Graphic Design to Win Over in Vietnam: A Guide for Foreign Investors

To any business, especially foreign brands trying to penetrate the Vietnam market, graphic design is a double-edged weapon since it can evoke emotions both ways. Learn how to harness its power to cut through the noise, touch the hearts and seize the throne.

An Overview of Graphic Design in Vietnam

How Graphic Design is Defined in Vietnam

A common misconception about graphic design is that it only consists of pictures, whether still or moving. This leads to another unfortunate misunderstanding in which only printed materials are considered the “final” product of graphic design.

However, with the pandemic outbreak in the beginning of 2020, the demand for printed materials has decreased as it doesn’t “feel” as safe as the digital versions. Vietnamese authorities have also changed their way of communicating health information and utilized infographics, images, music videos, etc. to successfully reach a wider population.
A common misconception about graphic design is that it only consists of pictures, whether still or moving. This leads to another unfortunate misunderstanding in which only printed materials are considered the “final” product of graphic design.
However, with the pandemic outbreak in the beginning of 2020, the demand for printed materials has decreased as it doesn’t “feel” as safe as the digital versions. Vietnamese authorities have also changed their way of communicating health information and utilized infographics, images, music videos, etc. to successfully reach a wider population.


Graphic design in Vietnam

Importance of Graphic Design in the Success of Businesse

If your business does need compelling communications to pave the way to success, graphic design marketing is your call. Nearly 50% of surveyed SMBs rate graphic design as “very important” to their success, but it doesn’t mean giants can rest assured.

With this change, more and more people are growing accustomed to using both physical and digital products of graphic design. While the former, commonly called print ads, requires actual printing activities, the latter needs to be designed specifically for different devices, such as laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Graphic design has always been around in the way Vietnamese live and do business. But when the need for information soars due to changes in the international environment, people want more information presented in an easy-to-digest way. That’s where graphic design steps up to reclaim the position that many deemed too important for it.

If your business does need compelling communications to pave the way to success, graphic design marketing is your call. Nearly 50% of surveyed SMBs rate graphic design as “very important” to their success, but it doesn’t mean giants can rest assured.

Do you know that users only need about 50 ms to form a hard-to-change impression on your website? Without an effective web design, you don’t only leave a less-than-optimal first impression, but risk losing real money especially if it is an eCommerce website.

From A Global Reach to A Local Touch

There is an opinion that Vietnamese consumers are spoiled for choice, which makes it harder for foreign brands to claim a piece of the pie. It is not uncommon for a foreign established brand to try to penetrate the Vietnam market, only to realize that their sure-win approach somehow didn’t work this time.

There are many lessons to learn from those unsuccessful attempts, but the right choice of visual communication can save you a lot of trouble. Effective graphic design marketing can make your expansion project a worthy venture from the entrance.

Moreover, Forbes has suggested more involvement from design team to company strategy formulation, especially in the tech world, because UX/UI experience does play a role in building or breaking a business.

It is time to stop thinking of graphic design as a tool to help you “just look pretty in the eyes of customers”. An effective graphic design marketing strategy will help boost your sales, reputation, and persuasion power. Moreover, a usually unexpected benefit from graphic design is increasing your employees’ loyalty to the company.

There is an opinion that Vietnamese consumers are spoiled for choice, which makes it harder for foreign brands to claim a piece of the pie. It is not uncommon for a foreign established brand to try to penetrate the Vietnam market, only to realize that their sure-win approach somehow didn’t work this time.

There are many lessons to learn from those unsuccessful attempts, but the right choice of visual communication can save you a lot of trouble. Effective graphic design marketing can make your expansion project a worthy venture from the entrance.


graphic design marketing for Vietnamese market

The Unshakable Link between Graphic Design and Key Business Activities in Vietnam

Graphic design is usually linked to branding and promotion activities of any business, but it would be a mistake to assume there is all to it. As long as there is something your business needs or wants to share, graphic design plays a pivotal role. It doesn’t necessarily only involve external communication, internal communication can also benefit greatly from it.

Let’s see how graphic design helps boost the efficiency of various business activities.

Graphic Design and Marketing Activities

Graphic design is without a doubt an irreplaceable helper and booster of marketing efforts across all channels. With online adoption still on the rise, digital design marketing may be the answer for your business to do more with less.


Whether it’s a website, a blog or a social media platform, content quality is the ultimate weapon to retain potential customers. And more than 30% of digital marketers agree that the most important type of content are images, with original graphics topping the board of engagement rate. Video content is also rated high on the list.

Foreign investors need to treat the new market as a unique venture, not a miniature of their global market. Even when you’re experienced with Asia, Vietnam can still take you on a tour of surprise, a pleasant experience for tourists, and much less so for businesses.

Don’t hesitate to ask for help from a local expert firm to deeply understand your new target audience, their preferences and even their “quirks”.

Graphic design is usually linked to branding and promotion activities of any business, but it would be a mistake to assume there is all to it. As long as there is something your business needs or wants to share, graphic design plays a pivotal role. It doesn’t necessarily only involve external communication, internal communication can also benefit greatly from it.

Let’s see how graphic design helps boost the efficiency of various business activities.

Graphic design is without a doubt an irreplaceable helper and booster of marketing efforts across all channels. With online adoption still on the rise, digital design marketing may be the answer for your business to do more with less.

Whether it’s a website, a blog or a social media platform, content quality is the ultimate weapon to retain potential customers. And more than 30% of digital marketers agree that the most important type of content are images, with original graphics topping the board of engagement rate. Video content is also rated high on the list.



Graphic design boosts your contents

Graphic Design and Public Relations Communications Activities

When we go digital, design may be the king. But it doesn’t undermine the importance of printed ads in PR efforts.

There is hardly any aspect of e-marketing that digital design can’t help. To come out of the competition as the winner, leverage digital design marketing to establish a positive brand footprint across all of your online communication channels.

When we go digital, design may be the king. But it doesn’t undermine the importance of printed ads in PR efforts.
Unless your business can prosper by doing everything online, it’s not yet the time to turn away from the traditional way of doing PR – print ads.

Many companies in Vietnam still prefer a direct meeting to negotiate deals and “get a real feel” of their potential partner. Therefore, printed professional-looking brochures can’t be left out of your bag. Also, when you host, co-host or sponsor an event, banners, billboards, leaflets, and of course brochures are your opportunities to impress your future customers.
And remember, design that looks great in digital formats doesn’t necessarily feel the same in their printed version. Each format has its own charm and usage; and though consistency must be maintained for the brand to be easily recognizable anywhere, print ads design and digital design are two different ways of telling the same story.

Graphic Design and Branding Activities

Does your brand own a visual identity? It is how the public sees and remembers you online, through the visible elements of your brand, e.g. everything of image and graphics differentiating your brand with others.

So not only your logo, but any published creative design must follow a set of rules to ensure consistency and brand recognition. And that set of rules belongs to your brand identity system or just brand system, which generally consists of the following:

Graphics
Picture assets including logo, icons, illustrations, etc.

Typography
How you style the text used for your branding, including font type.
Color Palette
Colors can evoke emotional responses, and research has shown that the right color can help increase brand recognition by 80%.
Imagery
Photos and video content. Note that Vietnam has raised awareness of the use of copyrighted visual content, alongside with other content. So just Googling a photo you like and put it on your website may really backfire and burn down all your branding efforts.
Physical brand assets
Print ads design can affect your brand’s visual identity, such as brochures, leaflets, banners. If you own a physical store, its layout and the employee uniform also need to be taken into consideration.
Place your bet on impactful brand identity design to shorten the distance to your goal of approaching the top place in the market.

Graphic Design and Employee Experience

Believe it or not, the right graphic design can turn your employee morale, productivity and creativity up a notch, because it gives them an experience of belonging to a trusted brand. When your company can walk the talk with both external stakeholders (customers, partners, vendors, etc.) and internal contributors, it works wonders to retain and develop your valuable human resources.

Many companies in Vietnam still prefer a direct meeting to negotiate deals and “get a real feel” of their potential partner. Therefore, printed professional-looking brochures can’t be left out of your bag. Also, when you host, co-host or sponsor an event, banners, billboards, leaflets, and of course brochures are your opportunities to impress your future customers.
And remember, design that looks great in digital formats doesn’t necessarily feel the same in their printed version. Each format has its own charm and usage; and though consistency must be maintained for the brand to be easily recognizable anywhere, print ads design and digital design are two different ways of telling the same story.



Infographics design

What Makes A Great Work of Graphic Design in Vietnam

A common (and intuitive) answer to this question is a variance of the saying, “It looks nice”. But to businesses, graphic design works when it brings expected results, whether it is measured by clicks, votes, shares or likes, or the boost in sales on an eCommerce website.

However, in a dynamic market like Vietnam, you may not have another as-good opportunity to redo your work when the last design didn’t make the cut. Thus, there are some general guidelines to increase the likelihood of success when you launch your design for the first time.
Cultural Relevan
It’s best if your audience can “sync” with your design, but in most cases, the key is to avoid the feeling of confusion and (unintended) disrespect.

Moreover, graphic design can help alleviate the pain of reading heavy content such as manuals and procedure guidebooks. Infographics is one great way to help employees do this required task much more quickly with much less energy consumed.

Once you have won the hearts of your people, the intense battle outside the corporate door is just another daily hurdle to overcome together.
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Cultural gaps may really catch you off-guard with a hit below the belt, and logical arguments never work in such situations. So, ask for advice from your local expert before launching any type of visual communication, especially on the Internet.

Storytelling
What’s the story behind your brand? And what’s the best way to tell it? Graphic design will help you share your story to the audience in a beautiful and memorable way. A story well told with or by visuals will leave a longer-lasting impression and encourage favorable actions from the audience.
Storytelling by graphic design can convert users on your website or social media more effectively than separate ads. Make good use of this tool to engage with your users and improve your brand image in their hearts.

Consistency without Redundancy
Remember, as PwC repeatedly emphasizes, “branding is all about consistency”. Your use of graphic design in branding activities must be consistent in both printed and digital work, or you risk losing potential customers because their mind is “divided” or at least confused by your unintended “variety”.



Consistency in graphic design marketing

Read more: How to build the best visual content strategy for digital marketing in Vietnam.

Conclusion

Graphic design has long been around as a way of effective communication. When the world becomes flatter with online adoption in nearly all nooks and corners, visuals grow to be the main way to communicate, since it doesn’t require a linguist degree to understand and share feelings.

However, if you only use one style of design for all your visual communication materials, it is very easy to fade into the background. That’s where a brand style guidelines do its job, allowing creativity without losing the original brand look.

On the other hand, Hubspot has listed some 2021 graphic design trends, but it is highly recommended to work with your local expert before deciding on one style, as it may not be the best choice in Vietnam.