Enhancing Distribution Efficiency

 It is undeniable that for the past 2-3 years, Vietnamese goods are popular from the rural to urban market with strategic communication.

 

However, it has taken place smoothly in big enterprises with strength of capital and experience whereas it’s foreign brands that are good at distribution. Surveys in many rural markets Dong Nai province such as: Cam My, Xuan Loc, Tan Phu, Dinh Quan etc, it can be seen that tens of brands from cosmetic, food, consuming goods, milk etc displayed belong to those of fame like: Procter & Gamble (P&G), Unilever, Pepsi, Coca - Cola, Kirin, Unza, Dutch Lady, Ajinomoto...

 

Thorough care and professional style are said by many retailers to be strengths of these brands and actually, most retailers in traditional markets are selling up to 70 percent of foreign brand goods (whose most factories are located in Vietnam). It is easily noticed that their goods are very convenient and easy to buy with shampoo packs, additive, lotions, coffee, shower packs etc priced VND 500 and sell well. Although for recent years, many Vietnamese manufacturers such as: Vinamilk, Kinh Do, Vinacafe Bien Hoa, Trung Nguyen, Tan Hiep Phat etc have expanded their distribution network actively and widely, in general, many enterprises manufacturing consuming goods are still struggling to establish their own distribution network. Concerning care about agents and retailers, “pure” Vietnamese commodities cannot be as good as foreign firms located in Vietnam, whose representatives are Unilever and P&G.

 

However hard it is, many Vietnamese manufacturers s when asked all indicated, in order to have long term position in the market, they have no choice but invest and upgrade their good distribution. Despite initial hard time when establishing distribution network for live and processed foods, Dong Nai Food Factory D&F now has had its brand D&F present in big supermarkets such as Big C, Co.op Mart, Metro, Lotte, Citimart etc. However, Mr Nguyen Tuan Phuong – the factory’s Manager commented, establishing the distribution network is one of the biggest challenges of enterprises, in addition to others such as output quality, investment into communication etc.

 

Accordingly, factors of time, capital and experience are biggest requirements for Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises in general when desiring to establish professional distribution. Among those, the factor of cost is the burden one, since as for an enterprise with small market share as D&F, it should be very careful when building its own outlet network.

 

Similarly, brand Lothamilk (Long Thanh cow) is now actively expanding its distribution via channels: supermarket, partners (agents) and its own outlets. Accordingly, all three channels are paid equal attention since each of them has its strength in accessing customers. Lothamilk representative said that it is also very crucial to thoroughly care for distribution network by daily reviewing products displayed in the outlets and timely supplying new products since milk must always be fresh, clean. At present, this milk brand has been present in most provinces in the South, the Middle and some provinces in the North.