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Experts call on to “reshape consumer culture of Vietnamese people”
Experts believe that the government needs to impose heavy tax on luxury imports in order to reduce the trade gap and encourage Vietnamese people to use domestically products.
A lot of Vietnamese people only use import products and refuse domestically made goods. This has been attributed to the unreasonable habit of people of being fond of foreign goods. However, this shows Vietnamese brands have still been inferior in the home market.
Experts have agreed that two years after implementing the “Buy Vietnamese goods” campaign initiated by the Communist Party’s Politburo, Vietnamese goods have become the choice of more consumers on the market. However, Vietnamese goods still have been refused by many people, who always believe that Vietnamese goods mean low quality goods.
Dr Duong Thi Lieu from the Business Administration Faculty of the Hanoi Economics University said that she can see a growing tendency in the society that people buy and use luxurious to show off their high positions in the society. The people are ready to spend big sums of money to buy original and expensive imports in order to create their differentiation in the crowds.
The people believe that they have the right to buy what they want and enjoy luxurious products and services, because Vietnam has integrated more deeply into the world. They also say that the use of luxurious products of a part of consumers should be encouraged because this shows the improvement of the living standards of Vietnamese people.
However, Lieu said, the people should be told that their consumer behaviors have had negative impacts on the national economy, where trade gap (import turnover is bigger than export turnover) remains a headache. The spending of billions of dollars to import super cars, alcohol and luxurious products has been making big contribution to the increase of trade gap, putting a hard pressure on the exchange rate, and pushing the inflation up.
Lieu emphasized that the State need to organize propaganda campaigns to strengthen the sense of national consciousness and call on people to use domestically made products. The campaigns would help “reshape the consumer culture of Vietnamese people.”
Especially, Lieu has suggested that the government should impose heavy tax on luxury imports in order to reduce the trade gap, reduce the reliance on imports and encourage Vietnamese people to use domestically products.
Manufacturers urged to invest in branding
Economists have pointed out that Vietnamese businesses have not had a good awareness of the importance and value of branding. Recent surveys show that only 10 percent of state owned enterprises understand that brands are their valuable assets. 70 percent of businesses say they use less than 5 percent of turnover on building and developing brands, while 20 percent of businesses do not allocate budget for branding.
Meanwhile, another survey on consumers’ psychology has pointed out that 89 percent of buyers would consider the brands before they decide to buy products.
Pham Gia Tuc, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry VCCI, said that Vietnam now imports very simple products, such as chopsticks or toothpicks, as well, which shows that Vietnamese goods are clearly inferior to foreign ones right on the home market.
Vietnamese businesses have been told to learn foreign manufacturers in brand development. A lot of foreign enterprises bought Vietnamese brands and then develop the brands to develop their business. The case where Uniliver bought P/S toothpaste is a typical example.
A report released by MasterCard Worldwide in February 2011 showed that Vietnam leads 24 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East in terms of spending money on meals and entertainment.
Quoc Dung
vietnamnet
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