Want to expand your business in Vietnam? Vietnam offers great opportunities for international businesses, as it is a country with the third-largest population in South East Asia. Vietnam also maintained a steady and strong GDP growth even during the global COVID-19 pandemic. With its economic trajectory, the Vietnam market surely is a great country for business expansion, which also means hundreds of local and global competitors. Thus, you surely need to make your mark by implementing the best advertising and marketing strategies.
There are a hundred ways to market your product. However, the best strategies in Vietnam come only from internet, social media, and digital marketing. Marketing success stories in this country revolve around the use of social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, and around collaborations with influencers and experts. Why? Because more than 72% of the Vietnamese population use the internet, and almost 77% are active in social media.
Now, internet and social media marketing is not as simple as it sounds. Under this strategy, there are hundreds of subgroup strategies which a brand might use. Lucky for you, we already streamlined these strategies down to the most effective ones in Vietnam.
In this list, we collated the top marketing trends in Vietnam which may help your brand in making the most remarkable entrance in this market. With thousands of competitors, your goal must be to stand out. Read on and see what strategies you may implement.
Top 11 Marketing Trends in Vietnam ⬇️
Add to cart: prioritize e-commerce and launch live shopping campaigns
The influence that counts: collaborate with micro and nano influencers
Brand identity: give your brand a fun and relatable voice through meme marketing
Artificial Intelligence: learn to implement chatbots and AI influencers
Level up: level up your game by collaborating with gaming influencers
Capture, Caption, and Post: use your online channels to promote your physical offline stores
Short and sweet: create micro films that will leave an impact to your audience
Affiliate marketing: foster networks which can make your job easier
1. Bust those rhymes
Use V-Rap in your marketing campaigns
Brands are starting to search for rap influencers to market their brands after the success of rap programs in Vietnam such as King of Rap and Rap Viet. Vietnamese rappers can successfully express a brand's message in a creative and memorable way. The great composition a rap music makes brand message easy to remember, which increases campaign effectiveness.
For example, Vietnam’s e-wallet services, Momo, did a collaboration with Binz, one of the Rap Viet’s mentors. Binz produced a music video which gained 10 million views during the first 2 weeks and connected Momo’s brand with Binz’s fans.
Due to the successful use of V-Rap as a marketing technique in 2021, it is believed that the use of V-Rap marketing will increase by 20-30% in 2022.
2. Add to cart
Prioritize e-commerce and launch live shopping campaigns
The lockdown experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the popularity of online shopping. Online shopping became the only option for people to buy goods and services without having to go outside the comfort of their homes. Instead of being a mere option, it became a necessity.
Online live shopping and livestreams have the ability to speed up the buying process, increase customer loyalty, and increase customer confidence by reducing the distance between consumers and brands.
Brands started to consider the benefits of live shopping through various platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Big e-commerce platforms like LAZADA and Shopee started their own live shopping feature called LazLive and ShopeeLive. Lazada successfully attracted 150 brands to use the live shopping feature.
If you want guaranteed online success for your brand, then shift online and make sure consumers can add your products to their carts.
3. The influence that counts
Collaborate with micro and nano influencers
Whether you are looking to increase brand awareness, build relationships with your audience, or connect with millennials and Gen Zs, influencer marketing has got you covered.
There are various Vietnamese influencers across all social networking platforms. However, if you are looking for a cost-effective way to do influencer marketing, you should consider micro and nano Influencers.
Micro and Nano influencers tend to have a higher engagement rate of up to 7% than mega influencers, while costing less in terms of budget. While celebrities and KOLs are good for branding and for achieving awareness, micro and nano influencers have higher conversion rates due to their organic engagement.
Though these types of influencers have lesser audience, their influence truly counts. The relationship they have with their follower base is incomparable to the relationship of mega influencers in terms of closeness, loyalty, and authenticity.
4. Brand identity
Give your brand a fun and relatable voice through meme marketing
One of the most popular forms of viral marketing in Vietnam is through meme marketing. Memes are funny, relatable, and entertaining visual content online.
Though memes are often used for fun alone, memes are now showing the potential for marketing and advertising. This technique can make even a dull, overly-professional, and rigid brand stand out.
Big brands like Gucci, Highlands, and Durex Vietnam have successfully used meme marketing as a marketing strategy. When Marvel’s Avengers Endgame was released in 2019, Durex Vietnam came up with this genius content by adapting the superhero costumes to their product illustrations. Needless to say, it brought smile to internet users and gained thousands of engagements.
5. Sing to the tune of the market
Make use of music marketing
Producing music with commercial elements is a bold move. Nevertheless, music marketing is considered to be a growing trend in Vietnam.
This technique was used by Dove and it resulted to one of the most successful musical TVCs in Vietnam. By collaborating with the singer Trang, Dove created a song whose message inspired women all over Vietnam. The commercial encouraged women to be themselves and to feel freedom in telling their story.
There are several commercial music productions that have also created a positive impact towards brands, including “Bai nay chill phet” by Den Vau and Strongbow, “Thay Tet Ion, mung Tet Ion” by Truc Nhan and Samsung, and “Di ve nha” by Black X JustaTee and Honda.
6. Artificial Intelligence
Learn to implement chatbots and AI influencers
Ranging from chat-bots to AI influencers, the use of artificial intelligence for marketing achieves impressive results. AI marketing maximizes data collection, personalizes content, identifies data trends, and provides a convenient customer experience.
T&A Ogilvy has ignited the trend in Vietnam by pioneering a new technology. T&A Ogilvy sponsored the Toc Tien Al Clear Head campaign which included the creation of an AI version of Toc Tien, the Vietnamese singer. They made a separate Facebook account which mimics Toc Tien actively on social media. The AI persona also acts as a brand ambassador, which gained traction all over the internet.
AI marketing lets people take a peek at the future of technology, and how this tech can help brands and consumers alike.
7. Comic influencers
Prioritize visual marketing
What could be more adorable than illustrations that conveys meaningful messages? Vietnamese comic artists have created comic strips in order to drive the online community to participate in practical action.
The strategy of using comic influencers to promote brands is accepted very positively by the Vietnamese audiences. The comic characters very much connect with the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Its cuteness, added with its relatability, produces a deadly combo in marketing.
Here are several comic influencers in Vietnam that you should keep an eye on: Thăng Fly Comics, Chấm Comics, Quỳnh Aka, Một Chút Cute và Nhật Ký Chống Dịch, and Một chút cute.
8. Level up
Level up your game by collaborating with gaming influencers
Big brands like Samsung, LG, Mentos, and Warrior have been collaborating with gaming influencers and have been achieving great results.
Brands usually seek gaming influencers to promote mobile apps, social networks, or devices that relate to their target audience. However, the gaming sub-culture impacts the habits of millions of consumers. Thus, pro-gamers with celebrity-like status are not exclusive for collaboration with brands in the gaming and tech industry. Brands for energy drinks, for example, also find themselves collaborating with these influencers.
To make it more honest, brands usually let gaming influencers experience the product beforehand, so the review would be authentic and would lead to higher conversion rate.
9. Capture, Caption, and Post
Use your online channels to promote your physical offline stores
While marketing in Vietnam is focused online, creating a unique offline location and promoting it online can achieve great results. It can include anything from a store interior to a pop-up exhibition.
As an example, the F&B brand “The Coffee House” created a space that looks and feels as comfortable as home. The space lighting, seating, and music created a cozy ambience. The Coffee House also delivers great services to their customers, resulting in higher customer loyalty.
Having a physical space is not enough. You also have to encourage people to go to your physical store through online promotions. Use your social media channels to promote your physical space by making everything Instagrammable. Take good photos, apply trendy filters, and type a remarkable caption. Once people see what your space has to offer, they will be willing to go off their phones for awhile and take a seat at your place.
10. Short and sweet
Create micro films that will leave an impact to your audience
Producing microfilms is a cost-effective way to communicate marketing messages. Microfilms enable brands to express their values through emotional storytelling that impacts consumers powerfully.
This form of marketing was popular in China in 2011. Today, it has gained traction in Vietnam when this marketing technique was used by OPPO in producing “Find Me” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and when Cadillac produced “Route 66” starring Mac Van Uy.
Big brands such as Prada and Coca Cola also succeeded in building customer attention by using microfilms.
11. Affiliate marketing
Foster networks which can make your job easier
Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective way for businesses to do online advertising. Affiliate marketing is based on commission, where a customer who joins the affiliate program will get profit if purchases were made through their link or code.
Affiliate marketing is trending in Vietnam due to the increase of e-commerce markets. In fact, ever since the pandemic, the Vietnamese e-commerce market has increased by more than 23%. Affiliate marketing is a way to secure flexible income to many micro influencers and bloggers. It can be done anytime and anywhere.
ACCESTRADE created a campaign called “Push the number of peaks - Process the luxury car” which resulted in an enthusiastic response from the affiliate community.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, as a fast growing market, Vietnam could be the next gold mine for your business. However, with all the benefits that Vietnam has to offer, the market has challenges too, including having thousands of competitors.
Therefore, choosing the right marketing technique and keeping up with the latest marketing trends is crucial. There are hundreds of online and social media marketing strategies to choose from, but our list has already given you the best ones. We hope this list has given you insight on how to enter the Vietnam market.
If you need the help of a local marketing agency, check out this list of 17 Best Marketing & Advertising Agencies in Vietnam. For more information on marketing and advertising in Vietnam, visit the AJ Marketing Blog.
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