VietNamNet Bridge - Consumers have enormous power, so much so that they can drive strong brands to death.

Singer Ho Ngoc Ha

The media crisis with Nike, one of the strongest sneaker brands in the world, is an example. Marketing lecturers and business people are familiar with the story.

A boycott campaign against Nike because of the manufacturer’s lack of social responsibility just three weeks before the opening of the summer Olympics 1990 dealt a strong blow to Nike.

When the case was brought to light, the world’s largest sportswear manufacturer laid the blame on geographical distance and social differences to justify the lax management and lack of respect of labor protection laws.

No one can say for sure how much money and effort Nike had to spend later to rebrand its image. 

More recently, Vietnamese consumers have shown what they can do if they get angry.

In late December 2015, the movement to boycott Tan Hiep Phat’s products broke out. 

Consumers have enormous power, so much so that they can drive strong brands to death.

The boycott campaign was launched right after Tan Hiep Phat, the manufacturer of many popular drinks in Vietnam, won a lawsuit and successfully sent a man to prison.

The court decided to send the man in Tien Giang province to jail for seven years for extorting money from Tan Hiep Phat for finding a bottle of the ‘Number One’ drink with had a fly inside. The man demanded VND500 million from the company in return for his silence.

Tan Hiep Phat reported that the ‘fly case’ cost VND2 trillion.

A branding expert noted that if Tan Hiep Phat had behaved another way and if it had apologized to customers, the price it had to pay would not have been so heavy.

In fact, strange things were found not only in Tan Hiep Phat’s Number One bottle, but also in products by some other manufacturers. 

However, the cases fell into oblivion because the manufacturers “knew how to behave toward consumers”, as the expert said.

The story about consumer power has once again become a hot topic with the scandal of Ho Ngoc Ha, a famous pop singer who appeared in local newspapers.

Stories about Ha’s love scandal with a diamond tycoon in the local press have worsened her image.

The problem is that Ha acts as an ambassador to many strong brands in Vietnam. 

Therefore, a boycott movement of ‘saying ‘no’ to Ho Ngoc Ha and the products related to Ha’ was triggered.

“It is obvious that a media crisis is happening with Ho Ngoc Ha, and it may affect the brands which Ha is ambassador to,” said Nguyen Dinh Thanh, a branding expert.

Tri Thuc Tre