Kelvin Lin, a Myanmar origin but a citizen of Singapore, is wondering the openness of Myanmar market, which was previously very notorious about the backwardness and full of barriers in the foreign trade. As a fresh graduate from the NUS and the son of a businessman, he decided to do business with Myanmar. He is an enthusiast of automobile and he through that it might be good if he enters the marketing and distribution of a lubricant brand available in Malaysia where he has a close contact with the industry as he conducted an industrial analysis of Malaysian Lubricant industry. He contacted with the company which is offering its products with the brand name, Black Eagle. Mr. Lin started setting up this business in Myanmar since the beginning of 2015 and penetrated the market gradually. However, he felt that the market is tough and he needs a great deal of study and strategic planning.

Lubricants and engine oil are essential to the automobiles and machines. The exchange of engine oil and the quality can also effect on the engine's performance and life. The buyers of these products are belonged to two markets; consumer and industrial buyer. In the consumer market, major buyers are car owners who maintain their cars themselves or through the car servicing workshops.

In Myanmar, motorcar ownership increased sharply in the last five years under the first newly elected civilian government led by the president, U Thein Sein. The government's policy of allowing imports of car for outdated cars has caused the drastic increase in the number of cars on the road and the flood of new models in place of old and unfashion cars. During the same time, the government's policy was more open-door policy that caused drastic increase in the foreign direct investment and the presence of some multinational companies and their brands. The infrastructure development such as express highway, extension of airports, permits to operate telecommunication, etc. helped sudden growth of modern goods and services which were previously under shortage or undersupplied. As a result of change in the environment, people are experiencing new daily lives such as heavy traffics, new shopping malls, international brands, new buildings, etc.

Myanmar had 331500 registered passenger cars in 2013 and the increase was approximately 20% during the period from 2012 to 2013, according to the report by the IPSOS (2013). The trucks in the same period accounted for 74500 and 10% increase is noted from 2012 to 2013. As the country is modernized, more demand for trucks will exist. Similarly, 19800 buses and 3.2 million motorcycles were registered in 2012/13. Moreover, the car ownership is related to the population density and the two cities, namely Yangon and Mandalay are the largest cities with highest ownership of cars. The private car owners are actually professionals and financially privileged people despite of increasing number of car owners as the car price dropped compared to earlier days prior to the present government.

Myanmar's consumption of lubricants was estimated as 60 million litres by 2013, according to the consulting firm, Solidance (2013).Growth in the use of lubricants in Myanmar is between 8 and 9% each year, according to Chapman. This is aligned with the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) 8% GDP growth forecast for Myanmar's economy, which the bank says will continue to expand at a robust pace "on investment stimulated by structural reform and generally strong domestic demand."Automotive lubricant market is counted for 65% of total lubricant consumption in Myanmar. There are many lubricant brands in Myanmar. It is not easy to set a foot in the market, because of the large crowd of brands. The top brands are Motul, PTT and Stallion. PTT brand held 8% market share and Shell held 5% market share in 2015, but targeting 15% market share.

Mr. Lin has so far set up the distribution centre in Yangon and ran the campaign for the brand awareness. He emphasised the quality of the engine oil with the grades, SAF 20, SAF 30, SAF 40 and SAF 60. He believed that the Myanmar consumers are not experienced with the quality standards and thus he used the label "Top Quality" on the package. The price for the 5 Liters canned pack is 12,000 Ks which is slightly below the market price of competitors. He is using the door-to-door delivery to the car workshops in Yangon and a main distributor appointed for the distribution outside Yangon. He used the media advertising and social media. Auto magazine was chosen to insert the ad and discount coupon. The FaceBook is also used to post the marketing messages.

Mr. Lim is committed to invest in his business and willing to invest to gain satisfactory market share in the market. He strongly believes that a systematic approach in marketing can lead to the success and he will never spare to put efforts in the applications of marketing concepts and techniques.

Questions:

(a)What should be the vision and mission statementsof Mr. Lim's business ?

(b)Develop a customer-driven strategy (Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning) for the business.

(c)Which market information are you in need for the strategic marketing planningand how would you conduct the collection of data and information?