Digital Marketing at NEU: Research, Prizes and a Published Paper

I studied Digital Marketing at the National Economics University (NEU) in Hanoi from 2022 to 2026 and graduated with a GPA of 3.56 out of 4.00. In 2025, during my third year, I also received a merit-based scholarship. Marketing gave me a way to combine two things I enjoy: understanding how people make choices, and testing whether an idea holds up once it meets real evidence.

What I valued most was the research culture: student competitions and conference papers were treated as a normal part of learning. That expectation taught me to frame a clear question, gather evidence carefully, and admit what the evidence could not prove. I still use that habit in SEO.

Learning to compete: two third prizes

My first recognition came in 2024: a Third Prize in NEU’s Faculty-level Student Scientific Research Competition. Preparing an entry taught me practical things no lecture could: narrowing a topic until it is researchable, working to a deadline, and responding to feedback without taking it personally.

The following year, I received a Third Prize at the 2025 Marketing Research Olympiad (HỘI THI OLYMPIC NGHIÊN CỨU MARKETING 2025), themed “Bứt phá với AI, dẫn lối tư duy mới!” (“Breakthrough with AI, Leading New Thinking”). The AI theme suited me: I had already started exploring where automation genuinely helps and where human judgement still matters.

The ICSEED paper: green packaging and Gen Z

The largest project of my degree was a paper I co-authored as part of a team of five NEU students and a professor from NEU’s School of Advanced Education Programs: “The Impact of Green Packaging Design on Green Consumption Intention for Cosmetic Products Among Generation Z in Hanoi”. It was accepted for ICSEED 2025, the 21st NEU–KKU International Conference on Socio-Economic and Environment Issues in Development, presented in English at NEU in June 2025, and published in the conference proceedings.

Here is the paper in the pattern I use for all my research write-ups:

• Research question. Do green packaging cues make Gen Z consumers in Hanoi more likely to buy cosmetics greenly? We split packaging into visual elements (colour, imagery, materials, size) and verbal elements (environmental information and eco-labels), because earlier studies tended to test one element at a time, mostly in food and in developed markets.
• Method. A mixed-method design. We started with 20 in-depth interviews with young consumers, used them to build a questionnaire, and collected 646 online responses on a five-point scale. We tested the data with Cronbach’s Alpha, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling (SPSS and AMOS).
• My contribution. I was one of six co-authors, and the credit for the paper is shared across the team.
• Findings. Green colour (β = 0.384) and green materials (β = 0.345) had the strongest effect on purchase intention, followed by environmental information, packaging size and eco-labels. Green imagery on its own was not significant: pictures of leaves did less than clear information did. Gender, income and education made no significant difference, but where respondents lived did.
• Limitations. It was a convenience sample recruited online, in one city, for one product category. The results describe young consumers in Hanoi, not all of Vietnam.
• Output. Accepted by the organising committee, presented in English and published in the proceedings of ICSEED 2025, an international conference organised by NEU with Khon Kaen University (Thailand) and other international partners.

The finding I still think about is the imagery one. A green leaf on the box felt persuasive, but the data said specific, credible information did more. That is a useful reminder for anyone writing marketing copy, including search snippets.

What research taught me about SEO

Working on judged research changed how I handle everyday SEO tasks. I learnt to separate what the evidence shows from what I hoped it would show, to name the limits of a sample, and to write up methods so someone else could check them. When I later worked as an SEO Assistant, that training showed up in small habits: labelling a draft as a draft, keeping the inputs and checks alongside the output, and describing results with their window attached.

Research taught me the principle; agency work taught me to apply it under deadline pressure. The full story is in my Integral Media article, including how I learnt to check every AI-assisted output against sources before it reached a client.

English, tools and the rest of the degree

Two other parts of the degree still help me daily. I hold IELTS 7.0, and writing and presenting research in English taught me to keep academic language clear rather than complicated.

Alongside my studies, I also completed a training course in 2024 on Virtual Production & Environment Building in Game Engine, applied in Unreal Engine. It was run by the American Center with the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and finished with a graduation ceremony at the Embassy. I write more about it in my experience before SEO.

University was one chapter; I’m enjoying finding out what comes next. If anything here resonated with you, say hello, it doesn’t need to be about work.