This document summarizes a graduation thesis on Vietnam's tourism brand. It includes an overview of the thesis contents, research questions and methodology, key findings, and limitations. The research examines Vietnam's efforts to brand its tourism industry, including logos and slogans used over time. A questionnaire of 250 foreign tourists found high brand awareness of the current "Vietnam - The hidden charm" slogan but identified opportunities to improve brand implementation and promotion. The thesis provides implications for policymakers and industry to strengthen destination branding in Vietnam.

1. HANOI UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Management and Tourism
Graduation thesis
VIETNAM’s TOURISM BRAND
Presenter: Mai Duc Ha
December 19th
2009

2. OVERVIEW
• Research significance
• Research questions
& methodology
• Concept interpretation
• Key findings
• Limitations & Future research opportunities

3. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
• The very first academic study on destination branding in
Vietnam tourism
• Provide an insight into Vietnam tourism brand over the past
years
• Explore foreign tourists’ perception about the slogan “Vietnam –
The hidden charm”

4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS & METHODOLOGY
Research questions Methodology
1. Why does the Vietnam tourism industry
need to be branded?
- Secondary data
- Interview
2. How has the industry been branded?
3. How do foreign tourists perceive about the
logo - slogan “Vietnam – The hidden
charm”?
Questionnaire
(250 copies)

5. CONCEPT INTERPRETATION
• Brand: not just a name, term, sign, symbol or design, but a combination of
these, intended to identify goods or services of the sellers and to set them
apart from others
• Destination branding: combining all the attributes connected with the
destination under one concept which conveys its unique identity and
distinguishes it from competitors
• Brand positioning: managing the brand and its components to create a
unique position of the destination brand in the consumer’s mind
 Slogan: capturing the all attributes of the destination in a distinctive and
focused manner

6. • Brand building process:
1. Market investigation
2. Brand identity development
3. Brand launch & introduction
4. Brand implementation
* Promotional tools
* Leveraging the brand:
line extension & co-branding
5. Evaluation

7. KEY FINDINGS
1. Importance of branding to Vietnam
tourism
• Differentiate it from its competitors
• Enhance the image, position and
competitiveness of the tourism industry
• Make contributions to the course of
nation branding

8. 2. History of Vietnam’s tourism brand
 Before 2000:
- Inconsistent image
- Little effort of destination branding
 2000 – 2005
- “Vietnam – a destination for the new millennium”: soon
become outdated
- “Welcome to Vietnam”: too simple, unprofessional and being
criticized

9. 3. Current situation of Vietnam tourism brand
• A logo & slogan design contest was
organized to find a positioning logo and
slogan for 2006-2010 period
• 1st
prize: “Vietnam – the hidden charm”
by Dat Viet advertising company
• Opposite ideas about the logo and
slogan

10. • Market investigation & brand identity development:
serious investment
• Brand launch & introduction
- Press release
- Unspecific market orientation
- Unclear vision
• Brand implementation
- Traditional image building strategy
- More overseas promotion
- Diverse but fragmentary promotional activities

11. Challenges of destination branding in Vietnam
1. Limited budget
2. External forces
3. Coordination between local tourism bodies
4. Creating differentiation
5. Lack of human resources

12. QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS
Figure 1. Origin of tourists
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Asia-Pacific
Middle East
Europe
Americas
Africa

13. Figure 2. Brand awareness Figure 3. Tourists’ opinion
about the slogan
5%
10%
85%
Yes
Iheard about it
No
12%
68%
15%
5% Very impressive
Impressive
Not impressive
Not very
impressive

14. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Beforetrip
planning
Duringtrip
planning
Whentravellingto
Vietnam
Figure 4. Time of brand
awareness
Figure5. Influence of the
slogan on tourists’ decision
to Vietnam
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Soattracted Havingagood
impression
Notinfluenced

15. Figure 6. Overseas promotion Figure 7. Domestic promotion
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Internet
FriendsTVchannels
Newspapers/Magazines
FairsPublications
Others
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Internet
Billboards
Newspapers/MagazinesPublications
Hotels/Restaurants
Others

16. MAIN IMPLICATIONS OF FINDINGS
 Implications for policy makers
- Maintain the current slogan & logo
- More investment, but smarter choice of integrated marketing communication
- Establish a national tourism organization in charge of destination branding
- Brand extension & Co-branding
 Implications for tourism enterprises & others
- More support should be given to state tourism bodies in promoting the national
image
- A welcoming smile of each Vietnamese person

17. Research limitations
• Incomplete literature review
• Small number of
questionnaire
• Scope of survey
Future research opportunities
• More detailed literature review
• Research on a destination branding & its
influence on its tourists’ decision-making to
travel
• More primary data