Building and developing strong brand names to boost exports is one of top criteria of Vietnam. However, such issues as the lack of sustainable export strategies, weak local marketing capacity and international trade disputes on brand names are beyond the capacity of a single company, sector or locality. Therefore, Vietnam is focusing on building the national brand to support and guarantee its strong products and goods.
Mr Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, said that building the national brand to ascertain national identities on the world market in the context of integration is a right way to go. We can expect at the high prospect of affirming the brand of Vietnam on the international market. But, we must have time and a roadmap to accrue capabilities and experience with the support of the Government, ministries, sectors and localities on the one hand and the effort of every company and business association on the other to create new breakthrough steps.
Mr Do Kim Lang, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the National Trademark Programme is the only programme launched by the Government of Vietnam with the aim of promoting the country's images and brands through product branding. This is a long-term trade promotion programme aimed at building and popularising product/service brands, trade names, geographical indications and appellations of origin of goods in Vietnamese and foreign markets.
The National Trademark Programme was approved by the Government in 2003 and assigned to the Ministry of Industry and Trade as a standing body responsible for coordinating with ministries and agencies to develop and promote the image of Vietnam as the prestigious country of diverse goods and services of high quality.
The symbol of the national brand and the mark of national products as well are titled “Vietnam Value”, affixed to products or services having their own brand names and satisfied programme criteria. Companies with products and services selected to participate in the programme must share and pursue values that the country looks for in the current integration period: Quality - innovation and creativity - leadership. The programme is not a brand award. The selection of products/services qualified for carrying “Vietnam Value” logo is just the beginning for businesses to become programme partners. The State does not do it for enterprises but it will stand to guarantee quality product and service brands and business prestige to help Vietnamese companies to establish strong footholds in the domestic market and seek to develop their brands to the world.
Mr Bui The Duc, Deputy Director of the Central Propaganda and Education Committee, said that when Vietnam integrates more deeply into the world economy, its product brands are revealing more shortcomings, e.g. being overshadowed by foreign brands on the very domestic market, entering into the world market via intermediaries or in the form of offshore outsourcing for foreign famous brands, and having intellectual property rights infringed and abused by competitors on the world market.
"To avoid economic dependence, suffering disadvantages, becoming a net consumer of other countries' goods and becoming a dump-site of obsolete goods, we must create favourable conditions for enterprises to build brands based on distinctiveness and differentiation and on competitiveness," he said. In the upstream stage of value chains (research and development, intellectual property and manufacturing), Vietnam does not have many advantages. But, it can compete in the downstream stage where branding and development of business and services are important.
According to Dr Nguyen Quoc Thinh, who works at the Brand Management Faculty, the University of Commerce, as Vietnam's product brands do not have strong standings on global markets, the cooperation between the State and the business community for building a common image for Vietnamese exports and promoting that image in a strong manner on the international market is a more time-saving, cost-effective but more effective way than establish foothold on in separate markets.
"Vietnam needs to pay special attention to building brands for agricultural products affixed with geographical indications," he added.
Foreseeing that trend, many localities have focused on branding sectors. Many collective brands have been protected, including Ben Tre green grapefruit, Phu Quoc pepper, Thanh Ha litchi, Binh Thuan dragon fruit and Tien Giang agricultural specialties. The selection of sectors for branding undergoes various criteria. First of all, they must be major sectors with high export value and have sufficient investment for quality and development guaranteed. For example, rice, coffee, tea and cashew nuts are key agricultural export sectors of Vietnam.
According to Vietrade, the selection of Vietnam Value-branded product sectors must be carried out every two years. The National Trademark Programme has organised four seasons to pick up typical companies and products to carry the Vietnam Value logo since 2008. In particular, 30 enterprises were qualified in 2008, 43 companies in 2010, 54 companies in 2012 and 63 companies in 2014 (14 companies were qualified two straight times, 11 companies were named three straight times, and 23 companies were awarded four consecutive times).
In the second season in 2010, 43 companies carrying the Vietnam Value logo joined the programme. Although Vietnamese and global economies are still faced with existing difficulties and challenges, those companies still secured rapid growth and development. Most of them had high growth rates in both profit and revenue, maintained the domestic market and developed export markets. Notably, all recorded growth in this period.
Huong Ly
Vietnamese
