OCOP on supermarket shelves: the challenge of maintaining regional quality

Vietnam has over 17,000 OCOP products rated 3 stars and above, with 126 products achieving 5 stars (data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 2024). However, if you ask a supermarket purchasing manager, the usual response is that most of them cannot get onto the shelves, or if they do, they do not sell. This is not due to poor quality. It is because of a missing element that a certification seal cannot replace: branding.

Certification stars are not brands

OCOP is a quality and origin standard, validated by the government. A brand is the perception of the buyer when looking at the product, according to Marty Neumeier's definition in The Brand Gap. These two are not the same.

A jar of Huế shrimp paste with a 4-star OCOP rating can still lose to a product with no stars at all. The reason is that the other product has packaging that tells a story, a memorable name, and consistent visuals on the shelf. Supermarket shoppers don't hold an assessment certificate before putting a product in their basket. They decide in a few seconds, with their eyes.

According to research by Lindgaard et al. published in Behaviour & Information Technology (2006), visual impressions form in about 50 milliseconds. On a shelf with dozens of competing products, that 50 milliseconds determines whether the product is picked up or not.

Why regional specialties fail on the shelves

There is a familiar paradox: the product is delicious, the people who make it are proud of it, but it can't sell outside the province. The cause is usually not just one thing, but a whole cluster of problems, listed below.

• Packaging looks like products for local markets, not city supermarkets.
• The product name or business name does not create a memory, making it indistinguishable from dozens of similar products.
• There is no clear story of origin, or if there is, it is not presented on the packaging in a way that buyers can see and understand immediately.
• Inconsistent and scattered communication images, each channel has a different style.
• Insufficient stable supply capacity, causing distributors to hesitate to place long-term shelf deposits.

The final issue is operations, not branding. The previous four issues are design and positioning challenges that can be completely solved without changing the product.

Positioning is what you do in the minds of potential customers, not with the product.

Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect, not what you do to a product.

Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

The 4-layer formula: maintain regional quality while still getting on the shelf

The most common mistake when upgrading specialty product packaging is trying to make it look “modern”. The usual approach is to remove everything tied to the region: brocade motifs, place names, images of the people who make the product. The result is a product that looks like everything else on the shelf and loses the one reason a buyer would choose it.

The opposite approach, and a more effective one, is to build packaging in 4 layers: origin, motifs, emotional language, and materials.

• Origin: Clearly state the growing region, the name of the cooperative or producer, and the production year if available. This information is not decoration; it is evidence. Urban buyers are willing to pay more for traceable products.
• Motifs: Use native visual elements, but treat them in a contemporary design language. Don't copy folk art as it is, and don't discard it either. This is the layer that creates the most distinctive identity and is the hardest to imitate.
• Emotional language: The story on the packaging is not a technical specification. It is a feeling: a memory of a trip, the scent of a morning in a specific land, the image of a specific farmer. Short, real, and unique to that product.
• Material: Raw kraft paper differs from glossy plastic boxes. Each type of material conveys a message before the buyer reads the text. The material must be consistent with the story and the price segment you aim to target.

Lesson GI: when not protected, you lose

The story of ST25 rice is the clearest example of the cost of not building a systematic brand. It is considered the best rice in the world according to international assessments, but the brand name was registered in the U.S. by a foreign company. The consequence: Vietnamese rice exported to that market must be sold under a different name or cannot be sold at all.

Geographical indication (GI) and intellectual property registration are the first step in turning the name of a place into a business asset. Parmigiano-Reggiano and Café de Colombia are examples showing that a well-run GI can define an entire product category at an international level.

With OCOP Vietnam, this step is often overlooked because small producers lack resources or do not know what needs to be done. This is where cooperatives and local roles can fill the gap, if guided correctly.

On supermarket shelves: the brand negotiates on your behalf

Distributors and supermarket purchasing managers do not just evaluate products. They assess the ability of that product to generate stable sales without causing them trouble. A strong brand addresses that question before negotiations begin.

Packaging that tells a clear story. A name and identity that are consistent across every channel. Evidence that end buyers care, such as TikTok Shop sales, reviews, and shares. When that is in place, distributors see they are buying an asset, not a trial batch.

By contrast, a product with no story, inconsistent packaging, and no presence on social media will depend entirely on personal relationships and price, no matter how good its quality is. That is the weakest position in a distribution negotiation.

Key point: OCOP certification opens the door to consideration. The brand is what keeps that door from closing.