Advertising in vietnam its strong points and weak points

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGUES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT 000- j}i)Vi:=lLi~inG in Vii:Lnj}m - iL~ ~L=lOnG?OinL~ j}ni) \Vi:j}( ?OinL~ By TlU.N DUC TUAN , 7C, THAI MINH DIEM TU Class: KA9504 School year: 1995 - 1999 i I I ~j ~ - • I 'I I I I I j ~ ~ 7ikD.t ~ll rerJkt' iWFi1T +/9.1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS *** ** * We would like to acknowledge the following people who made this research report possible Mr HOANG HUAN for his invaluable advice, assistance, and support throughout the preperation of this paper Mr NGUYEN DANH sf for his patience to help us check the list of most common phrases and advertising terminology Ms NGUYEN TH! ANH DAo for her teaching in the "Writing Up Research" course The YOUTH ADVERTISING COMPANY officers who provided us with important practical applications of the concepts explored throughout the text Our sincere thanks to all I I L TABLE OF CONTENTS *** ACKNOLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION BODY Chapterl: Generalities 1.1 What Is Advertising 1.2 A Brief History of Advertising Development in Vietnam 1.3 Types of Advertising in Vietnam Nowadays , 1.3.1 Outdoor Advertising 1.3.2 Television 10 : 1.3.3 Newspapers, Magazines 11 1.3.4 Radio 13 1.3.5 Others 13 1.3.5.1 Sales- aid 1.3.5.2 Printings 13 : ~ 1.3.5.3 Promotion 13 16 Chapter2: The Role of Advertising in Vietnam Today 2.1 Advertising Positive Contributions 18 2.1.1 Advertising Contribution in the National Eonomy Development 2.1.2 Advertising Contribution in Solving Employment 19 2.1.3 Advertising Contribution in Mass- media Development Support 2.1.4 Advertising Contribution in Cultural and Daily Life 2.2 The Weak Points of Advertising 20 20 2.2.1 Unbalanced Development;Lack of Planning 20 2.2.2 Restricted Professional Qualifications of Advertisers 22 2.2.3 The Rambling Advertising Situation 23 I I L Abstract • Advertising world has been a popular and developed industry in the hundreds of years, especially activity has really developed within in USA However, advertising the last decade in Vietnam Along with the open-door policy, advertising has shown its important role not only in the society but also in the Vietnamese economy This research report aims at uncovering its importance some measures to improve advertisement Vietnamese Government and suggesting situation nowadays toward Data on book references concerning particular field are collected from commercials, classified ads, small ads, posters, hoardings, catalogues, brochures, etc Particularly, documents such as policy, law, about controlling decree, this legal decision of our Goverment advertising activity in Vietnam are analysed and re- searched As a result, advertising is not really a developed industry in Vietnam nowadays We have to try our best to build a more devel- oped, modern advertising industry with Vietnamese characteristic as soon as possible Hence, a further research needed to be undertaken by analysing the important role of advertising in industrialized and modernized policy of our Government ,;/ -1- Advertising in Vietnam:-Its Strong Points and Weak Points INTRODUCTION ••• •• • Advertising has become a particular years allover the world It has been industry for hundreds of developing and closely connected with a great market-economy of developed countries as well as developing ones Advertising activity (including program production, advertisement service, advertising management) has got into a groove and become a large prospective economic industry in many countries The most important thing is that advertising has also contributed economy in encouraging Therefore, advertisement, the development a famous American of the national socialist states, "Without the American economy will decline " (P.1, The draft of rearrangement of advertising activities in VN, The Ministry of Culture and Information) In Vietnam, advertising activity has really developed since last decade It has been proved that advertising is a prospective industry, which has remarkably contributed to our economy However, advertising activity in Vietnam has shown some weaknesses that need to be overcome and reorganized This is easy to understand because this advertising agencies lack experience, and it is a newlydeveloped industry in Vietnam Decision numbered 377/TTg on June th, 1996 of Prime Minister on rearranging State-owned companies in advertising, exhibition and trade-fair in order to stabilize separate operating situations in developing advertising industry came in time; therefore, in order to turn our economy into market economy under the Vietnam government's forms belonging control and ensure business activity of all to many different economic sectors, we need to apply many simultaneous measures to our economy Advertisement market economy is one of the necessary economic tools in the It plays a significant role in the economy It is a continuously noticed subject of enterprises, businesses and consumers In terms of market economy, scientists, economists, engineers, printing specialists, designers, psychologists, socialists, etc., all have to concentrate their efforts to perfect theoretical basis of I L -2- Advertising in Vietnam: Its Strong Points and Weak Points this activity and quickly put it into practice by means of advertising media Nowadays, we easily realize the role of advertisement in the forms of announcements, hoarding, window-display, neon-sign, motion pictures, etc everywhere on streets, in markets or on mass media The purpose of advertisement is to help consumers to choose ty goods easily with high usefulness and beautiful models However, we need to notice that the levels, effects and future development of advertisement have to depend on the condition of national economy development In the market economy, advertisement is one of the measures that businessmen and producers use to gain market shares On the other hand, we also remember that in order to gain market shares completely, businessmen or producers have to catch opportunities, choose places, times, and advertising media At the same time, they have to master the principle: "High-quality advertisement is the one built on the quality of comh;~dity" Since the quality of commodities produced domestically is not high, the quantity of goods has not satisfied payable needs of consumers yet, we sometimes or somewhere not focus on the role of advertisement appropriately So, the total advertising expenditure is still at low level, the effect of advertisement is not as high as expected Let us take a comparison with developed countries In the market economy of capitalist countries such as the USA, japan, France, the total advertising expenditure has increased day by day In the nineties, the annual total advertising expenditures have been up to $US 100 billion in the USA, over $jNY 3,000 billion in japan, over $Fr 40 billion in France (Economic Times, 15th jan.1996, vol 9) This shows that with the growth in business as well as in production, the role of advertisement has been more and more important Many economists assume that capitalism's spending for advertisement is very wasteful, but according to the announced statistics of these countries the effects the profits gained in an economy coming from advertisement - are considerable How about in Vietnam? With the open - door Vietnamese government, there has been a boom of campaigns from the overseas and domestic companies seem to get lost in a forest of advertisements and the l policy of advertising Consumers advertising -, Advertising in Vietnam: Its Strong Points and Weak Points -3- expenditure is very large Some advertisements are very strange to Vietnamese cultural conceptions Nowadays, no one can deny the important role of advertising in Vietnam and we need to manage the advertising activity systematically In brief, with the goods production development people have applied many measures to strongly push in the production process and goods -consumption or to apply marketing in goods economy, the role of advertising will not stop its advance The role of advertising is broad and diverse We want to narrow it down to a meaningful and specified way in which advertising plays an important role We shall, thus, analyze its important role in Vietnam nowadays There is no denying the fact that along to the open-door policy in Vietnam, advertising campaigns have increased more and more Realizing the importance of this, we have decided to carry out our research report concentrating on analyzing advertising's role under the topic: "Advertising in Vietnam, Its Strong Points and Weak Points" The reasons for our choice of this topic are our interest in the subject The aim behind this research report is to provide a right view on advertising From this, we can carry out the strategy of Vietnam Communist Party about developing socio-economy until the year 2,000 Moreover, having analyzed its important role and considered advertising situation in Vietnam nowadays, this research report also shows some measures for improving advertising Apart from the tendency above, we would like to organize our research report as follows: The first part of this report is a general view of advertisement with its definition, historical background, and its types This will be followed by the major part, which is an outline of the existing advertising situation in Vietnam derived from the strong points and weaknesses Finally, a brief description of its causes is given, and we shall also propose some measures to improve advertisement effects concerning the aid of the government as well as the role of advertising agencies L Advertising in Vietnam: Its Strong Points and Weak Points -4- CHAPTER! GENERALITIES 1.1 WHAT IS ADVERTISING? ghe term" advertising" does not sound strange to anyone nowa- days There are several definitions of it According to the Encyclopedia Britannica INC (Volume 1, William Benton, Publisher) "ADVERTISING is a form of paid public announcement intended to promote the sale of a commodity or a service, to advance an idea or to bring about some other effect desired by the advertiser It is essentially a form of communication through such diverse media as handbills, newspaper, magazines, billboards, letters, radio and television broadcasts, and motion pictures The term is broad enough to include a wide range of types, from a small two-line entry in a newspaper or magazine to a "spread" of several full pages, or from a small sign in a shop window to a huge billboard with changing designs in colored lights" To a manufacturer, advertising is usually considered part of the firm's marketing program, along with personal selling, packaging, display, pricing, and product design To the retailer, it is also a part of his so-called "marketing mix" along with display, store, promotion, etc To the various media of communication it is both a major source of revenue and a means of providing information on products and services to their audiences To the consumer, it is a major source of information regarding products and services Through advertising, the producer can provide information to the customers Thus they can know the useful, the prize of a product In general, advertising is one of the technical aids in marketing of any businessperson The most crucial issue businessmen have to solve in advertising is to standardize or to familiarize advertisements It is concerned in advertising budget, medium and content In fact, standardization in forming advertisement is gained in some special cases Whereas in systematizing advertising medium-means of -30- Advertising in Vietnam: Its Strong Points and Weak Points - Heavily levying tax on imported products but reducing tax on Vietnamese exported products - Issuing tax - collection method toward foreign advertising agencies, which are gaining, profits from doing advertising in Vietnam (P23, The draft of rearrangement of advertising activities in VN, the Ministry of Culture and Information) 3.1.2 Management Policy Improvement by Government towardAdvertising Industry 3.1.2.1 Advertising Law Issuing Nowadays, some foreign countries have their own law advertising It is the highest power-authority of advertising manager of In Vietnam, there is just a few decrees, circulars guiding advertising management In fact, from now on, when advertising is in order and developed, it is needed to have the more comprehensive documents It ensures proper advertising development and brings into play positive role toward society Therefore, it is needed to make an advertising law in Vietnam 3.1.2.2 Government Management Increase In Advertising Rearranging advertising agencies according to planning, issuing regulations for management can this Moreover, the Government must correct and control advertising on mass media Building content censoring system on the whole media in order to ensure proper advertising in a right way Improving licensing procedure the license reaches the applicant on without any reason, the advertising according to their proposal and to reduce trouble and ensuring that time If license issuers work slowly agencies have a right to advertise have the responsibility for their advertising content Issuing some measures for management of activities of foreign advertising representatives in order to stop free advertising situation 3.1.3 Advertising Management System from Central to Local Level In some countries, which have stable developed advertising, there is a tight advertising management system in order to ensure Government management role and bring into play activities and effectiveness of advertising partners This system includes the Government and the Advertising Association In this system the Government controls all L I I I I , I I I I Advertising in Vietnam: Its Strong Points and Weak Points -31- advertising activities whereas Advertising Association gathers all members and proposes management measures It aims at developing advertising properly, lawfully and stable In Vietnam, the short- term objective is to create an Independent Advertising Association in the whole country and to participate in the International Advertising Association, which includes 88 members 3.2 Relating to advertising agency An advertising agency, which often handles the advertising promotion function for businesses, occupies a unique position in the business envi ronment Promotion is delegated to an outside organization more than other business functions The term "advertising agency" is somewhat misleading In reality, managers delegate the task of developing a promotional campaign, which almost always includes advertising and sales promotion to an advertising agency Thus an advertising agency might also be called a promotion agency Exhibit lists ten advertising agencies in Vietnam along with their 1994/1995/1996 billings and number of employees Note the enormous size of some agencies From small, distracted, unprofessional advertising agencies, it is needed to rearrange more suitably In present situation, we cannot create a large size organization for advertising agencies, but we can select them in specialized ones According to the present situation of advertising agencies, we temporarily concentrate on building five main specialized fields with the following specific standards Up to now, there have been five forms of advertising agencies existing in the world which seem to have gained good results Until other forms found, we suggest that these be applied to Vietnam situation of advertising ~-~ ~~~~~~~~-~~~~ -;:J> < (l) ::I ~ '"~ i=l (Jq ~ i=l