Western fast fashion brands in the eyes of Vietnamese millennials

Sammanfattning: Background  Along with an impressive increase of individual incomes and expansion of middle class populations (Lee & Nguyen, 2017), Vietnam is an attractive market where the fashion category receives the high interest among young consumers. Noticeably, while Western fast fashion is considered as a cheap product in most developed countries, it is kind of an expensive item in the Vietnam context. Although previous studies show that Vietnamese millennials are fond of the products from the West, Vietnam is a challenging market that requires Western fast fashion brands to have an insight into local consumer preferences since the local consumer’ values, attitudes, and behaviors are changing dramatically. Purpose  The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes of Vietnamese millennials towards Western fast fashion brands related to country of origin (COO) as well as the symbolic values of these brands in the mind of Vietnamese millennials. It thereby helps the Western companies to understand the Vietnamese market in terms of fast fashion, discovering potential investment opportunities and propose suitable marketing strategies to enter this market.  Method  Following the purpose of this study, an exploratory qualitative research with an abductive approach was utilised. Specifically, in-depth interviews with open-ended questions were employed to have an insight into the participants’ attitude towards Western fast fashion brands. Additionally, after the interviews, the participant's opinions were captured for a visualization of attributes of Western fast fashion brands. Conclusion The research results show that Vietnamese millennials generally have positive attitudes towards Western fast fashion brands related to COO. Nevertheless, in this particular study, the emerging symbolic values include sense of beauty,  educational background, social status as well as self-identity. The study also points out its delimitations and limitations, offers various possibilities for managerial implications, as well as provides some suggestions for future research.