Stategic Pr Plan

17 May 2010

NAME:

Phan Ngoc Anh Thu

STUDENT ID:

s3160793

TUTOR:

Doan Mai Anh Melanie Brown

1

Table of Content

Table of Content.................................................................................................................2 I. Executive Summary..........................................................................................................2 II. Background.....................................................................................................................3 III. Situation Analysis..........................................................................................................4 i. Key findings..............................................................................................................4 ii. Problem/Opportunity Statement..............................................................................4 iii. Critical Success Factor...........................................................................................5 IV. Objectives......................................................................................................................5 V. Target Publics.................................................................................................................6 1. Primary Target Public..............................................................................................6 2. Secondary Target Public..........................................................................................6 VI. Key Messages................................................................................................................6 VII. Strategy Statement........................................................................................................7 VIII. Tactics.........................................................................................................................7 IX. Critical Path Plan.........................................................................................................11 X. Budget...........................................................................................................................12 XI. Evaluation....................................................................................................................12 XII. Reference List.............................................................................................................12 XIII. Appendix...................................................................................................................13 3. SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................14 4. Force Fields Analysis.............................................................................................16 Driving Forces:.........................................................................................................16 Restraining Forces:...................................................................................................16 5. List of Universities for Mobile Internet Room Sponsorship.................................17

I. Executive Summary Samsung Vina is planning to launch High-tech Studying Environment program, operated in one year from August 2010 to August 2011 at five biggest cities in Vietnam including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho and Hai Phong. The target publics will be the entire youth in general and students in specific, who are really interested in modern technologies. The communication purposes of this program are to achieve high awareness among the target publics about the commitment of Samsung Vina in assisting youth education and to generate their brand recall towards Samsung Vina as the best brand in providing electronic, digital products. In order to obtain these objectives, this strategic PR plan is developed to create the opportunities for target publics in understanding more 2

about Samsung Vina’s products and the company’s capabilities to build a comfortable, modern life for them. Besides, through the Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment contest and Mobile Internet Room sponsorship, Samsung Vina expects to transmit the messages that it always commits to create the modern, professional studying environments for the youth by the most state-of-the-art technologies. This program will exploit both controlled communication tools (organizational websites) and uncontrolled tools (media release, press conference, online forum and social networking) to inform the target publics about High-tech Studying Environment program. Besides, media monitoring and feedback will be utilized throughout the program to ensure the adequacy of information, exposed by target publics and evaluate the effectiveness of the program’s activities.

II. Background Samsung Vina is planning to launch a CSR program, named High-tech Studying Environment starting from August 2010. In accordance with the corporate theme Turn on Tomorrow, the main purpose of this program is to upgrade the studying environment of Vietnamese students by latest technologies and through this, encouraging their enthusiasm, creativity and passion in learning. There had been other educational programs undertaken by Samsung Vina before but they were failed to generate communication benefits for the company in terms of brand publicity and long-term bond. Therefore, a strategic PR plan is required to communicate with the target audiences in order to achieve the company’s objectives, transmit the right key messages to the target publics as well as increasing their brand recall and loyalty. 3

III. Situation Analysis i.

Key findings

Vietnam is a young country with a very young population. Most of the youth now pay much attention to technologies and consider them as an integral part of their lives. Therefore, Samsung Vina wants to associate itself with the Vietnamese youth and identify them as the main target publics for its CSR program. Besides, education is always the big concern for not only the authorities but also the general public. Accordingly, combining the youth with education can help Samsung Vina share the same objectives with those stakeholders towards this concern and receive many supports from them. The program High-tech Studying Environment is promising to gain loads of attention of the youth due to their big interest in high technologies and the desire to modernize their lives. Moreover, it also promotes long-term profits for Samsung Vina by recruiting talented graduates, creating brand awareness for potential customers as well as showing the company’s commitment to community development. However, there are some factors which may affect directly to the High-tech Studying Environment program and restrain the expected outcomes. Previous large-scaled CSR programs have paid too much attention to the events themselves but not gaining many communication benefits for the brand. Thus, it is expected that in this time, High-tech Studying Environment program will not make any failure like that again. Moreover, another pressure is in terms of timescale because the program will only be implemented from August 2010 whereas Samsung Vina’s long-term goal of becoming the most preferred brand in electronics in 2011 is nearby. Besides, High-tech Studying Environment program also may face skepticism of some people that the company just takes advantage of doing CSR to polish their brand or compensate for the bad things they have done. And therefore, the key messages of Hightech Studying Environment program could be distorted.

ii.

Problem/Opportunity Statement

Problem Statement: High-tech Studying Environment program encounters the pressure on generating the best communication outcomes for the company, not making the same failures like in the previous CSR programs. 4

Opportunity Statement: High-tech Studying Environment program has the opportunity to promote its publicity and attach target public’s attention due to the good relationships with communication channels and positive responses from the local residents, who also share social concern towards youth education.

iii. -

Critical Success Factor

In order to obtain good communication outcomes, High-tech Studying

Environment program must find the appropriate activities and tactics as well as carrying out evaluation regularly so that the key messages are transmitted effectively to the target publics. -

In order to gain large exposure of target audience and provide adequate

information to them, High-tech Studying Environment program must integrate in using both traditional media and new media in its communication plan.

IV. Objectives -

To obtain 80% awareness of target publics in five biggest cities of Vietnam about

the main purpose of High-tech Studying Environment program as well as Samsung Vina’s long-term commitment in assisting youth education after three months when the program is launched. -

To gain 70% awareness of target publics about Customizing Your Dream

Studying Environment contest and Mobile Internet Room sponsorship during those events. -

To achieve 65% understanding of target publics about the capabilities of

Samsung’s products in providing people a completely comfortable, modern life and better future two months after the event. -

To generate 40% brand recall and brand loyalty of target publics towards

Samsung Vina’s products four months after the High-tech Studying Environment program. 5

V. Target Publics There are two major target publics.

1. Primary Target Public As the main purpose of High-tech Studying Environment program is to assist youth education, the primary target group should be narrowed down to students, who are studying at the universities in five most populous cities of Vietnam including Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho. Furthermore, they are the ones who can inherit directly many benefits from the program. The reason is that most of students now pay much interest in modernizing their studying, working or entertainment activities by the high technologies. Therefore, High-tech Studying Environment program can generate much attention from them because it has addressed exactly their top concern. Moreover, with an existent interest in technology, it is expected that the students will actively respond to the program, participate to the event and spread widely information about High-tech Studying Environment program to other people as well.

2. Secondary Target Public The secondary target group will include generally the entire Vietnamese youth, living in five cities involving Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho. The youth does not only mean that they are in young age but are also early adopters, who love technologies and like sharing information with others. They are also the key target consumers of almost product branches of Samsung Vina. Thus, it is really essential to improve their understanding and knowledge about Samsung products’ features so that whenever they need a technological product, they will think of Samsung Vina firstly to satisfy that demand.

VI. Key Messages

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-

For primary target public: Through the High-tech Studying Environment program,

Samsung Vina commits to create the modern, professional studying environments for students by the most state-of-the-art technologies. -

For secondary target public: Samsung Vina always takes the needs and concerns

of the youth into serious consideration in order to provide the electronic and digital products which can best meet their specific demands.

VII. Strategy Statement This strategic PR plan will utilize event and sponsorship method to create the awareness of students about Samsung Vina’s commitment in assisting youth education and both controlled and uncontrolled tactics to communicate with target public groups as well as attracting their attention.

VIII. Tactics The High-tech Studying Environment program will carry out event and sponsorship method as the crucial focuses in the entire plan. Media releases, press conference, social online networking and organizational websites will also be exploited to spread information about the program’s activities and encourage participation of target publics.

 -

Event: Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment Contest Samsung Vina will launch a contest for students, who are studying at the

universities in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho. The contestants will propose a concept about their desired studying environment with the combination of modern, professional technologies. In the proposal, they can use any kind of electronic, digital facilities as much as they want but it is mandatory that those products have to belong to Samsung Vina brand. Besides, they are also required to present a rationale explanation via a video clip, stating the reasons why they choose those specific products; how it can generate the best outcomes when integrating the products together and how those facilities enable the contestant to improve their learning ability. The contestant, who receives the greatest number of votes for the

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most persuasive proposal after one week, will be the winner. The duration of the contest will be in three months from 25/08/2010 to 25/11/2010. -

The prize will be all of the products that the winner has used in their proposal. In

other words, Samsung Vina will reward them by making their dream studying environment come true. Totally, there will be five awards for three best groups and two best individuals. Sponsorship: Mobile Internet Room

 -

In order to emphasize the mobility of Samsung Vina’s corporate theme Turn on

tomorrow, a mobile Internet room will be set up at a specific university in one week and keep moving to another university in the following weeks according to the intended schedule. In this mobile room, there will be a hundred of Samsung laptops connected to Internet wireless, providing free for students to access the Internet for studying and researching. This program will happen in five months from 28/3/2011 to 28/8/2011 at 19 universities. Media releases and Press conference:

 -

One press conference will be held in August 2010 to inform the journalists about

High-tech Studying Environment program accompanying with its purposes, key messages and the operation progress as well as introducing Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment Contest and Mobile Internet Room sponsorship. -

One month before Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment Contest, a

media release will be sent to the journalists to provide more detailed information about that event. It will be the same to the subsequent event - Mobile Internet Room sponsorship. -

By publishing news on print media including newspapers, magazines and online

news websites, the outcomes expected from these two tactics are to spread the information to target audiences and appeal their participation to the events.

 -

Social online media: New media including online forum and social networking site will be utilized in

gaining attention of target publics towards the High-tech Studying Environment 8

program in general and two events Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment Contest and Mobile Internet Room sponsorship in specific. -

An online forum will be created on High-tech Studying Environment program’s

websites for the youth to discuss about studying skills, modern technological products and current issues around two events of the program. Especially, it is also a good place for the contestants in Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment Contest to ask for comments or suggestions regarding their proposal as well as persuading audiences to vote for them. -

A Facebook page will be also created for Facebook users to subscribe, check out

the proposals of contestants, update information about the contest and leave comments, feedbacks. -

The outcomes expected from these tactics are to gain awareness of target publics,

increase their involvement in contributing the forum and encourage them to spread the information about the events to other friends. Organizational Website:

 -

A website, named www.high-techstudyingenvironment.com, will be the official information center between Samsung Vina and target publics throughout the entire program.

Program’s purpose, company’s commitment to the youth

education, online forum, contatcs and products’ features of Samsung (which is linked to Samsung Vina’s official website: www.samsung.com/vn) are the sectors appearing on the website. -

During the Customizing Your Dream Studying Environment Contest, the website will show the contest’s descriptions including competition regulations and prize structures. When the contest starts, the information about contestants and their video clip project will be uploaded for viewers to watch and vote.

-

During the Mobile Internet Room sponsorship, the website will update the specific schedule and list of the universities that mobile Internet room will come in each day. Student who wants to join can register their name to reserve a laptop. The detailed schedule of Mobile Internet Room is enclosed in appendix 3.

-

The outcomes expected from this tactic are to provide adequate information to target publics, deliver to them the company’s messages, and increase their 9

exposure to Samsung Vina’s brand. From then, the program can impulse their brand recall as well as brand loyalty.

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IX. Critical Path Plan The High-tech Studying Environment program will happen in one year from 10/8/2010 to 30/8/2011. The detailed tasks are allocated in the below chart.

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X. Budget The below table is the budget for High-tech Studying Environment CSR program. There is a note that budget for the award of the contest is just approximate because it is up to the contestants in customizing their proposal. They can use whatever Samsung products they want so the total expenses are only known after the contest. Item Press conference (150

Fixed Cost 120,000,000 VND

Quantity 1

Total 120,000,000 VND

guests) Catering + Venue hire Media release (writing +

6,000,000 VND

2

12,000,000 VND

distribution) Website Awards for the contest Samsung laptop Samsung Wireless LAN Setting up expense per

20,000,000 VND 1,500,000,000 VND 18,000,000 VND 15,000,000 VND 5,000,000 VND

1

20,000,000 VND 1,500,000,000 VND 1,800,000,000 VND 60,000,000 VND 95,000,000 VND

100 4 19

university (transportation + electronic fee) Total expense

3,607,000,000 VND

XI. Evaluation In order to gain the most effective outputs and long-term outcomes, evaluation methodologies will be conducted throughout the program so that Samsung Vina can provide the appropriate, urgent adjustments if there is any mistake or problem. Specifically, there will be media monitoring (both online and offline) including media content analysis to manage the information related to High-tech Studying Environment program and program’s website analysis to keep track of numbers of visitors and information download. Finally, feedback analysis will be implemented through a telephone and paper surveys, which are distributed to students joining Mobile Internet Room sponsorship. The main purpose is to collect the complaints, suggestions, complements and inquiries from target publics. Word Count: 2,446

XII. Reference List 12

Harrison, K 2008, Strategic Public Relations – a practical guide to success, 5th edn, Century Consulting Group, Australia. Interbrand Corp. 2009, ‘Best global brand list 2009’, Interbrand Corp., viewed 10 May 2010, http://www.interbrand.com/best_global_brands.aspx Samsung Vina 2009, ‘Community activities in Vietnam’, Samsung Vina, viewed 9 May 2010, http://www.samsung.com/vn/aboutsamsung/citizenship/activities.html

XIII. Appendix 13

3. SWOT Analysis

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STRENGTH WEAKNESS - Ranked 19 out of 100 best global brands - The previous large-scaled CSR programs in 2009 based on the annual review of have paid too much attention to the events Interbrand Corp. (2009)  high reputation.

themselves

but

not

gaining

many

- Understanding well the culture, tradition communication benefits for the brand. of Vietnamese people as Korea’s value is - Most of the CSR programs in Vietnam focus

pretty similar with Vietnam.

giving

advantages

for

only

- The majority of Vietnam’s population is unfortunate people, not for the mass youth the youth, which is suitable with the yet; meanwhile it is Samsung Vina’s main strategic target of Samsung, as a brand sells target public. electronics and digital products. - Rich CSR portfolio and the positive intention to focus on CSR in long term  an advantage to establish good brand image in customers’ mind. - Be diversified in community activities for the unfortunate people in Vietnam: wide range from social welfare, health, volunteer and education such as From Heart to Heart, Samsung Digital Hope, etc. (Samsung Vina 2009) - Lots of experiences from the previous CSR programs, exclusively for students like Future Creation and University Tour. - Having existent relationship with the communication channels and journalists. - Unlimited budget for CSR program as long as it is justifiable.

OPPORTUNITY - Vietnam is an education-hunger country so with the program High-tech Studying

THREAT

The

unsuccessfulness

communication

of

the

in

terms

previous

of

CSR

Environment to assist youth education; programs may lead to a pressure for HighSamsung can receive many supports from tech Studying Environment to achieve the authority, local residents as well as positive outcomes. gaining public awareness.

- High-tech Studying Environment will be 15 - Recruiting talented students, who gain the started executing from August, 2010 benefits

from

High-tech

Studying whereas Samsung Vina’s long-term goal of

4. Force Fields Analysis

Driving Forces: - Attracting lots of attention of the youth as nowadays, they are really interested in digital products and desire to use the latest technology in their study, work or entertainment. - Gaining support from the authority and local residents as Vietnamese people always have big concerns in assisting youth education. - Generating long-term outcomes for the brand image when showing the commitment to social responsibility - Promoting long-term profits for business from recruiting talented graduates, improving relationship with local authority as well as creating brand awareness for potential customers. - Increasing Samsung Vina’s value and reputation.

Samsung Vina is planning to execute the CSR program Modern Studying Environment in order to assist the youth having a modern, professional studying condition.

Restraining Forces: - Pressures about timescale and positive outcomes. - Costing a lot of expenses but not generating immediate profit. - Some people may have a skeptical attitude that the business just takes advantage of doing 16 CSR to polish their brand.

5. List of Universities for Mobile Internet Room Sponsorship

No 1 2

Name Hanoi University of Technology University of Science, VNU Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU

City Hanoi Hanoi

Date 28/3 - 4/4/2011 5/4 - 12/4/2011

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hanoi University of Economic and Business, VNU Hanoi Vietnam University of Commerce Hai Phong Medical University Danang University of Technology University of Da Nang Danang College of Foreign Language HCMC University of Technology HCMC University of Social Sciences and

Hanoi Hanoi Hanoi Hai Phong Da Nang Da Nang Da Nang HCMC

13/4 - 20/4/2011 21/4 - 28/4/2011 29/4 - 6/5/2011 10/5 - 17/5/2011 19/5 - 26/5/2011 27/5 - 2/6/2011 3/6 - 10/6/2011 13/6 - 20/6/2011

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Humanities International University, VNU HCM Univeristy of Economics Lotus University HCMC Open University Banking University Hung Vuong University Can Tho University Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy

HCMC HCMC HCMC HCMC HCMC HCMC HCMC Can Tho Can Tho

21/6 - 28/6/2011 29/6 - 6/7/2011 7/7 - 14/7/2011 15/7 - 22/7/2011 23/7 - 30/7/2011 31/7 - 1/8/2011 2/8 - 9/8/2011 12/8 - 19/8/2011 20/8 - 27/8/2011

17