In recent years, the development of the retail market has been one of the highlights of the Vietnamese economy in general. This development has been reflected not only in breadth (as more and more retail stores operate on a chain scale) but also in depth (such as the variety of retail business models, the improvement of retail service quality, etc). Therefore, this topic about retailing and stakeholders (suppliers, consumers, etc) pay much attention from academics and business.
In several reports of the retail market, one of the most noticeable products belongs to the electronics field. Since 2008, the emergence of more and more retail stores of electronic products and the expansion of specific supermarkets with different brands has contributed to the more increasingly attractive market. Some retail business brands that choose to develop in the chain model could be mentioned such as The gioi di dong, FPT Shop, Vien Thong A, CellphoneS while a number of other retail stores have also made their own brands such as Phuc Anh Smart Computer, Gia Long, Ishop. As for electronics supermarkets, the expansion of electronics supermarkets over the years might include the brands of Tran Anh, Mediamart, Pico, Nguyen Kim and most recently, Dien may Xanh. These active signs show the business potential for the retail of electronics products in the market of Hanoi city and the Vietnamese market in general. On the other hand, it shows the fierce competition that if the retail business is not careful in adjusting its business strategy to new competitors, it would face more challenges soon.
However, fierce competition has resulted in an inevitable outcome: leaving the market. 2015 was a milestone year for the retail industry in general and the electronics retailing sector. Right from the beginning of 2015, Nguyen Kim - one of the first Vietnamese brands in the field of retailing of electronic products - announced the sale of shares to Central Group (Thailand) with a 49% stake transfer. It was followed by Tran Anh's cooperation with Nojima - a large Japanese electronics retailer, and by April 2015, Nojima's ownership was 31% of Tran Anh's total shares. Also, during this period, there was much information that Pico and Mediamart sought foreign partners to implement the orientation of "internationalization", but it was not successful. Notably, in 2017, the retail market of electronics products continued to witness many major acquisitions. The first is the deal of The Gioi Di Dong and Tran Anh when the entire chain of electronics supermarkets branded "Tran Anh" officially belongs to The gioi di dong Group and this is a step to open the ambition to dominate the market of electronics supermarket chain with the branded chain "Dien may Xanh" in the North. The next deal is the agreement to transfer ownership of FPT Retail and FPT Trading (belonging to FPT Group) to Synex Group - a leading retail group of phones, tablets, and mobile devices (Taiwanese). Continuing, early in 2018, Creador Group - a private equity fund, based in Malaysia - announced it would invest US $ 100 million in The gioi di dong over the next three years.
It could be seen that, after 2015 with the milestone of establishing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the removal of tariffs for many items on the list of electronic and electrical products among nations members, creating competitive pressure with domestic electronics retailers. As a result, many electronics supermarkets of Vietnamese businesses would be forced to give consumers a reason that is strong enough and unique enough to choose to buy at their supermarket instead of choosing to buy at those of competitors. The main brand is one of those reasons. The brand of an electronics supermarket could become a commitment, a certification of the quality of goods and services provided by the electronics supermarket to consumers. However, the brand of an electronics supermarket could not be created in a short time, it is a process of accumulation for many years and exists in the minds of customers. The brand could gradually increase its influence if the business is concerned, appropriate investment or may fade if the business does not really believe in "its own brand". The term "brand equity" was introduced to explain that accumulation process. Brand equity in terms of customers is represented by the different reactions (attitude and behavior) of consumers to brands that are competitors of each other in the same segment target field.
Brand equity has been studied since the 1980s and studies on this topic have been expanded to cover various businesses as well as different types of businesses. Among them, studies of brand equity based on consumers are more prominent with the starting point from the approach of Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993). Over the past twenty years, researches on brand equity have been studied for retail businesses that have made certain contributions from a practical perspective to help businesses to apply them in management activities. Researches on brand equity based on consumers in the food retail sector show outstanding numbers. Modern retail is also a priority in the study of brand equity. However, among these types, specialized supermarkets with specific products are often chosen to be the subject of research. Therefore, the dissertation chooses the direction of researching the electronics market as a specialized supermarket to explore factors affecting brand equity for this type of business. Based on research, the dissertation expects to make some recommendations for electronics supermarkets to enhance its brand equity. Stemming from the above reasons, the dissertation with the title " Exploring brand equity of electronics supermarkets located in Hanoi city " is proposed.