VietNamNet Bridge – Trung Nguyen, the Vietnamese coffee brand,
has affirmed that Trung Nguyen coffee products have been more favored in
Vietnam than Nestle products. Meanwhile, the foreign giant has denied this.
On the Creative Day for
Vietnamese aspiration held in HCM City on November 23, 2012, the Trung Nguyen
Group made public an analysis about its G7 instant coffee product and a
screenshot image from Nestle’s website, with the caption: “G7 moi 9 tuoi thang
Nestle 100 tuoi” (the 9-year-old G7 wins over the 100-year-old Nestle).
The information on Nestle’s
website, according to Giao duc Vietnam newspaper, was not found on the website
on November 27, because it has been removed.
Trung Nguyen believes that G7 has
won over Nestle, because the article on Nestle’s website wrote: “In Vietnam,
the Number 1 in the 3-in-1 market segment is Vinacafe, but Nestcafe 3-in-1 has
had a 60/40 winning over Vinacafe’s. However, we have a redoubtable rival in
the north – G7. There still has been no product that wins the northern
consumers.”
In reply, a representative of
Nestle affirmed that this was just distorted information, because the image did
not mean the victory of anyone over the other.
The representative also refused
to make comments about the statement by Trung Nguyen.
Nine years ago, on November 23,
2003, Trung Nguyen organized a blind taste- test, which gathered 11,000
participants. 89 percent of them chose G7 and only 11 percent chose Nestcafe of
Nestle.
Citing the result of the test,
Trung Nguyen came to conclusion G7 has become the Number 1 in the instant
coffee market in Vietnam in terms of market share, sales and output. This was
then described as a victory of David against Goliath.
Meanwhile, Nestle kept calm about
the conclusion, saying that Nestle would never make comments about the quality
and positioning of its rivals.
The representative of Trung
Nguyen, citing the Article No. 123 of the 2005 Commercial Law, said that Trung
Nguyen violated the law which prohibits businessmen compare their products with
the products of other businessmen.
Pham Thi Diep Giang,
Communication Deputy Director of Trung Nguyen, argued that the blind taste-test
was held on November 23, 2003. At that time, the Article No. 123 did not exist.
Therefore, no one could say Trung Nguyen violated the law.
In response, Nestle cited the
provisions of the 1997 Commercial Law, which took effects before the day the
test was held.
Vietnamese experts have refused
to say about the quality of Nestcafe of Nestle and G7 of Trung Nguyen. However,
they believe that Trung Nguyen did not “play fair” when speaking scornfully of
the products of its rivals.
Dao Xuan Hoi, a lecturer of the
University of Labor and Social Affairs, affirmed that Trung Nguyen has violated
the Vietnamese laws which say that one must not libel others’ products to
dignify his products.
Hoi has also pointed out a
problem here --that Trung Nguyen re-used the result of a test conducted in
2003, or nine years ago, in a document delivered at a workshop taking place in
2012.
In fact, Trung Nguyen once had
arguments with AC Nielsen, a market survey firm, on the “number 1” position on
the Vietnamese instant coffee market.
In response to the Trung Nguyen’s
statement that G7 is the Number 1 real instant coffee in Vietnam, AC Nielsen
argued that G7 only leads in 3-in-1 market segment. Meanwhile, the instant
coffee market comprises of 3-in-1 and 2-in-1.
GDVN
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