Starting up from a factory, which is designed to produce 80 tonnes of instant coffee a year with an investment of VND38 million before entering the market economy, Bien Hoa Vinacafé Joint Stock Company (formerly Bien Hoa Coffee Factory) has grown constantly and earned a firm position in the international and domestic markets. The Company is able to increase its capacity by more than ten folds with capital of hundreds of billion dong, and especially built up the famous brand of Vinacafé internationally and nationwide, which has been selected to be the national key brand by the Government. The ViB Forum has a discussion with Mr Pham Quang Vu - Vice Director of Bien Hoa Vinacafé Joint Stock Company about developing the Company's brand.
In the field of coffee processing in Vietnam, Vinacafé has really become a big brand. Could you please share some information about the building of this brand?
To be exact we have concentrated on developing our own brand for a long time since the end of the 1980s. When the country shifted to the market economy we also integrated in that stream. One of the strategies we headed for in the first days was to build a brand, and Vinacafé has become popular since then. Confronting with weaknesses of small size and low advertising cost, we chose and made breakthrough in quality of products, enhanced creativeness, developed advanced processing technology to produce quality products. Guaranteeing prestige in products and customer service is the best advertising that we opted. Therefore, the brand Vinacafé always exists in customers' mind. Building a brand couples with protecting and developing it. While many businesses neglected this issue, we went registering our brand in Vietnam and nearly 100 countries in the world. Among these countries we now start to export our products.
What criteria does the development of Vinacafé base on in tandem with brand registration in order to own a famous brand?
The biggest and widest criterion throughout the process of building and developing the brand is to make it survive and grow in customers' memory. We have used this guideline to solve many problems and it has become our unique strategy. That is quality of products: Customers can enjoy the pure coffee with natural scent. That is the best and most customer-friendly service. That is to build a customer-oriented corporate culture. A brand must be built upon the core issues of the business.
You said that brands had to be built based on core values of a business. What are the core values of Vinacafé?
Bien Hoa Vinacafé is an experienced company in processing instant coffee with know-how and modern technologies. Therefore, we can keep the inherent natural taste of coffee. This is a difference and one of the key elements that make our products become domestic customers' favourite. In advertising, we always use the motto "genuine" to convince customers. Our products and services show what we say. That is the way we win customers' confidence. Building a brand is to turn it into the company's soul, thereby establishing a customer-oriented corporate and behavioural culture.
After relatively firm success in the local market, Vinacafé has been penetrating some markets in the world. What do you think about Vinacafé's ability and competitive advantages in the exporting markets?
We have been participating in the exporting markets for a long time and become a big processed coffee exporter in Vietnam. We have been selected to be a prestigious exporter over the past years. I think it is a great advantage for our country to have huge coffee output (world's second exporter currently), be independent in material source and quality of input materials, help to stabilise output and quality. Furthermore, the product strategy that we are following, namely making naturally flavoured and pure products, orienting taste for each market and each social class based on technological know-how and tips of mixing coffee types and quality without using artificial flavour and additives, can meet the demand of our targeted markets. In addition to these edges, production capacity and human's ability are our advantage.
What is your opinion about current challenges for the coffee industry in general and for Vinacafé in particular? What is the direction to develop the coffee industry in Vietnam?
Vietnam is the world's second biggest raw coffee exporter while its position in processed coffee stays modest compared to other countries. Vietnam has only focused on raw coffee exporting for a long time so it would face more pressure and difficulties in the international market, including the non-tariff barrier. Another problem is that many businesses and coffee bars for their own short-term benefits used to make unsafe and impure coffee. Therefore, not only domestic customers lose the confidence in local coffee brands but the exportation also meets difficulties and instability. It is important to create quality, safe and stable coffee products.
At present, the average consumption demand in Vietnam remains low compared to other countries, which needs stimulating measures so that quantity of processed coffee can attain sustainable development. As for exportation, businesses should cooperate to open and exploit markets. It is necessary to have powerful enterprises to act as the motive force and the Government's promotion.
Quoc Hung
Vietnamese
