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Trademarks determine consumption
The awareness of Vietnamese consumers has been changing and they now tend to be loyal to prestigious trademarks. A 2008 survey reveals that only 50% of people buy products in promotional campaigns, a sharp decrease from 70% in 2004 and 91% in 1991.
Consumers prefer good-trademark products
The said figures reveal that in previous years, Vietnamese consumers sought to buy cheap products, while they now prefer prestigious products. The survey also shows that the percentage of consumers who want to try products of other trademarks has decreased from 88% in 1991 to 44% at present.
58% of Vietnamese consumers under 25 are ready to receive new ideas and concepts through brand names. Eight of the 10 fastest-growing brand names in Vietnam in 2008 have appeared in the market in the last 36 months.
Meanwhile, experts say Vietnam has not yet paid appropriate attention to trademark development.
Antonio Berenguer, Trade Counselor of the EC in Vietnam, said at a workshop on brand name development on October 3 in HCM City that very few people in Europe know that Vietnam is the world’s second-biggest coffee exporter.
According to him, the fact that Vietnam’s coffee still does not have a good brand name has been a disadvantage for the industry as Vietnam mainly exports raw materials, while the prices of raw materials fluctuate all the time.
Ralf Matthaes, Managing Director of TNS Vietnam, said that market surveys all show that the brand name is the main reason, not quality, design or price, consumers buy a product.
Brand names need to be protected by law
Statistics show that in 2007, the police discovered 9,000 counterfeit wine bottles, 10 tonnes of counterfeit cosmetics products and 3,800 counterfeit perfume jars. The market control taskforce investigated 2,496 cases of brand name and industrial design violations and issued decisions to punish violators. However, the total of VND1.2bil in fines proved to be unable to deter violators.
Mr Berenguer said that the situation of counterfeit brand names in Vietnam is worrying. 40% of motorbike accessories are counterfeit, 8% of medicine, 25% of wine now available on the market are counterfeit products. Moreover, the high software infringement rate causes losses of Euro200mil a year.
Similarly, nearly all VCD and DVD disks are illegally copied, while counterfeit shampoo, clothes, cosmetics and handbags are everywhere in the market.
VNN
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