROUND INFORMATION_______________________________________________________________4

HUTECH BACKGROUND______________________________________________________________4

VIETNAM FAST FOOD BACKGROUND__________________________________________________4

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES______________________________________________________________5

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY_________________________________________________________________7

RESEARCH DESIGN___________________________________________________________________7

QUANTITATY RESEARCH – SECONDARY DATA__________________________________________7

QUANLITATY RESEARCH – FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS & OBJECTIVES____________________9

FOCUS GROUP DESCRIPTION & LIMITATIONS__________________________________________11

Construction:_______________________________________________________________________11

Question:__________________________________________________________________________11

Limitations:________________________________________________________________________11

FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY____________________________________________________________11

CONCLUSION_____________________________________________________________________________15

RESEARCH SUMMARY_______________________________________________________________15

RECOMMENDATIONS________________________________________________________________15

PROBLEMS DURING RESEARCH______________________________________________________16

REFERENCES______________________________________________________________________________17

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REFERENCESREFERENCES

OUTLINE

RESEARCH TOPIC PROGRESS

Topic: Chance for Vietnamese fast food brands.

Problem: Can Vietnamese fast food brands compete with foreign brands by

using advantages in understanding Vietnamese taste.

Purpose: Provide information of creating the best Fried Chicken product.

Research question: What type of Fried Chicken that interest students?

WORKS DISTRIBUTION

1. Background Information Phương Hảo

2. Research Objectives Thuý Hà & Quốc Hùng

3. Research Design Thuỳ Dương

4. Quantitative Data Đình Du & Quốc Hùng

5. Quanlitative Data Nhật Hào

6. Conclusion Quốc Hùng

7. Editor Quốc Hùng

8. Focus Group Preparation Quốc Hùng

9. Interviewer Quốc Hùng

10. Slides Quốc Hùng

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

HUTECH BACKGROUND

Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (HUTECH) provides high-quality labor resources in

both short and long term for a modern and active Vietnam industry especially Southern area.

HUTECH’s students are prepared with practical knowledge, skills and opportunities to be

creative, proactive, productive and responsible to society’ current needs as well as achieved the

requirements of domestic and international organizations.

Therefore, most students of HUTECH from both Full-Time and International-Joint Training

Programs are mostly Y-Generation who are creative, proactive, productive and responsible.

This research will mainly conduct on HUTECH’s students to find out what are their favorite

fried chicken style.

VIETNAM FAST FOOD BACKGROUND

In February 2014, McDonald’s came to Vietnam and draw in around 25 thousand customers on

its first opening day at District 1. In near future, McDonald tend to open over 100 stores around

Vietnam within next 10 years. Before the arrival of McDonald, Dunkin’ Donuts and Dairy

Queen outlets were opened within the previous year. The appearance of three global fast food

chains proves that fast food industry in Vietnam has a promisingly look in the eyes of foreign

investors.

KFC is considered as one of the fast food foreign brand earliest presence in Viet Nam.

Represent of this brand said it incurred losses continuously for 7 years just to create the habit of

using the Vietnamese fast-food.

According to statistics of Ministry of Industry and Trade, the total sales of fast-food industry in

Viet Nam in 2011 were estimated at 870 billion – up 30% compared to 2010. However, the

market share focused mainly belong to foreign brands such as KFC (US), Lotteria (South

Korea) and Jollibee (Philippines). Currently, the fast-food brands in Viet Nam is a little or no

ability to compete with imported brands, excepts for some brands known as the pioneer of fast-

food Viet Nam such as Pho24, Vietmac...

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Picture 1 No list of great street food would be complete without banh mi1

Previously, people in Vietnam thought that large and luxury fast food companies could not

survive since the street food, considered as Vietnamese fast food, was already there with cheap

price and everywhere. But when fast food corporations joined in the Vietnamese market, they

did not use the same meaning of street/fast food. They promoted “fast food” definition as a

symbol of modern, quick pace and stylish lifestyles along with a high quality food safety.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

With the blooming and vivid Vietnam fast food industry as mentioned above, our group

conducted a research focusing on what kind of fried chicken, one of the primary kind of fast

food, that HUTECH’s students prefer and what they really want within each and every fried

chicken pieces they are buying. In the end, this research will provide a brief report for a new

fried chicken fast food chain to create tasteful and suitable fried chicken products for students

especially HUTECH’s ones.

1 THE BEST STREET FOOD AROUND THE WORLDRetrieved from http://www.roughguides.com/gallery/the-best-street-food-around-the-world/#/0

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN

This research conducted exploratory research method while overlooked causal research and

descriptive research design because this is a small project without any sponsors or funds to

make field test on real products.

Exploratory research with secondary data obtained from books, magazines, online newspapers,

journal, research, and reports and primary data gathered from focus group will provide in-depth

information and ideas from target participants, students, about main topic: “Do Vietnamese fast

food brands have a chance to compete with international fast food brands are coming to

Vietnam?”

QUANTITATY RESEARCH – SECONDARY DATA

There are many reports and journals had mentioned the first landfall of McDonald has large

impact on Vietnam fast food market (Levine, 2014) became a wake up call or even a threat to

current Vietnam fast food industry. The Vietnam fast food chains are considered as “Elves” in

fast food big-fight market (Thùy, 2014) front the huge wave of many large multi-national fast

food companies who are rushing to Vietnam after Free Trade Agreement was signed. Most of

newspaper articles focused on forecasting how medium and small fast food or even street food

in Vietnam cuisine will be crushed or wipe out by those “big boy” with large amount of money

to spend and professional attitude (Hoàng, 2014). They also predicted that while current

Vietnamese fast food chains are struggling to compete with those foreign companies in order to

draw customers back, new entrance or start up company will have very little chance to emerge

in the already crowded fast food market (Sương, 2013).

But in the other hand, some of other reports and research stated out many “odd” habit (Thành,

2015) and definition (Đăng, 2014) about fast food of Vietnamese can prove the contrary fact

mentioned above. For example, one of the new Vietnam fast food chain has joined in fast food

field namely the Five Star (Thu, 2015). They are successfully drawing many attention of

Vietnamese people within the year of 2015 right after they opened, which proved that the fast

food market still has space for Vietnam investors (Minh, 2014).

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Overall, Vietnam fast food sector before the arrival of McDonald already has intense

competition between many international fast food brands such as KFC, Lotteria or even

Popeye’s (Nguyen, 2015). One of the key point that many other Vietnam fast food stores

missed out is those large fast food brands are very good at applying integrated marketing

including social media such as Instagram, Twitter and especially Facebook which is the most

favorite social network channel of Vietnamese people.

Picture 2 Top fast food brands which are most discussed on social media2.

Based on those secondary data obtained above, we decided to conduct a focus group research in

order to figure out in-depth discussion to find out there are any chance of creating new fast

food chain in current Vietnamese fast food market and how to satisfy or overcome most

problems related to the Vietnamese prejudices, tastes and habits on fast food.

2 KFC, LOTTERIA VÀ MCDONALD’S: Cuộc chiến các chuỗi cửa hàng thức ăn nhanh tại Việt NamRetrieved from http://buzzmetrics.vn/kfc-lotteria-va-mcdoanlds-cuoc-chien-cac-chuoi-cua-hang-thuc-an-nhanh-tai-viet-nam/

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QUANLITATY RESEARCH – FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS & OBJECTIVES

There are 6 questions in Vietnamese language were conducted and discussed within

approximately 1 hours as below:

1. Which are your favorite Fried Chicken brands? Why do you choose them?

This warm-up question will filter out main favorite Friend Chicken brands for easier to

compare and provide a gist background why participants choose those brands.

2. How much it usually cost to buy one piece of Fried Chicken? Is it reasonable or not?

If not, which price level will be reasonable? Why?

This question will gather the information of price level and the reason why students think it is a

reasonable price.

3. With the price set above, please state the factors for a satisfying Fried Chicken piece.

Why do you think those factors are important?

Combine with the question above, we will know that the price list above is suitable or not.

Then, we can also balance between price and quality. And finally, we will know what is a

“perfect” Fried Chicken product on their mind.

4. Please state any factors relate to the store such as environment, surrounding,

condition, temperature, chairs, toilet, light, customers or any other elements affected

to your decision of buying Fried Chicken products. Why do you think those factors

are affected to your decision? Do you have any suggestions to improve those

problems?

This question will figure out what other factors can affect the choice of the students and their

solutions to improve those problems.

5. How long will you accept to wait for one set of fried chicken (both eat in and take

away) to be served? Did you ever feel that you waited too long? Is there any

suggestion to improve it? Is there any other service related problems that need to be

improve? If yes, any suggestions?

This question will provide the most critical factor of “fast food” product: time and also know

how can we improve this aspect through students’ opinions.

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6. In your opinion, regularly consume Fried Chicken product (approximate 3 to 5 times

a week) will affect your health or not? Why or why not? If yes, is there any

suggestions to improve it?

Health always an important concern of customers who consume fast food products. This

question can provide many information about students’ thought towards consuming Fried

Chicken regularly.

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FOCUS GROUP DESCRIPTION & LIMITATIONS

Construction:

- 1 hour of discussion in Room B05.03, October 28th 2015.

- Consist of: 6 members from

o Full-time undergraduate HUTECH students (2 males & 1 female).

o International-Joint Training undergraduate OUM students (2 females & 1 male).

- The whole discussion was recorded by both voice-recorder & video-recorder and also

being taken notes by 2 observers, one from the laptop and one from the black-board for

easier to discuss.

Question:

- All of participants were given pens and questionnaire sheets with questions and hints to

take note and discuss.

- All questionnaires are in Vietnamese language with 2 pages.

- Each questions ‘part is read out loud and wait for in-depth discussion before moving to

the next part.

Limitations:

- Small focus group with 6 students and low variant may not represent the whole idea of

HUTECH students.

- Limited in one specific fast food product which is Fried Chicken product to narrow

down the amount of information and increase the level of intensive data acquired from

participant.

- Interviewer’s skills may affect the result of the participant during the discussion.

- Others’ opinions may create leading effect or biases although we tried to prevent it as

much as possible.

FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY

At first, we asked participants to point out which brands are providing Fried Chicken product

they love most. 5 out of 6 participants choose KFC, having the similar result with the secondary

data we harvested above. Their reasons are KFC has cheaper price range, Fried Chicken is

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crunchier and the quality is better. Second, it often cost around 25,000 to 45,000 VND per Fried

Chicken but they think that the suitable price range is 20,000 to 25,000 VND for each.

With that price range, their expectations are the Fried Chicken must not friable and soft. It must

still in crunchy, warm and firm condition when is served. Some of the participants love the

slight salty taste while most of the others think the Fried Chicken should not have any sweet or

salty flavor at all because they already have ketchup and chili. Size is also an important factor

which must not too small visually. The chicken must be clean and safe is important no matter

they do not know how to check it except over certificates and putting their trust in brand name.

Participants also mentioned the light yellow color of the Fried Chicken which will create more

delicious feeling.

Picture 3 Lotteria guarantee using high quality products’ ingredients3

3 LOTTERIA - Cùng thưởng thức các món ăn fastfood ngon rẻRetrieved from http://forum.diadiemanuong.com/home/f43/lotteria-cung-thuong-thuc-cac-mon-fastfood-ngon-re-71902/

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Other surrounding environments such as the store, toilet and children section were the next

question. Participants are all agreed that air conditioner is a must in any fast food chain, which

is why some of them do not like Five Star fast food chains who lack of cool artificial air. One

sudden suggestion of dipping sauce was emerged during the conversation that fast food store

should left two bottles of each dipping sauce on every tables for customers feel convenient. All

of the participants do not like the process of go and take chili or ketchup from specific corner of

the store by small plates for so many times. They also think that will make some mess or even

waste if they took too much.

The fifth part we discussed about time and satisfaction level of service quality. Participants

agreed that they will willing to wait the maximum amount of 10 to 15 minutes for eating in or 5

to 7 minutes for taking away orders. Most of them agreed that although fast food chain in

Vietnam are trying to persuade customers that they are professional but usually they do not

control their employees’ attitude well toward customers, especially in Lotteria chains, which is

similar to the secondary data we previously obtained (Nguyen, 2015).

Picture 4 Which factors make customers did not satisfy4.

4 KFC, LOTTERIA VÀ MCDONALD’S: Cuộc chiến các chuỗi cửa hàng thức ăn nhanh tại Việt Nam. Retrieved from http://buzzmetrics.vn/kfc-lotteria-va-mcdoanlds-cuoc-chien-cac-chuoi-cua-hang-thuc-an-nhanh-tai-viet-nam/

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The final part of focus group discussion is participants’ opinion toward regularly consuming

Fried Chicken product from 3 to 5 times a week and its affection on consumers’ health. All of

participants agreed it is not healthy because it will cause diabetes, raise cholesterol rate and cost

too much money. Although there are some suggestions to reduce those risks such as change to

other chicken products such as steamed or slow cook or reduce the sugar intake from coke by

substitute healthy drinking products but participants still think that regularly consume a large

amount of chicken products regularly is not healthy.

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CONCLUSION

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Combine both quantitaty and quanlitaty research above, we can see that every international fast

food brands are struggling with Vietnamese’s expectation and taste. On one side, they love the

professional management system, store, international brand and services, but on the other side,

they still want cheaper price level and especially want many services related to staying in to eat

rather than take away. Besides, both of the focus group discussion and secondary research

pointed out some same disappointed aspects of international fast food brand are: employees’

bad attitude although they have professional management process, foods are not fresh and taste

not so good which is one of the characteristic of fast food compare to Vietnamese street food,

and the prejudice of fast foods that easily cause obesity because they were mostly processed

over deep fried oil instead of slow cook as Vietnamese foods.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Therefore, to successfully compete with other international fast food brands, there are some

suggestions from our research:

Vietnamese people previously think that spring rolls, breads or even Pho is Vietnamese

fast food and some of them try to bring them to luxury food chains in order to compete with

other fast food brand. But those foods may or may not considered as fast food because they can

easily be bought from roadside kiosks and then slowly consume or savor. Therefore, thanks to

KFC or even McDonald, fast food definition nowadays is changed and clarified the fast food

awareness of Vietnamese.

International fast food chains succeed because they provide a professional, luxury and

modern look and feel to customers. Those places become a good place to satisfy their need for

hungry and quite place to avoid noisy and dirty environment outside where street food could

not compete. But better environment may come with higher price because of added value

“brand name”, imported ingredients and center location rental cost. Nowadays, young

Vietnamese people are becoming smart consumers, they will seek for reasonable price level

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compare to the product value rather than brand value. Moreover, they are willing to go further,

deeper into smaller alleys for acceptable price while keeping the same service quality.

International brands had professional marketing strategy but they are playing in

Vietnam market, where is our play ground. Therefore, with proper marketing strategy

especially integrated marketing strategy to reduce budget but still have comparative amount of

customers. Additional, we can use Vietnam cultural promotion such as Vietnamese people use

Vietnamese product to compete with others.

When Vietnamese come to international fast food chains, they prefer food safety over

taste. Many foods can come from many countries which create variety but they are still foreign

taste and flavor. No one can understand the Vietnamese cuisine like Vietnamese. Therefore, if

we can create a fast food product that satisfy customers’ taste and expectation while follow

food safety procedure, no one will deny Vietnamese fast food.

PROBLEMS DURING RESEARCH

Fast food in Vietnam is a vast topic, therefore our group want to narrow down to Fried Chicken

product. But the consumer information of Vietnamese Fried Chicken product is too little and

outdated. We tried to filter out Fried Chicken product from fast food reports and articles in

order to make secondary data become useful and suitable for our research. Besides, most of

them are in Vietnamese language which make the extracting, sorting and translating procedure

cost more time.

Distributing workforce is also a hard job because the uneven capability of team members and

the lacking of responsibilities of them make the research become burden to some minor

members of the team.

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chance for vietnamese fast food brands

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