BUSI 607 Week 6 Marketing Plan Paper: Outline Example

Outline: An International Marketing Plan for Ready-to-Drink Cold Brew Coffee in Vietnam

I. Company and Product Concept

• Company: a composite Portland, Oregon, cold brew company with regional U.S. distribution and a premium, small-batch brand.
• Product: a canned ready-to-drink cold brew, in black and condensed-milk varieties, made from Vietnamese robusta and highland arabica beans.
• Objective: introduce the product in Vietnam's two largest cities and reach break-even within three years.
• Rationale: rising urban incomes, a coffee-drinking population and the firm's interest in sourcing beans where they are grown.

II. Situation Analysis: Vietnam

A. Economic and Demographic Conditions

• Population of about 101.6 million and GDP per person of about $5,070 in 2025, with growth of about 8% that year (World Bank, 2026).
• Urban share near 39% and rising; purchasing power concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

B. Coffee Market and Culture

• Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer, with 2026/27 output forecast at a record 32.5 million bags, mostly robusta (Foreign Agricultural Service, 2026).
• Strong local coffee culture: strong drip coffee with condensed milk, sidewalk cafes and large local chains; international chains have operated in the country since the early 2010s.
• Ready-to-drink coffee sold through convenience stores and supermarkets; cold, sweet coffee already familiar to consumers.

C. Competition

• Local cafe chains with strong brands and low prices; domestic and Asian ready-to-drink coffee brands in convenience stores; international cafe chains at the premium end.
• Key question: whether an American brand adds value in a market with a strong domestic coffee identity.

D. Legal and Regulatory Environment

• Food safety registration and labeling requirements for packaged beverages; Vietnamese-language labels.
• Import duties versus local production; trade agreements affecting packaging inputs.

III. Target Market and Positioning

• Segment: urban professionals aged 22 to 35 who work long hours, value convenience and are open to international brands.
• Positioning: a premium, ready-to-drink coffee that honors Vietnamese beans with a slow-steeped, smoother cold brew style; "Vietnamese coffee, brewed a new way."
• Research to support: country-of-origin and brand globalness studies; consumer ethnocentrism (Shimp & Sharma, 1987; Steenkamp et al., 2003).

IV. Marketing Mix

A. Product

• Two flavors at launch, less sugar than local ready-to-drink options; 250-milliliter cans.
• Packaging in Vietnamese with English brand name; design that shows the Central Highlands origin of the beans.
• Shelf life and cold-chain needs to be confirmed with the co-packer, since the product must hold quality in tropical heat.
• Adaptation versus standardization: keep brand identity, adapt sweetness and size (Szymanski et al., 1993).

B. Price

• Premium to convenience-store coffee, below a cafe drink; test price near 32,000 dong per can.

C. Place

• Convenience store chains and modern supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi; office delivery and e-commerce platforms.

D. Promotion

• Social media with local creators, sampling in office districts, partnerships with coworking spaces; content highlighting Vietnamese farmers.
• Launch message tested in both Vietnamese and English with target customers before full rollout (Kumar et al., 2016).

V. Entry Mode and Implementation

• Contract production with a Vietnamese beverage co-packer to avoid import costs and use local beans; brand and recipe retained by the company.
• Local distributor partner; transaction cost reasoning for retaining control of recipe and brand (Anderson & Gatignon, 1986).
• Timeline: market research and registration in months 1 to 6, pilot in Ho Chi Minh City in months 7 to 12, Hanoi in year two.

VI. Budget and Controls

• First-year marketing budget, sales targets by channel and month, and measures such as repeat purchase rate and store sell-through.
• Contingency plan if sales trail targets after the pilot: adjust price or pack size, shift spending toward the best-performing channel, or narrow the launch to Ho Chi Minh City until repeat purchases reach target.
• Quarterly review of channel performance with the distributor, including stockouts and shelf placement, since availability in convenience stores is likely to drive trial.

VII. Biblical Perspective

• Fair dealing with farmers and suppliers (Leviticus 19:13); stewardship and honest marketing claims; respect for local culture.

VIII. Planned Sources

• Course textbooks; World Bank and U.S. Department of Agriculture data; scholarly studies on standardization, brand globalness, country of origin, consumer ethnocentrism, entry modes and social media marketing.

References

Anderson, E., & Gatignon, H. (1986). Modes of foreign entry: A transaction cost analysis and propositions. Journal of International Business Studies, 17(3), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490432

Foreign Agricultural Service. (2026). Coffee: World markets and trade. U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/coffee.pdf

Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R., & Kannan, P. K. (2016). From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of Marketing, 80(1), 7-25. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.14.0249

Shimp, T. A., & Sharma, S. (1987). Consumer ethnocentrism: Construction and validation of the CETSCALE. Journal of Marketing Research, 24(3), 280-289. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378702400304

Steenkamp, J.-B. E. M., Batra, R., & Alden, D. L. (2003). How perceived brand globalness creates brand value. Journal of International Business Studies, 34(1), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400002

Szymanski, D. M., Bharadwaj, S. G., & Varadarajan, P. R. (1993). Standardization versus adaptation of international marketing strategy: An empirical investigation. Journal of Marketing, 57(4), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299305700401

World Bank. (2026). World development indicators [Data set]. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators