Diana Unicharm is half a step ahead of consumers

With the goal of reaching a revenue of 1 billion USD by 2030 in Vietnam, Diana Unicharm needs to have unique products for the first time in the world and be "half a step ahead" of users.

With the goal of reaching a revenue of 1 billion USD by 2030 in Vietnam, Diana Unicharm needs to have unique products for the first time in the world and be "half a step ahead" of users.

Mr. Takahiro Okada, CEO of Diana Unicharm.

Differences and firsts

Mr. Takahiro Okada, CEO of Diana Unicharm, has been with Unicharm Group (Japan) for 28 years. With experience gained from the international market in sales, marketing, and development strategy planning, he officially took the "hot seat" of Diana Unicharm in Vietnam from August 2022. He and Diana Unicharm will realize the vision of becoming an enterprise with a revenue of 1 billion USD by 2030, contributing to improving the quality of life of Vietnamese people.

This also shows that the appointment of Mr. Takahiro Okada as CEO of Diana Unicharm affirms that Vietnam will become a key market that Unicharm Group needs to expand and develop.

Mr. Do Anh Tu, Permanent Vice President of Diana Unicharm, assessed that Mr. Takahiro Okada can help the company continue to consolidate its position as the number one personal hygiene product manufacturer in Vietnam.

Diana Unicharm grasps the needs of consumers to develop and provide products with unique values, meeting the needs well. Then, Unicharm Group will expand the application of this product to customer groups with similar needs in the Asia region.

- Mr. Takahiro Okada, CEO Diana Unicharm

Up to this point, every employee in Diana Unicharm is imbued with the spirit of achieving that goal. The manufacturer of sanitary napkins and diapers from the land of cherry blossoms is realizing the goal by launching many new product lines that are different and for the first time in the world right in the Vietnamese market.

Specifically, Diana Unicharm has launched two new product lines: Bobby Antimos and Bobby diaper pants with one side open for children under 6 months old.

Bobby Antimos includes diapers and wipes that repel mosquitoes to protect children and their families from mosquito bites, helping to reduce the risk of dengue fever - an epidemic that has a major impact in Vietnam. The remaining product line is Bobby diapers that open on one side for children under 6 months old to wear diapers without having to lift their legs.

“These are all baby diaper products that are the first in the world and have been patented by Unicharm Group. Therefore, competitors cannot imitate them,” said Mr. Takahiro Okada.

Although these two product lines have slightly higher prices than cheap baby diapers, consumers still choose to buy them because they meet their needs well.

The company has invested a significant amount of money in researching and launching two new product lines. With the support of consumers, Diana Unicharm expects these two product lines to contribute more than 20% of the revenue of the child care industry in the coming years.

It is known that the child care industry has accounted for a large proportion of the revenue structure since Diana Unicharm merged into Unicharm Group in 2011.

For many years, Diana Unicharm has maintained its leading position in market share in the baby diaper industry thanks to its diverse product offerings in many different segments, from low-end, mid-range to high-end with the brands Baby Love, Baby Joy, Bobby, Mamypoko and Moony.

Expanding into new product lines

Diana Unicharm has surpassed its competitors, maintaining its leading position in market share for many consecutive years, not only in the child care industry, but also in the women's and elderly care industries.

In 2013, Diana Unicharm invested nearly 100 million USD to build a factory producing pads, diapers, and wet wipes on an area of ​​270,000 m2 in Bac Ninh . This factory has currently installed more than 40 modern machinery and equipment lines using technology from the Japanese Unicharm Group for many product lines including sanitary pads, baby diapers, adult diapers, wet wipes, cleaning solutions, cat food, etc.

Market forecasts show that in 2025, the baby diaper industry will decrease by 2% compared to 2024. Meanwhile, the adult diaper industry is forecast to grow by 5% in volume and about 3% in value. Currently, the Company is increasing its contribution to the elderly care industry to adapt to the rapid aging of the population in Vietnam.

In the elderly care industry, Diana Unicharm offers a new product line in the affordable segment to meet the changing needs of consumers. Due to the economic difficulties after Covid-19, most consumers are more concerned about prices when shopping.

Currently, this Japanese diaper manufacturer offers a wide range of products in all segments to compete with rivals, especially Chinese businesses that offer low-cost products.

In order to adapt to the change in consumer shopping habits across generations and the trend of online shopping, Diana Unicharm has built a livestream room to be able to directly convey outstanding product features and encourage consumers to shop more.

This form of sales through this channel brings in double-digit revenue. The rate of online sales in the childcare industry accounts for about 30%. By the end of 2024, Diana Unicharm will achieve revenue of more than 8,000 billion VND.

It should be added that to achieve its goal of becoming a $1 billion business by 2030, the company must grow at 15% per year. The only way is to expand into new product lines.

Through market research, Diana Unicharm said that consumer awareness in Vietnam about health hygiene issues is higher than in other countries in the ASEAN region.

According to Metric.vn research, Vietnam is the country with the highest rate of using feminine hygiene solutions, with more than 75% of women trusting it; followed by the Philippines (34%), Thailand (24%)...

At the end of 2024, the Company decided to enter the feminine hygiene solution industry. Vietnam is the first market to launch the product line under the brand name Fresh & Care.

In particular, with experience and technology in manufacturing non-woven fabric products for personal hygiene care for humans, the company realizes that pets are also indispensable members of the family. This is increasingly evident in families, making Vietnam a potential market that cannot be ignored.

In Japan and many countries around the world, Unicharm Group has launched product lines related to non-woven fabrics such as diapers and sanitary pads for dogs and cats. Therefore, Diana Unicharm can easily create a line of pet hygiene care products thanks to inheriting the available production technology of Unicharm Group.

The company also realized that the pet food industry was also an opportunity to get closer to consumers, so it entered this industry.

Pet Fair Asia estimates that the pet care industry in Southeast Asia is worth 4 billion USD, with Vietnam accounting for 13% (equivalent to 500 million USD) with a forecast growth rate of 11% per year. Dog food is identified as an important product in the pet food market. Cat food and other animal food also account for a large market share.

In 2022, Diana Unicharm entered the pet care industry to have more opportunities to reach consumers with the cat food brands Silver Spoon and MaxWell.

There are many different approaches to new product lines. Diana Unicharm focuses on entering product lines that are always half a step ahead of consumer demand when launching new product lines.

According to Mr. Takahiro Okada, this strategy helps the company succeed in approaching new product lines. Because if Diana Unicharm's new products are too far from consumer needs, they will not be able to gain attention, and if they are behind consumer needs, the business will face many obstacles in competition.

In mid-2024, Diana Unicharm also launched the Diana Sensi For Nature product exclusively for women, which is environmentally friendly and uses Japanese kraft paper packaging, showing that this manufacturer continues to be one step ahead of its competitors.

The personal care market in Vietnam currently has three notable names: Diana Unicharm (Japan), Kimberly Clark (USA), and Procter & Gamble (P&G). Of these, Diana Unicharm has risen to the number 1 position in market share in all major product lines. Diana Unicharm’s competitors are also launching many campaigns to expand their product lines to gain more market share. And according to them, the race has just begun.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/diana-unicharm-di-truoc-nguoi-tieu-dung-nua-buoc-d244879.html