Visitors at one of four rural fairs held in Ninh Thuan province from July 4 to 19 (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Urbanisationbrings rural consumers, accounting for 68 percent of the country’s 90 millionpeople, closer to their counterparts living in towns and big cities and to adiversified media world, according to Nielsen’s recent Rural Mythbuster study.
When it came to identifying their digitalconsuming behaviours and key channels to reach them, television remained keywhile social media was evolving noticeably, it said.
Television reach in rural communities wasat saturation point, with more than 90 percent owning a television at home and57 percent having more than 10 television channels.
Ninety percent of rural consumers owned amobile phone and 50 percent of them owned a smartphone.
While internet penetration remainedrelatively low, internet and digital platforms usage was on the rise amongthese consumers.
According to the report, nearly 24 millionpeople in rural areas used the internet, which was on a par with theircounterparts living in metropolitan places.
Social media emerged as one of the keyplatforms for obtaining information, entertaining and keeping in touch withrelatives, friends and children, with 22.5 million Facebook users living inrural areas compared to 23.5 million in urban areas.
“As a result of being exposed more to mediachannels, there are a number of common themes emerging in relation to theirattitudes and behaviours,” Nguyen Anh Dung, director of retail measurementservices at Nielsen Vietnam, said.
Rural areas had been constantly growing asa new market for many manufacturers over the years.
In fact, in the first quarter of 2017 therural market grew at 12.4 percent and accounted for 51 percent of total FMCGsales nation-wide, while urban only gained 6.5 percent.
When taking a deep dive into each pricesegment to see where the growth actually came from, mainstream and premium werethe two key contributors to the growth of FMCG in rural areas, accounting fornearly 40 percent and 38.5 percent.
Seventy seven percent of rural consumerswanted to try new products and 95 percent appreciated having a wide range ofproducts to choose from.
Subsequently, these insights led to a pointwhereby new launches in rural areas performed better than in key cities.
But with a highly diversified retailsector, ensuring products were reachable and available were instrumental andcritical elements for success.
Traditional trade, a complex and highlycompetitive channel comprising more than 1.1 million individual outlets across58 provinces (excluding Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City),was here to stay for the foreseeable future.
If businesses targeted 400,000 stores intop districts, those stores were highly likely to contribute up to 39 percentof retail sales.
Therefore, businesses were told to look atstore segmentation or “where to focus” when thinking of expanding to this newpotential market.
“As the rural Vietnamese communitycontinues to evolve, transform and take centre stage as a key group forbusinesses, understanding who they really are, where, how and what they arebuying and their most effective touch points will be prerequisites for futuresuccess,” Dung said.-VNA
When it came to identifying their digitalconsuming behaviours and key channels to reach them, television remained keywhile social media was evolving noticeably, it said.
Television reach in rural communities wasat saturation point, with more than 90 percent owning a television at home and57 percent having more than 10 television channels.
Ninety percent of rural consumers owned amobile phone and 50 percent of them owned a smartphone.
While internet penetration remainedrelatively low, internet and digital platforms usage was on the rise amongthese consumers.
According to the report, nearly 24 millionpeople in rural areas used the internet, which was on a par with theircounterparts living in metropolitan places.
Social media emerged as one of the keyplatforms for obtaining information, entertaining and keeping in touch withrelatives, friends and children, with 22.5 million Facebook users living inrural areas compared to 23.5 million in urban areas.
“As a result of being exposed more to mediachannels, there are a number of common themes emerging in relation to theirattitudes and behaviours,” Nguyen Anh Dung, director of retail measurementservices at Nielsen Vietnam, said.
Rural areas had been constantly growing asa new market for many manufacturers over the years.
In fact, in the first quarter of 2017 therural market grew at 12.4 percent and accounted for 51 percent of total FMCGsales nation-wide, while urban only gained 6.5 percent.
When taking a deep dive into each pricesegment to see where the growth actually came from, mainstream and premium werethe two key contributors to the growth of FMCG in rural areas, accounting fornearly 40 percent and 38.5 percent.
Seventy seven percent of rural consumerswanted to try new products and 95 percent appreciated having a wide range ofproducts to choose from.
Subsequently, these insights led to a pointwhereby new launches in rural areas performed better than in key cities.
But with a highly diversified retailsector, ensuring products were reachable and available were instrumental andcritical elements for success.
Traditional trade, a complex and highlycompetitive channel comprising more than 1.1 million individual outlets across58 provinces (excluding Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City),was here to stay for the foreseeable future.
If businesses targeted 400,000 stores intop districts, those stores were highly likely to contribute up to 39 percentof retail sales.
Therefore, businesses were told to look atstore segmentation or “where to focus” when thinking of expanding to this newpotential market.
“As the rural Vietnamese communitycontinues to evolve, transform and take centre stage as a key group forbusinesses, understanding who they really are, where, how and what they arebuying and their most effective touch points will be prerequisites for futuresuccess,” Dung said.-VNA
VNA
