ABSTRACT PepsiCo is one of the leading companies in the soft drinks, snacks and food marketplace. As considered as the corporation which has the most successful and suitable strategies, PepsiCo is the object of a lot of research. However, they just have been focusing on economics fields and business. Therefore, this is the first project which study on marketing strategy of PepsiCo interm of the Cross Cultural Communication through verbal and nonverbal cues used by the Corporation. The paper begins by reviewing the current literature on Marketing, Verbal and non-verbal cues, and related studies. The investigation then analyzing and defining the specific verbal or non-verbal cues used by PepsiCo. This study also involved the participation of consumers of two generation – the young and the old, who have used this products and see it every day. The feelings of the consumers about the products demonstrate how much the cues are understood and how they work. The results of the study indicate that 1) Marketing strategies built based on non-verbal cues which are price, image, and endorsements are much more effective in Vietnamses market; 2) Cultural factors should be considered first by producers because of such great affection in controlling consumers buying behavior. Based on those research results, the researcher gave some recommendations for marketing strategies of PepsiCo Vietnam in particular and other beverage brands in Vietnam’s market in general – where they should focus on and what can be neglected to minimum Culture shock and maximum profits. i Table of content ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENT iii Part 1: Introduction 1 1. Rationale for the study 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study 2 3. Significance of the study 2 4. Methodology 3 4.1. Data collection instruments 3 4.1.1. Case study 3 4.1.2. Questionnaire 3 4.2. Data collection procedures 5 4.3. Data analysis methods and procedures 6 Part 2: Development 7 Chapter 1: Literature Review and Theoretical background 1.1. Literature review 7 1.2. Theoretical background 8 1.2.1. Verbal and non-verbal cues 8 - Verbal cues 8 - Non-verbal cues 8 1.2.2. Marketing and marketing strategies 11 - Marketing 11 - Why marketing? 12 - Marketing Strategies and Marketing Activities 13 1.2.3. Verbal and nonverbal cues in marketing 16 Chapter 2: Strategic use of verbal and non-verbal cues in marketing by PepsiCo Vietnam 2.1. Verbal cues used by PepsiCo 18 2.1.1. Slogans 18 2.1.2. Songs 21 2.2. Non-verbal cues used by PepsiCo 22 2.2.1. Design 22 ii 2.2.2. Endorsement 25 2.2.3. Price 26 2.2.4. Distribution 26 2.3. The combination of the two elements 27 Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions 3.1. Findings 30 - Brand awareness 30 - Key factors 31 - Advertisement 32 - Price 33 - Promotion campaign 34 - Slogans and logos 34 3.2. Further discussion 35 Part 3: Conclusion and Indications 1. Major findings of the research 37 2. Implications 38 3. Limitations 40 4. Suggestion for further studies 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDICE 45 iii Part 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale/Reasons for choosing topic Trade today is becoming global thanks for technological improvements in transport and communication. And globalization becomes inevitable to any business, from electronics, technology to cosmetic and food. Globalization has changed the nature of business activities, from focusing on the producing the best products with the most reasonable prices, enterprises have to shift their focus on the market. Simply because they want their customers to believe and buy their products instead of their competitor’s. In order to do that, enterprises have to better understand the demand of the customers, need to advertise better about their products, and to build long-lasted relation between their brands with their target customers. Because of above reasons, marketing plays an increasingly important part, especially in this modern economy. Almost all major corporations are actively involved in marketing their products beyond their original homeland borders. The main challenge that almost all the companies have to face is: the cross cultural marketing and how to do it. The cross cultural marketing strategies including verbal and non-verbal cues can create the impression or cause culture shock. For example, when advertising underwear, the clips/images with the man/woman wearing only underwear can be very normal and acceptable in American and Western countries, it will be refused or even fined and banned in Vietnam and other Eastern Countries because of violating the traditional values. Having a high personal interest in PepsiCo’s productions, the researcher decided to develop a study on Marketing strategy of PepsiCo Vietnam to provide an in-depth understanding of the Strategic use of verbal and non-verbal cues in their marketing activities. Moreover, being a double-major student – who can work both in economic and language fields, studying on this topic can help researcher to get the necessary knowledge for the future job. Also, it 1 ishoped that this thesis would be a useful source of reference for further studies on related topics. 2. Aims of the study Knowing how successful the marketing strategies of PepsiCo is, the researcher decided to carry out the study with the first aim to find out what strategies which include verbal and non-verbal cues are. The second purpose is to throw a light on how effective Pepsi uses those in their marketing strategies to attract Vietnamese customers. Finally, from the picture of current issues, I hopes to propose some suggestions for others companies In brief, this study would seek to answer the following questions: 1) What are the marketing strategies of verbal and non-verbal cues and How PepsiCo Vietnam uses them? 2) What is attitude of Vietnamese consumers toward the strategies? 3. Significance of the study This study firstly provides the general knowledge about the verbal and non-verbal cues in marketing, then to indicate the key to success of PepsiCo Vietnam’s marketing strategies in the competitive beverage market in Vietnam, and how they combine Cultural factors and economic. The knowledge is also believed to be necessary for future jobs of double major students as the researcher – who is educated both economy and language in the background of globalization. 2 4. Methodology 4.1. Data collection instruments This is descriptive analytic research.For the collection of sufficient reliable and valid data for this, researcher used a case study approach and used direct and structured observation and questionnaire as the main data collection methods. This chapter serves as a report on those procedures. 4.1.1. Case study Case study is specially chosen because of it allows an in-depth study of the target phenomena in a single case, with all the ‘common and unique features’ (Bell, 2010, p.9) 1 . Furthermore, as the aim of the study is to find the effects of using verbal and non-verbal cues in marketing, case study is most suitable for indicating the key of success of PepsiCo Vietnam’s marketing strategies in the competitive beverage market in Vietnam. 4.1.2. Questionnaire A descriptive research methodology was used for this study and survey as an important tool for collecting and analyzing information from selected individuals about themselves. The term ‘survey’ is commonly applied to a research methodology designed to collect data from a specific population, or a sample from that population, and typically utilizes a questionnaire or an interview as the survey instrument (Robson, 1993). The reason that researcher preferred using questionnaire to interview methodology is that: questionnaires are less expensive and easier to administer than personal interviews; they lend themselves to group administration; and, they allow confidentiality to be assured (Leary 2 - 1995). Robson (1993) also indicates that surveys are extremely efficient at providing information in a relatively brief time period at low cost to the researcher. 1 Judith Bell: university lecturer, head of department and vice principal in colleges of further education; as a senior counsellor and course team writer for the Open University. 2 David E. Leary, University professor, Ryland Hall 320, University of Richmond. 3 The process of this data collection involved the participation of both young and old consumers. Personal information of all participants was kept confidential and anonymous for ethical reasons. Young people are the target customer of all beverage brands in general and of PepsiCo in particular. Because of the limit of time and convenience, students in ULIS, VNU was chosen. Older consumers will be the neighbor and the acquaintances of the researcher, because of knowing that the old are always hesitate to do something like questionnaire, I want to take advantage of my relationship to ask them to do it. The same types of questionnaire were used for different groups of participants during the survey. The aim of this is to understand the differences in thought of the two generations, and to understand the choice of target consumers of PepsiCo. Beside handout, researcher also created an online survey and used social network to send it to friends. (With the support of Google Form 3 , work became easily. Google automatically created a statistical of the survey for user to easily manage. After being filled by anyone, the statistical will be automatically updated. Counting and calculating are no longer necessary). The results were beyond the researcher’s expectation. Because of knowing the importance of this process toward researcher and not taking too much time, many people were willing to do the questionnaires, even with the most enthusiastic behavior. The questionnaire began with a brief explanation of the research topic and a request for some necessary personal information. On the rest pages, the researcher proposed a combination of both open-ended and close-ended questions; even some questions were designed as checkboxes type that allow participants to choose more than one answer - to facilitate the comprehension of the collected information and data analysis. 4.2. Data collection procedures 3 Google Forms is tool to help users plan events, send a survey, give students a quiz, or collect other information in an easy, streamlined way. 4 The procedure of data collection could be put into two phases as follows. Phase 1: Preparation In this phase, the researcher managed to 1) design the questionnaires; 2) pilot the questionnaires and the interview questions with 2 students – the researcher’s classmates; 3) make adaptations and finalize the design of data collection instruments and 4) set up schedule for collecting data. Phase 2: Disseminations of questionnaires The questionnaire for the young ULIS students chosen were researcher’s Economics classmates. The questionnaires were handed out to the students at the beginning of the class time, and all members in the class were informed that they are being asked to participate in a research study. Then they were provided an explanation of the purposes of the research and the expected duration of their participation Confirmation of confidentiality was also made so that the students would be more willing to state their opinions in the questionnaires. The students were encouraged to look quickly at the questionnaires and questions for clarification were encouraged to be raised. Then the researcher suggested the classes finish the questionnaires in their break time and would directly collect all the papers. The questionnaire for the old The questionnaire was delivered to researcher’s acquaintances in the weekdays evening. The researcher also explained clearly the purposes of the research and its importance and asked for the help. The questionnaire was recollected in the next day. 4.3. Data analysis methods and procedure 5 The collected data supports the last research question: “What is attitude of Vietnamese consumers toward the strategies?” It was first classified according to the type of consumers. The young’ responses were considered first. The Old’s responses were analyzed in comparison and contrast with the young’s responses. The questionnaires had already been divided into sections from the design stage basing on the criteria of key factors in the marketing strategy of PepsiCo. Therefore, it was convenient to classify the information gathered. Data collected from the questionnaires was then synthesized and illustrated by diagrams. The above method and procedures of data analysis were useful that they helped the researcher obtain rich data. From such data, results were found out and will be presented in the other chapter – Finding and discussion. 6 Part 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review and Theoretical background 1.1. Literature review As considered as the corporation which has the most successful and suitable strategies, PepsiCo is the object of many researches. Many studies have been conducted on many aspects of the marketing strategy. For example: In the research “Pepsi across cultures: analysis and cross-cultural comparison of Pepsi websites” by Alexandra Chirkova (University of Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2011), the author pays attention to the analysis of marketing via Internet. The thesis touches one side of possible cultural reflection on communication in a business sphere and marketing – web design. After finding the differences between the web pages for Pepsi in different countries which are related to the cultures, he drew conclusion that PepsiCo pays attention to the most expressed cultural traits and through them differentiate websites. In ‘PepsiCo: International Marketing Report’, a group of researcher from Benedictine University (Chicago, 2009) analyzed international marketing strategy of PepsiCo based on foreign market indicators, such as GDP, Import Tariffs, Political risks, Infrastructure, tax rates and competitors, etc. Three countries chosen are India, Japan and China for specific illustration. In each country, PepsiCo has specific strategy that makes them become more and more successful. About the role of Nonverbal and verbal communication in business, the research “Nonverbal communication: a serious business advantage” seems to be adequate. Experts agree that the combination of gestures, postures, clothing, 7 [...]... in marketing by PepsiCo Vietnam PepsiCo is a world leader in convenient snacks, foods and beverages, with revenues of more than $39 billion The company consists of PepsiCo Americas Foods (PAF), PepsiCo Americas Beverages (PAB) and PepsiCo International (PI) PepsiCo Vietnam was established in February 1994, when the US Embargo to Vietnam was lifted marking the phenomenal entrance of PepsiCo into this... local consumers in Hochiminh City Officially, PepsiCo teamed up with International Beverages Company (IBC) – a well-established local joint venture to manufacture and distribute Pepsi-Cola and 7Up products in Vietnam In April 2003, the company became a 100% foreign owned entity – a new entirely run subsidiary of PepsiCo Worldwide and the name PepsiCo Vietnam (PIVN) was used officially.10 The company’s... widely and deeply distributed to Vietnamese consumers from the five operations branches located across Vietnam Over time, PepsiCo Vietnam has not only successfully operated in compliance with its corporate's world-class standard and the local regulations as well but also sustain its market leadership position driven by impressive growth In addition, PepsiCo Vietnam also receives widespread recognition... reaching the ocean of young Vietnamese’s (See Appendix 5 for some attention of famous people in advertisement of PepsiCo and PepsiCo Vietnam) 2.2.3 Price At the beginning of 90s, when Vietnam started opening the market, there was no unique domestic beverage but Tribeco Other products were no brand, produced with small scale, backward technology At that time, Pepsi entered Vietnam market With abundant resources... we are not a good member of society”, PepsiCo Vietnam always leads in contributing and supporting society Charity programs, social activities such as “Friendship Charity Golf Tournament”, sponsoring “Singer festival” and young talents contest and scholarships such as Dynamic, Way to succeed It is also the commitment of devoting youth to community of PepsiCo Vietnam 29 Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions... Statistics in 2012 17 So far, PepsiCo Vietnam has not only managed the local Vietnam market but extended to cover the entire Indochina including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia Although Pepsi has modern producing system, traditional flavorthat is 100% natural, low in sodium, caffeine-free, and still maintains the flavor of its original cola, which is very suitable with Vietnamese taste, the marketing strategy... of Pepsi in Vietnam All slogans are easily translated and can convey as much as message to the consumers “Pepsi nước uống của tuổi trẻ” “Bạn trải nghiệm cuộc sống để hưởng thụ, Pepsi sáng tạo để bạn tận hưởng” “Gia nhập thế hệ Pepsi” “Sự lựa chọn của thế hệ mới” “Khát khao hơn/Sôi động hơn với Pepsi” “Thách thức hơn” Over years, those slogans are still remembered and repeated by Vietnamese consumers... sales as present Pepsi know and understand the philosophy: “Know – Like – Believe and Buy” of Vietnamese consumers, and then apply supporting tools such as advertising which takes full advantage of verbal and non-verbal cues, effectively and creatively 2.1 Verbal cues used by PepsiCo Mentioning Pepsi brand, people think about young and active spirit Although PepsiCo has over one hundred years history,... resources and brand strength, PepsiCola immediately dominate Vietnam’s market, from the North to the South By reducing price, in the first month, Pepsi-Cola quickly beat separate competitors in domestic as well as made Tribeco go bankrupt, forced them to change the business form into soy milk brand Price of PepsiCo is considered reasonable, even cheaper than other soft drinks in Vietnam’s market Together with... outstanding young management team Among the products of PepsiCo, Pepsi is the most outstanding ones because the Corporation began and got the successful with this product – which is preferred by the young all over the word Coming to Vietnam, the young nature of the cola drink rapidly catch up with the life of Vietnamese young people, the generation is strongly developing with country in the renovation period . marketing by PepsiCo Vietnam PepsiCo is a world leader in convenient snacks, foods and beverages, with revenues of more than $39 billion. The company consists of PepsiCo Americas Foods (PAF), PepsiCo. Beverages (PAB) and PepsiCo International (PI). PepsiCo Vietnam was established in February 1994, when the US Embargo to Vietnam was lifted marking the phenomenal entrance of PepsiCo into this. verbal and non-verbal cues in marketing by PepsiCo Vietnam 2.1. Verbal cues used by PepsiCo 18 2.1.1. Slogans 18 2.1.2. Songs 21 2.2. Non-verbal cues used by PepsiCo 22 2.2.1. Design 22 ii 2.2.2.