Vinacafe: Creating Position worth with Potential

Vinacafe: Creating Position worth with Potential

VIB Forum had an interview with Pham Quang Vu, sale manager of the Bien Hoa Coffee Plant about the key to success of Vinacafe on the market.

 Do you think Vinacafe has gone opposite to the market taste?

Vinacafe has tried its best even though sometimes it seemed to have gone opposite to the market taste, to create specific coffee products of Vietnam. Vietnamese and foreign customers had enjoyed the so-called coffee, which was mixed with many other ingredients, for quite a long time. Now, Vinacafe offer them real coffee, which is safe for customers. In other words, we have always cared about health of consumers even though coffee is not a cereal. So, it is not a surprise, when customers trust and support Vinacafe.

Now you want to express your thanks to customers?

Consumers have supported Vinacafe for many years even when Vinacafe was the only volunteer on the market. Therefore, it is reasonable if we want to express our sincere thanks to customers. In fact, Vinacafe has expressed its thanks to customers for a long time with a quiet improvement of the quality of products. However, it is necessary to express publicly our sincere thanks to them. There are many ways to express gratefulness to customers. For Vinacafe, beside saying "Thank you" we have offered two more packages of coffee in each of our box and organised entertainment programmes.

Apart from quality, what are other advantages of Vinacafe?

The advantage of Vinacafe is our prestige among millions of Vietnamese customers. In my opinion, a prestigious product must meet two requirements, namely high quality and customers’ acceptance.

Other advantages? Most importantly, we are a State-owned plant. It is still unclear, but what I want to stress on is that we are a Vietnamese collective. We are a responsible and enthusiastic collective, which has formed our strength. Responsibility here means that we are responsible for not only our plant but also for the whole coffee industry. We all have striven for a common target, that is, to develop our plant and we consider it a foundation for the development of the coffee processing industry, so that Vietnamese coffee would be able to gain a position worthy with its potential.

What do you think about the possibility of exporting Vietnamese coffee and products of Vinacafe?

As we all know, advertisement and marketing costs in foreign countries are so high that they are beyond the reach of Vietnamese enterprises. This is an obstacle for the export of Vietnamese coffee. However, the biggest obstacle is the over-abuse of ingredients and artificial flavours in products of many manufacturers. In the domestic consumption perspective, it is no matter when some foreigners living in Vietnam do not like Vietnamese coffee. But from the export point of view, it is really a barrier for Vietnamese coffee to be available in foreign markets.

Vietnamese coffee is considered to have a good taste by foreign customers. Why don’t we offer them the real taste of our coffee? With this in mind and great determination, Vinacafe has become famous among foreign customers right in Vietnam. This has helped us save advertisement and marketing costs. Now, exported coffee products mainly come from Vinacafe. And we have been rewarded by the Ministry of Trade for three consecutive years for our excellent achievements in export. This is good evidence.

• Kim Phuong