BRAND:
GUARDIAN VIỆT NAM
AWARD CATEGORY:
The Best CSR Campaign
CAMPAIGN TIME RANGE:
1/8/2023 - 31/10/2023
CREDITS:
CASE STUDY VIDEO
STRATEGY
Guardian is Asia's leading health and beauty store chain with more than 1,200 stores in 6 countries (Vietnam - Cambodia - Malaysia - Indonesia - Singapore - Brunei). When coming to Vietnam, Guardian wanted to contribute to local country by partnering with local brands to bring local brands to the world successfully. Guardian believes its mission and responsibility to society wherever it locates is to introduce local brands with good products, good concept and international standard to the world. Guardian is expanding this support program with many more qualified Vietnamese local brands, and bringing this practice to other regions where Guardian has its network. In year 2023, Guardian successfully brought The Cocoon Vietnam, a vegan beauty brand in Vietnam to the world, starting with Malaysia market and now keep extending. The product is 100% Vietnamese, including raw materials, packaging, production process, and human resources, and it reflects Vietnamese national pride while meeting world standards.
Vietnamese local beauty & wellness brands are not lack of good brands with high quality products, and good concepts, compared to other brands in other countries in the region. However, these brands are still struggling in international standardization such as in production process, branding and packaging, distribution, promotion, etc. They don't now how to overcome those to go further than their birthplace. In addition, expanding the market also helps them have more opportunities to reach potential customer groups, customer touch points are the way to help them develop further in the future. In the case of The Cocoon Vietnam, they are looking to expand their markets with the desire to help solve employment problems and find new directions for Vietnamese agricultural products, thereby honoring Vietnamese values.
Our mission is adding more and increasing the brand name for Vietnamese agricultural products, reaffirming Vietnam's image with key words (tourism - agricultural products - quality - world standards). We wants to turn those 'unknown to the world' Vietnamese local brands with beautiful product concept and high quality to be known more through Guardian's support as top retailer in beauty and wellness in Asia with thousands of stores accross Asia, the international standardization process know-how expert with all needed criteria for a Vietnamese brand to go to the world, and last but not least a promotion expert to help building trust and reputation of brand partners in consumers' mind.
INSIGHT
What is the criteria for Guardian to define which Vietnamese beauty brand to bring to the world?
Vietnamese local beauty brands are always very good, meet consumer needs and are loved by many international friends when they come to Vietnam. At the same time, Vietnamese local beauty brands also really want to reach out to the ocean to reach more new customer groups. However, going global means having to meet strict standards and Vietnamese brands need help from "characters" who understand those rules. That concern has become the driving force for Guardian Vietnam to promote this project quickly and strongly.
Furthermore, local beauty brands go to the world means we are able to promote for Vietnamese agriculture ingredients that attached to local geography, through that increasing the chance to promote for Vietnam country and people. This is also helping Vietnamese farmers. And if Vietnamese brands are able to expand to other markets means the opportunity is also creating many jobs. Ultimately, we want to tap into national pride of Vietnamese people about local brands that also able to be well invested from brand concept, product quality and innovation and with right support, the thing about going to the world is not just an imagination.
In addition, Guardian will be the brand's companion in standardizing international processes. Guardian will help brands understand the needs of the international market and thereby improve quality, packaging, and the approach. In addition, Guardian also helps brands standardize their communication plans, because as a brand an experience in many countries around the world, we clearly understand which communication model is suitable for the world market. That helps the brand have a perfect communication plan, increasing coverage around the world. Gradually elevate Vietnamese brands.
CREATIVE IDEA
BIG IDEA: LOCAL BRANDS SAY HI TO THE WORLD
To reach the world market, there are many changes and too many products showing the high technology in the products. Guardian needs to find a prominent element to create a highlight in the market. Therefore, in addition to the elements that meet world standards, we need to find Vietnam's unique features. From there, Guardian has screened and selected brands that meet those factors. Among the brands listed, Guardian adds another prerequisite: time. The time commitment demonstrates the brand's sustainability. And we chose Cocoon - the 1st brand joining this program, has consistency delivered & maintained their above commitment and brand values for 11 years. That is to said Guardian has been seriously on screening valuable candidates to go regional.
We accompany with Vietnamese local vegan beauty brand The Cocoon Vietnam, a nature lovers and passionate about discovering Vietnam's local ingredients to discover the true beauty of the skin, on the journey to the world.
This is not another "branding" campaign, but a humanized approach in doing business with our partners, that ultimately creating brand love for both brands in the collaboration, and went buzzy on omni-channel.
CONNECTION PLAN
Guardian started by scouting good Vietnamese local beauty and wellness brands that are potential to go the the world through Guardian networks. The Cocoon Vietnam as a pioneer in vegan beauty products is the first Vietnamese beauty brand to be picked for this program pilot.
Guardian reviewed Cocoon's entire production process to find shortcomings and find ways to improve. After that, Cocoon was going though international standardization process about product quality test, ingredients origin, manufacturing process, manufaction factory, packaging, brand story, promotion, etc. with Guardian's consultation before getting approval from Guardian regional and appeared on shelves of Guardian's store networks in the region. The CocoonVietnam became the first Vietnamese beauty brand appearing in Guardian networks in Malaysia and is expanding to other countries in the network. Not only appears on shelves of Guardian, but also is introduced in the most highlighted area in the store with supported promotion island that going aligned with brand story and concept.
We then launched a comprehensive communications campaign. Guardian Vietnam, with our experience, suggested that Cocoon should combine to explode the communication campaign for this period. Guardian's team has divided the campaign into 3 phases including: awareness - interest - engagement.
In the first phase, Guardian made customers curious by creating a minigame with Cocoon to predict the next location where Cocoon will appear, combined with a series of KOLs in the Vietnamese market also giving hints for this minigame. . Not stopping there, Guardian also strongly runs KOLs in the Malaysian market (the market where Guardian helps domestic brands appear) to create more connection effects for the campaign.
Next, Guardian asked Cocoon to build a brand's own fanpage for the Malaysian market and start communication activities. The campaign has been promoted in all of the above media in the Vietnamese and Malaysian markets (facebook - Instagram - KOLs - Beauty Communities - News Online...) to increase the awareness of the campaign in all aspects. battle. All activities do not stop there, as Guardian brings online interactive activities to increase customer interaction with the brand. Guardian has created minigames and organized livestreams at the store with KOLs, thereby increasing customer love for the brand.
Last but not least, to a greater extent, Guardian synchronizes online and offline activities. Because we know that activities in Guardian's store system also help a lot in diversifying online communication activities. And indeed, when there was synchronization from the POSMs at the store, the campaign's multimedia story exploded and created resonance in the Vietnamese and Malaysian markets.
OBJECTIVE-BASE KPI
Despite CSR campaign, Guardian did gain tangible result in term of Sales Uplift, Brand Health Impact & Social buzz Quality, after 4 months of program deployment:
Business Results: Sales Values for Cocoon gain 30% uplift (vs. year 2022) in Vietnam. In Malaysia the first foreign market, Cocoon became top 3 favourite beauty brands and ranked 5 in sales beauty natural brands at Guardian Malaysia.
Brand Health Impact: Absolute Brand Lift: up to 20% lift in positive awareness vs. those who did not see the program promotion.
Social Media Results: Results exceeds expected KPI: 20% Buzz, 1/1 Sentiment Score with no negative response to the program, 1st time Guardian lands in top 3 monthly BSI top campaign with strong balance among paid-erned-owned media, especially from organic earned media, even got broadcasted on HTV7 (FOC).
Cocoon already had many fans outside Vietnam, which is somethings the brand cannot imagine before the program.
