Vietnam in-home FMCG market hit a five-year high as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We witnessed a clear shift among Vietnamese consumers towards essentials, cooking and hygiene as well as a shift from out-of-home to in-home occasions. As such, food sector was the biggest winner last year, and therefore, all the rankings, especially the top risers, are dominated by food brands.
Also, penetration is still king! Growing consumer base remains the key driver for brand growth while innovation plays an important role in attracting new consumers, something we see in common across many of the fastest growing brands.
2021 will pose challenges. In order to grow, brands need a constant understanding of ever-changing consumer behaviours and must move quickly to respond to new trends, whether they are in terms of evolving expected product benefits (convenience, health or value for money, for example) or in terms of channel choices (such as e-commerce or minimarkets).
Vietnam
The key factor that has driven growth among our top risers is the ability to attract as many consumers as possible.
Overall, food sector which was the biggest winner in 2020 dominates the top 10 fastest growing brands, driven by the increased demand of foods for in-home occasions as a result of the impact of COVID-19.
Vifon – The No.1 recruiter among the top 10 risers in Urban 4 key cities enjoys a robust growth of 33% in CRP. With a raft of new launches in 2020 offering consumers a wider range of flavours, the brand has seen a significant expansion in its consumer base, with a quarter of Vifon’s consumers new to the brand.
Among the top 10 in Rural Vietnam, Omachi is ranked No.1 in CRP growth. The brand now has reached almost one third of rural households, growing its consumer base by 17% in 2020. Omachi also performs well in Urban areas, staying in 5th position. This has been achieved thanks to constant innovation designed to excite Vietnamese consumers via new variants such as Bo Ham Xot Vang, Mi Tron Spaghetti, etc.
The top 3 most chosen FMCG brand owners remains the same as 2019’s ranking with Vinamilk and Unilever securing their leading position in Urban 4 key cities and Rural Vietnam respectively.
Within the top five, Unilever and Masan Consumer are the two manufacturers that sustain CRP growth in both Urban 4 key cities and Rural Vietnam.
In Urban 4 key cities, Nestlé has grown the number of occasions its products are being chosen by 3% in 2020. Meanwhile, Calofic is the rising star in Rural areas, posting the fastest growth rate among the top 5, with a rise of 15% in CRP.
Unilever dominates health and beauty sector with three out of the five most chosen brands in Urban 4 key cities and completely leads the rural ranking by owning all the top 5 brands.
Remarkably, Lifebuoy – a Unilever brand – is not only the fastest-growing brand among the top five but also acquired the greatest number of additional households in both Urban 4 key cities and Rural Vietnam. The brand has benefited from marketing communications and innovation that responds well to “antibacterial” and “hygiene” demand among Vietnamese consumers during the health crisis.
Powdered Milk and Choco brands top the Dairy sector. With consistent communication around nutrition, immunity, vitamins and minerals, these brands continue to be more relevant to Filipinos than ever.
The top three most chosen home care brands are led by Unilever names. Sunlight and Omo have come into the homes of more than half of Vietnamese families in both Urban 4 cities and Rural Vietnam during the year.
In Rural areas, Sunlight safely retains the no.1 position in the ranking, attracting more than 330,000 incremental households. Additionally, it is the fastest-growing brand in terms of CRP among the Top 5 in the home care sector, thanks to its new launches focusing on natural ingredients – one of the rising consumer trends in Vietnam.
Hảo Hảo and Nam Ngư preserve their hold position as the most chosen food brands in Urban 4 key cities and Rural Vietnam respectively.
Maggi from Nestlé enters the top 5 brands being bought most in Urban 4 key cities for the first time. Thanks to the expansion of its product portfolio into the chili sauce market, capturing increased consumer demand for in-home consumption, the brand enjoys the highest CRP growth among the top five.
Despite beverage sector being heavily affected by COVID-19 in 2020, Coca-Cola managed an impressive performance. The brand not only holds on to its 1st place in the urban ranking but also moves up to No. 3 in the rural ranking, sustaining CRP growth in both Urban 4 key cities and Rural Vietnam.
Beside Coca-cola, Nescafé from Nestlé is the only other brand to feature among the top 5 most chosen beverage brands in both Urban 4 key cities and Rural areas. The brand has gradually expanded its consumer base in Rural areas, leading to a healthy growth of 6% in CRP.
Sweetened condensed milk has had a successful year in 2020 with both Ngôi Sao Phương Nam and Ông Thọ among the top 5 ranking in dairy and dairy substitutes, growing well in terms of CRP across Urban 4 key cities and Rural.
TH True is another brand achieving a good performance in Urban 4 key cities also, increasing CRP by 7%. The brand successfully added more than 100,000 additional households to its consumer base during the year, reaching more than half of urban households in 2020.
A market leader in Biscuits in terms of CRP
Cosy is the long-standing market leader in the biscuit category thanks to its well-known offerings, affordable price and wide availability. 2020 was a challenging year for the whole economy, including FMCG as consumers behaviours changed dramatically. Consumers were more budget conscious due to the impact of job cuts and salary reductions. At the same time, they needed to stock up with more food during times when they had to quarantine.
Cosy leveraged its strength as “good for everyday usage” to approach consumers aggressively and relevantly in both online and offline. Based on the insight that, consumers were likely to stay at home and spend more time with media such as TV and social, Cosy pushed a much higher weight on TV to ensure Cosy was the top choice when it came to consideration for stock-up.
The brand also promptly changed its social campaign direction with “Liven up Vietnam”, which encouraged people to stay positive while at home with Cosy‘s challenges series. At the same time, Cosy flawlessly expanded distribution widely and increased stock-weight significantly across channels to meet consumer demand for higher basket size per trip.
While strengthening its core brands (Cosy Marie & Cosy Wafer), Cosy also offered a more elevated taste experience to consumers with a more premium segment named “Cosy Wonderfulls Chocolate & Oat”, which added considerably an incrementality to Cosy‘s value sales in 2020.
Thanks to all these efforts, the number of times that Cosy products were chosen in 2020 grew at a double-digit rate in both Urban 4 key cities and Rural Vietnam. The brand also made a huge jump in penetration in Rural areas (almost +5 percent point) within a year, entering the top 10 fastest-growing brands in food sector.
One of the fastest growing food brands
Omachi is the first noodle brand to establish itself with a clear positioning that addresses consumers’ concerns around increased body heat from eating dried noodles: ‘Omachi potato noodles - delicious without fear of heat’. This unique market position has solved one of the industry’s biggest unmet needs, and has been communicated consistently for 10 years, leaving a strong and ingrained impression in consumers’ minds.
COVID-19 has brought great challenges and opportunities for the convenience food industry, including Omachi. Major changes in consumer behaviour have required the brand to be constantly creative and adaptive. Netflix, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube have all become more important during the pandemic, almost replacing the role of traditional TV marketing for young customers aged from 18 to 25 – the segment that Omachi is aiming to conquer. This meant Omachi needed to ‘rejuvenate’ not only its brand, but also the way it communicated to quickly adapt to new lifestyles. 2020 also brought a huge opportunity in terms of users of mainstream noodle brands upgrading to Omachi, making a major contribution to its success. In addition to its consistent positioning and flexible brand communication, Omachi made two major operational adjustments to cope with the pandemic situation. Innovation was the first key change, with the brand rapidly and continuously expanding its product portfolio to better satisfy the needs of consumers. The second was a focus on retail investment, with modern trade as priority, in anticipation of the changing shopping behaviour of young customers. Omachi’s timely response and effective execution led to great success in recruiting new buyers, especially in urban 4 key cities (+10%), and double-digit growth in consumption during the year. This elevated it to the position of fastest growing brand in CRP in rural Vietnam, and the second fastest growing brand within the food sector in urban 4 key cities.
Spokesperson Bui Thi Thanh Huyen, Chief Marketing Officer, Universal Robina Corporation Vietnam
What makes C2 unique as a brand? C2 has been established since 2006 in Vietnam as the leading brand in the ready-to-drink tea category. The brand is unique in the way it seeks to win consumer preference: C2 stands for Cool and Clean. It is made from 100% natural tea leaves sourced from the Vietnamese highlands, brewed and bottled in the same day, delivering the great benefits of tea in a refreshingly cool taste that has earned the approval of the young Vietnamese consumers. With a strong focus on innovation, we have been working hard to innovate C2 with several new product offerings, the latest launches are C2 Plus Immunity and our new Summer limited edition variants: C2 Tea Starfruit Honey and C2 Icy Lemon are inspired by Vietnamese cuisine and culture. What were your challenges & biggest success in 2020 under COVID-19? Why? COVID-19 has had a huge impact on consumer behaviours, posing big challenges for all beverage manufacturers. We believe that by focusing on providing greater value and greater satisfaction in every single bottle we send out to the market, investing to strengthen our brand love, and constantly innovating, we can grow and win the support of the Vietnamese consumers. Despite the impact of the pandemic, over the last 12 months, we have introduced four new products to the market. COVID-19 cannot stop us from better serving our consumers every single day. What did you do differently during COVID-19 pandemic, to still reach your consumers? And what did enable you to do that in the evolving environment of COVID-19? (i.e., data, insights) The pandemic forced us to rethink and reinvent the ways we connect with our consumers. A few examples: when consumers had to stay at home more and consumed more at home, we introduced a new bigger pack size to provide for in home and family consumption. When youngsters got bored at home during the national lock down and looked for new experience, we launched a digital campaign called the #C2pyjamachallenge, encouraging our consumers to stay at home while sharing their cool moments to C2 community. Keeping pace with our consumers’ behaviour changes at this unprecedent time is the top priority for C2. Where do you see the FMCG market & your category going in the coming months (short-term) & in the long term? We have witnessed a slight recovery recently in the FMCG market and Beverage category. However, this recovery is fragile, depending on how successful the Vietnamese government handles the COVID situation. Household incomes, the spending power and the consumers’ confidence level are other factors that impacts this recovery. The full recovery of FMCG and Beverage may take months or even years. We have seen lots of change in the way we behave due to COVID-19. Which changes in behaviour do you think will be long-term? The latest Kantar's 2021 Vietnam Insight Ebook pointed out that COVID-19 has made health the top priority for our consumers. This implies a profound change in the way consumers think, judge, and decide which products they consume. To continue to win the approval of our consumers in the long term, we need to understand these changes in depth, and act on it.
