A ceremony to honour Forbes' '50 Leading Vietnamese Brands in 2020' in HCM City on December 17. — VNS Photo

HCM CITY — During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential for brands to strengthen their position in customers’ mindsets, and at the same time find the key to access a new consumer generation, experts have said.

Delegates at the Forbes Vietnam Branding Conference, held in HCM City on December 17, said that in 2020 the pandemic had disrupted all areas, including how businesses approach customers.

While the pandemic had created uncertainties, it had also become a catalyst that had sped up the digital economy and pushed businesses to alternate their branding strategy in the new context.

Nguyễn Anh Dũng, executive director for Retail Intelligence at Nielsen Vietnam, said that businesses, when building brands, would need to identify their target customers and the differences between different groups of consumers.

The explosion of smartphones and the internet had strongly influenced Generation Z, people born in the late 1990s.

“By 2025, there will be 2 billion members of Generation Z globally. In Việt Nam, there will be almost 15 million, and they already influence family decisions on entertainment activities, household goods, and food and beverage purchases.” 

"This generation communicates freely and connects widely on social media networks. In the next five years, it will become a new consumer generation with completely different consumption habits than those of previous generations."

The loyalty this generation has towards brands would be low due to their curiosity and impulsiveness, he said, adding that businesses should pay more attention to developing effective campaigns to approach this next generation of shoppers. 

When engaging with this generation, a multi-channel approach is ideal since Generation Z was approaching and interacting with brands via various channels or at different touch-points, he said.

Social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram were now musts in young people’s life, delegates said, adding that strong connectivity had made digital marketing and social marketing become more popular.

Connecting through social media had radically changed the way that brands reach consumers, they added.

At the conference, Nguyễn Hà Thành, PR director for the Viettel Group, spoke about the journey of building and developing the Viettel brand from an obscure name to the first rank of network providers in Southeast Asia.

In 2006, Viettel began to expand investment to other countries and now has a presence in 10 countries. In each country, Viettel has a different name, such as Mytel in Myanmar and Bitel in Peru. "This is done to suit the culture of each country, helping us to integrate and be welcomed," she said.

She also stressed the role of social responsibility in building corporate brands.

Forbes on Thursday also honoured its list of "50 Leading Vietnamese Brands in 2020", with total brand value this year reaching US$12.6 billion, an increase of $3.3 billion over the previous year.

The honoured firms included Viettel, Vinamilk, VNPT, Sabeco, Masan Consumer, FPT, PNJ, SSI, Vissan, Nam Long, Thành Thành Công-Biên Hòa, and Thaco. — VNS