“Product Story”: Increasing the attraction of OCOP products

The One Commune One Product (OCOP) program implemented by the province over the years has contributed significantly to branding and market development for products. Among the criteria of OCOP products, “product story” is an important factor in promoting and attracting customers to the product.

In the process of building and developing OCOP products of the province, many product stories have convinced customers in making a decision to use the product. Thereby, it contributed to market development and increasing competition for OCOP products. On that basis, functional sectors and localities have been actively supporting subjects to build product stories that are appropriate and have high promotional value.

Attracting customers

“Eleutherococcus nodiflorus honey has a completely natural source of ingredients. Not only has a higher nutritional value than normal honey, this honey is also a precious medicine because it is taken from the nectar of the Eleutherococcus nodiflorus plant – a precious medicinal plant of the Ginseng family that grows in Van Thuy. Currently, only Lang Son province has this type of honey. Eleutherococcus nodiflorus honey contains many compounds from the properties of the  Eleutherococcus nodiflorus flower, which is considered by the people here as a “panacea” to help treat respiratory, bone and joint diseases … ” This is the story of the 3-star OCOP product Eleutherococcus nodiflorus honey of the Cooperative Beekeeping     in Van Thuy commune, Chi Lang district.

Members of the Cooperative Beekeeping for honey in Van Thuy commune, Chi Lang district take care of the bees

Mr. Nong Van Hiep, member of the Board of Directors of the cooperative said: When the cooperative’s honey products participated in promotional events and sold on e-commerce platforms, many consumers were interested and convinced by product story. Many people have ordered products to use, as gifts. As a result, from 2021 up to now, the product market has been expanded to a number of new provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bac Ninh.  Consumption is about 10,000 liters/year, about 20% higher than before participating in the OCOP program.

Along with the Eleutherococcus nodiflorus honey product in Van Thuy commune, at present, the province also has 94 OCOP products with 94 separate product stories. The stories are based on many factors such as: traditional production methods of the people; geographical area characteristics; historical and cultural factors related to the product; Outstanding and unique uses of the product…

Each OCOP product is told with its own story. For example, the same product is wine, but Mo Heo yeast wine (Huu Lung district) is produced from pure water taken from the water source of Mo Heo stream, combined with the typical leaf yeast of the Dao people to create drops of tasty leaf yeast. Meanwhile, Huu Le leaf yeast wine (Van Quan district) uses clean water brought from the mountains to use, this wine needs a special leaven made by Huu Le people from some medicinal plants in the forest. Therefore, Huu Le wine has the aroma of tobacco leaves, the sweetness of the mountain water and the pungent, aromatic flavor. It is the combination of culture and quality that makes the difference in each product story that OCOP subjects show. From there, each product when it is promoted and introduced will be evaluated by consumers, choosing the right product for them.

Supporting OCOP owners

According to the provincial Sub-department of Rural Development, the criterion “product story” is the most important factor to promote the product. However, at present, most OCOP owners still face difficulties in expressing and presenting product stories. Therefore, over the past time, localities have actively supported OCOP owners to complete the product story. For example, in the districts of Huu Lung, Chi Lang, Many OCOP owners have been supported, consulted and connected by the District Division of Agriculture and Rural Development to individuals and organizations to write product stories based on the owner’s ideas.

Mr. Luong Thanh Chung, Head of the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development of Chi Lang district said: In the past time, we have directly supported or connected subjects with other units to concretize ideas with product stories. At the same time, we participated in the appraisal and evaluation of the promotional value of the stories. With a fascinating product story, all 18 OCOP products have attracted customers from many provinces and city such as Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Quang Ninh, etc.

In addition, over the past time, the Provincial Rural Development Sub-Department has paid special attention to supporting OCOP owners to complete the product story. From 2022 up to now, the unit has organized 5 training courses for more than 200 participants and organized a visit and study on OCOP product development in 2 provinces of Soc Trang and Bac Lieu. In which, the unit spent a lot of time guiding the owners to build and perfect the product story.

According to Mr. Pham Tuyen, Director of the Provincial Rural Development Sub-Department, in order for the advertisement, trade promotion, and branding for OCOP products to be highly effective, the unit will continue to coordinate with localities to well implement propaganda, support OCOP owners to build product stories that attract consumers.  At the same time, the sub-department constantly improve the capacity of the staff in charge to respond well to consulting and supporting owners. In addition, continue to conduct a thorough appraisal of the “product story” criterion when evaluating and classifying OCOP products. For products that do not meet this criterion, the sub-department will focus on supporting the completed owners.

For many consumers, a product’s story is one of the factors they decide to buy. Therefore, along with the attention and support from the functional industry, OCOP owners also need to continue to pay attention to develop more and more complete product stories.