Vietnam’s most chosen brands and brand owners 2021

Alongside the publication of the global Brand Footprint 2021 report, we are excited to bring to you the 3^rd edition of Asia Brand Footprint 2021, specifically focusing on Asian markets including Chinese Mainland, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The rankings and key findings are based on Worldpanel data.

Brand Footprint is set apart from other brand rankings by providing information on real consumer behaviour rather than attitude. Consumer Reach Points (CRPs) form the basis of the ranking. An innovative metric that measures how many households around the world are buying a brand (penetration) and how often (frequency), it provides a true representation of shopper choice.

We are now into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health crisis continues to drive shoppers’ behaviours and the trends we see in the FMCG market, setting the context for brands and determining how they are able to grow their footprint in the region.

In this year’s publication, you will find the overview for the Asia region, detailed profiles for each market, brand success stories and outlook for 2021. In addition, the publication identifies the implications of this year’s changes for the future of brands and retailers.

For Vietnam’s rankings, we reveal the Top 10 FMCG brand owners, and the Top 10 FMCG brands in Health & Beauty, Home Care, Food, Beverages, Dairy and Dairy Substitutes being bought by the most consumers, the most often in Urban 4 Cities (Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Noi, Da Nang and Can Tho) and Rural Vietnam.

The Top 10 brand owners in Urban 4 Cities and Rural Vietnam revealed by Kantar’s Brand Footprint 2021 are:

Vietnam’s Top 3 most chosen FMCG brand owners remain the same as in 2019, with Vinamilk and Unilever reinforcing their leading position in urban cities and rural areas respectively.

Within the Top 5, two manufacturers – Unilever and Masan Consumer – have achieved CRP growth in both urban and rural markets. Nestlé grew the number of occasions its products were chosen by 3% in urban cities and is the third brand owner in the Top 10 urban ranking to achieve growth in 2020.

With the highest growth rate of all the most chosen brand owners, Calofic – one of the leading cooking oil manufacturers – has become a rising star, partly driven by the robust growth of the cooking oil market in 2020 when Vietnamese people spent more time at home, increasing the demand for products in cooking-related categories.

BRAND RANKINGS BY SECTOR

HEALTH AND BEAUTY

Unilever continues to dominate the health and beauty sector, owning three out of the five most chosen brands in urban areas, and all five brands in the rural ranking.

P/S secures its position as the leading health and beauty brand in both urban and rural markets for the ninth year running. The brand keeps on growing its CRP, especially in rural areas where its products have been purchased more than 60 million times by consumers in the last year, almost double that of the second ranked player in the Top 10.

Remarkably, Lifebuoy – another Unilever brand – is not only the fastest-growing brand among the Top 10 but also acquired the greatest number of additional households in both urban and rural areas. It has benefited from marketing communications and constant innovation that responded well to the rising demand for antibacterial and hygiene products among Vietnamese consumers during the health crisis.

The ranking of Vietnam’s most chosen home care brands continues to be led by three Unilever names: Sunlight, Omo and Comfort.

Sunlight is the only brand that is purchased more than 10 million times by consumers in urban areas. Meanwhile, the brand has safely retained the no.1 position in the rural ranking with solid CRP growth of +9%, by attracting more than 330,000 incremental households.

A new star in the urban ranking of the most chosen home care brands is Surf, which jumped three places and enters the Top 10 for the first time. Coupled with two new launches in the fabric softener segment, this Unilever brand focused more on communications and offered affordable options to consumers, which led to strong CRP growth of 26%.

Within the Top 10 rural ranking, Vietnamese brand Net stands out with the fastest CRP growth of 25%. The brand acquired nearly 530,000 new households last year thanks to its competitive pricing, promotion programmes and wide distribution network in rural Vietnam.

FOOD

Hao Hao and Nam Ngu have held on to their positions as the most chosen food brands in urban cities and rural Vietnam respectively. Bought by three in four households in urban areas, Hao Hao was able to add nearly 95,000 new households to its consumer base in 2020, as the result of non-stop promotional and advertising activities, and a focus on charity communication that helped to build its brand image.

Maggi, from Nestlé, has entered the ranking of the Top 5 most chosen food brands in urban areas. Thanks to expanding its portfolio into the chili sauce market, which enabled it to capture increased demand for in-home consumption, the brand enjoyed the highest CRP growth among the Top 5. 

Players in the sauce category had a good year, with healthy growth observed in almost all related brands. Leading CRP growth in the Top 10 urban ranking, Cholimex’s 15% rise moved it up two spots into the no.6 position. Meanwhile in the rural market, Chin-su recruited the highest number of new shoppers among the Top 10, adding more than 1.1 million new households thanks to its wide range of sauces to capture consumers’ needs while they stayed at home. 

Leading cooking oil brand Simply posted a great performance, climbing one spot in the urban ranking and two spots in the rural ranking. The brand, which is owned by Calofic, strengthened its distribution across both traditional and modern channels, including online platforms which was the fastest growing channel during the pandemic.

Despite the beverage sector being heavily affected by COVID-19, Coca-Cola managed an impressive performance. The brand not only holds on to its first place in the urban ranking but also moves up to no.3 in the rural ranking, having achieved growth in both markets.

Nescafé, from Nestlé, is the second brand to feature among the Top 5 most chosen beverage brands in both urban and rural areas. The brand has gradually expanded its consumer base in rural Vietnam, leading to a healthy 6% growth in CRP.

Stepping up six places in the urban ranking, C2 has entered the Top 10 for the first time with fantastic CRP growth of 30%. This ready-to-drink tea player has enjoyed a wonderful year thanks to its constant innovation with a lot of new variants and trendy flavours such as milk tea, kumquat, lychee and peach flavored black tea. C2 also wisely invests in short, funny TVCs which help to raise brand awareness. As a result, the brand has acquired an impressive almost 150,000 new households within urban cities in the last year.

Local coffee brand G7 – one of Trung Nguyên’s core brands – maintains its position at no.5 in the urban ranking and no.6 in the rural ranking. It launched relevant marketing campaigns that were designed to capture in-home occasions during periods when movement was restricted, such as a series of video tutorials on making tasty and special drinks by combining G7 with local ingredients. This enabled the brand to add more than 110,000 new households in urban areas and reach double-digit CRP growth in rural areas.

DAIRY AND DAIRY SUBSTITUTES

With an extraordinary number of CRPs, Vinamilk continues to steal the spotlight in the dairy and dairy substitutes sector. A diverse product portfolio, as well as strong brand awareness built through extensive marketing communications and activities, are the key drivers of its growth.

Sweetened condensed milk had a successful year in 2020, with both Ngoi Sao Phuong Nam and Ong Tho among the Top 5 most chosen dairy and dairy substitutes brands, growing well in terms of CRP across urban and rural areas.

TH True is another brand that achieved a strong performance in urban cities, increasing its CRP by 7%. The brand successfully added more than 100,000 households to its consumer base during the year, to reach more than half of urban households. 

Enjoying a robust CRP increase of 33% in urban markets, Yakult holds the leading position in CRP growth not only within the Top 10 most chosen dairy and dairy substitutes brands, but also among the Top 50 most chosen FMCG brands in Vietnam. This Japanese brand has increasingly invested in marketing communications to highlight its nutritional and immune-boosting benefits, which became even more relevant to consumers amid the health crisis.

Fabrice Carrasco, Managing Director Vietnam & Philippines, Asia Strategic Projects Director Worldpanel Division at Kantar, said: "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)."

* CRPs: Consumer Reach Points

**Total FMCG includes gifts

***Urban 4 key cities include: HCMC, Ha Noi, Da Nang and Can Tho

On-demand Webinar: Brand Footprint Vietnam 2021, click here.

Follow links on the right side of this page to download press release in both EN and VN.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About Kantar Brand Footprint

Kantar’s annual Brand Footprint study is based on research from 74% of the global population; a total of one billion households in 52 countries across five continents—covering 85% of the global GDP. As part of the study, Worldpanel tracks more than 22,900 brands across beverages, food, dairy, health and beauty and homecare.

*Brand Footprint data was collected over the 12-month period between November 2019 and October 2020.