Brands must do more to create and retain loyalty in Vietnam’s evolving consumer landscape.

While Vietnam continues
to stand out as one of Asia’s fastest-growing markets, brand leaders warn that growth
alone is no longer enough. The next phase will be defined by meaning, experience,
and emotional connection. Brand leaders, marketers, and strategists gathered at
the Kantar BrandZ Vietnam Awards 2025 to examine how Vietnamese brands can move
beyond scale and salience to achieve sustainable, long-term growth.

“There is a very
interesting dynamic in Vietnam,” Ms. Maslina M. Mokhtar, Regional Head of Experience, APAC and Chief Client
Officer, Vietnam at Kantar Insights, told Vietnam Economic Times /
VnEconomy. “Most brands are very good at building awareness. People know who they
are. But for many of them, the relationship with consumers is still largely transactional.
Very few brands are able to build real loyalty.”

Meaningful Difference

According to Ms.
Mokhtar, Vietnam’s fundamentals remain compelling. The country benefits from a young,
skilled workforce, rising foreign investment, and increasing commitments to sustainability,
green energy, and responsible finance. At the same time, domestic consumption has
proven resilient, allowing the economy to grow not only through exports but also
from within.

Yet this favorable
environment also raises expectations for brands. “The question is no longer whether
Vietnam can grow,” she continued. “It’s how brands choose to grow when they are
already in a good place.”

Kantar’s answer
lies in what it calls Meaningful Difference – a concept that goes beyond awareness
or market share to focus on relevance, emotional connection, and consistent experience.

Drawing on Kantar
BrandZ data, Ms. Mokhtar noted that many brands in Vietnam excel at generating visibility
but struggle to articulate a clear purpose or personality. “In many categories,
you see one or two brands that are very clear about what they stand for,” she said.
“They are meaningful, they are different, and they retain the same customers over
time.”

This lack of clarity,
she warned, leads to wasted investment. Brands spend heavily on exposure, but without
a strong point of view or emotional relevance, awareness fails to translate into
loyalty or pricing power. That challenge is particularly evident in categories where
competition has intensified and products have become increasingly similar.

The growing role
of the customer experience as a driver of brand equity is also highlighted. Historically,
many organizations treated the customer experience as an operational issue rather
than a strategic one. That mindset is now outdated.

Kantar data shows
that touchpoints account for more than 75 per cent of brand equity and predisposition.
In sectors such as financial services, more than half of brand equity is driven
by the experience. Even in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), the experience – including
retail, e-commerce, and product trial – accounts for nearly 45 per cent. The implication
is clear: brand promises must be delivered seamlessly across channels, from advertising
and digital platforms to physical stores and after-sales service.

Shifting consumer mindsets

Across sectors, changes in how people discover, evaluate, and engage with brands
are reshaping the foundations of marketing, product development, and the customer
experience.

For Ms. Khiet Ly,
Channel Partnership Team Lead at TikTok Vietnam, the most significant shifts relate
to attention, emotional connection, and search behavior. “Retaining attention has
become much harder,” she said. “Consumers are exposed to so much content every day.
They scroll faster and are far more selective.” As a result, brands must work harder
to earn attention rather than simply buying it.

TikTok data shows
that 83 per cent of users say emotional connection is the reason they stay loyal
to a brand, make a purchase, or recall a brand first when a need arises. “Consumers
want content that feels authentic and human,” Ms. Khiet said. “Brands need to step
away from overly polished messaging and create content that genuinely connects.”

Discovery increasingly
happens on social platforms through video, rather than on traditional search engines
alone. On TikTok, more than half of users search for a product directly on the platform
after seeing it.

From a product and
communications perspective, Mr. Thanh Dat Cao, Marketing Director at Häfele Vietnam, emphasized the need for meaningful innovation. “Consumers
are no longer buying solutions, they are buying refinement and experience,” he said.
“In home appliances, for example, expectations have shifted towards sophistication
and ease.”

However, not all
innovation creates value. Some product enhancements, he noted, introduce unnecessary
complexity and burden users instead of improving their lives. “Meaningfully different
innovation is what helps brands go further,” Mr. Dat said. “Not innovation for its
own sake.”

In media and communications,
fragmentation has made consistency more important than ever. In the home appliance
category, around 60 per cent of purchase decisions are influenced by social networks
and recommendations rather than advertising alone.

In banking, the
shift is even more pronounced. Ms. Nhi Phan, Senior Manager of Digital Sales Management
and MarTech Stack at Techcombank, described a move from digital-first to experience-first
thinking. “What matters to customers is the end-to-end experience,” she said. “From
advertising and onboarding to transactions and post-sale service.”

Speed and proactivity
are now essential. Rather than waiting for customers to seek out products, banks
must reach them at the right moment with relevant solutions. Transparency and trust
remain non-negotiable. As pricing and fees converge across banks, consumers increasingly
evaluate institutions based on credibility and the ability to deliver on promises.
Technology, particularly MarTech and data ecosystems, enables personalization at
scale, allowing banks to respond more intelligently to changing customer needs.

From an advertising
perspective, Mr. Alex Ngo, Country Head of Marketing at MGID, highlighted how Vietnam
differs from Western markets. “Vietnam is one of the few markets where consumers
don’t pay upfront, as around 90 per cent of transactions are still cash on delivery,”
he said. “That’s very different from the US and Europe.”

Discovery behavior
also varies regionally. While web reach is high in Ho Chi Minh City, conversion
rates tend to be higher in Hanoi. For high-trust categories such as real estate
and finance, transparency remains the top priority.

For Ms. Mokhtar,
the takeaway for businesses is straightforward. “Be clear. Have a strong brand purpose
and be consistent,” she said. As Vietnam’s market matures and competition intensifies,
brands that move beyond awareness to become meaningfully different will be best
positioned to turn growth into lasting value.

VET-Linh Tong