Poor persuasive skill of blue brand’s part-time PG: a study of Wonder Vietnam

Abstract

Wonder Vietnam, an FMCG company headquartered in India, has been active inVietnam since the 1990s. The company has captured a significant share of the Vietnamese market with its affordable personal care products for Asian skin. Over two decades, Wonder has established a robust distribution network across supermarkets and large retail chains, making its brands popular among Vietnamese consumers. To continue growing in Vietnam and expand into the skincare sector, Wonder Vietnam introduced the Blue skincare brand in 2018, which gained considerable popularity within the first few years. However, after recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, the company launched a new business model in 2023, focusing on a team of part-time PGs alongside full-time PGs to save on labor costs. The Blue brand faces a significant decline in sales volume in Ho Chi Minh City, particularly from this new model of part-time PGs. This decline has raised urgent concerns for the company's leadership, requiring prompt action to ensure that labor costs are saved without affecting business performance. Through extensive research, four possible issues leading to undesirable outcomes were identified: (1) many competitors’ promotions, (2) product disappoints customers, (3)limited product accessibility, and (4) poor persuasive skills of part-time PGs. After validation, the fourth issue was identified as the main problem. Further investigation revealed three potential causes of this issue: (1) lack of drive for improvement, (2) limited experience, and (3) absence of skill-building sessions. Ultimately, the root cause of the Blue brand’s problem was identified as the absence of skill-building sessions. Two alternative solutions were proposed to address this problem. Consequently, alternative solution 2 was chosen to create a thorough implementation action plan. Primary and secondary data were used alternately throughout this thesis to develop a sustainable logic.