Go-to-market strategy for Vietnam, built on research you can defend
Most entries fail on sequence, and most sequences rest on assumptions nobody checked. This engagement checks them first — market size, buyers, price, competitors — then settles which channels, in what order, at what price, with whom.
Short answer
Go-to-Market Strategy is a ten-week engagement for companies preparing to enter Vietnam, from USD 15,000. The first six weeks are market research: the size and structure of your category, buyers, the price the market accepts, competitors and the partner landscape. The last four turn that into a plan: channel order, distributor or direct, pricing and positioning, a partner shortlist and a 90-day launch plan. Delivered in English; the scope is agreed in writing before work starts.
Three situations this is built for
A board asked for a Vietnam number and nobody has one
You need a defensible figure for market size and a realistic view of what share is reachable in the first two years — not a top-down percentage of a regional total.
The category looks like a market you know, and you suspect it is not
Buying behaviour, price sensitivity, channel mix and the role of creators differ enough here that a transferred assumption usually breaks quietly.
The decision to enter is made and nobody agrees on how
Headquarters wants the global playbook, the regional team wants something local, and neither side has the numbers to settle it.
Scope
Agreed in writing before work starts. The published fee covers one product line; a full category with several lines, or a launch that includes running a distributor selection, is quoted on its scope.
- Category
- One product line, or a category with several — defined with you
- Research method
- Desk research, platform and marketplace data, expert interviews. Primary consumer surveys are quoted separately
- Geography
- National, or split north and south where the difference matters to your category
- Channels
- The channels relevant to your category, sequenced — not all of them at once
- Partners
- Criteria and a shortlist. Running a full pitch process is quoted separately
- Execution
- MWY does not execute. The plan is built to be handed to your team or an agency
- Language
- Delivered in English; interviews conducted in Vietnamese
Ten weeks
Week 1
Define the question
A 90-minute session to turn the entry decision into questions research can answer, and to list what the business case already assumes. Scope and delivery date are fixed at the end of it.
Weeks 2–6
Research
Desk research, platform and marketplace data, and interviews with people who work in the category here. Every figure is sourced; what cannot be established is marked as such.
Weeks 7–9
Build the sequence
Which channel first and why, distributor or direct, pricing and positioning, the partner criteria and shortlist, and what the first 90 days cost.
Week 10
Present and hand over
A 120-minute presentation to your leadership, then the written research and plan, with the parts we are confident about separated from the parts we are not.
Go-to-Market Strategy
from$15,000per project
The decisions MWY helps you make
- Whether Vietnam is worth a budget at all, and how large
- Which segment to enter first, and at what price point
- Which channel to enter on first, and what it needs to work
- Distributor, local partner, or direct
- What the first 90 days should cost and what will judge them
What you receive
- A 1-page summary for headquarters
- Market size and structure for your category, with sources named
- Buyer profiles and how the purchase decision is actually made
- The price range the market accepts, and your positioning within it
- Competitor presence by channel, including who is not here yet
- The channel sequence, with the reason each one sits where it does
- Distributor, partner or direct — with the criteria behind the recommendation
- A local partner or agency shortlist and how to judge the pitches
- A 90-day launch plan with owners, dates and the metrics that will judge it
- What we could not establish, and what it would take to establish it
Frequently asked questions
Can we buy the research phase on its own?
Yes. Vietnam Market Research is the same six weeks of research sold on its own, from USD 9,000, for companies that need to know whether to enter before planning how. If you continue into the plan afterwards, the research is not repeated and only the planning phase is quoted.
We already have market research. Does the first phase still run?
Yes, but it starts from what you have. We test your figures against platform data and local interviews, fill the gaps and mark what does not hold. A plan built on research nobody has tested inherits every error in it, so the phase is not skipped and the fee does not change.
How long does it take?
Ten weeks for a single product line, counted from the day the scope is signed: six of research, four of planning. A full category gets its own delivery date, fixed in writing in the scoping session before any work starts. Either way the date is a commitment, not an estimate.
Will you tell us not to enter?
If that is what the research says, yes. We sell no execution service in this market, so we gain nothing from your decision going one way rather than the other. Delaying a launch by two quarters is a cheaper outcome than a launch that spends a year proving it was early.
Do you run consumer surveys?
Not as part of the standard scope. Where a decision genuinely needs primary data we scope and quote it separately, or introduce a research firm and take no commission for the introduction.
Do you execute the launch?
No. We do not run ads, manage accounts or produce content, and we take no commission from anyone who does. The plan is built to hand over, and we can oversee whoever executes it under the monthly retainer.
Can you work with our regional agency of record?
Yes, and it is the common arrangement. They are told what our role is — we do not work behind anyone’s back.
Related reading
How big is Vietnam’s middle class? What the figures measure, and the number a brand actually needs
Entry decks quote Vietnam’s middle class as if it were one number. It is at least four, built on different definitions, and none of them is the number a pricing decision needs.
The Vietnam cosmetics market in 2026: what the figures show, and what a foreign beauty brand has to settle
The figure most often quoted for Vietnam’s cosmetics market is smaller than what four marketplaces alone sold last year. That gap is the place to start.
Vietnamese Gen Z consumers: what the 2026 data shows, and what it changes for a foreign brand
Every entry deck has a slide on Gen Z. Few of them say which Gen Z, measured by whom, and what it changes in the launch budget.
Start by agreeing the question
Tell us what is already decided and what is still open. Thirty minutes is usually enough to agree the question the research has to answer.