The use of 4.0 technologies and digital marketing provides a competitive edge as well as brand differentiation for companies, experts said at a conference held on Saturday in HCM City.

Nguyen Xuan Duy, digital marketing lecturer at BMG International Education, said that brand differentiation ensures that products and services can grab customers’attention and enhance competitiveness.

However, creating positive experiences assisted by 4.0 technologies for consumers by focusing on customer service can also sharpen companies’competitive edge even if their products are not unique.

In the age of 4.0 technologies and digital marketing, businesses cannot just simply sell products, but must work towards creating a smart ecosystem that revolves around customers, according to Duy.

To gather information about customers while at the same time having data accessible by customers at any time, companies should use Big Data and other advanced technologies.

Businesses should strive towards “satisfying customers’ exact needs, whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want it, Duy said.

However, most businesses are not using 4.0 technologies or even online services due to a lack of trained employees and knowledge about the benefits, and an inability to use the new technologies.

Duy recommended that such businesses start small, focusing on brand building and customer trust, communicate with customers with online channels, explore more channels such as mobile marketing, and create social media spaces for customers to discuss businesses’products.

They should also seek business partners that specialise in such technologies or hire more skilled workers.

Chu Xuan Nam, deputy director of Digismart Ltd. Co., a digital marketing agency which has exclusive rights to use the Blippar phone application in Viet Nam, following its partnership with the UK-based technology company Blippar, said the app could be used to enhance competitiveness.

By scanning products whose brands work with Blippar, the app uses AR (Augmented Reality) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies to provide a digitised, interactive advertisement with 3D images and videos, which informs customers about the products’details and other information in a memorable way.

Around 67 per cent of Vietnamese use the internet, and 57 per cent social media.

In addition, around 35 million people are now purchasing goods online, and their first exposure to products and services is through online media.

The conference on 4.0 technologies and brand differentiation was held by Digismart Ltd. Co. and the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre. — VNS