A lot of Vietnamese enterprises make heavy investment to develop high quality new products, but they do not know how to make them reachable to consumers.

Lacking slogans for products and lacking communication technique are the two biggest problems of Vietnamese enterprises.

A story was related on Tuoi tre that Hai, a housewife in HCM City; when visiting a trade fair in HCM City, was very surprised when reading the words “hang khong dung cho thuong mai” at the stall of Nhon Hoa Company (the products are not for trade). When Hai asked the saleswoman about the words, she was told that the balances were just on display, not for sale. Later, Vu Thien Truong, Marketing Director of Nhon Hoa Balance Company, explained that the words meant the balances were designed for housewives when going shopping, not used for small merchants in selling goods.

According to Tran Dinh Dung, a marketing expert, now lecturer of the HCM City Economics University; domestic enterprises still do not pay appropriate attention to developing brands and popularizing their products. Especially, in many cases, company salesmen do not understand media objectives and they do not know that to say about the products.

Many manufacturers can understand well the demand in the market, but they cannot find the best ways to persuade consumers to use their products.

Nhuan, an officer of a fashion company, said that she has purchased a set of plastic boxes of Dai Dong Tien Company and she has been satisfactory with the product.

However, the problem is that she purchased the product just because the product seemed to be cheaper than other products of the same kinds available on the market. Only after purchasing and using the product, did Nhuan find out that the product is really good and useful.

She said that though the manufacturer gives some factors about the product, these are simply technical factors, while she could not find any suggestions about the functions of the products. Therefore, she had to search information on newspapers to know how to use it.

According to Trinh Chi Cuong, Director of Dai Dong Tien, the plastic box product has been marketed amid the people’s worry about the cooking safety. The product is named Sina, which is the abbreviation of Silver Nano. With the technology, food will stay fresh and good for the whole week if it is kept in the boxes in refrigerators.

Tran Anh Tuan, Director of The Pathfinder, a consultancy firm, said that besides the enterprises which have professional marketing strategies, many other enterprises just try to introduce their technical factors and product characteristics, instead of analyzing the significance and the use of the products to consumers.

Other experts have also advised enterprises to follow smart ways to access to consumers. Bui Thi Huong, Foreign Relation Director of Vinamilk, said that the media aims to give consumption education to consumers, help consumers understand about the nutrition value and product’s values.

Vinamilk recently marketed Dielac Pedia, a new product for anorexic children, in cooperation with Swiss Lonza and Danish Hansen. The dairy producer has also been trying to make people understand that its product has high quality and the same characteristics as foreign made products, but it has much lower sale prices. In general, import products are 60-70 percent more expensive than domestic products.

In related news, Nguyen Quy Hoa, General Director of the HCM City Television HTV, said that HTV will cooperate with the Business Studies and Assistance Center (BSA) to help popularize Vietnam made products on television. Under the program, HTV will be in charge of broadcasting and editing news, while BSA will seek information about the products of Vietnamese enterprises.

HTV has also promised to reserve 40-60 minutes a week for the Vietnamese goods program.

C. V