Philosophy 3C and story of smart consumption

According to Pharmacist Nguyen Xuan Hoang, consumers’ habits in Vietnam have changed in recent years. Consumers no longer focus just on the quality and prices of products as before, but are more concerned about safety, and origin, especially in the healthcare, food, and beverage sectors. Thus, they are willing to pay more for products of reputable companies highly appreciated by professionals.

Pharmacist Nguyen Xuan Hoang, Chairman of International Medical Consultants Co., Ltd. - IMC

Consumers also know how to search for information of products on the internet, choose credible sources, and no longer blindly trust advertisements as before. Experts call this a smart consumption movement, which forces businesses to make changes and adapt themselves to practical situations.

Digitization in smart consumption

Pharmacist Nguyen Xuan Hoang believes that every business, in addition to product quality and business methods, needs to pay attention to many other issues and continuously make innovations to suit consumers’ tastes in different periods.

According to Hoang, although IMC is not a distributor of products, it also attaches great attention to digitization. “Our customers are quite unique, but alongside distributors, we also have other consumers who want to learn about the technology and production processes that we research and produce. Therefore, digitization to ensure transparency of products is a must,” Hoang said.

He emphasized that transparency in product information from herbal ingredients, traceability, to a closed production process that adheres to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, and quality control is essential to meet customer standards and prove the quality and safety of products to consumers. At IMC, this is effectively implemented through compliance with GMP and ISO standards; thereby, product traceability and quality checks are publicly available and transparent.

Currently, there are thousands of companies manufacturing and distributing functional foods in Vietnam. Regarding production, with tighter regulations from the authorities, functional food manufacturing plants must comply with GMP standards, ensuring transparency in safety and product traceability. The production process is tightly monitored from raw materials to semi-finished and finished products. Therefore, a company that wants to stand out can only rely on technology. “Resolution 57 clearly states that quantum technology is one of the country’s potential technologies that we need to focus on developing. IMC has pioneered the research and application of this technology in cosmetics production and the production of beverages for several years.

Each product of IMC contains its own story. For example, the stories of these two products are about ingredients and production methods

For example, the Quantum water product is the first functional food in the world to apply quantum technology. Many of IMC’s functional food and cosmetic products also apply this technology, which enhances product quality, effectiveness, and safety,” Dr. Hoàng shared.

In the coming time, IMC will continue to be a pioneer in applying new and exclusive technologies in its products. At the same time, IMC has been, is, and will continue to search for, do research, and apply new technologies in raw material extraction, product manufacturing, heading towards green and circular technologies, “ensuring compliance with the net-zero requirements set by the Government.”

Interesting stories to consumers

“Another factor is the story, why?, because the story is a bridge through which the community can easily connect with the product. They can share, provide feedback, comments, exchange, or ask for recommendations very easily,” Hoang shared.

Accordingly, each product of IMC contains its own story. It could be a story about ingredients, production technology, or researcher… through which consumers can understand the products better and give responsible feedback after experiencing them.

“Through the story, we also want to convey the cultural values of IMC based on the identity of the Vietnamese culture,” Hoang said. For example, regarding the story about green sticky rice, he told the story of how rice grains are grown organically and supplemented with essential minerals, undergo environmentally friendly farming methods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions before being made into the green sticky rice. The story also describes how modern machinery and equipment are used to make the product with minimum human contact. The food products made from the green sticky rice also contain beneficial active ingredients for health. “At this point, the green sticky rice is like a conductor, delivering useful active ingredients into the body in the most natural way through food. And we tell consumers the story about green sticky rice,” he said.

At the recent Lunar New Year holiday, hundreds of IMC’s gift sets were delivered to and welcomed by consumers. “We received sincere and valuable feedback to further improve our products. This reflects our responsibility to the community and is also the way we recognize the community’s responsibility in consuming domestically produced food and functional food,” Hoang stated.

To help consumers better understand the story and the product’s value, IMC is also building experience stations - both in reality and on the digital environment - where consumers can access the product information in the closest way. At the experience stations, consumers can understand the production process of ingredients, from raw materials to industrial production, and then to finished products before reaching consumers. This is how IMC demonstrates its responsibility to the community.