Online Video Advertising on the rise

From Marketing.24h, published on Jan 28, 2013.

Vietnam is leading on online video traffic among Asian countries with 13 million users watching video online according to report of ComScore 6/2012. Among the Asia-Pacific countries under research, Vietnam has high density of online video viewers, nearly 90% of internet users accessing online video compared to the average level 83.1% of the world population.

Viewing video online is becoming the favorite activities of internet users, attracting users to access Internet longer and continue accessing next time to discover more. With the fact that users refer online video viewing more than web surfing, this is an opportunity for advertisers to introduce & promote their products and services.

Realizing the huge potential target audience, Youtube and many web owners in Vietnam like 24h and Dantri have been providing online video advertising services in Vietnam. In the future, when the ad service suppliers reach improvement in technology, measurement systems and confidence-building among advertisers, online video advertising will be the first priority in the choice for business.

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Auto, motorbike production to be listed as high technologies?

From Vietnamnet, Dec 5th, 2012

VietNamNet Bridge – The automobile and motorbike industries are not the subject to any investment encouragement policies. However, the government has been urged to change the current situation, because the development of the automobile production would bring about the development of other industries.

The Vietnam Business Forum (VBF), an event which always occurs on the sideline of the meeting of the group of donors to Vietnam, opened on December 3 in Hanoi. And the most important thing of the important event is the presence of the newly set up automobile and motorbike working group.

The working group, right at its debut, made a lot of suggestions to develop the automobile industry in Vietnam. One of the suggestions is adding the automobile and motorbike production into the list of high technology industries that need encouragement to develop.

At present, the industry is not subject to any investment encouragement policies. But if they are considered high technologies industries, i.e. they can receive investment incentives, they would bring big benefits to the economy.

Meanwhile, experts say in other countries, the automobile industry plays a very important role in their technology development. The development of the industry has a close relation with the nations’ development, skills and know-how, and the education system. The number of engineers of a nation can be seen as the tool that measures the renovation capability and the national competitiveness.

In fact, Vietnam once dreamed of developing the automobile industry when it opened the market to a series of the world’s biggest automobile manufacturers. At the highest peak, 11 automobile joint ventures were present in Vietnam. 

Vietnam now has the population of 90 million people, while the figure is expected to increase rapidly in the next 10 years. Meanwhile, its GDP per capita is 1200 dollars which would be 4000 dollars by 2020. The increase in the GDP per capita and the population would affect the habits of Vietnamese people in using and buying cars.

At present, there are only two cars per every 1000 people, but the proportion would increase in the future. It happened in other countries that the economic growth led to the increasing habit of using cars, which then led to the strong development of the automobile industry.

The Vietnamese automobile industry is now considered very small. However, it is still big enough to make 3-5 percent of GDP and creates 125,000 direct jobs and 500,000 indirect jobs. By the end of August, automobile enterprises had paid 457 million dollars to the state budget, even though the sales dropped by 65 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year.

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Co-branding: Telecom Co. joins hands with Coca-Cola
From Marketing Section of 24h.com.vn, updated Nov 26th, 2012

The market has witnessed a combination of Coca-Cola Vietnam and VinaPhone in a promotion campaign that VinaPhone will offer their mobile telecommunications services to customers who luckily win the prize when purchasing products of Coca-Cola in Vietnam.

Earlier, Coca-Cola and Samsung also co-hosted a banquet music SoundFest at an international standard in Vietnam.

The link between Coca-Cola - Samsung or Coca-Cola - VinaPhone is considered a format of "co-branding" - a concept of marketing that mounting a product or service with more than one brand. Co-branding is also known as a brand partner when the two companies formed the alliance to work together, creating marketing synergy.

The aim of this cooperation is to combine the power of two or more dominant brands to increase the value that customers are willing to pay to take it, or to connect customers’ various perception of the brand with certain products.

The concept is not new, but that fact that the big brands such as Coca-Cola associated with the domestic brands in a promotion campaign is still considered rare. Maybe in hard time of economic situations, consumers have to tighten their spending; therefore, the business cooperation between different brands to launch such the promotion campaign is a wise & effective approach.

Thus, only about 50% of subscribers continuing to use VinaPhone can make this integrated promotion campaign. Besides, the wide coverage of the Coca-Cola distribution network will help VinaPhone approach & get closer to the markets in which VinaPhone has grown.

For Coca-Cola, the tracking traffic of 3.5 million texting messages or assessing the websites for the promotion information does not mean that all these products of Coca-Cola sold are just 3.5 million. It’s because there exist the many other customers purchasing Coca-cola & do not care about the promotion information in the bottle caps.

The co-branding will help expand business scale and satisfy customer needs; achieve financial benefits; strengthen competitive position; introduce new products with a strong impression; creating customer value new experience; increase performance.

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Car sales on a slide in Vietnam 

Based on Tuoi Tre News, updated on Thu, October 18, 2012,7:00 PM (GMT+0700)

Auto sales in Vietnam continued its slide in September with a 36 percent year-on-year slump to about 7,700 units, according to official data recently released by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA).

However, sales in September inched up 9 percent over August, and the annual percentage decline in September had moderated slightly from that in August, said VAMA.

With September’s figures, car sales in the first 9 months of this year fell some 31.5 percent year on year to 55,928 units, said VAMA.

Based on the figures, VAMA has also raised the 2012 annual car sales forecast by nearly 7 percent to 94,000 units from 88,000 units projected in August.

Total sales of the market reached 7,669 units, including the 2,869 cars and 4,800 trucks, up 15 percent and p 20 percent from the previous month.

Locally assembled cars reached 6,501 units, up 9 percent from the previous month, while the number of imported vehicles was 1,168 units, up 9 percent over August.

The VAMA data covers the sales of SUVs, passenger cars and commercial vehicles by VAMA members.

Sales of passenger cars and SUVs plunged over 33 percent year on year to 4,100 units, while sales of commercial vehicle sales tumbled 28.5 percent, from 4,082 units to 2,919 units.

Toyota took the top sales position last month from Vietnamese carmaker Truong Hai, leading 18 manufacturers in the country.

January-September car sales fell 31.6 percent from 81,766 units a year earlier to 55,928 units, VAMA said.

Truong Hai, which assembles Korean KIA cars and various commercial vehicles, regained its market lead despite a 26.1 percent decline in sales to 17,300 units during the period.

Toyota was a close second with 16,255 units (-26.5 percent); followed by GM-Daewoo  with 4,100 (-44.2 percent).

The association has raised its forecast for Vietnam's 2012 annual car sales by nearly 7 percent to 94,000 units, from 88,000 units projected last month, based on September data, the report said.

In August, the car sale of the whole market reached 7,056 units, down 5 percent from July 2012 and down 34 percent from last August.

In comparison with the same period last year, the car sale of the whole market in the first eight months of this year declined 38 percent.

The sale result in August 2012 led to a forecast that the market this year will end with about 88,000 units sold, down 4.6 percent against the forecast given in July 2012.

The total car sale of the whole market reached 7,056 units, including 2,500 four-seater cars and 4,556 trucks, down 8 percent and 3 percent on month respectively.

The volume of locally assembled cars reached 5,982 units, down 4 percent month on month and the import of completely built unit (CBU) cars reached 1,074 units, down 8 percent month on month.

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Nearly 6,000 Toyotas recalled

According to Viet Nam News - Updated on October, 18 2012 09:53:00

HA NOI (VNS)– Japanese auto giant Toyota will recall 5,299 units of its premium sedans Corolla Altis and Vios from the Viet Nam market to repair faulty power window master switches (PWMS), according to the Competition Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The move is part of a massive global recall of 7.4 million vehicles, including more than 2.4 million vehicles in the US, 1.39 million in Europe and 1.4 million in China, the department said.

The company, which is present in Viet Nam through a US$89.6 million joint venture with local VEAM and Singapore KOU companies, will recall the 1,489 Corolla Altis and 3,810 Vios manufactured in 2008 between July and December, it said.

Toyota Viet Nam will start the recall immediately and will contact relevant customers to check and change the part, if necessary, free of cost.

According to a representative from a Toyota dealership in Ha Noi, the repair is expected to take approximately one hour, depending on the dealer's work schedule.

Describing the problem, the representative said that in certain Corolla Alti and Vio models, the PWMS may begin to feel notchy or become inoperative. This can be attributed to wear and tear over-time.

The Vinh Phuc-based auto manufacturer recalled 72 units of Camrys, Corrolla Altis and Vios in February due to a mistake in transaxle fluid delivery.

Last April it also recalled 8,000 Innova minivans, its best-selling model in Viet Nam, because of problems that include a faulty pressure cylinder for rear-wheel brakes. — VNS

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