Even though Vietnamese society is significant patriotic, employing patriotism in advertising is not always effective. Since 2014 when the tension between Vietnam and China became a hot issue, many brands have launched their marketing campaign calling for protecting the nation. For example, a Format shopping building fulfilled its windows with 48 national flags or a body shower gel companies announced to donate 1000 VND per product (about 0,04 USD) for the military activities in the South China Sea (Nguyen, 2014). However, only some of them could impress the audiences and many of them got unexpected feedbacks. Dai Viet Beer is a typical case for the unpredictable consequence of overusing patriotism.
The consumers argued that the brand was too new to defined themselves as the beer of the country. They also called for boycott Dai Viet by the reason that drinking beer should not be promoted as a way to represent strength and vigor which could affect young people's perception and lead alcoholic evils. The most common patriotic message used is persuading people that the product is the pride of Vietnam and buying or using it is showing the love and belief with the country. They also convince consumers that buying “made in Vietnam” products means protecting the domestic economy, helping local businessmen who are their compatriots (Siamagka and
Balabanis, 2015). Using national symbols, signs and other contents which could demonstrate the nation and be familiar with target audiences, with or without explanation, also catch people’s attention easily (E. Bankole, 2018).
Figure 6. Screenshot of Dai Viet beer’s advertisement
It’s slogan means " Beer of Vietnam" and the hashtag “Vietnamese vigor” (Daiviet beer Youtube channel)
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
In this research, textual analysis method will be used to first analyze the patriotic symbols and text. Frequency counts frequency of certain calculated elements in these advertising campaigns will be applied to answer RQ1, while a narrative analysis theory would be applied to deploy RQ2.
(Rose, 2007).
In 2017, Forbes Vietnam, again, released its third annual list of the 40 most valuable brands in Vietnam. Dairy giant Vinamilk and military-run telecom firm Viettel remained the top two as they were in the two previous years (Forbes Vietnam, 2017). Forbes estimated Vinamilk’s brand value at $2.28 billion, much higher than the $1.7 billion last year, and Viettel at $1.39 billion (Table 1).
It is easy to understand as according to the World Atlas website in 2018, food processing and service industries are one of the six largest industry in Vietnam, while the other industries were dominated by foreign giants (i.e. Samsung in electronic industry). If we look at the chart below provided by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam in 2016, there are not many differences when Service sector stands still the biggest economic sector. Food processing remained the same from 2016 to 2018 which dominated by agricultural and sea products that are canned and shipped overseas, the sector accounts for 40% of Vietnam's export and directly contributes 15% of the GDP (World Atlas, 2018).
Therefore, combining those evidences, the researcher decided to pick Vinamilk and Viettel as the case studies for this research to see how those two top brands employ the sense of patriotism in promoting brand image and increase the sale.
Figure 7. GDP Value-added of Economic Sector in 2016 (General Statistics Office of Vietnam)
Table 1. List of 40 most valuable brands in 2018 (Source: Forbes Vietnam)
1. Vinamilk and Vietnam dairy industry
Vietnam dairy industry is evaluated at around 4.1 billion US dollars with the increasing growth rate of 16 % during the period 2011-2015 (EVBN, 2016). The dairy market in Vietnam has advantages of the young demographics, raising concerns of health and fitness, and increasing basic income level. Currently, the dairy sector in Vietnam is featured with ten big players and highly consolidated entrance. However, the upstream dairy market still stands a high chance of development, due to the under-developed raw milk producers. Especially, these products:
powdered milk, cheese, and fresh cream in Vietnam are heavily dominated by foreign suppliers who fulfills more than 70 % of the total volume (Ngo, 2018).
In general, milk was supposed to be a drink for kids which help to grow their high and strong. Because it contains calcium that supports their physical growth. Most of milk advertisements in Vietnam are about moms feed kids milk so that they could be stronger and higher than their friends or for pregnant women who want their kids to have good growth from the inside (Figure 8 and 9). This stereotype might be originated from the poor economic condition in the past when people mostly lived with low income. Hence, milk and products made from milk with high price were not daily foodstuffs which were only for special people such as the kids, the sick or the elder people. Another possible reason started from eating habit of Vietnamese people as they do not usually eat bread, wheat or kinds of food which could be combined with milk. Cheese, yogurt or butter was introduced by France during the colonized period.
EuroMonitor International (2016) has reported the rising trend of health and wellness in Vietnam with a noticeable increase in the usage of dairy products. The residential higher awareness of wellbeing has led to a positive effect on the consumption of milk. Especially, among the young
generations, the habit of drinking milk has come to a regular basis as people believe that milk is an important calcium supply (Ngo, 2018).
Figure 8. Dielac Grow Vietnam advertisement (Brand’s websites)
Figure 9. Milo Vietnam advertisement (Brand’s website)
In 2016, according to the annual dairy report published by EU-Vietnam Business Network, a Vietnamese consume was on average 20 liters of milk per year and was projected to be on average 28 liters by 2020. In 2017, it already reached 26 liters (Figure 10). However, even considering the significant 40% growth, Vietnam would still be consuming less milk per capita than Thailand (35 liters) and Singapore (45 liters), meaning there is still potential for the future.
Figure 10. Vietnam Dairy consumption per capita (Euromonitor, 2014)
In fact, in 2016, the survey indicated the significant amount of imported milk consumed in Vietnam. Because of the internationalization, the legislation is easier on trading milk, which also promotes the consumption of foreign brands, and creates more rivalries in the domestic dairy market. For example, the import tax for imported dairy products from Australia and New Zealand to Vietnam is reduced from 7 % to 5 % in January 2016 (EuroMonitor International, 2016).
Moreover, this competition is not only between local and global brands but also between domestic products, between the new and the old. In many years, Vinamilk always dominates Vietnam dairy market with approximately 50% market share in 2017. However, the rising rapidly of other brands, for example, TH True Milk, a young but strong player, could be a challenge which it has to face. TH True Milk was established in 2009. From 2016 to 2018, the average revenue growth of TH True milk is 20% while Vinamilk only reaches 14% (Tran, 2018). To benefit from
the trends and the current situation in the market, the local companies in the dairy sector have to reshape their strategies of investment and development.
Generally speaking, Vietnamese consumers have been quite open to try new dairy products as dairy is the most successful FMCG category with new product launches achieving an average 20% penetration rate and 50% repurchase rate (Kantar WorldPanel Insight Handbook 2016). It opens many opportunities for new entries. However, dairy products in Vietnam have not yet become a commodity, investments in branding and marketing such as awareness campaigns and advertising to promote dairy consumption are important.
Vinamilk was established on August 20, 1976, on the basis of three dairy factories from the old regime: Thong Nhat Dairy Factory (formerly known as Foremost factory); Truong Tho Dairy Factory and Dielac Powdered Milk Factory (formerly known as Nestlé factory (Swiss). So far, it is the largest dairy company in Vietnam. Vinamilk products such as powdered milk and condensed milk are also exported to the Middle East, Cambodia, the Philippines and Australia (Vinamilk annual report 2017).
Figure 11. Vinamilk total revenue and profit after tax (Vinamilk annual report 2017)
In this positioning map developed by Viet Capital Securities in 2012 (figure 11), we can see that Vinamilk are more accessible than other brands. It would seem like one of the most
effective strengths as Vietnamese consumers mostly have medium income. However, the gaps between Vinamilk with other competitors is not big enough to maintain its number one position (Hanoitimes, 2018).
Figure 12. Number of Distributors vs Country of Origin in liquid milk market (Viet Capital Securities 2012)