Vietnam market entry
Digital marketing in Vietnam, with an independent advisor on your side
You are about to commit a marketing budget to a market you cannot read yet, through partners you cannot yet judge. MWY sits on your side of that table.
Short answer
MWY advises foreign companies entering or already operating in Vietnam, independently of the agencies and platforms spending the money. We do not run ads, we do not produce content, and we take no commission. Before entry, Vietnam Market Research answers whether the market is worth a budget, from USD 9,000 for six weeks on one product line, and Go-to-Market Strategy adds the entry plan, from USD 15,000. Once you are selling, Vietnam Marketing Advisory & Oversight is a monthly retainer at USD 5,000 whose first month is a full audit. Every document is delivered in English.
Why this market does not behave like the one you know
None of this is exotic. It is just different enough that a plan built elsewhere quietly underperforms, and the reporting rarely shows you why.
The platform set is not the one you are used to
Facebook and TikTok carry far more commercial weight here than in most markets, YouTube is a primary channel rather than a supporting one, and Zalo is the default messaging layer — which makes it a real marketing and service channel, not a novelty.
Marketplaces are where discovery happens
Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop function as search engines, not just as sales channels. Your category is being browsed and compared there whether or not you sell there, and that shapes what your own website has to do.
Creators are a distribution channel, not a PR line item
Smaller creators and affiliates sell on commission, and livestream is a transactional format rather than a brand one. Budgeted as public relations, it will be measured with the wrong numbers and read as cheap when it is not.
Payment and delivery change the shape of the funnel
Cash on delivery is still widely used. That changes what a conversion means, creates a refusal and return rate that never appears in ROAS, and puts part of your margin in the hands of the delivery partner.
The north and the south do not respond the same way
Price sensitivity, messaging tone, platform mix and delivery expectations all differ. A single national plan usually works in one half of the country and quietly underperforms in the other.
Where entries usually go wrong
These are the five we see most often, and all five are cheaper to prevent than to unwind.
Choosing an agency on the strength of the pitch
The pitch team is rarely the delivery team. Without criteria written before the pitch — and someone who can read a media plan — you are selecting for presentation skill.
Translating the campaign instead of localising the offer
Translated copy reads as foreign, and the offer structure often does not match how the category is bought here. This shows up as a weak conversion rate that gets blamed on media.
Missing the advertising rules for your category
Cosmetics, supplements, healthcare and education all carry content restrictions. The penalty lands on the brand, not on the agency or the creator who wrote the post.
Judging the budget on e-commerce revenue alone
If you also sell through distributors or modern trade, most of the effect of your online advertising lands where you are not measuring, and the digital budget gets graded on the smallest slice of the picture.
Handing the local team a KPI set from headquarters
Targets built around channels that behave differently here produce optimisation towards the wrong thing — usually cheap volume — and nobody in the chain has the standing to say so.
How MWY works with you
Three engagements: whether to enter, how to enter, and — once the budget is being spent — whether it is spent well. Reporting and the meeting rhythm are built around a head office in a different time zone.
Understand — Market research
Six weeks on one product line: market size, buyers, the price the market accepts, competitors and partners, ending in a written answer on whether to enter and where to start. Continuing into the plan later does not repeat it.
See the full scopefrom$9,000per project
Enter — Go-to-market
Ten weeks for one product line. Six weeks of research on your category, buyers, prices, competitors and partners, then four weeks turning it into the plan: channel order, distributor or direct, pricing, a partner shortlist and a 90-day launch plan. It ends with a 120-minute presentation to your leadership.
See the full scopefrom$15,000per project
Grow — Advisory & oversight
Monthly, once you are selling. Month one is a full audit of your digital operation — tracking, channels, your agency or distributor. From month two we challenge the plans, oversee up to three agencies or local partners, review budget allocation and keep a testing roadmap running.
See the full scope$5,000per month
Working with a head office abroad
- Your time zone, not ours
- Sessions with headquarters are scheduled in your working hours. Fieldwork, interviews and platform checks happen in Vietnam.
- English by default
- Every report, meeting note and recommendation is written in English, with a one-page summary for people who will not read the full document.
- One person, not a rotating team
- The person who does the audit is the person in the monthly meetings. Nothing is handed to a junior after the pitch.
- No commission, in writing
- We take nothing from the agencies, platforms or vendors we recommend, and it is a clause in the contract you can terminate on.
Find your category
What goes wrong differs sharply by category. These pages set out the five questions each one has to answer.
Articles in this cluster
The mistakes foreign brands make in Vietnam, and what they cost
The mistakes that show up in the first week are cheap. The expensive ones look fine in the monthly report until the third quarter.
Distributor, partner or direct in Vietnam: what each route does to your marketing
The route into Vietnam is usually chosen as a legal and logistics question. It also decides, quietly, what your marketing will be able to see for years.
How to choose a distributor in Vietnam: what to check before you sign
Most advice on finding a distributor in Vietnam comes from people paid to make the introduction. The checks that matter happen after the shortlist, and before the signature.
Marketing an electric vehicle in Vietnam: what a foreign brand is up against
Most EV launch plans are written as if the category were new. In Vietnam it is not: the reference brand, the charging network and the buyer’s objections are already in place.
Pricing a consumer goods brand in Vietnam: price bands, channel conflict and discount depth
The price in the entry plan is usually the home price, converted. The price a Vietnamese buyer sees is set by four other sellers, one of whom may be your own distributor.
How to market in Vietnam: the first ninety days
The first quarter in a new market is not for selling as much as possible. It is for finding out, at a cost you chose in advance, what selling here actually costs.
What a Vietnam entry budget actually has to cover
The question arrives as a single number, and a single number is the one thing nobody can honestly give you. The list of lines, however, can be settled before anything is spent.
What to settle before your first campaign in Vietnam
Media planning is the visible part of a Vietnam launch. The decisions that determine whether the numbers mean anything happen before it.
Frequently asked questions
Do you run the advertising?
No. We do not run ads, manage accounts or produce content, and we never will. The party spending the money should not be the party checking the results — and that applies to us as much as to your agency.
Do you take commission from the agencies you recommend?
No, and it is written into the contract. If you find that we have, you may terminate immediately. When you need someone to execute, we put forward three vetted options with the criteria to judge them.
We do not have a legal entity in Vietnam yet. Is this too early?
No — that is the stage Go-to-Market Strategy is built for. It works from the category, the buyers, the competitors and the partner landscape rather than from your own accounts. The monthly retainer makes more sense once there is spend to oversee.
Can you work alongside our regional agency of record?
Yes, and this is the most common arrangement. We review their plans and reporting and sit in on their meetings. We do not work behind anyone’s back — the agency is told what our role is.
How is this different from a market research firm?
A research firm is built to collect data, often through large surveys. MWY’s Vietnam Market Research starts from the entry decision and works from desk research, platform data and interviews, ending in a written answer on whether to enter and where to start; Go-to-Market Strategy then turns it into a plan. Where a decision needs a large consumer survey, we introduce a research firm and take no commission.
Which languages do you work in?
English and Vietnamese. Documents are delivered in English; meetings with your Vietnam team or agency run in Vietnamese where that is more useful, with notes in English.
Start with a 30-minute call
Tell us what you are planning and what you are unsure about. We will say plainly whether we can help.