In the majority of ASEAN households today the husband and wife both work and equally share household roles, and so brands need to adopt new marketing approaches that target couples, an ASEAN consumer forum heard in HCM City last Friday.

The Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living ASEAN, a think tank established in Thailand in 2014 by Japan’s second largest advertising company, Hakuhodo Inc., reported this in its latest research into ASEAN consumer trends at the ASEAN Sei-Katsu-Sha forum.

The institute uses the term sei-katsu-sha to describe an individual as more than a consumer but as an individual with a lifestyle, aspirations and dreams.

The forum, “New Perspectives on Gender Equality at Home: Who Rules the House?”, covered the division of household chores and child rearing between husbands and wives and the processes ASEAN and Vietnamese couples go through when deciding purchases.

It also highlighted the implications these findings have for marketing.

The research found that Vietnamese households where the husband works outside and the wife takes care of the home and children are now in a minority at just 25 per cent. Families where these duties are shared are the majority at 74 per cent.

In the remaining1 per cent of the households the wife works outside and the husband takes care of household chores and child rearing.

On shopping decisions, the research found that a majority of couples make them together when buying electronic goods, new homes, financial products, and seasonal gifts, and others while wives make most decisions about daily necessities.

Marketing approaches based on traditional ideas about gender are no longer suitable for today’s ASEAN families, including Viet Nam, it said.

New approaches that take into account the reality of working wives, husbands that do household chores and joint decision-making may be required.

Nguyen Thi Tram Anh, associate strategic planning manager at the institute, said though brand decisions are often made before shopping, in 39 per cent of cases brand switches are effected by salespersons.

"Therefore, brands need to have experienced and knowledgeable salespeople to provide customers with sufficient information about the functions and benefits of products and comparisons with other similar products," she said.

The survey was done online in five countries —Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Viet Nam — with 1,000 respondents in each place in addition to 8,100 home interviews. — VNS