General Assessment of the Current Status of Environmental Application in Marketing Issues of Enterprises in Vietnam

III. GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT STATUS OF APPLYING ENVIRONMENT IN MARKETING ISSUES OF ENTERPRISES IN VIETNAM

1. The shortcomings and limitations of Vietnamese enterprises in applying the environment in marketing issues

1.1. Businesses have not paid due attention to environmental issues when formulating strategies.

When establishing a business, it is necessary to conduct research on the impact of its production and business activities on the environment and to provide environmental certificates to prove that it can effectively solve these problems during its operation. However, for many businesses, this is still just a formality. Many businesses do not properly assess the role of environmental protection in the production and business process. Perhaps they only stop at using input materials economically and limiting industrial waste to some extent because these are issues that directly affect the costs and immediate profits of the business. For businesses that have been operating for a long time, re-equipping machinery and equipment as well as improving production processes to meet national and international environmental requirements and standards is extremely difficult.

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Many Vietnamese enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises and small and medium-sized private enterprises, are unfamiliar with developing medium and long-term business strategies, most of which are just short-term plans. This makes it difficult for enterprises to fully assess the impact of external factors on their operations, especially impacts that can only be seen after a long period of operation, such as environmental issues.

1.2. Most domestic enterprises have not applied international environmental standards and regulations.

Although in recent years more and more businesses have paid more attention to environmental issues, the application of regulations

and international environmental standards in Vietnamese enterprises are still very limited. The number of Vietnamese enterprises granted international environmental certificates is very small. As of September 2007, there were more than 113 enterprises and organizations in Vietnam granted ISO 14000 certificates while worldwide there were over 120,000 ISO certificates granted in 138 countries. Compared to the world average, the number of Vietnamese enterprises registering and being granted certificates is very low, the ratio is approximately 1/1000. Moreover, among the enterprises granted ISO 14000 certificates, 2/3 are foreign-invested enterprises. This shows that Vietnamese enterprises have not really paid attention to environmental issues in their production and business activities.

1.3. Few Vietnamese businesses know the concept of green marketing.

While in the world, green marketing is becoming a common trend for all businesses, in Vietnam, this concept is still very new. In the Vietnamese book market, we cannot find any book written on this topic. This shows that, even in theory, Vietnamese economists are not interested in this issue, or to be more precise, Vietnamese businesses are being left far behind the general trend of the world. As environmental issues become increasingly serious and become the top concern of all governments and citizens on earth, the production and business activities of businesses cannot ignore this global issue. In other words, Vietnamese businesses are not keeping up with the changing needs of consumers. Therefore, the current marketing strategies of businesses will no longer be suitable and cannot meet the current and future needs of customers. In the current open and free trade conditions, it is not difficult for foreign enterprises with appropriate marketing strategies to dominate the Vietnamese market, especially when consumers

Vietnam is also increasingly interested in ecological products and products that are internationally certified for their environmental quality.

1.4. Many businesses use environmental certifications as a marketing tool for their corporate image.

Realizing the increasingly important role of the environment in production and business activities as well as the company's development strategy, many businesses invest costs and time in meeting environmental regulations. However, there are a large number of businesses that only consider international certifications such as ISO 14000, HACCP... as a tool to promote the image of the business, after being certified, the original situation is repeated. There are many businesses that have been granted certification but after a while, it is confiscated due to not meeting the requirements. It can be seen that Vietnamese businesses are fully capable of achieving ISO 14000 environmental certification if they have the right investment and effort.

2. The limitations of Vietnamese enterprises in applying the environment in marketing issues

2.1. Consumer awareness of environmental products is not high.

Most Vietnamese consumers have not really paid attention to the environmental quality of products. First of all, because our country's economy has just developed, people's lives have generally improved significantly in the past ten years. It seems that everyone still has the idea that having a product that meets basic living needs is enough. With food products, consumers care about the taste, content of substances, production date and expiry date, but very few people when choosing to buy a product worry about whether the production of that product causes environmental pollution or whether the packaging of that product is made of recyclable materials or not. With products that are means of transportation, specifically motorbikes, buyers only care about the price, design, technical specifications and whether the vehicle is

Whether it consumes a lot of gasoline or not, not many people care about whether the amount of emissions released into the environment by using that car is high or low. Also because of the low awareness of consumers about the environmental quality of the product, the Mogas95 and 98 products of the petroleum company have not been widely accepted by the market even though it is recognized as more environmentally friendly than Mogas92 just because its price is higher.

Since consumers do not have a demand for environmental products, the pressure on businesses to pay attention to environmental protection in the production process as well as in marketing is not great. Businesses only need to bring to the market products that meet consumer demands and gain the desired profits. Only when consumers pay more attention to environmental products, are willing to pay higher prices to use those products and gradually eliminate the use of products that pollute the environment, will businesses be forced to thoroughly implement the environment in their marketing.

2.2. The State does not have any agencies to inspect the environmental quality of products.

Recognizing the importance of the environment in the country's development conditions as well as meeting the requirements when Vietnam becomes an official member of the WTO, our Party and State have set out a strategy for developing the environment in Vietnam in the period of 2001 - 2010. The strategy mentions a number of environmental issues of enterprises. The Law on Environmental Protection of 1993 has also been replaced by the Law on Environmental Protection of 2005 to provide more specific and appropriate regulations on environmental protection for production, business and service activities (Chapter V). However, those regulations are still general and mainly focus on protecting the natural environment and treating wastewater and waste from production areas.

Vietnam's environmental regulations are generally based on international and regional environmental regulations: In the Ordinance on Goods Quality, Article 19 stipulates: "The State encourages and facilitates mutual recognition in the activities of certifying the quality of goods and certifying the quality management system between Vietnam and foreign countries." However, 80% of Vietnam's standards are not in accordance with international standards. Vietnam has also issued a number of environmental standards in accordance with ISO 14000, but most of the standards have not been thoroughly studied. (The table of Vietnamese standards corresponding to ISO 14000 is presented in the appendix...) It can be seen that Vietnam's environmental regulations have not provided specific regulations and instructions for enterprises, especially regulations for each field of operation. This causes many difficulties for enterprises in implementing national and international regulations related to the environment. At the same time, there are no regulations to support businesses in accessing regulations as well as specific reward and punishment regimes for businesses.

In addition, in addition to the General Department of Quality Measurement of Vietnam, there is a lack of agencies to verify product quality. For products exported abroad, we have Vina Control organization to inspect and certify product quality. Having too many businesses while there are too few agencies to inspect and certify product quality makes the certification process difficult. Moreover, those agencies only stop at general assessment of product quality but have not specifically inspected and evaluated the environmental quality of the product. Eco-labels in Vietnam are currently self-certified by businesses based on available standards. This creates a lack of consumer confidence in the environmental quality of products. And businesses have the opportunity to

to hesitate in producing in accordance with national and international environmental standards and regulations.

2.3. Businesses have not equipped themselves with adequate knowledge about the environment and marketing in the new competitive conditions.

For Vietnamese businesses, both environment and marketing are quite new issues. Very few businesses can understand exactly what marketing is and what role it plays in business operations. Many businesses still think that marketing is simply promoting the products and brands of the business as well as some after-sales customer care services. The environment is only understood as ensuring environmental standards in the production process and the environment in the working area. Therefore, the combination of environment and marketing to create an effective marketing strategy for business operations can be said to be currently not achieved by any business in Vietnam. We can clearly see this through the application of Eco-labels to products in Vietnam.

In order to survive, develop and compete in large markets where environmental pressure is increasing, investors and manufacturers are forced to take action to reduce environmental impacts in their production and business processes. However, in order to gain recognition from society and the community, to attract customers' attention to their environmental efforts, in some countries, in addition to building, applying and certifying environmental management systems according to ISO 14001:2004, manufacturers have been differentiating their products by participating in the Eco-Labeling (Environmental Label) program for products.

Eco-labels were first initiated and applied in Germany in 1978. Since 1993, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has begun the process of developing standards for eco-labels. Currently, there are three types of eco-labels (type I, II and III eco-labels), of which type I is the most popular. In the four leading countries, the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea, about 20-30% of products with good environmental performance are granted type I eco-label certificates. In Vietnam, the concept of "Eco-label" is still unfamiliar to producers and consumers. According to the results of a survey by the Environmental Technology Consulting Center at 526 enterprises in 18 provinces and cities nationwide, only 47 state-owned enterprises (9%), 26 joint-venture enterprises (4.5%) and 10 private enterprises (10) are interested in the issue of eco-labels.

Eco-labels are one of the important elements of green marketing strategies. However, Vietnamese businesses have not paid much attention to this issue, the reasons may be due to:

 General social awareness of environmental issues is still low, so the pressure for labeling from the Government as well as consumers is not high.

 Knowledge about the environmental characteristics of products is still very limited among most people working in environmental management at the grassroots level as well as product users, so widely publishing environmental reports according to the Type III label is also of little meaning (because without understanding or having little information, even if the manufacturer widely publishes specific environmental characteristics, it is difficult to convince that it is good, that it is better than similar products).

 The self-awareness and self-commitment of the users will be a prerequisite for the success of the implementation of the Type II self-declaration label. If there is a lack of awareness of the environmental impact caused by their activities, the self-awareness and self-commitment will not be high, leading to the low credibility of the self-declaration label.

This can cause consumers to be confused and misled by those who do not do a good job but make a big fuss in their announcements or advertisements.

It can be seen that the main reason why businesses have not paid much attention to promoting the environment in marketing is the lack of expertise in this field as well as the fact that businesses have not yet noticed the change in the general trend of the world and have not learned from the experience of businesses around the world.

2.4. Investing in the environment in marketing is a challenge for Vietnamese businesses.

For a developing country with many difficulties like ours, the issue of international environmental regulations and how Vietnamese goods can meet those standards is a big challenge for us. Because our businesses are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises.

Most Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises, with limited capital and physical facilities, so they face difficulties in applying national and international environmental standards. Moreover, applying environmental standards can increase business costs by 20% while benefits cannot be achieved in the short term. Therefore, in the current conditions, enterprises cannot immediately change their management structure, production processes, and innovate equipment to obtain environmental certifications. There needs to be coordination and support from the State and relevant agencies so that enterprises can soon obtain international environmental certifications.

First, businesses without management systems in place may have significant difficulties in implementing complex management systems.

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