What does this mean? Foremost, it indicates a legendary "hidden" wealth. "According to official statistics, India is more prosperous," said a HCMC-money manager who closely measures consumer spending power and habits. "But just look in the streets here. The economy is outside the official statistics because people avoid banks and taxes." He said that tendency is on the rise. "The $300 per year is not relevant to most consumer companies. What you have now are two distinct markets, Hanoi and HCMC, then the rest of the country. The disparity is huge, in terms of income, sophistication, and quality of life. Greater HCMC is near 8 million and Hanoi is 5 million, and these are your markets. For a television company, your market is developed. Having said that, now you've got people asking their neighbor, 'What size is your TV?'"

His last observation remains hotly debated. Marketers banking on "dollars under the mattress" that bought the Honda Dreams to also buy their products suffered a shock when market researchers and economists alike reported that Vietnamese were buying motorbikes not out of pure "consumerism," but because it was a wise investment: a Dream could be sold after two years for about the same price as it was bought, whereas a bank deposit was subject to deflation of at least 10% yearly.

The marketing army is beginning to breathe again. Demand for a variety of products has proven to be genuine and becoming more sophisticated (see supermarket sidebar).

Said a HCMC-based market researcher focused on such trends, "Armani jeans, platform heeled sandals, the Spice Girls, and silk blouses are in this season. It reflects a 'hedonistic segmentation' of the population," a group he is often asked about these days. One Singaporean trader who exports foodstuffs and appliances regionally noted that, "the Vietnamese consume very well."

Too well, the government might say. In 1995 alone about half a billion dollars worth of televisions alone were imported into Vietnam, according to the General Department of Statistics. The trade deficit for 1996 reached $4 billion, double the previous year's deficit and a large part of its GNP. While promoting the idea of export to Vietnamese businesses, this year the Government placed severe restrictions on imported goods, and an outright ban on certain ones (Honda Dreams are presently banned). While this tactic seems to have slowed the rate of official imports, smuggling has boomed, especially as the Thai consumer market suddenly bottomed out, causing manufacturers to look east, some for the first time. That products remain available as ever in the marketplace illustrates sharply just how strong consumer demand has become.

A large part of the demand is driven by multinationals that have established joint-ventures here to promote their brands in addition to supplying them. A joint-venture presence is required to legally distribute and market a product.

While they seem to be doing so, a whimsical romance formed between a young couple who met while driving their motorbikes to identical locations, one stapling posters to restaurant walls for Pepsi, the other for Coke -- not exactly an illustration of rabid brand loyalty that elsewhere plays out with ripped down posters and flattened truck tires.

Current multi-national strategy here appears to be a struggle for the short term, largely for understandable political reasons. Two years ago all advertising that displayed non-Vietnamese words was banned. More recently dong convertibility was restricted. And presently many domestic manufacturers are lobbying for "protection" from the foreign giants, applying some pain to their day-to-day operations and possibly their images.

Local newspapers are normally critical of foreign-invested brands, focusing on their marketing campaigns. Vietnamese state-owned detergent companies, for example, can't compete with the Unilever, Proctor and Gamble JVs, complained Vietnam Economic News in June, because "State and people's benefits and financial sources cannot be spent on promotion."

As joint-ventures reach their third year of operation and continue to operate at a loss, their local partners are crying foul; one criticism, perhaps fair though not necessarily the fault of the foreign manufacturer, is that the multinational is creating a demand is being met by smuggled goods produced at other JVs in China or Thailand, available at lower prices or with a greater variety. Indeed, some products advertised in Vietnam are officially unavailable here (although too often leaders of the smuggling rings are revealed to be led by the customs officials themselves, who are then sometimes paraded through official papers).