Download Crossvergence of Marketing Practices between Vietnam and Europe

Crossvergence of Marketing Practices between Vietnam and North-Western Europe:
Empirical study on consumer behaviour on branded fast moving consumer goods.
D.A.J. van den Akker, L. Dresselhaus, L.A.V. Pham, J.M. Tsu
Business Administration, Faculty of Management and Governance,
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Abstract
An important question in the international management literature is whether or not the emerging economies
are converging, diverging or crossverging with the Western economies. For MNCs intending to expand their
brand to emerging economies, it is important to know whether or not they can use globalized advertisements.
In this research, it is investigated whether the consumer behaviour of the Vietnamese consumers is
converging towards or diverging from or crossverging with the consumer behaviour of the North-West
European consumers. This is done by comparing the differences between the emotions elicited by particular
products and advertisements by consumers of Vietnam and North-West Europe. This research concluded
that the Vietnamese consumers’ behaviour is crossverging with the North-West European consumers’
behaviour. This will have implications for the marketing practices of MNCs who aim at expanding their brands
to Vietnam.
Keywords:
Consumer behaviour, Globalisation, Vietnam
1
INTRODUCTION
Recent studies have shown that Vietnam is one of the
best examples of an emerging economy due to its ever
increasing exports. According to a press release of
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Vietnam could be the fastest
growing emerging economy with a potential growth rate of
10% annually in real dollar terms that can push the
country up to 70% of the size of UK economy by 2050
(Amaczi, Pham Ngoc Thuy Trang, 2008). For the global
FMCG industry, Vietnam is supposed to be a potential
and rapid-growing market with a large population and
diverse demands among customers which is vastly fertile
for the western giants’ invasion that brings along new
market penetrating strategies for their products. Some
large global FMCG corporations which have subsidiaries
in Vietnam are Unilever, P&G, B.A.T, Nestle, Coca Cola,
Kimberly Clarks and Colgate-Palmolive.
Since Vietnam is such a rapid-growing market, this
research is done to investigate whether these marketing
practices in Vietnam will be converging towards, diverging
from or crossverging with those in Western-developed
countries. The goal of this research is to find out similar
and different behaviour patterns between emerging
economies and Western-developed countries concerning
consumer behaviour for FMCG of global brands. This will
give a start for many MNCs of how to tackle their brand
management practices in Vietnam. In this study, Vietnam
will be compared to the North-West European market,
which will represent the Western market.
In accordance with the previous explained objectives, the
following research question will be analyzed:
To what extent should marketing practices of global brand
corporations, specializing in fast-moving consumer goods
(FMCG), which have their operations in Vietnam,
converging towards, diverging from, or crossverging with
those in Western-developed countries, especially NorthWestern Europe?
In order to find out whether the companies operating in
Vietnam can use their marketing practices they use in the
West also in Vietnam, it should be researched whether
the market of Vietnam is converging towards, diverging
from, or crossverging with the market in the West.
Therefore, the concepts of converging, diverging and
crossverging markets are explained first. After that, the
paper discusses marketing strategies. In this case, the
focus will be on different types of brand strategies,
especially global and local brand strategy. It is the
intention of this paper to compare customer behaviours in
Vietnam and North-Western Europe. As a consequence,
consumer behaviour of both regions will be described in a
next step. Since Vietnam is an important topic of this
paper, the country Vietnam will be described afterwards.
After creating a theoretical framework, the methodology
of this research will be elucidated. Next, a quantitative
research method in form of a questionnaire will be used in
this empirical study. In more detail, the differences
between Vietnamese and Western consumer attitudes
towards the brand images of Unilever products would be
investigated. Because Unilever is an outstanding FMCG
MNC and they have a wide range of similar brands aimed
to be launched in both Vietnam and Western countries,
we decided to use their brands as observed entities. Our
survey with emotions questionnaires focus on figuring out
how consumers respond to the same brands’ images,
with the purpose of clarifying whether brand management
strategies of Unilever and other FMCG MNCs should be
convergent, divergent or crossverging in order to be
successfully approached in these markets. This will be
further discussed in the discussion/conclusion part of the
paper.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Converging, Diverging, Crossverging
According to Gupta & Wang (2003), the effect of
globalization on strategic business models are both
homogenizing (“convergence” school) and promoting
variety (“divergence” school). The concept of
convergence encompasses that as countries liberalize
their markets, develop institutions, adopt modern
technology and achieve industrialization, strategic
business behaviour would become similar to that of the
Western countries because people will embrace common
values with regard to economic activity and work-related
behaviour (England & Lee 1974). The diverging concept,
on the other hand, asserts that national culture is the
dominant force in shaping values, beliefs and attitudes of
managers within a country (Hofstede, 1980) and not the
economic ideology or technological growth as seen in the
convergence concept. This concept shows that achieving
best practices is not about converging, but rather about
leveraging differences in an increasingly borderless world
1
in order to gain differentiated positions and advantages .
And finally, to bridge the differences between
“convergence” and “divergence” schools, Ralston et al.
(1993) propose a middle ground using the term
'crossvergence' defined as a value set that is "in
between" the values supported by the East and the West.
Crossvergence suggests that the Asian organizations
would develop a "hybrid" model - blending the best
elements of both their domestic and their imported ideas
(Abo 1994).
Basically, the idea behind the terms convergence,
divergence and crossvergence is to guide the
management in developing organizational policies and
practices which are effective in the changing cultural
environment.
2.2 Global vs. local brand strategy
An important question MNCs face today is what balance
should be maintained between global brand which shuns
linguistic and national frontiers, and one which makes
provision for local requirements and context? When a
company intends to internationalize its brand(s), it should
consider if it can globalize its brand or if the brand should
be localized according to the customers’ needs and
demands
of
particular
countries
or
regions.
Chronologically, the globalization approach came first.
Since the 1980s, there has been a major preoccupation
about the globalization of brands and the standardization
of marketing practices (Sinclair, 2008). However, at the
end of the 1980s, failures in global marketing caused that
MNCs decided to retreat towards more market-specific
approaches (Philip Jones, 2000).
The main advantage of globalization of a brand is that it
can give economies of scale which is often one of the
reasons why a company wants to internationalize its
brand. However, on the other hand, often more value can
be created through the adaptation of the brand, its
products, and marketing practices in order to suit a
particular country or region, market segment and even
ethnic groups, communities and individuals on a one-toone basis (Kapferer 2008).
Referring to Ramarapu, Timmerman & Ramarapu (1999),
the decision between globalization and localization
depends on the primary orientation: Globalization
includes maintaining the basic integrity of the marketing
1
See Guillen (2002) cited by Gupta & Wang (2003)
mix wherever applied. Localization, however, includes the
disposal of developing a new strategy in each market the
company intends to enter. Therefore, a challenge for
MNCs is to find a balance between globalization and
localization of their brands and their marketing practices.
These authors argue that a mixture of globalization and
localization in form of “being global and acting local”
would be the most successful approach for MNCs, since
both strategies can have advantages for MNCs. Wills,
Samli & Jacobs (1991) found out that only localization
has not always been appropriate for MNCs. For example,
Nestlé had major problems by making use of this
approach. Being global and acting local, however,
includes a combination of both strategies. According to
Wills, Samli & Jacobs (1991), MNCs that intend to
implement a “being global, acting local” strategy, have to
understand the local consumers bahaviours and
consequently start at a macro level. As only few markets
are exactly alike, it is necessary to adapt to these local
needs and requirements in order to gain buyers and
maximize economic sales.
Unlike a number of years ago, more and more
multinationals seem to realize that it is possible to create
value by perceiving brands locally, even multinationals
that globalized their brands before. Although for many
brands, it seems that the best option is to localize their
brands in order to reach a wide public by being an
accessible and popular brand within countries, there are
also some brands which create an exception, whereby
these brands accomplish value through globalization of
their brands (Kapferer 2008). Companies with ‘high-tech’
brands are an example of companies that should
globalize their brands and products, since local is
perceived as ‘low-tech’. The globalization of the ‘hightech’ brands gives them an additional perceived quality
and prestige. For the so called ‘high-touch’ brands, the
best strategy would also be to globalize (Kapferer, 2008).
The idea behind these ‘high-touch’ brands is that their
customers can find the same product when they travel to
London, New York or Shanghai. Examples of such
brands are luxury goods as well as top-of-the-range
cosmetics. The last category of brands for which
globalization is the best strategy is a brand which has a
strong national identity. An example of such a brand is
Marlboro which is a well-known American brand. Hereby,
it should be noted that according to Klein, Ettenson &
Morris (1998), not every country has the same
perceptions about other countries. For example, in
Europe Germany is known for its quality, while in Asia
Japan is seen as the country with the products of highest
quality.
The localization of a brand should take place according to
regions where a group of buyers appears sensitive to the
same advantages, and expects the same features.
According to Kapferer (2008), companies have multiple
options for localization of brands. First of all, a company
can decide to adapt the product lines to the markets.
Hereby, the company should pay attention to the fact that
the company’s intention to build a global brand means
also global perception. Consequently, it should launch all
models under the same brand values as any upper model
of the range sold anywhere in the world. A company can
also decide to develop two product lines, whereby one
product line is suited for the developed economies and
the other one is developed for the developing countries.
As a result, the company creates two different brand
values throughout the world. The third approach is
launching products in countries according to a particular
phase in which the brand is within the country. Finally, a
company can stick to its brand values through different
levels of operationalization, and thereby localizing to the
differences in the level of economic development and
cost constraints involved.
2.3 Customer behaviour in developed and emerging
economies
An important aspect of the research is the differentiation
of customer behaviour between developed and emerging
economies. An aspect of globalization is the convergence
of income, media and technology which is in turn
expected to lead to homogeneous consumer behaviour.
But with converging national wealth, there is still
substantial variation of consumer behaviour across
nations (De Mooi, 2003). According to Richins (1994),
consumer behaviour is a particular type of human
behaviour where cultural value can have an impact on.
Thus, the cultural values influence the behaviours,
attitudes and judgments of the customer. But according to
Legohérel et al. (2009), there are also other variables
than those associated with cultures that help to explain
the customer manner. Consumers seek a variety in their
choices of food, for example, through the culture-related
attributes as a group (Legohérel et al., 2009). In this case,
according to Chetthamrongchai & Davies (2000),
segmentation based on time-orientation and shopping
motivation is more important to explain consumer
behaviour than socio-demographic variables or shopping
attitude alone. According to Luamala et al. (2009), cultural
values will influence what kind of emotional-eating
patterns are emphasized in particular countries or
regions.
Important differences in the two cultures can be seen in
Hofstede’s five dimensions of national culture (namely
power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty
avoidance, and long-term orientation) which in turn
analyzes the relationship between culture as well as the
so-called McCrae’s big five dimensions of personality
(namely neuroticism, extraversion, openness to
experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) that
were considered originally to be universal (Marsella et al.,
2002). In line with this, the concept of branding is less
relevant to members of collectivist cultures than to
individualist cultures where the brand functions as a
unique personality.
The difference between high/low contexts of the two
cultures can be seen back in terms of advertising (Yu &
Cude, 2009). According to Hall (1976), in the low-context
culture of the West, the majority of information is
expressed in explicit messages and self-oriented
expressions. In Asia, a high-context culture, however, the
advertisers should use indirect expressions which convey
the thoughts of the Asian people. This results in a style
that is very subtle, and sometimes ambiguous (Yu &
Cude, 2009). According to Han & Shavitt (1994), the
Western style of advertising focuses mainly on the
individual through individual benefits and preferences,
personal success, independence and hedonism.
Besides this, through the difference between collectivist
and individualist cultures, the way advertising messages
are received by the consumers differs between Asia and
the West. Shavitt, Nelson & Yuan (1997) argue that the
collectivist cultures (Asia) are more concerned with the
appropriateness of the message, while the Western
consumers are more concerned about the facts or
information convey instead of the manner in which the
message is send. When the message of advertising is
inappropriate, the Asian consumers will not pay attention
to the content of the message anymore, while the
Western consumers will keep listening to the content of
the message.
In developed economies, consumers are bombarded with
a tremendous amount of commercial messages resulting
in consequences such as brand and advertising
confusion (Mc Kenna, 1991). Furthermore, according to
Leeflang & van Raaij (1995), due to the process of
individualization and the so called “both-and-era”
consumer, the consumer behaviour within and between
product categories are far from consistence. Consumer
behaviour is much more volatile, much less predictable,
and increasingly concerned with instant gratification. In
other words, people of an individualist culture are more
likely to buy unknown brands than in collectivist cultures.
In Asia, as a collectivist culture, company‘s brands are
more customary, and are used for building trust between
companies and consumers instead of developing a
portfolio of competitive brands. The expectation is that in
due course this trend towards individualization will also
become a more important factor in the emerging
economies, particularly in the urban areas.
Cross-cultural emotion literature states that different
emotional experiences are highlighted and relevant in
different cultures (Luomal, Sirieix & Tahir, 2009). Here
also the distinction between individualist and collectivist
cultures play an important role. According to Markus &
Kitayama (1991), there is a difference between egofocused and other-focused emotions. Ego-focused
emotions can be compared to the individualist culture
since they tend to be associated with an individual’s
internal state of attributes, to the exclusion of others, and
are consistent with the need for individual awareness,
experience, and expression. On the other hand, otherfocused emotions are more related to collectivist cultures
where the need to be associated with other in a social
context or close to others are high.
2.4 Description of the emerging economy Vietnam
To investigate more on the customer behaviour in
Vietnam, an outline of Vietnam will be presented here.
An emerging economy is described as a developing
country that has two decisive characteristics: firstly, the
country started an economic reform process aimed at
tempering problems, like poverty, poor infrastructure and
overpopulation; secondly, emerging economies already
achieved a steady growth in gross national product (GNP)
per capita. Thus, Vietnam can be considered as an
emerging economy as it achieved an average GDP
growth rate of 7% per annum (Cavusgil et al., 2002).
Vietnam’s economy is in transition from a centrallyplanned economy to a socialist market economy. The
nation is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) since 1995 and joined the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in 2007. The WTO provided Vietnam
an anchor to the global market and simultaneously, they
reinforced the domestic economic reform process. Also
Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their commitment
to economic liberalization and international integration
(CIA, The World Factbook, 2010).
This country has more than 88,000,000 people and a
population growth rate of 1.14% in 2009. Furthermore,
deep poverty has declined significantly and Vietnam is
still working to create jobs to meet the challenge of a
labour force that is growing by more than one million
people annually. The unemployment rate receded to
2.9% in 2009. Moreover, this large, fast-growing market
as well as the cheaper and younger workforce makes
Vietnam an attractive country for international investment.
The sum of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam
rose by 17%, from 40.34 billion $ in 2008 to 47.37 billion
$ in 2009 (CIA, The World Factbook, 2010).
2.5 Marketing practices in Vietnam
With 80 million inhabitants, a high population growth rate
and fast rising per capital incomes, Vietnam offers a large
potential market for consumer goods. Yet, touching these
potential customers is still a considerable challenge for
Vietnamese companies as the marketing and distribution
infrastructure is not well developed. MNCs which invest
into Vietnam, on contrary, have professional international
marketing strategies for many brands and they are
attracted by Asian emerging markets (Speece, Nguyen
2005).
According to Speece et al. (2003), in Vietnam, stateowned enterprises (SOEs) dominate the economy, and
are considered the pillars upon which the socialist market
economy will be constructed. However, most local
companies do not really do much real marketing
2
research , and know little about how their average
customer thinks.
In general, FMCG local brands often get a low level of
recognition from consumers and Vietnam actually does
not have any outstanding FMCG company which can
build an efficient brand positioning strategy at the
beginning of its new product launch. Moreover, in the
case of a highly segmented market like Vietnam, the
success of a new product/brand lies with the ability of the
company to cope with the local, specific segment, not
only by means of aggressive and large scale promotion
and advertising campaign. Brand names should also suit
the Vietnamese language and avoid any conflict with local
cultural context (Quang & Huyen, 1999).
However, advertising on radio is currently an emerging
and effective way to introduce and enhance brands
images to consumers because there are more and more
people listening to radio through an increasing utilized
number of mobile phones and cars in Vietnam and the
cost for advertising on the radio is not that high (Meyer,
Tran & Nguyen, 2006).
Advertising is not only advertising, but also a branding
channel for manufacturers. In fact, Speece, Quang &
Huong (2003) supposed that Vietnamese companies are
also scrambling to use advertising more extensively, and
local agencies are beginning to appear. Marketing in
general, and advertising specifically, plays an important
role in fostering Vietnam’s economic growth and
transformation toward a stronger market-orientation.
Moreover, when MNCs run business in Vietnam, they will
not only bring in extensive knowledge of marketing which
means marketing methods transferring, but somehow
also gain stronger customer orientation for local
companies. They use marketing research extensively,
and are the driving force behind development of the
3
marketing research industry in Vietnam .
2.6 Vietnamese consumer behaviour
Like other Asian cultures governed by Confucianism and
Buddhism, Vietnamese culture is characterized by a
strong collectivism, family-orientation and emphasis on
interpersonal relationships. For the Vietnamese, age and
2. See Tran & Speece (1996), Doan & Luc (1998) cited by
Speece, et al. (2003)
3. See Tran & Speece (1996), Speece, Doan & Luc (1998) cited
by Speece et al. (2003)
hierarchy, which reflect status and rank, is highly
respected and conformity to a group’s norms and values
is very critical. These cultural values have significant
impacts on the Vietnamese consumer behaviour (e.g.
information seeking behaviour, purchasing decision
process,
attitudes
towards
products
and
satisfaction/dissatisfaction) (Le & Jolibert, 2001). As the
viewpoint of Meyer, Tran & Nguyen (2006), “unlike other
Asian
consumers,
Vietnamese
consumers
buy
prestigious brands as status symbols to impress their
peers rather than purely due to its functional value. Many
consumers associate quality of live with the consumption
of branded products, and are willing to pay considerable
premiums”. Moreover, Vietnamese young generation
nowadays is more fashionable and brand conscious than
before. The Vietnamese youth are the translators of the
consumer world for their parents and influence a great
number of their purchase decisions (Le & Jolibert 2001).
Le & Jolibert (2000) also noted that economic
liberalization policies from the government have
introduced a flood of foreign products to Vietnam. In
addition, combined with an increase in income and
improved living standards of Vietnamese consumers,
there has ultimately to be reported a radical change in the
spending
habits
of
Vietnamese
consumers.
Approximately twelve years ago, the spending habit of
Vietnamese consumers was still very limited, focusing
mainly on basic products such as food or clothing, while
very little was spent on luxury products. Nowadays, they
allocate a great proportion of their revenue towards
housing, entertainment activities, transportation means,
and household appliances. Besides, according to Speece
(2002), it is shown that the strong value orientation
characteristic of the middle class continues. Price is not
the most important attribute when making a brand choice.
However, while Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) middle class
consumers continue to be concerned mainly about
product characteristics and quality; and the demand for
high quality, branded products by an expanding wealthy,
educated middle-class is increasing, they take the factor
price into consideration which characterizes strong value
thinking.
On the other hand, Vietnam’s high class consumer‘s first
purchasing criteria is not product price or utility, but
product image which is associated with high prestige.
They prefer famous and expensive foreign brands
because of the belief that “a well known brand name
equals high quality”. According to Speece (2002), the
country of origin also affects Vietnamese consumers
buying behaviour. Basically, price cutting strategies
cannot be used as an effective tool to counter negative
brand image related to country-of-origin. Similarly, in a
research of Batra et al. (2000), consumers in developing
countries, like Vietnam, also see the country-of-origin of
the product as the determining a brand’s desirability for
symbolic, status-enhancing reasons (status preference),
in addition to suggesting overall quality. Because the
production and control of popular culture resides in the
affluent core countries of the West (especially the U.S.),
the flow of media images is mostly from the economic
center (the West) to the periphery (the developing world),
making brands that symbolize affluent Western lifestyles
which seem highly desirable.
Furthermore, Nguyen, Nguyen & Barrett (2008) stated
that the impacts of consumer ethnocentrism on imported
product judgment and on intention to purchase local
products are not different in terms of product categories,
gender, income, and education levels. However,
differences exist between younger and older consumers.
Consumer ethnocentrism does translate into bias for
imported products. Therefore, traditional marketing tools
such as sales promotions, price promotions and brand
advertisements will not be sufficient for attracting highly
ethnocentric consumers. Instead, strategies that take the
role of consumer ethnocentrism into account are more
appropriate. Marketing programs of imported products are
not harmful to the economy in order to reduce such a
bias. For a manager, the findings of the study of Nguyen,
Nguyen & Barrett (2008) suggest that brand positioning
strategies, heavily based on the physical attributes of
brands, are no longer suitable. Such positioning
strategies may create serious problems for local brands in
the market since Vietnamese consumers often consider
imported products to have superior quality to the local
product. Consequently, positioning strategies which focus
on consumer ethnocentric tendencies may be more
appropriate in persuading highly ethnocentric consumers
to purchase local products.
each product retains its own generic name. For instance,
Palmolive is a brand name for household products
(dishwashing liquid) as well as for hygiene products (soap
and shampoos for the entire family, but also shaving
cream for men) (Kapferer, 1997).
Nevertheless, Vietnamese consumers also have a
cultural sensitivity which has a positive relationship with
imported product judgment, but not with consumers’
ethnocentrism. Consumers in the emerging world are
willing to participate in, and be perceived as members of
4
the global consumer community . Foreign exporters
should convey to Vietnamese consumers that sensitivity
to foreign cultures is a means in order to become a
member of the global community.
About global branding, most Western FMCG companies
have a trend to conquer the world, primarily through the
European market and then through other foreign markets
like America, Asia and South- Africa. Following the
Kapferer (1997) survey, concerning the marketing
strategy in the European market, the great majority of
interviewed brand managers declared that they were
working towards increased homogenization and
standardization of their marketing mix in Europe. Only a
few companies preferred a marketing policy adapted to
each country. However, certainly the trend towards
globalization is massive everywhere, but brands born in
Italy or in France are more likely to have local adaptation
policies. On the whole, 40 percent of European brands
interviewed proclaimed having a common marketing mix
in Europe, 34 percent vary the marketing mix according to
different regions in Europe and 26 percent prefer to adapt
one strategy to each country. Food brands are the most
reluctant to go totally global; and luxury and cosmetic
brands are the most likely to globalize their marketing
strategies (Kapferer, 1997).
2.7 Marketing practices in the West
According to an analysis of Kapferer (1997), Western
corporations follow six main typical models in the
management of brand-product relationships. Each model
denotes a certain role for the brand, its status as well as
its relationship with the products. The six models
encompass the product brand, the line brand, the range
brand, the umbrella brand, the source brand and
endorsing brand.
The product brand strategy involves the assignment of a
particular name to only one product as well as one
exclusive positioning. The result of such strategy is that
each new product receives its own brand name that only
belongs to it. Each of these products has a precise, well
defined positioning and occupies a particular segment of
the market. Companies applying the product brand
model, for example, are P&G, Unilever which is
represented in a detergent market by the brands Ariel,
Dash, Soft, or OMO and in the soap market by Camay,
Dove, or Zest (Kapferer, 1997).
The line brand strategy responds to the concern of
offering one coherent product under a single name by
proposing many complementary products. Companies
like Christian Dior and L’Oreal prefer this type of brand
strategy because they can take advantages of reinforcing
the selling power of the brand, creating a strong brand
image and reducing launch costs (Kapferer, 1997).
Food, cosmetics, textiles and equipment firms like Green
Giant, Benetton, Lacoste or Samsonite follow the range
brand structure. These brands combine all their products
through one unique principle, a so-called brand concept
(Kapferer, 1997).
Companies which implement the umbrella brand strategy
choose the same brand supporting several products in
different markets. Each of them has its own advertising
tools and develops its own communications. However,
4 See Venkatesh, Swamy (1994), Batra et al. (2000) cited
by Tho D.Nguyen, Trang T.M Nguyen and Nigel J. Barrett
(2008)
Firms that are using the source brand strategy and the
endorsing brand strategy often place their name on the
products alongside the products’ own brand. As an
illustration, when Nestlé puts its name on the bar Kit Kat
and on Nescafé packages, this corporate brand is
endorsing the quality of the merchandise and acts as a
base guarantor. Endorsing brand is considered as the
most favourite type of branding strategies of Western
European FMCG companies because the endorsing
brand strategy is one of the least expensive ways of
giving substance to a company’s name and
simultaneously, it allows achieving a minimal brand status
(Kapferer, 1997).
2.8 North-West European consumer behaviour
Based on Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture, the
Netherlands as well as Germany are considered highly
individualistic (De Mooij & Hofstede, 2002). Consumer’s
value appreciation to products has been differentiated
and is reflected in the consumption, ownership and use of
many products and services.
Many studies have shown that consumer purchasing
behaviour, especially for fast moving consumer goods, is
influenced by many factors which can be classified into
economic and non-economic factors. The economic
factor entails the influence of income, employment and
inflation. During the economic recession in the 1980’s,
Dutch consumers have moved from a materialistic value
perception to a post-materialistic value perception. The
post-materialistic value perception score high on
democracy, liberalization, freedom of speech and a less
impersonal society. As the real income of the Dutch
increased they would easily switch to more expensive
products. Nowadays, however, due to the impact of the
global economic crisis, three quarters of the Dutch
consumers are in a “recessionary state of mind” which
significantly influences their purchase behaviour. This
causes consumers to become more price-conscious and
highly aware of their expenditures. Despite the high
uncertainty level in the economy and also the high
unemployment level, the proportion of working women is
increasing which consequently allow them to have more
power over spending (Eurostat; Consumers in Europe
2009). Besides income, consumer “expectation” does
also determine expenditure (Leeflang & Raaij, 1993).
Consumer expectations are embedded with economic as
well as cultural variables which take us to the noneconomic factor.
Non-economic factors such as the demographic and the
cultural environment entail the population size, age
distribution, household size and immigrant. The
Netherlands illustrate an increasing trend in population
which will become stationary in 2025 and a decreasing
trend in the household to 2.22 persons according to
Leeflang & Raaij (1993). Douglas & Craig (1996) state
that the major shifts taking place in the populations of the
Netherlands and Germany and other European countries
is first of all, due to the massive wave of migration, locally
affecting the consumer market by the increasing product
variety, loss of cultural identity and safety. Secondly, the
mobilization of consumers which makes them more easily
exposed to products, lifestyles and behavioural patterns
in other countries, ultimately promoting high willingness to
buy together with a low confidence in the national
economy (Leeflang & Raaij, 1993).
The primary concern for the Dutch and German
consumers is health due to environmental problems and
partly due to a more sports-fitness and body oriented
lifestyle (Leeflang & Raaij, 1993). This is in line with the
growth rate of health products is in both countries and the
rest of Europe. This is also reflected in the increasing
demand of medicine, private hospitals, body care
products and pharmaceuticals (Leeflang & Raaij, 1994).
3
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The literature review has shown some differences
between customer behaviour between Asia and the West.
An important factor for the differences between the
customer behaviours can be traced back to Hofstede’s
five cultural dimensions. Although differences between
cultures exist, outside factors have an influence on the
culture. For this reason, the Western values could have
an influence on the Vietnamese customer behaviour. This
can be seen in the fact that Le & Jolibert (2000) that due
to the economic liberalization process, the foreign product
and the improving living standards, that the radical
change in spending habits has occurred of the
Vietnamese. Therefore, it could be possible that the
consumer behaviour of the Vietnamese is converging
towards the Western consumer behaviour. This would
result in the fact that MNC’s could globalize their brands
and according to that their marketing practices when
producing their products for the Vietnamese market.
the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e.
historically derived and selected) ideas and especially
their attached values”. Therefore it can be said that how
people receive artefacts (and therefore also products and
marketing campaigns) is culturally determined. According
to Boztepe (2007), value for users and how user value is
shaped by local and cultural context. It can be argued that
the values and the culture of Vietnamese differ
substantially from the values and culture present in the
West. Since culture and values have a large influence on
customer behaviour, it can be argued that customer
behaviour is diverging from the customer behaviour
present in the West.
Hypothesis 2: The customer behaviour of the Vietnamese
consumers is diverging from the North-West European
consumer behaviour patterns.
Since for both hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 supporting
literature has been found, it can be argued that although
the West may have an influence on certain parts of the
customer behaviour of the Vietnamese, they also keep
certain values of their own culture. According to the
crossverging concept, the Vietnamese consumers would
combine the values of the West with the values of their
own and therefore, creating a new kind of customer
behaviour. This would mean for managers of MNCs that
they could globalize some of their marketing practices,
while localizing other parts of the marketing practices.
Hypothesis 3: The customer behaviour of the Vietnamese
consumers is crossverging with the North-West European
consumer behaviour patterns.
The system of figure 1 is a homeostatic (self-regulating)
quasi-equilibrium which shows how a culture keeps
maintained. According to Hofstede (1984), the behaviour
of the people of a culture has the most influence if the
cultural values will disappear. Jews, Gypsies & Basques
(Spicer, 1971) have shown cases that people of a system
of culture have maintained their identity over hundreds
and thousands of years, although they faced pressures
from the outside. On the other hand, cultures have also
disappeared, because their self-regulating cycle was too
far disrupted by outside influences.
Hypothesis 1: The customer behaviour of the Vietnamese
consumers is converging towards the North-West
European consumer behaviour patterns.
On the other hand, in the literature that has been found
on the Vietnamese and Western customer behaviour, it
can be seen that a lot of differences still exist. This is
mainly because of different values which are present in
the different cultures. According to Hofstede (1984),
values are “a broad tendency to prefer certain states of
affairs over others”. The different values of people are
learned to them early in their lives and are therefore nonrational, although people may feel that they think
rationale. In fact, values determine our definition of what
is rationale. Values are also determined by the culture
people live in. Kluckhohn (1951) quotes culture as:
“Culture consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling,
and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by
symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of
human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts;
Figure 1: The Stabilizing of Culture Patterns
Therefore, in this paper it will be researched whether the
Vietnamese will be maintained and consequently that the
values and culture of the Vietnamese will still determine
the customer behaviour or that the outside influences of
the West are that high that the customer behaviour is
more converged towards the West.
4
METHODOLOGY
This research is of an exploratory nature as it is the
intention to seek new insights into the phenomena of
different consumer behaviours between Vietnam and
North Western Europe.
It is chosen to use the PrEmo tool for the research
because this will give an appropriate overview of the
emotions that the customers will have with the product or
advertisements. The PrEmo tool is an unique scientifically
validated non-verbal self report instrument to measure
emotions. Since the emotions involved with a product or
advertisement will influence the customer behaviour, it is
an important aspect for MNCs to focus on. This will give a
good overview whether the products and advertisements
will elicit positive or negative emotions by the customers.
Besides this, the emotions are a part of the customer
behaviour which is not often researched, but of great
importance in our view.
Data is collected by distributing a questionnaire to both
Vietnamese people as well as Dutch and German people.
Therefore, the basis is a quantitative survey by doing
individual questioning. In order to get enough and quick
results, the use of an online questionnaire was used as it
is the most appropriate one. With the help of Susa Group,
it was possible to conduct an empirical study in form of a
questionnaire to measure consumer’s emotions on
different products and advertisements. In this case, three
FMCG products (OMO washing powder, Dove beauty
care shower and Rexona deodorant) and two
advertisements (Dove advertisement and OMO
commercial) are shown to Vietnamese as well as German
and Dutch respondents. The three brands are all brands
of the company Unilever and available in all the three
countries. The pictures will be shown to each respondent
in a random order. After looking at one picture, the person
has to score twelve different emotions (image and sound)
on a 5-point-Likert-Scale (0 = I do not feel this; 4 = I do
feel this strongly) to express their feeling. In figure 2, the
different products and advertisements which are used for
the questionnaire are shown. In figure 3, a screen shot of
the questionnaire is shown where it is asked for the
emotions the product has elicited by the user.
Figure 3: Emotions Questionnaire
According to Desmet & Hekkert (2007), three different
levels of product experience can be distinguished, namely
aesthetic experience, experience of meaning, and
emotional experience. Through the different emotions, the
experiences of all three levels are researched and
therefore give a total overview of how the different people
experience the products and advertisements. Through the
different products and advertisements, it can be
discovered what the differences are in experience
between the consumers from the different cultures. This
is important because, according to Desmet & Hekkert
(2007), experience is shaped by both the characteristics
of the user (e.g., personality, skills, background, cultural
values, and motives) and those of the product (e.g.,
shape texture, colour, and behaviour). Since the
experience is always influenced by the context of the
user, a question of the present mood of the consumer is
asked. Since no significantly difference has been found
between the mood of both groups, the context of the user
in which he or she gives the present emotions by the
product, can be neglected.
Products and advertisements can evoke strong emotions.
5
As per Holbrook (1985) , the product emotions play a role
by the decisions of consumers to buy a product. For this
research, it is assumed that the same will be the case for
emotions which are elicited with advertisements and
commercials. These emotions are often very difficult to
express by people. According to Desmet et al. (2001),
this has two reasons, namely first that emotions are
difficult to verbalize, especially in the case of products
and advertisements since these often elicit low intensity
emotions. Besides this, the cognitive involvement which is
required when asking consumers to describe their
emotion response to a product will influence the response
itself. Desmet et al. (2001) found in their research that the
use of the PrEmo tool helps consumers in communicating
the emotions they have.
Figure 2: Products Questionnaire
Since the emotions are highly personal, it seems difficult
to find a general relationship between the product and
advertisement characteristics and the emotional
responses. But since, as discussed in the findings and
analysis part, through the statistical analysis, the
differences among customer behaviour between the two
cultures can still be distinguished.
5 See Holbrook (1985) cited by Desmet et al. (2001)
5
FINDINGS/ANALYSIS
In order to investigate the two groups of respondent’s
scores on emotions, a two sample t-test was conducted
to examine whether the mean difference in the scores for
various emotions is statistically significant or not. To avoid
bias in the results, the following conditions for the
statistical test were considered: randomized condition,
independent groups’ assumption and 10% condition.
The data presented in table 1 show the results extracted
on the basis of extreme differences or similarities
between the two groups. The null hypothesis is rejected
whenever the p-value exceeds the level of significance of
α= 0.05.
Type of Emotion
t
Mean difference
Mean Netherlands
Mean Vietnam
Df
Sig.(2-­‐tailed)
-­‐1 ,01
0,025
1,25
1,27
97
0,92
Dove_fascination
-­‐4 ,04
-­‐0 ,097
1,35
1,45
97
0,687
Dove_dissatisfaction
-­‐2 ,357
-­‐0 ,559
0,50
1,06
97
0,02
Dove_shame
-­‐2 ,239
-­‐0 ,344
0,15
0,49
97
0,027
Omo_satisfaction
-­‐0 ,328
-­‐0 ,086
1,54
1,63
97
0,743
p
Dove_pride
Omo_disgust
0,119
0,02
0,33
0,31
97
0,906
Omo_hope
-­‐2 ,476
-­‐0 ,58
0,81
1,39
97
0,015
Omo_shame
-­‐2 .545
-­‐0 ,349
0,06
0,41
97
0,012
Omo_sadness
-­‐2 .379
-­‐0 ,35
0,04
0,39
97
0,019
Rexona_satisfaction
-­‐0 ,279
-­‐0 ,069
1,17
1,24
97
0,781
Rexona_fascination
-­‐0 ,332
-­‐0 ,025
1,23
1,31
97
0,74
Rexona_disgust
-­‐0 ,123
-­‐0 ,025
0,58
0,61
97
0,903
Rexona_boredom
2,523
0,7
1,90
1,20
97
0,013
DoveAdd_desire
2,899
0,604
0,94
0,33
97
0,005
DoveAdd_joy
2,643
0,69
1,73
1,04
97
0,01
DoveAdd_dissatisfact
ion
DoveAdd_sadness
-­‐2 ,777
-­‐0 ,722
0,73
1,45
97
0,007
-­‐2 ,384
-­‐0 ,553
0,27
0,87
97
0,019
DoveAdd_boredom
-­‐1 ,986
-­‐0 ,614
0.90
1,51
97
0,05
OmoCom_pride
-­‐2 ,208
-­‐0 ,558
1,19
1,75
97
0,03
OmoCom_hope
-­‐2 ,03
-­‐0 ,472
0.98
1,45
97
0,045
OmoCom_fascination
-­‐2 ,295
-­‐0 ,565
1,40
1,96
97
0,024
OmoCom_boredom
3,471
0,966
1,75
0.78
97
0,001
OmoCom_shame
-­‐0 ,496
-­‐0 ,065
0,23
0,29
97
0,621
OmoCom_fear
0,233
0,04
0,35
0,31
97
0,816
Table 1 : Independent Two-sample T-test
A total number of 201 questionnaires were sent out from
which 102 forms were incomplete and 99 forms complete,
which is a response rate of about 49.3%. The chi-square
test for homogeneity was used to compare the distribution
of the two groups: Vietnam and North-West Europe on
the same categorical variables; gender, age and mood.
The p-values for the categories gender, age and mood
are all >α, so we fail to reject the null hypothesis and
conclude that the two groups show no significant
difference in distribution over the categorical variables
gender, age and mood. Among the usable respondents,
51 were of Vietnam and 49 of North-West Europe. In
total, 46.5% were male and 53.5% were female. Almost
all respondents were between the age of 18 and 35. The
majority of the respondents were in a slightly or generally
in a happy mood. All the results can be found in the
annex in table 2 till 14.
For every product, remarkable findings can be outlined. In
response to the Dove product, it is noticeable that the
Vietnamese and North-West European consumers score
approximately similar on the emotions “pride” and
“fascination” which can be seen in the high p-level of 0.92
and 0.687>α=0.05. This means that the null hypothesis
cannot be rejected because it shows no significant
differences signifying convergence (H1). Significant
differences can be gathered from the emotions
“dissatisfaction” and “shame” which are estimated
significantly higher by the Vietnamese consumers
(“dissatisfaction” Mean West: 0.5, Mean Vietnam: 1.06).
The p-values are both <α=0.05. The null hypothesis is
rejected because it shows significant differences
signifying divergence (H2). Concerning the OMO product,
there are conformable reactions on the emotions
“satisfaction” and “disgust”. Significant disparities,
however, can be found for the emotions “hope”, “shame”,
and “sadness”. For the Vietnamese consumers, the score
of all the three emotions is substantial higher than the
score of North-West Europeans (“hope” Mean West: 0.81,
Mean Vietnam: 1.39 with (p<α=0.05). The null hypothesis
is rejected signifying divergence (H2). Looking at the
Rexona product, it is evident that most emotions
advocate a similar strategy as both nations score quite
similar the emotions “satisfaction”, “fascination”, and
“disgust”. The only decisive difference is the aspect
“boredom” as the North-West European consumers found
this product much more boring than the Vientamese
consumers (“boredom” Mean West: 1.9, Mean Vietnam:
1.2 with p-value <α=0.05). The null hypothesis is rejected
signifying divergence (H2). Considering the Dove
advertisement, there are no significant similar reactions
on one of the twelve emotions. Both groups never react in
an identical way and score most emotions extremely
differently. The advertisement is found to be more
desireable and joyful for the West consumers than for
Vietnamese consumers (“joy” Mean West: 1.73, Mean
Vietnam: 1.04 with p-value <α=0.05). The Vietnamese
respondents score significantly higher on “dissatisfaction”
and “sadness” as well as “boredom” when viewing this
advertisement than the West consumers (“dissatisfaction”
Mean West: 0.73, Mean Vietnam: 1.45 with p-value
<α=0.05). The null hypothesis is rejected signifying
divergence (H2). The OMO TV commercial has two
emotions that are evaluated almost similar: “shame” and
“fear”. Both emotions do not play a decisive role for the
customers (“shame” Mean West: 0.23, Mean Vietnam:
0.29). Consequently it does not have to be regarded in
detail. On the other hand, this commercial appears to be
much more interesting to Vietnamese consumers than
North-West European consumers. Vietnamese score high
on “pride”, “hope”, and “fascination” while the West
consumers score high on boredom when viewing the
OMO commercial (“pride” Mean West: 1.19, Mean
Vietnam: 1.75 with p-value <α=0.05). The null hypothesis
is rejected signifying divergence (H2).
6
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION
For the managers of MNCs, it is important to know
whether the consumer behaviour of the Vietnamese is
converging towards or diverging or crossverging from the
Western consumers. Therefore, first for each product will
be explained what the differences and similarities are and
what reasons can be for this. First all the concepts will be
explained according to the diverging and converging
concepts, since the crossverging concept is more a
concept which lies in between the two extreme concepts.
First of all, for Dove product, the Vietnamese and NorthWest European consumers score similar on the emotions
“pride” and “fascination”. It can be stated that especially
the positive emotions are scored similarly for the Dove
product. The soft pastel colours and the natural symbols,
the flower are preferred by both the Vietnamese and the
Western consumers (Schmitt, 1995). On the other hand,
the significant different emotions are “dissatisfaction” and
“shame”, whereby the Vietnamese score higher on these
emotions than that the Western consumers do. The
product is rather big, which is quite normal for the
Western
consumers,
although
the
Vietnamese
consumers prefer smaller products. According to Schmitt
(1994), the East Asians prefer products with a lot of
complexity and decorations. This means they prefer
products with multiple forms, shapes and colours. In the
packaging of the Dove product, not that many complexity
and decorations are present. These factors explain why
the Vietnamese consumers score higher on the emotion
“dissatisfaction” than the Western consumers do. Besides
this, the lotus flower is an important symbol in the
Vietnamese culture and therefore, the Vietnamese do not
like it when this is used for a product. According to Quang
& Huyen (1999), a brand should avoid any conflict with
local cultural context and thus the use of the lotus flower
would not suit in the Vietnamese culture. For these
reasons it can be explained that the Vietnamese score
higher on the emotion “shame” than that the Europeans
do. Altogether, it can be said that there are both aspects
of the concept which support the converging concepts as
aspects which support the diverging concepts.
For the OMO product quite some different responses are
gathered. The Vietnamese and the North-West
Europeans score significantly different on the aspects of
emotions “hope”, “shame”, and “sadness”. On the other
hand, both groups score the same for the emotions
“satisfaction” and “disgust”. The first impression is that
there are more emotional differences than similarities
between the two groups which could support the
divergence concept. Reasons why the Vietnamese score
higher on the emotions of “hope”, “shame”, and “sadness”
can be that the Vietnamese have no tablets yet and do
not have different washing powders for white, black and
coloured clothes. Therefore, it can be that the new
information is too complex for the Vietnamese
consumers, which can result in the emotions “shame” and
“sadness”. On the other hand, since they are not familiar
with this kind of product, consumers see it as an
innovative product for the future. It is possible that the
Vietnamese are therefore hopeful to buy it in the future.
This would lead to the conclusion that the Vietnamese are
diverging from the Western consumers, but that this is
mainly the case through the fact that the Vietnamese are
not familiar to these products yet. As a consequence, it
can be stated that the diverging concept, which is
promoted by this concept, is more available through
differences in products on the market than through
differences in culture.
Rexona is one of world’s most sold Deodorants. With
more than 100 years on the market, it’s considered
number one in 29 countries. This product is categorized
by Unilever as a typical global product. For the product of
Rexona, the only significant difference in the emotional
responses was for the emotion “boredom”. An
explanation for this can be that this is an old product for
the Western consumers, whereby already newer versions
are introduced, while in Vietnam this is the current version
of the product. This could be a reason why the Western
consumers score higher on the emotion “boredom” than
that the Vietnamese consumers do. The emotions
“satisfaction”, “fascination”, and “disgust” are comparable
for both groups. Thus, it can be concluded that the
Rexona product supports the convergence concept.
The Dove Advertisement supports the diverging concept,
since none of the emotions scores between the two
groups are similar. The Western consumers score
significantly higher on the positive emotions “Desire” and
“Joy”, while the Vietnamese consumers score higher on
the negative emotions “dissatisfaction”, “sadness” and
“boredom”. A reason for this high contradiction between
the Western consumers and the Vietnamese consumers
could be that the advertisement is quite controversial.
According to Yu and Cude (2009), the advertisements in
Asia should be very subtle, which is not in line with the
Dove advertisement used in this research. When the
message of an advertisement is inappropriate in the view
of the Asians, they will not pay attention to the content
anymore (Shavitt et al., 1997) and may therefore not see
the actual reason behind the controversial advertisement.
Hence, it would be very risky for a company to make
controversial advertisements for the Asian market.
Besides this, according to Unilever’s brand facts (2010)
Asian women overwhelmingly feel that beautiful women
have greater opportunities in life but few consider
themselves beautiful. Across Asia, fewer than 3% said
“beautiful” and only 1% of women in Vietnam called
themselves beautiful. Their norms promote more negative
emotions in Vietnamese consumers when viewing ads
portraying “normal” women.
The commercial of OMO is significantly similar for both
groups for the emotions “shame” and “fear”. The
Vietnamese score higher on the emotions “pride”, “hope”,
and “fascination”. On the other hand, the Western
consumers score higher on the emotion “boredom”. The
commercial is much more appreciated by the Vietnamese
than by the Europeans, probably because this kind of
commercials is shown on the European television for
many years, while it is quite new for the Vietnamese
consumers. Overall, it can be said that the OMO
commercial supports the diverging concept.
Altogether, it can be said that the different products and
advertisements support both the diverging concept and
the converging concept, although the diverging concept is
supported a little bit more. Especially the Dove
advertisement, which is loved in Europe, is not
appreciated in Vietnam and therefore supports the
divergence concept. This is also in line with the literature.
Since the products of Unilever are not ‘high-tech’, ‘hightouch’ or have a strong national identity, they are more
suited for localization (Kapferer 2008). Besides this, the
literature about customer behaviour also shows a lot of
differences in the reasons for the purchase of products.
On the other hand, the literature also shows significant
changes in the customer behaviour of the Vietnamese
consumers, whereby some of their values are more
converging towards the western values. For these
reasons it can be stated that the research suggest that
the crossverging concept fits best to the customer
behaviour of the Vietnamese customers compared to the
North-West European customers.
From this research, it can be concluded that the
consumer behaviour in Vietnam is crossverging with the
consumer behaviour in North-West Europe. This research
can contribute to MNCs, since they can gain better
insights in the emotions behind the consumer behaviour
in the two different cultures. According to this research,
the best suitable strategy for the managers of MNCs,
which intend to operate in Vietnam, would be to have a
“being global and acting local strategy”. MNCs are
companies that focus on being global, but they need local
strategies for each different country. This is mainly due to
the fact that the literature (e.g. Speece, 2002) has shown
that the Vietnamese regards foreign brands as higher
quality than the local brands. But in order to create more
value for the Vietnamese consumers, they should also
localize their products and advertisements, although not
all parts of the products and advertisements have to be
localized. Managers should pay attention to which parts
of the products and advertisements can be globalized and
which parts should be localized.
Besides this, it also contributes to the general knowledge
on the convergence/divergence debate, since the topic of
emotions
behind
customer
behaviour
between
Vietnamese and North-West European consumers has
not been researched before. This study shows that with
disappearing differences in GDP per capita, culture is still
a powerful explanation for consumer differences, but that
the West has also influences on the consumer behaviour.
In order to make further generalizations to other products,
more research should be done. First of all, the reasons
behind the emotions should be researched, to gain more
insight between the actual characteristics of the products
and advertisements which create the emotions. Besides
this, the research should also be conducted with a
broader range of products and advertisements.
A limitation of this research is that the products were
sometimes familiar to the North-Western consumers,
while they were not familiar to the Vietnamese
consumers. Furthermore, the North-West European
consumers sometimes had already a newer version of the
product, while the Vietnamese were still used to the
product shown. This will have an influence on the data.
Consequently, the research should be done with products
which are unfamiliar for both groups.
Another limitation is that the approach does not focus on
the relationship between emotion and purchase
behaviour (Desmet et al., 2001). According to Holbrook
6
(1985) , however, the product emotions have an influence
on the purchase of the product. According to that, we do
not know if all emotions have all equal influence on the
purchase. As a result, more research should also be done
for this.
7
REFERENCES
[1] Abo, T. (1994), “Hybrid factory: The Japanese
Production System in the United States”, Oxford
University Press.
[2] Amaczi, P., Pham Ngoc Thuy Trang (2008),
“Vietnam may be fastest growing emerging
economy“, Pricewaterhousecooopers, 12 March
2008,
Ho
Chi
Minh
City.
http://www.pwc.com/vn/en/releases2008/vietnammay-be-fastest-growing-emerging-economy.jhtml
implications for international retailing”, Journal of
Retailing, Vol. 78, pp. 61-69.
[8]
De Mooij, M. (2003), “Convergence and divergence
in consumer behavior: implications for global
advertising”, International Journal of Advertising,
Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 183-202.
[9]
Desmet, P.M.A., Overbeeke, K., Tax, S. (2001),
"Designing products with added emotional value:
development and application of an approach for
research through design", The Design Journal, Vol.
4, No. 1, pp. 32-47.
[10] Desmet, P.M.A., Hekkert, P. (2007), “Framework of
Product Experience”, International Journal of
Design, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 57-66.
[11] Douglas, S.P., Craig, S. (1996), “The changing
dynamic of consumer behavior: implications for
cross-cultural research”, International Journal of
Research in Marketing, Vol. 14, pp. 379-395.
[12] England, G.W., Lee R. (1974), “The relationship
between managerial values and managerial success
in the United States, Japan, India, and Australia”,
Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 59, No. 4, pp.
411-419.
[13] Euopean Commision, Eurostat Statistical Books,
“Consumers in Europe 2009”, Luxemboug, Office for
official publications of the European Communities
2009.
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPU
B/KS-DY-09-001/EN/KS-DY-09-001-EN.PDF
[14] Gupta, V., Wang, J. (2003), “Globalization and
Convergence-Divergence
debate:
Strategic
perspectives for Emerging Markets”, Journal of
Business and Economics Research, Vol. 1, No. 2.
[15] Hall, E.T. (1976), “Beyond culture”, New York:
Anchor Press/Doubleday.
[16] Han, S.P., Shavitt, S. (1994), “Persuasion and
culture: Advertising appeals in individualistic and
collectivistic societies”. Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, Vol. 30, pp. 326–350.
[17] Hofstede, G. (1980), “Motivation, leadership, and
organization: Do American theories apply abroad?”,
Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 9, pp. 42-63.
[18] Hofstede, G.H. (1984), “Culture’s consequences,
international differences in work-related values”.
SAGE Publications, Inc., US: California.
[3]
Batra, R., Ramaswamy, V., Alden, D.L.,
Steenkamp, J.B. (2000), “Effects of brand local
and nonlocal origin on consumer attitudes in
developing countries“, Journal of Consumer
Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 83-95.
[4]
Bozteke, S. (2007), “Toward a framework of product
development for global markets: a user-value-based
approach”, Design Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 513-533.
[20] Kapferer, J.N. (2008), “The new strategic brand
management: creating and sustaining brand equity
th
long term”, Kogan Page, UK: London, limited. 4
edition.
[5]
Cavusgil, S.T., Ghauri, P.N., Agarwal, M.R.
(2002), “Doing business in emerging markets –
Entry and negotiation strategies”, Sage Publications,
Inc. California.
[21] Klein, J.G., Ettenson, R., et al. (1998), "The
Animosity Model of Foreign Product Purchase: An
Empirical Test in the People's Republic of China."
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 89-100.
[6]
Chetthamrongchai, P., Davies, G. (2000),
“Segmenting the market for food shoppers using
attitudes to shopping and to time”, British Food
Journal, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 81–101.
[7]
De Mooij, M., Hofstede, G. (2002), “Convergence
and
Divergence
in
Consumer
behaviour:
[22] Kluckhohn, C.K.M. (1951). “Values and value
orientation in the theory of action”, in T. Parsons &
E. Sils (Eds.), “Toward a general theory of action”,
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 388433
6 See Holbrook (1985) cited by Desmet et al. (2001)
[19] Kapferer,
J.N.
(1997),
“Strategic
brand
management: creating and sustaining brand equity
long term”, Kogan Page, 2nd edition.
[23] Le, T.M., Jolibert, A. (2001), “Advertising practice
in a transitional economy: An examination of
advertising industry in Vietnam“
http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/sma/2001/34.pd
[24] Leeflang, P.S.H., Raaij van, F.W. (1993), “The
changing consumer in the The Netherlands”,
International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol.
10, No. 4, pp. 345-363.
[25] Leeflang, P.S.H., Raaij van, F.W. (1995), “The
changing consumer in the The European Union: A
meta-analysis”, International Journal of Research in
Marketing, Vol. 12, pp. 373-387.
[26] Legohérel, P., Daucé, B., Hsu, C.H.C.,
Ranchhold, A. (2009), “Culture, Time Orientation,
and Exploratory Buying Behavior”, Journal of
International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 21, No. 2,
pp. 93-107.
[27] Luomala, H.T., Sirieix, L., et al. (2009), "Exploring
Emotional-Eating Patterns in Different Cultures:
Toward a Conceptual Framework Model", Journal of
International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 21, No. 3,
pp. 231-245.
[28] Markus, H.R., Kitayama, S. (1991), “Culture and
the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and
motivation”. Psychological Review, Vol. 98, No. 2,
pp. 224–253.
[29] Marsella, A.J. (series ed.), McCrae, R.R., Allik, J.
(2002), “The Five-factor model across cultures”, The
Netherlands, Kluwer Academic.
[30] McKenna, R. (1991), “Marketing is Everything”,
Harvard Business Review, pp. 65-79.
[31] Meyer, K.E., Tran, Y.T.T., Nguyen, H.V. (2006),
“Doing Business in Vietnam“, Thunderbird
International Business Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.
263-290.
[32] Nguyen, T.D., Nguyen, T.T.M., Barrett, N.J.
(2008),
“Consumer
ethnocentrism,
cultural
sensitivity, and intention to purchase local productsevidence from Vietnam“, Journal of Consumer
Behavior. Vol. 7, pp. 88-100.
[33] Jones, J.P. (2000), “International advertising: Myths
and realities”. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
[34] Quang, T., Huyen, P.T. (1999), “Product extension:
the case of Bivina beer in Vietnam”, Asian Journal of
Marketing, pp. 1-37
[35] Ralston, D.A., Gustafson, D.J., Cheung, F.M &
Terpstra, R.H. (1993), “Differences in managerial
values: A study of U.S., Hong Kong and PRC
managers”, Journal of International Business
Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 249-75.
[36] Ramarapu, S., Timmerman, J.E., Ramarapu, N.
(1999), “Choosing between globalization and
localization as a strategic thrust for your
international marketing effort”, Journal of Marketing
Theory and Practice, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 97-105.
[37] Richins, M.L. (1994), “Special possessions and the
expression of material values”. Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 522–533.
[38] Schmitt, B.H., Pan, Y. (1994), "Managing
Corporate and Brand Identities in the Asia-Pacific
Region", California Management Review, Vol. 36,
No. 4, pp. 32-48.
[39] Schmitt, B.H. (1995), "Language and Visual
Imagery: Issues of Corporate Identity in East Asia",
Columbia Journal of World Business, Vol. 30, No. 4,
pp. 28-36.
[40] Shavitt, S., Nelson, M.R., Yuan, R.M.L. (1997),
“Exploring cross-cultural differences in cognitive
responding to ads”, Advances in Consumer
Research, Vol. 24, pp. 245–250.
[41] Sinclair, J. (2008), "Globalization and the
advertising Industry in China", Chinese Journal of
Communication, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 77-90.
[42] Speece, M. (2002), "Consumer value orientation in
Vietnam's urban middle class", Der Markt, Vol. 41,
No. 4, pp.157-168.
[43] Speece, M., Quang, T., Huong, T.N. (2003),
“Foreign firms and advertising knowledge transfer in
Vietnam“, Journal of Marketing Intelligence and
Planning, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 173-182.
[44] Speece, M. (2004), “Diffusing the Marketing
Concept in a Transforming Economy: Class
Consultancies for State- Owned Enterprises in
Vietnam“, Journal of Transnational Management
Development, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 37-54.
[45] Speece, M., Nguyen, D.P. (2005), “Countering
negative country-of-origin with low prices: a conjoint
study in Vietnam”, Journal of Product & Brand
Management, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 39-48.
[46] Spicer, E.H. (1971), "Persistent Cultural Systems",
Science, Vol. 174, No. 4011, pp. 795-800.
[47] Unilever brand facts 2010:
http://www.unilever.com.vn/ourbrands/personalcare/
rexona.asp
[48] Wills, J., Samli, C.A., Jacobs, L. (1991),
“Developing global products and marketing
strategies: A construct and a research agenda”,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol.
19, No. 1, pp. 1-10.
[49] Yu, J., Cude, B.J. (2009), "Possible Disparities in
Consumers' Perceptions Toward Personalized
Advertising Caused by Cultural Differences: U.S.
and Korea", Journal of International Consumer
Marketing, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 251-269.
8
ANNEXES
Table 2 : Gender and Chi-Square Test table
Table 3 : Age categories and Chi-Square Test table
Tables 4 : General Mood respondents and Chi-Square Test table
Table 5 : Group Statistics Dove Product
Table 6 : Group Statistics OMO Product
Table 7 : Group Statistics Rexona Product
Table 8 : Group Statistics Dove Advertisement
Table 9 : Group Statistics OMO commercial
Table 10 : Independent Sample Test Dove Product
Table 11 : Independent Sample Test OMO Product
Table 12 : Independent Sample Test Rexona Product
Table 13 : Independent Sample Test Dove Advertisement
Table 14 : Independent Sample Test OMO commercial