8:38:28 AM | 4/8/2013
All of the Asian companies listed on Interbrand’s ranking of the Best Global Brands 2012 have Asian names. They include the likes of Samsung, Canon and Toyota. Since a few Vietnamese companies such as Vinamilk, Trung Nguyên, Viettel, have got the ball rolling, it is time for more Vietnamese businesses to be weaned off the need to emulate the West and start to build up unique Vietnamese identities through business ideas.
According to an official Vietnamese report, the number of poor households in Vietnam has reduced by 1.76% to approximately 10.24% since October 2012. Is it too soon to celebrate this win?
People often define Poverty as the state in which one lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. However, this definition only mentions one facet of poverty: material poverty. Another facet of poverty is Identity Poverty. Like other Asian countries, Vietnam is facing poverty of identity, which is the most serious poverty that we have to raise our people out of.
Identity poverty is defined as the state in which one has low self esteem or lacks confidence in their identity. Is identity poverty happening in our homeland, Vietnam? I believe the answer is Yes.
The trend of having foreign names to represent a company or a brand has become so dominant in Vietnam, partly due to globalisation and the opening up of the economy. Many local product brands aiming for a higher price range tend to give them a foreign sounding names. Mattana and Novelty belong to May Nhà Bè garment company and Gosto belongs to Bình Tiên shoes company. Ms Hạ Đoan shared that the management team of Q-Mobile originally wanted to name the brand in Vietnamese but they were not confident in the potential marketability of the brand. “If we had named our brand in Vietnamese, would we still exist in the market?”. As an enterprise, we are not allowed to take such a high risk in the volatile electric and electronic industry”, she added.
As a matter of fact, both Vietnamese businesses and consumers lack confidence in our own identity and value. It is the national view that local Vietnamese companies can only produce raw, cheap, low quality products and services; that homegrown brands cannot become global brands as we do not have the capability and capacity to do so.
Recently, we are seeing a growing trend where Vietnamese homegrown brands are being acquired by foreigners. After acquiring a controlling stake in the iconic Pho 24, Vietnam’s popular Highlands Coffee quickly sold 50% of Pho 24’s shares to the Philippines’ Jollibee
Foods Corporation (JFC) for almost USD25 million. Vietnam’s leading ceramic-tile producer, Prime Group, sold 85% of equity to Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) for VND5 trillion. Geleximco announced the sale of 70 percent of stakes in the Thang Long Cement Corporation to Indonesian Sement Gresik Group for $230 million.
The impact of brands using Asian names has contributed significantly to building distinctive global brands. Amongst FORBES list of the Asia’s Ten Most Innovative Companies, 70% have Asian names, including Baidu, Rakuten and Tata. These names have also helped to raise the global influence of China, Japan and India as country brands. All of the Asian companies listed on Interbrand’s ranking of the Best Global Brands 2012 have Asian names.
They include the likes of Samsung, Canon and Toyota. If these brands had been named with foreign-sounding names, the world would have never associated Korea and Japan as producers of high quality brands.
In the case of Vietnamese firms, foreign-sounding names and early brand cash-out have broughtimmediate impact to their bottom line in terms of the local market of 88 million consumers or the brand owners’ financial power.However, given the global market potential of nearly 7 billion consumers, we have lost tremendously in terms of economic value and global influence as a nation. The moment we let go of iconic Vietnamese brands, we let go of the platform to project Vietnam’s global influence in terms of culture and identity. In the case of the Da Lan toothpaste brand, whose market share of Vietnam was once above 30% and whose national influence expanded into Cambodia, Laos and China, it disappeared from the market after being sold to Colgate at USD3 Million in 1995.
Despite being a small country surrounded by giantsand with over 4,000 years in a constant battle against cultural assimilation, our ancestors have managed to protect the country and spread our influence globally as a country of resilience. So how can business owners raise our business community and our people from this state of identity poverty? How can we raise our Vietnamese values and turn them into our sustainable competitive advantages locally, regionally and globally? Here are 2 concepts for you to consider when you build the next Vietnamese brand:
A brand model designed to become a global representative of Vietnam will definitely help you benefit from the rise of Vietnam. It is also easier to secure trademarks globally if you were to use an Asian name. Therefore if you aspire to be a global brand, get it right and go Vietnamese, it will reap tremendous benefits going forward into the future.
Huawei and Samsung are two of the Asian examples who have stuck to their identity throughout their journeys of expansion as global brands. Huawei (ູ), a Chinese multinational networking, telecommunications equipment and services company started off in 1987 as a sales agent and has now become the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world. Samsung (ࡾ) was founded in 1938 as a trading company and now has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture.
A product or service no longer stands alone. For it to have franchisability, we must embed a unique ritual to make it a complete experience. Vietnam is well-known and appreciated for its cultural heritage and history of more than 4000 years. As Vietnamese entrepreneurs, we should always bring out that legacy and charm from our products and services. A coffee seller should not sell only coffee beans and pack of roasted and ground coffee powder but he should also sell to the world the culture of having dripped coffee in the Vietnamese way. A fish sauce seller should not sell only the bottle of fish sauce in a nice packaging, he should sell the vision of how Vietnamese use fish sauce to warm the hearts of their friends and family with meals cooked with love.
South Korea is a model example of exporting their culture to the world through its entertainment industry. Recall the famous television series about a royal cook, "A Jewel in the Palace”, otherwise known as Dae Jang Kum. Vietnamese housewives were hit by this cultural wave from South Korea. From well-packaged television dramas to slick movies, from pop music to online games, South Korean companies and stars are increasingly defining what the disparate people in East Asia watch, listen to and play with. As a result, many Asians buy South Korean goods and travel to South Korea, traditionally not a popular tourist destination.Cebu Pacific Airlines is a great example of how Filipino culture is brought out to warm the hearts of customers. Filipino people are ever famous for their generosity and hospitality. Cebu Pacific Airlines has built on those cultural charms by conducting a few minutes of fun trivia and show-me-games every flight, giving their travellers a chance to win a small prize. Upbeat and fun closing music leaves passengers in a good mood when disembarking from the airplane. Upon arrival at Cebu Mactan International, the country's second busiest airport, passengers leaving the airplane are given a warm hearted welcome by a number of musicians and singers chanting upbeat songs.
Since a few Vietnamese companies such as Vinamilk, Trung Nguyên, Viettel, have got the ball rolling, it is time for more Vietnamese businesses to be weaned off the need to emulate the West and start to build up unique Vietnamese identities through business ideas.
Helena Phạm Thị Thu Hằng, Senior Manager for Vietnam, Consulus
Vietnamese
