VietNamNet Bridge – In the next 10 years, urban areas would remain the potential destinations for foreign luxurious products, especially cars and beauty products.

The latest survey by Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, a subsidiary of the US WPP Group, showed that the consumption habit of Vietnamese people has changed a lot. In the next 10 years, foreign luxurious products would still have a lot of development opportunities in big cities.

On November 2, 2012, campaignasia.com website showed the result of its survey, saying that the increasingly high income of Vietnamese people, the young population are the wonderful opportunities for foreign luxurious brands to expand their business in the country.

The most valuable information the website has provided to luxury brand owners is that in thoughts of Vietnamese, using luxurious products is the way to show their high class and achievements. Vietnamese always want to show off their richness and their high positions in the society with the things they wear or carry.

According to Matthew Collier, Managing Director of Y&R Vietnam, has noted that luxurious things, in mind of Vietnamese, means the things which have high quality and high prices. In the country, a product or service would be considered “luxurious” if they have the sale price of $480 at least.

The firm has found out from one of its survey that up to 64 percent of Vietnamese think luxury means a new experience. The four high end brands in Vietnam which have been most mentioned by Vietnamese are Apple, Sony, Toyota and Honda.

Up to 52 percent of men buy luxurious consumer goods, including 36 percent in Hanoi and 10 percent in HCM City,” the survey found.

Bloomberg newswire has reported that Rolls Royce, after learning about the market demand, has decided to increase the number of sales agents from 105 to 120 in the next five years in order to access the millionaires in Chile, Thailand and Vietnam.

The luxurious car manufacturer sold 3,538 cars in 2011, while 60 of them were ordered by Vietnamese clients. These included four out of the total 33 dragon version cars churned out by the manufacturers worldwide.

Meanwhile, Hermes has opened the second shop in Vietnam to boost the sales of the products of the brand.

The poor suffer

While the rich spend more money on luxurious products, the poor have to cut down their budget on daily basic needs.

Ralf Matthaes, Managing Director of Taylor Nelson TNS, said that in 2011, 55 percent of people put their five percent of income into savings. In 2012, 50 percent of polled people saved 5-10 percent of their incomes. Some of them said they saved 20 percent of their monthly incomes. This would certainly affect the domestic retail market.

Vietnamese spend most of their money on education, which account for 47 percent of total spending. It is because Vietnamese believe that high education level would help settle their financial problems.

Dr. Nguyen Huu Nguyen from the Southern Economics research center has noted that though the economic crisis has made the incomes of the rich decrease or meet difficulties in doing business, it has not affected the daily spending of the rich.

Meanwhile, the economic downturn has immediately had negative impacts on the lives of the poor. They have to cut down the budgets for daily food, and of course, never spend money on luxurious things.

Dat Viet