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Vietnamese Consumers, Like Their Drinks, Grow More Nuanced

Ha Nguyen

   HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM - To see how much the consumer has changed in
   Vietnam, look no further than what he drinks: soda or bubble tea.

   Coca-Cola was one of the first foreign investors in Vietnam, selling in
   wartime and in a postwar period when many foreign companies stayed away
   amid a trade embargo.

   These days it is not an American soft drink brand that has captured the
   imagination of Vietnamese drinkers, but bubble tea, brought in by a
   range of Asian companies, from Taiwan to Thailand. Bubble or boba tea,
   a sugary milk tea known for its tapioca balls, can come in endless
   flavors, such as strawberry, matcha, or cacao, and combined with balls
   of tapioca, jelly or sweet beans. The drink is decidedly more complex
   than soda, and increasingly, so too is the Vietnamese shopper.

   This goes far beyond drinks. It used to be that foreign companies
   entered Vietnam to sell the basics: fast moving consumer goods, such as
   bags of instant noodles or paper towels. But as Vietnam moves toward a
   more consumption-based society, foreign investors are responding to a
   desire for a greater variety of products and services.

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