Biti's - Ongoing Growth in Globalization Era

In nearly 40 years of taking “tender care of your feet”, Biti's brand has grown so familiar to domestic consumers. To keep the famous Biti's brand today is a process of tireless efforts of Biti's leaders and employees in building, preserving and developing a sustainable brand over the time. This arduous but also very glorious journey was shared by Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Phuong, Deputy General Director of Biti's. Thanh Tung reports.

The journey of building Biti's brand, one of the leaders of Vietnam's footwear industry, certainly has a lot of memorable events and milestones. Would you mind telling us some of them?

Starting from just a small cooperative with just over 20 workers making simple rubber footwear, after nearly 40 years of constant efforts, Biti's has now affirmed its leading brand position in the Vietnamese footwear industry with 25 million footwear products of all types for consumers every year. This success comes from our underlying principle of “Placing prestige and quality on top of everything”, focusing on designing and producing best-quality products, delivering interesting, comfortable and pleasant experiences to consumers when using Biti's footwear products as described in its slogan “Tender care of your feet”.

In addition to developing traditional product lines, Biti's launched Biti's Hunter (sports shoes brand) and Gosto by Biti's (upmarket brand) to the market. Biti's is increasingly approaching consumers with a variety of superior products to meet increasing demands of modern consumer trends.

Moreover, the existence and development of Biti's to this day cannot ignore the devotion of the leadership and the staff who have always persisted in building Biti's everlasting brand and culture. From this solid foundation, Biti's strategic directions have always been supported by all to work together for new breakthroughs in product design, marketing and market development, helping the company increasingly win consumer confidence and grow domestic market share.

From the perspective of a very experienced business in the industry, how do you assess the current status and development prospect of Vietnam's footwear market? Following the current trend of international economic integration, many Vietnamese companies have just focused on foreign markets but neglected the great potential of the domestic market. How about in Biti's?

This is a consequence of an integrating economy in a globalization trend. I myself think that we should not seek export only. Everyone knows that reaching out to the world is a way to make money quickly, but if we follow this path, we will live and breathe through the nose of others and we may suffocate at any time. That's why Biti's has seen the domestic market as the foundation for us to grow. That is why Biti's always supports and actively accompanies the “Buy Vietnamese products” Campaign, which encourages Vietnamese people to buy Vietnamese goods, launched by the Politburo.

It is said that Biti's business approach that focuses on the domestic market is backward and slow for branding development. However, we believe that the core value of a company must be built on a sustainable foundation to progress longer and further and the domestic market is such a solid foundation that adds wings for Biti's to reach out the world in the future.

The government-backed policy on domestic market development to stimulate consumption was concretized by the launch of the “Buy Vietnamese products” Campaign, which has obtained many achievements after 10 years of deployment. Could you please tell us about your positive actions in response to this campaign, as well as its effects on the company’s performance?

In response to the “Buy Vietnamese products” Campaign, which encourages Vietnamese people to give priority to Vietnamese goods on their shopping list, Biti's has participated in the program for the past 10 years and joined brand promotion at the Vietnam High Quality Goods Fair and “bring Vietnamese products to the countryside” program. At the same time, Biti's also organizes mobile sales trips to the countryside to help people know and trust Vietnamese brand products more.

Recently, footwear products of unknown origin have been rampant in the Vietnamese market. They are diverse and eye-catching in design and their prices are much lower than the market price. So, they are very popular with consumers. In this context, how have you responded to this?

As the market is full of counterfeit goods, fake domestic brands and knockoffs that imitate world-famous brands, Biti's has also faced numerous difficulties from the current State policy on market management. Therefore, we determine that if we want to survive and stand firm, we must focus on three core goals: Design - Quality - Price.

To accomplish these three goals, Biti's has focused on in-depth research on world fashion trends and domestic consumer needs in order to make the best and most beautiful products for consumers. As for production improvement, we have spent our investment resources on advanced machinery and equipment, improved automated production stages to reduce manual labor, and invested in modern technology for administration and logistics systems to help the company update information quickly and accurately. In addition, we have focused on streamlining the operating apparatus to reduce production costs by enhancing productivity and quality, making Biti's products very competitive in price and affording consumers the opportunity to use high-quality footwear with reasonable prices.

To further promote the role of a Vietnamese brand in the heart of domestic consumers, what are your specific commitments and efforts in the coming time?

We pledge to keep moving with other domestic enterprises to carry out the Government's policy; focus on intensive improvement and application of digital technology in the corporate governance system to combat wastefulness and enhance the effect of international integration. Ongoing globalization and free trade require businesses to constantly self-improve to adapt to new changes and this effort will help Biti's grow faster and more sustainably in the present as well as in the future.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum