Vietnam’s Companies Need Greater Efforts for Brand Building

Trademark building, or branding to be more specific, will yield practical benefits for businesses. In the context of competition, integration and globalisation, branding is very important for any company to sell products. From my experience, consumers realise that well-branded goods connote quality, safety, eye-catching look, clear origin and good after-sales policy. When the supply of goods is plentiful, well-branded ones will be the first choice by a majority of consumers. This tendency is much clearer in exporting. To my knowledge, many Vietnamese companies are now working as offshore contractors for foreign partners just because their products are not well branded. Therefore, branding also means building up the confidence of customers to create stable and steady markets. In this case, consumers decide the success or failure of a company.

 

Branding is a serious, responsible, definite and patient task. But it is good for the futurity. Branding is a weighty matter in business but it usually starts from seemingly small things. A brand that gains the trust of customers is not created by way of impressive advertisements but from specific matters: Is the quality as good as advertised? How does the company behave towards customers when their goods have problems? As a result, producers and traders should place themselves in the position of customers when they build up their bands.

 

Branding is a vital job for any company when the Vietnamese economy is integrating more deeply and broadly into the world economy. A prestigious brand or trademark is an effective instrument of competition on domestic and world markets. A trademark help the company maintain and develop its goods and service markets by means of customer- and consumer-attracting strengths. A protected trademark will help the company prevent any act of counterfeiting and intellectual property rights infringement, and protect its prestige and markets. A strong brand helps the company not only do good business but also franchise and license such brand to other business entities, thus creating added values for brand owners. Many domestic and foreign companies are very successful with this.

 

In the past years, especially when Vietnam became a full member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Vietnamese businesses’ awareness in building and protecting brands has been fostered impressively. Previously, Vietnamese-owned brands accounted for only 25-30 percent of total brands registered for protection in Vietnam while the rest was registered by foreign companies. But now, the situation has dramatically changed. For instance in 2010, Vietnamese-owned brands accounted for 60 percent of 35,000 trademarks registered for protection. However, not all Vietnamese companies care about branding and protection. According to data released by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), among some 350,000 companies operating in Vietnam, only more than 100,000 companies have registered for trademark protection, or just 30 percent of the total. This figure poses a matter of concern.

 

A business needs to focus on creating, protecting and developing its brands as it does with other important works since its establishment. In a company, there are possibly different intellectual property assets but the trademark is one of the most important and decisive to the existence and future of that company. Creating, protecting, building and developing a brand systematically will help the company boost production and business operations thanks to better competitiveness and broader attraction of customers. Each company should have a group or a division in charge of intellectual property. It will also be responsible for protecting and developing its trademarks and franchising them when possible. These experiences can be seen at successful businesses in Vietnam and in the world.

 

It is easy to see lots of branding benefits. There are immediate benefits like gaining the trust of consumers in the brand or strengthening the loyalty of customers to the brand. This helps boost sales and generate more profits for producers and retailers.

 

Besides, there are also long-term benefits. Specifically, if the company is well-known, it will enjoy advantages in strengthening its position, increasing its attraction on the market, drawing the interest of human resources, expanding markets and contributing more to overall economic development. Famous brands will also receive passions and trusts of consumers as their product quality is guaranteed.

Vietnamese businesses have endeavoured to build and protect their brands. But, we expect a higher level so as to see a broader presence of famous Vietnamese brands. So, I think they need to put a premium on branding, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

 

I also hope Vietnamese businesses in general and retailers in particular will continue with their brand development and protection. In the current context of rising inflation, companies need to weigh up many issues before making any investment in order to obtain best effects. However, they cannot stop brand building and protection. Companies with well-established brands need to maintain and protect their brand not only in the domestic market but also in the world. They should also try to avoid having their brands abused by registering for protection and seeking expert advice in case they want to assert its ownership rights over brands.