Consumer

of Behavior

Group Assignment
 Class: MKT1404 – FA20.
 Room: BE 205
 Lecturer: Dao Cam Thuy
 Member of team:
1. Ho Thi Yen Chi
2. Dao Xuan Dat
3. Nguyen Ngoc Anh
4. Trieu Linh Chi
5. Truong Thien Thao Hanh

10/2020
MKT201 Group Assignment

Topic: Make a market research about the consumer

behavior on one product. Analyze the current 4Ps
marketing strategy and make some suggestions.


A TABLE OF CONTEN
T

A. INTRODUCTION......................................................................... 2
1. Short profile of that product....................................................................2
2. Target customer and target market........................................................2
3. Make research and analyze the current marketing strategy and some
suggestions........................................................................................................3
B. ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT 4PS MARKETING
STRATEGY........................................................................................ 4
1. Secondary research...................................................................................4
a. Product.....................................................................................................4
b. Price.........................................................................................................5
c. Promotion................................................................................................5
d. Place.........................................................................................................6
2. Primary research.......................................................................................7
C. SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION.....................................10
a. Suggestions............................................................................................10
b. Conclusion.............................................................................................10
D. REFERENCES............................................................................ 10

1
MKT201 Group Assignment

A. INTRODUCTION
1. Short profile of that product.
Crocs is a brand of unique clogs that is becoming extremely popular with the young
generation with the convenience and the attributes of its animal logo: the crocodile. Crocs entered the
market in the 2000s but now it stands out as one of its market share competitors with big brands such
as Sketcher’s, Deckers, Wolverine World Wide, etc. The products of Crocs are boots, sneakers,
sandals, clogs and jibbitz (the fashion accessories). Crocs shot to fame with the debut of its now-
iconic resin-based clog in 2002. Fifteen years later, the company has evolved its design and brand to
allow for a future focusing on its strengths, styles and values.

Crocs proved to be a new category of footwear. Constructed from a proprietary closed-cell

resin material called Croslite (which is neither plastic nor rubber), they are soft, lightweight and odor-
resistant, and their soles conform to the shape of a wearer’s foot. They were originally designed as
boating shoes, but many of whom swore Crocs were the most comfortable shoes. It can be easy to
take them out into the streets, to the beach and to many other casual occasions. They also designed
"jibbitz" to increase the uniqueness of the product. "Jibbitz" is decorations that can be clipped to the
ventilation holes in the shoes. These include designs, mainly aimed at children, which feature Disney
characters.It is from those characteristics, "Crocs" - from a pair of ugly sandals that have attracted the
attention of a number of celebrities who have made this controversial product known to so many
consumers around the world and become more into a general trend for a while.

It can be said that Croc is a brand success in developing the product movement to the
community and they have received many great achievements. From previous research of some
researchers and combine the knowledge knew about consumer behavior, we want to apply it in
research by going into analysis into how Crocs sandals products affect consumer behavior, the 4Ps
strategy currently and give some suitable recommendations.

2. Target customer and target market.

Crocs' biggest market goal was to become an international brand. Their Crocs-branded
products will be available all over the world and can be used by all types of customers.

Crocs use psychographic and demographic segmentation strategies with variables such as age,
gender, location, marital status, and income groups so as in order to serve the changing needs of the
consumers in a better way. Targeting strategy is used by the companies to understand whether to have
the same products for all consumers or different products for different customer groups. Crocs use a
differentiated targeting strategy to target customers who look for casual styled footwear, those who

2
MKT201 Group Assignment

look for mix and personal look styles. In addition, Crocs also found potential customers are medical
staff and restaurant staff because of the product's anti-slip and easy-to-clean features.

For the market, to present Crocs sells its products through two main marketing channels. The
first is to sell directly to their customers through an online website. The second is to sell to
wholesalers, then sell to various retailers nationwide. Crocs stores follow an in-depth marketing
strategy, Crocs strives to get its products into as many retailers as possible. This ensures that products
are available to customers easily in different regions of the country. Crocs have a substantial amount
of online sales with regular traffic on their websites. To run its online operations, Crocs has partnered
with multiple delivery service providers to provide on-time delivery. Crocs followed a multi-channel
distribution system that integrated online and offline stores to give customers easy access to its
products.

3. Make research and analyze the current marketing strategy and some
suggestions.
One of the most things important a business does to drive brand recognition to customers is
the campaigns of marketing strategy. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, a campaign
is critical to the success of any planned registration exercise, whether initial registration, verification
or other ad hoc activity. Regarding Crocs, they also design their own campaign that has made a strong
impression on customers. Many of their strategies up to now have been reworked for many time,
which has shown the success of campaign-building in their marketing strategy.

The first is the campaign "Come as you are" - Get inspired by our cast and make any Crocs
style your own. This campaign has been launched for the third time as of 2019. The meaning of this
campaign is to build on insight not to judge others. This is a global campaign so their target is all
customers around the world, not just one country. The most obvious demonstration is a 30-second
video featuring global brand ambassadors, including actress, singer, songwriter and director Zooey
Deschanel, along with British actress Natalie Dormer. "Get inspired by the cast and make every Crocs
style your own". Taking inspiration from influencers - Crocs brand ambassadors from many different
countries created the perfect TVC for the brand. The brand wants to understand the capabilities of its
customers by sharing other people's emotions through this campaign. This is a very important
campaign for Crocs and it has attracted a large number of customers.

The second strategy that we want to mention here is the “Find Your Fun” campaign. Created
by McKinney- Crocs global record agent since April 2014. "Find Your Fun" - is Crocs' first global
marketing campaign, was kicked off for the first time in 2015. The campaign is meant to encourage
Crocs fans around the world to go out and find the fun that is happening at their feet. Bringing their
favorite Crocs, everyone will take pictures and send them back to the photo contest organizers to win
the chance to have a family trip to Disney World, Florida. The campaign has re-engineered a shoe

3
MKT201 Group Assignment

clog in a variety of ways, from the classic to the more recent in style. The campaign will run in the
UK, US, Germany, Japan, China and South Korea. To create and launch this campaign, in 2015 Crocs
spent millions of dollars on this campaign, which is the largest marketing campaign in history since
Crocs' inception. Peter Nicholson, executive creative director of McKinney, which created the
campaign, added: “#FindYourFun” is more than an ad campaign. It's a crusade to encourage people to
"find the fun" in everything they do". And as he said, turning a familiar slogan into a call to action,
“Find Your Fun” has created momentum on social media to support all campaign elements, including
television, digital, in addition to the family, society and experience of each customer.

B. ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT 4PS MARKETING STRATEGY

1. Secondary research.
“Secondary research consists of sources of data and other information collected by others and
archived in some form. These sources include government reports, industry studies, archived data
sets, and syndicated information services as well as the traditional books and journals found in
libraries. Secondary information offers relatively quick and inexpensive answers to many questions
and is almost always the point of departure for primary research.” (Kamins & Stewart, 1993). Based
on the learned knowledge and secondary resources on newspapers or the internet, we focus on
research the current 4Ps strategy of the Crocs brand including Product, Price, Promotion and Place.

a. Product.
Referring to Crocs we can figure out the "unique" and "strange" products. The main material
mostly to make a Crocs is plastic. However, Crocs products are very safe, with little harm to health
and the environment. Therefore, the products are favored by many consumers. Crocs featured with
plastic strap sandal designs with a bulging head that resembled a crocodile. The first Crocs shoes were
made for children, so they are colorful and have little holes in the top for kids to enjoy with cartoon
buttons or letters of their names, which are called jibbitz. Crocs is constantly changing and developing
its products. After a period of development, Crocs introduced more models of men's and women's
shoes for adults, conquering customers in many countries around the world with lightweight,
waterproof, cool, and deodorizing materials.

Besides its variety designs and colors, Crocs has always focused on promoting product
quality. They researched and surveyed to make lightweight and comfortable shoes for the user.
Because of the convenience as well as bringing comfort to the user, Crocs shoes are currently very
popular in the global market. In Piper Jaffray’s latest semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey,
Crocs surged in the footwear category. Crocs brand is popular with many people for some following
reasons: Many unique and youthful bases, croslite materials are used in the design, extracted from
resin with antibacterial and deodorizing properties, compact, soft, and lightweight design for comfort,

4
MKT201 Group Assignment

the sole is designed to be non-slip, suitable for any terrain and variety of colors and no fading.
Because it is plastic, it is highly water-resistant.

Today, Crocs products are the dominant product, accounting for nearly half of all sales. Crocs
improved its supply chain management and adjusted its retail strategy, with direct sales to consumers
accounting for 43%. At the same time, the company continued to expand globally, with the US market
now contributing nearly one-third of total sales.

b. Price.
Today, one of the most important pricing strategies used by businesses is to increase product
prices and to cut down all possible costs to improve profitability while maintaining prices original
product. Crocs went on the path of maintaining a low-cost platform to optimally manufacture its
products. Not only that, but Crocs also introduced a competitive pricing policy so as not to lose
customers to rival companies. However, they still provide full functionality (accessories included in
each Crocs sandal) and stabilize the quality of each product before it is put on the market.

The next difference in Crocs' pricing strategy is that they will not provide freight support for
retail customers when purchasing products. Therefore, their product on the website is usually more
expensive than buying in a store because shipping costs are included. Crocs has always been
committed to saying no to dumping, so its distributors or agents will get a profit by earning a
percentage discount when selling each product to the consumer.

In Vietnam, the price of the Crocband sandals - Crocs classic, has a price of over 800,000
VND. For the Crocs Literide line, the popular price is around 1,400,000 VND. This is a mid-high
price compared to the general level of the Vietnamese market. However, this high-quality plastic
product is considered a pretty good price. With a pair of Crocs band sandals priced at over 800,000
VND, the cost structure will be as follows: Sales and advertising channels will be about 350,000 -
400,000 VND, accounting for nearly 43.4%, Production costs (including raw materials) are 150,000 -
200,000 VND, Accounting for 20%, Taxes and fees will account for about 20% and Administrative
expenses account for less than 10%.

One of the modern moves of Crocs is using the pricing strategy. An effective pricing strategy
will stimulate high customer shopping demand. Especially the Vietnamese market, consumers always
tend to buy cheap, high-discounted items. Crocs' annual rebate policy has partly stimulated shopping
demand from Vietnamese customers, especially young generation.

c. Promotion.
According to John McCarvel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Crocs, the goal of
promotion for Crocs is to create long-lasting relationships with customers. Besides that, Crocs wants
to keep a positive image of the shoes, instead of the anti-crocs association. A way of promotion for
Crocs is advertising on television and in magazines, which are quite different to many rivals in the

5
MKT201 Group Assignment

market. This is because they can attract a large audience through these channels. They use online
advertising and social media, which are cheaper due to the increasing internet usage. The company
has used social media like Facebook and YouTube, and magazines such as InStyle magazine to
promote its products. Crocs advertises on various social media platforms, focusing on YouTube,
Facebook and Twitter due to its high monthly usage. Crocs has over one hundred thousand likes or
followers on these pages. The brand also made a deal with Twitter to launch a brand new advertising
campaign. Every year, they stimulate customer shopping by reducing product prices.

Based on listed forms of advertising, they have created extremely innovative campaigns. Such
as the Find Your Fun campaign (analyzed above) to remain the iconic Crocs clog while also featuring
new Crocs styles, notably for families and women. This campaign depicts a Clog shoe in many
different ways. Crocs have spent millions of dollars on this advertising and it will be increased in the
future to continue connecting consumers with the company. According to Terence Reilly, Chief
Marketing Officer for Crocs, Find Your Fun is aimed to help more fans and consumers connect this
year with their fun-loving brand and their sense of fun. Crocs also created even more impactful ways
to tell their product stories and let consumers find their fun, whether it’s inviting them to take a fun
day or act like their favorite superhero. The campaign continues to target consumers in the US, China,
Germany, Japan, Korea, and the UK through a variety of channels, including broadcast, digital,
print/out-of-home, social, e-commerce, and in-store.

d. Place.
The goal of Crocs is to become an international brand, so their products are available in most
countries. Distribution channels include distributors and some stores in some shopping malls in the
countries. Consumers can directly transact through this retail channel. Besides, they also have a global
commercial website, customers can order directly and use international transactions. Because there
are no major distribution channels in some countries, the problems of product return with customers
are through several stores receiving and processing. Crocs stores follow an intensive marketing
strategy, Crocs always tries their best to bring its products into as many retailers as possible. This
ensures the product reaches customers easily in all regions of the country.

This sales strategy of Crocs is very smart. They will not incur some fixed costs such as space
rental, taxes, customer service staff salary, ... All these matters will be borne by the downline
distributor. Crocs only supply the product and provide them with some necessary support when
building a facility or building a new distributor. However, since Crocs' products had so many
specialties, it is right when they followed such a strategy. They save a large part of costs, solve the
cost loss problem so that they can gather all resources to develop brands, and promote products in the
best way.

6
MKT201 Group Assignment

Nowadays, with the development of digital social networks, people's shopping needs not only
direct shopping but also online shopping. Customers' shopping behavior is also influenced by their
environment and culture. The ways of building and following the current Crocs path shows their
success ineffective strategy formulation.

In Vietnam, Crocs’ product is distributed by General Trading Fashion One Member Company
Limited, which belongs to Central Retail Corporation. Some main stores are located in some shopping
malls in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City: BigC, Vincom, Savico,... About exchange products, there is
only one location at No.4, 99 Lane, Cau Dien Street, Phuc Diem Ward, Bac Tu Liem District, Ha Noi.
Crocs downlines can sell easily and can sell at many e-commerce sites such as Shopee, Tiki.
Vietnamese consumers have many ways to get access to Crocs.

2. Primary research.
Primary sources are the “materials on a topic upon which subsequent interpretations or studies
are based, anything from firsthand documents such as poems, diaries, court records and interviews to
research results generated by experiments, surveys, ethnographies and so on.” (Maxine, Christy,
Daniel & John, 2010). “Primary research is any type of research that you collect yourself. Conducting
primary research is a useful skill to acquire as it can greatly supplement your research in secondary
sources, such as journals, magazines, or books. You can also use it as the focus of your writing
project. Primary research is an excellent skill to learn as it can be useful in a variety of settings
including business, personal, and academic. A good researcher knows how to use both primary and
secondary sources in their writing and to integrate them in a cohesive fashion.” (Purdue Online
Writing Lab, 2010).

After conducting secondary research methods and having some overview of 4PS
MARKETING STRATEGY of Crocs, we also apply the primary research method to gain more
insight into the market as well as the Crocs 4Ps strategy. Here, the primary research method we
choose here to analyze the current 4Ps marketing strategy is: setting up an online survey questionnaire
with the help of google forms. Name of the survey we work on: survey a group of consumers through
the selection of Crocs products in the Vietnamese market.

The aims of using this method are less time consuming and lower associated costs for
collecting personal data of each individual and customer. We focus on brand’s feedback, the need of
customers, the idea is put forward, feedback about the color of product, how much customers willing
to pay, the imitation problem. There are 175 respondents which correspond to 175 observations
including people living in FPT Hoa Lac and around Hanoi. This offers us obvious insights into Crocs’
4Ps marketing strategy.

From among 175 forms, 54% are female and the

percentage of male is 46%. Most respondents had used

7
MKT201 Group Assignment

Crocs’ product, reaching more than 70%. More than half are aged 16-20, the 8-15 age group is 30.9%,
the figures for the 21-30 are 11.4% and the other is above 30. From this data, we can see that the
target group of the Crocs brand is none other than young people, accounting for more than 80% of the
market share of Crocs. We went deeper into demographics by gathering these audiences' earnings data
for a month. Specifically, the group of income from 1 to 3 million reaches more than half, while the
group of income below 1 million accounts for 35%. The group from 3 million to 10 million and over
10 million accounts for just over 10%. From the above numbers, we can see that Crocs is focusing on
people with mid - low income.

Another problem for many businesses,

not only Crocs, especially a foreign enterprise
entering the Vietnamese market is the problem
of counterfeit goods. To better understand this
issue and study micro-consumer goods in-depth,
we asked about the customer's psychology
graphic. Out of 175 respondents, nearly 50% of
customers admitted that they were using a non-genuine Crocs product. This has a huge impact on the
brand, including revenue to management and branding. Next, we study the customer's behavior, their
perception of seeing a fake Crocs product by asking a multiple-choice question. The data shows that
53.7% of customers feel that using fake products is very normal and does not cause any problems.
The remainder (46.3%) responded that it is very unsafe, disagreeing with the use of standard aviation.

To go deeper into this issue, we have asked the question "How can customers distinguish a
real Crocs product from a fake Crocs product?" To understand more about the problem of identifying
a fake product of the customer to give some suitable recommendations. This is an optional question
and does not require the user to be a dictionary. From the data in the table above, we can see that the
majority of customers recognize the fake product by the material, design, and price of the product.
Besides, the issue of the place of production is a factor that cannot be ignored. With the data collected
above and what Crocs is doing, we can see the efforts to repel counterfeits and build Crocs brand in
the hearts of customers in Vietnam market.

This section used the Itemized Ratinh Scale (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016) whereby ‘1’ represents
‘Not satisfied’ and ‘5’ represents ‘Very satisfied’. About 4Ps, there are 2 questions about Product, 1
questionnaire about Price, 2 questionnaires about Promotion and 1 questionnaire about Product. The
total is 8 questions.

About Product, we focus on 2 main issues:

design and color. We can see that more than 80 people
(45.7%) are satisfied with Crocs products. The number

8
MKT201 Group Assignment

for less satisfied is only about 20 people (11%) and absolutely no one is dissatisfied. The majority of
customers (44%) feel quite satisfied and even completely satisfied with the design of Crocs products.

About Price, our question is “Are you satisfied with the

price listed on Crocs’ product in market?”. The answer
“Slightly satisfied” account for nearly a half. More than
three-quarters of people feel “Normal” about the price of
Crocs. The number of people who choose “Not satisfied
at all” is 15%. Nearly 7% of people feel “Quite
satisfied”.

About Promotion, we make 2 questions about

the advertising, customer relationship and the annual
sale/discount policy, and is this really suitable for the
customer? From the figures, about 10% of respondents
choose “Quite satisfied” for both sale/discount policy
and advertising, sale and customer relationship. The
number of people feels “normal” and “ not satisfied at
all” for the annual sale/discount policy of Crocs is two-
fifth while the percentage of people feel “normal” for advertising, sales and customer relationship is
higher, over 50%. The number of people chooses “slight satisfied” is the highest for both annual
sale/discount policy and advertising, sale and customer relationship, respectively makeup 65% and
75%.

About Place, because Crocs is a foreign brand, in

Vietnam Crocs has only main sales channels such as
selling through dealers and a number of franchised stores
in shopping centers. Foreign websites will make it
difficult for people to buy and experience the product. So
we set up a satisfaction survey on this issue with a
question "Are you satisfied with Crocs' current marketing
and sales funnel?". From the figures, about 69% of
respondents choose “Slightly satisfied”. The number of people who choose “Not satisfied at all” and
“Normal” account for more than 40%. Nearly 15% of people choose “Quite satisfied”.

From the primary survey questionnaire data, we can conclude that out of 175 respondents,
most people feel normal and satisfied with the problem of products, prices and promotions of Crocs in

9
MKT201 Group Assignment

the Vietnamese market. As for the place, Crocs should pay more attention when approaching the
Vietnamese market. Some suggestions and solutions we will mention in the next section.

C. SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION

a. Suggestions.
As mentioned above, since Crocs is an imported brand, they have very few stores and
branches in Vietnam. Currently, in Vietnam, they only have 20 branches, but mainly in franchised
stores in large commercial centers such as Vincom Center, Aeon Mall, but very few have their own
stores. So in our survey when asked about the level of marketing and sales satisfaction up to 40% of
respondents rated unsatisfied, 69% rated slightly satisfied, from here we have It can be seen that
Crocs' marketing level in Vietnam is not high, customers cannot access genuine products, which leads
to widespread fake products in the market. So our recommendation for this brand is: Crocs should
open more genuine stores in Vietnam, rather than franchised stores as it is now so that consumers can
easily access and avoid buying all kinds of fake goods of poor quality in the market. Other hand,
Crocs should invite famous people in Vietnam to represent its brand, the brand currently has a few
representatives in Asia, although it also has a certain influence in Vietnam, most of it is not large. So
they should invite some representatives in Vietnam such as Tran Thanh, Lam Vy Da, Hari Won, ...
who will be able to increase the influence and confidence of Vietnamese customers.

b. Conclusion.
Going from a casual footwear company to an international company competitive product
plastic. Crocs have made a name for itself from a brand specializing not only production of casual
footwear, but also very creative and innovative. Now Crocs has become a brand trusted by many
famous people. All can be said is based on their excellent marketing strategy. This essay clearly
analyzes some of the marketing strategies that make Crocs successful in the international market and
analyzes Crocs' marketing strategies in the Vietnamese market as well as the reasons why Crocs is
still not famous in the Vietnamese market and solutions for it.

D. REFERENCES
Michael A. K. & David S. (1993). Secondary Research: Information Sources and Methods.
California: SAGE Publications, Inc. (thứ cấp)
Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University. (2010). Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ (sơ cấp)
Maxine E. H. E., Christy E. F., Daniel E. S. and John J. R. (2010). The Scott, Foresman Handbook for
Writers (9th ed.). London: Pearson Publishers. (sơ cấp)
Bjorn Diemer Crocs-Find Your Fun(9.11.2015)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tc
BBrPYXSc&ab_channel=MattWymer Crocs, Inc. Launches New #FindYourFun Integrated
Marketing Campaign

10
MKT201 Group Assignment

(March 30, 2015) https://investors.crocs.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2015/Crocs-Inc-

Launches-New-FindYourFun-Integrated-Marketing-Campaign/default.aspx

11