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Vietnam: Branding critical for enteprises development
80% of enterprises only pay 5% for branding
Together with the expansion of the market economy, the number of enterprises has steadily increased. However, the majority of them have not paid due attention to brand building. Statistics show that the whole nation has nearly one million enterprises in active. But 80% of them only use 5% of their turnovers for promoting their brands.
As a result, even though many made-in-Vietnam products are of good quality, they are not in a dominant position, both in domestic and international market. Facing the trend of globalization, many experts said that enterprises need to pay the right attention to brand name building and developing strategies and to increase advertising their brand names on the media, particularly over the Internet. At the same time, they need to register for their brand names protection domestically and internationally.
At the workshop, many economic experts and business executives discussed the current situation and the direction for Vietnamese branding development, the Vietnamese brand consumption, the roles of geographical indications in building brand names as well as the solutions to further promote brand. The Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Agency and Deputy General Secretary of the National Branding Program Do Kim Lang mentions some activities held by his agency to assist enterprises including the Vietnam Brand Forum; marketing traning and capacity enhancement; building industry brand to support enterprises in brand building.
Under the 2020 orientation, the National Brand program will create an appropriate environment for the development of branding through an integration of multiple programs and activities of similar purposes from ministries and industries in order to save resources. It will continue assisting enterprises to develop brand names through training, informative and consulting programs so as to strengthen the business capacities and the product competitiveness. The orientation includes export increasing, domestic market expansion and identifying export market to build the foundation for the national branding. The strategies for branding of major export items should be based on the combination between products’ branding and geographical indications. Meanwhile, the products that achieve the national brand names will be advertised through the media and promoted in international trade fairs. Also the 2020 orientations include nurturing the national pride through using products with Vietnamese brand names.Quality as the starting point
Dang Thuy Ha from Nielsen Vietnam pointed out that for around 80-90% Vietnamese consumers consider brand as one of the most influential factors in their buying decisions.
Besides, consumers are becoming wiser in choosing their products. They prefer healthier products that ensure the environmental protection and the health. They are also willing to pay more for a better customer experience. At the same time, it is necessary to improve customer interaction to assure 3R (reach, resonance and reaction).
“4 out of 5 Vietnamese consumers are willing to pay a higher price for products from enterprises that give something back to the society and to the environment”, said Dang Thuy Ha.
Dao Thuy Ha, the marketing manager of Traphaco emphasizes her company’s brand building efforts in many years are based on high quality and organic ingredients, modern distribution system and technology application to have the best products in the market.
Sharing his thoughts on branding development, Dr. Declan P. Bannon at the British University in Vietnam says that Vietnamese companies need to conduct researches on what make the consumers feel better, richer or safer and happier? And which market has the most potentials? Afterward, enterprises need to define the objectives and set up plans to have better strategies than those of their competitors. And more importantly, they need to focus on their regular customers.
Dr. Bannon also pointed out that brand building will y smoothen the process of selling goods. Nevertheless, poor quality products are not eligible to build brand name. If the consumers are happy with the price and qualities of the product, they will continue to purchase it. In case products are preferred by customers, even medium quality products but with an appropriate and attractive branding will help the brands and products to be desirable.