VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of purely Vietnamese cosmetics brands have quietly disappeared from the market because they could not survive the stiff competition with the foreign giants, who could pour multi-billions of dong into ad campaigns.

Thorakao cosmetics pushed away to rural areas

In 1960s and 1970s, Thorakao cream with extracts from crocus which could protect skin was very favored by women. However, things have changed completely.

Making 70 product items, Thorakao now just holds 20 percent of the domestic market. It is very difficult to find a Thorakao product in big cities, while the products with foreign brands Hazeline, Pond and Nivea have been flooding the market, both in urban and rural areas.

The problem is that while foreign brands spend big money on ad campaigns, Thorakao does not care about this. It still “stands rooted to the spot” with the same business strategy like the one in 1970s.

My Hao not present at homes’ kitchens any more

My Hao – the dish washing liquid brand – once dominated the domestic market for many years. However, it has been knocked down by Sunlight of Unilever.

My Hao made debut in 1990s and had been dominating the market until Unilever set foot in the Vietnamese market. Though Sunlight once met big difficulties in the first period after it was first marketed in Vietnam, it finally successfully dislodged My Hao out of its position.

My Hao, the brand which was quite familiar to Vietnamese housewives, could not compete with the giant Sunlight which spent big money on marketing and ad campaigns.

Before Sunlight turned up on the market, Vietnamese housewives believed that dish washing liquid would harm their hand skin. However, they were told by Sunlight that this would not be a problem for them any more, because Sunlight’s products contain vitamin E.

While My Hao nearly does not post any ad clip on TVs, the images of Sunlight have been flooding TV programs.

Viso has become not purely Vietnamese

Viso was once 100 percent Vietnamese detergent brand, which conquered the heart of consumers because of the high quality and reasonable prices. However, the great advantages could not help protect the brand.

Unilever, when arriving in Vietnam, like many other multinational groups, decided to set up joint ventures to access the domestic market. As a result, Lever-Viso and Lever-Haso joint ventures were established.

After that, Uniliver tried every possible method to turn the joint ventures into 100 percent foreign owned entities. Lever-Viso is one of them, which means that Viso has become no more purely Vietnamese brand.

Da Lan, P/S toothpaste brands fallen into oblivion

Twenty years ago, Colgate and Close up were the unfamiliar brands to the majority of Vietnamese people. At that time, they only knew P/S and Da Lan.

P/S products were first marketed in 1975, which then quickly dominated the domestic market and won the hearts of people.

Da Lan was also a favorite brand. With original flavor, reasonable price, Da La toothpaste products were available not only in big cities and rural areas, but also were exported to Cambodia, Laos and China. Experts estimated that Da Lan once held 95 percent of the domestic market.

In 1995, the multinational group Unilever negotiated with P/S for a franchisee contract at a very attractive price of five millions of dollars.

After that, P/S was taken over and became a 100 percent foreign owned enterprise.

Nhi Anh