Faced with the pressure of slow purchasing power recovery and increasing production costs, many businesses in Ho Chi Minh City believe that current stimulus programs need to strongly change their approach. Instead of relying on promotions and discounts as in previous years, stimulus needs to aim for consumer experience, expand output and increase the value of Vietnamese products.
Ms. Nguyen Huong Quynh - Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Women Entrepreneurs Association said that the market is entering a stage where consumers are no longer attracted only by price reductions. The dense appearance of promotional programs for a long time has gradually reduced the attractiveness, making it difficult to create a boom in purchasing power as before.
According to Ms. Quynh, if you want to stimulate demand more effectively, you need to look back at consumer motivation from the buyer's perspective. Consumers today are not only looking for cheap products but also interested in experiences, emotions and accompanying values.
Successful consumer models in Japan, Korea or China all show a trend of linking shopping with cultural, entertainment or unique experiences to create attraction," Ms. Quynh said.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hung - Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Clean Agricultural Products Association said that the biggest difficulty for businesses today is not the lack of stimulus programs but the lack of a strong enough support system to bring goods to the market, especially the international market.
According to Mr. Hung, if stimulus programs only stop at price reductions or short-term fairs, businesses will find it difficult to take advantage of them to expand long-term output. What businesses need are sustainable connection channels with distributors, partners and consumption systems at home and abroad.
In fact, some programs, even with support, businesses still have to spend more costs, while the effectiveness is not commensurate. This shows that if only focusing on promotional forms without being associated with specific outputs, demand stimulation will be difficult to create a clear change.
According to associations, trade promotion plans need to be announced sooner and more detailed so that businesses can proactively prepare for 3-6 months in terms of human resources, finance and products.
From the perspective of a trade promotion agency, Mr. Tran Phu Lu - Acting Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) said that the current promotion organization method is still lacking flexibility when mainly focusing on two large phases of the year, each phase lasting several months.
Ho Chi Minh City should shorten the time of each promotion and divide it into many small phases throughout the year to create a regular demand stimulus. At the same time, the city needs to study organizing seasonal programs, associated with the inbound - outbound tourism cycle.
If there is coordination between trade and tourism, the city can take good advantage of the flow of visitors at each time, thereby improving the efficiency of stimulus and spending" - Mr. Lu assessed.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade said that from October 22-24, a Vietnamese export goods fair will be held with thousands of booths. The event is within the framework of a cooperation program between Ho Chi Minh City and 14 cities in 11 countries such as Osaka and many cities in China, Malaysia...
This is an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to promote products, participate in B2B trade connections with international businesses, and expand bilateral investment and trade cooperation opportunities between Ho Chi Minh City and partner localities around the world.
