Promoting Vietnamese brands in global era

High value

The Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) retained its top place in the second consecutive year with a brand value of around US$1.01 billion in 2016, followed by the Vietnam Military Telecommunications Group (Viettel Telecom) with US$973 million and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) with US$564 million.

Top 10 most valuable brands also saw Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company (Mobifone) worth US$539 million, following by Vinhomes, Sabeco, Masan Consumer, FPT, Vinaphone and Vietinbank. There were three private companies in the top 10 most valuable brands including Vinhomes, Masan Consumer and FPT.

The figures show a great value appraisal for leading Vietnamese brands, which proves efforts of these companies in branding. Those intangible assets will bring more benefit to Vietnam in the context of deeper international economic integration.

Brand Finance Asia Pacific Managing Director Samir Dixit emphasized the importance of brands that are seen as a leading factor to the success. Branding will be a competitive advantage of domestic companies, helping them to stay stronger and not to fall into invasion by foreign brands.

Efforts to maintain brands

It is more difficult to maintain and promote brand values in the context of international economic integration. The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency Director Bui Huy Son said that Vietnamese brands are being exploited by Thai and other countries to export their products to the US and EU such as Phu Quoc fish sauce. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses need to be more cautious in maintaining their brands.

In addition to Phu Quoc fish sauce, Chinese firms have also stolen Vietnamese brand names of instant noodles in order to dominate export markets. Many made-in-Vietnam goods have become famous in localities, but have not been registered in the international market. Therefore, some foreign firms are passing off products produced in their countries as Vietnamese.

Trung Nguyen Coffee is another example for this. It was registered by the Rice Field Company for protection in the US and the World Intellectual Protection Organization in many previous years. It took Trung Nguyen Company two years for negotiation to regain its brand and must accept the Rice Field Company as an agent in the US.

Many Vietnamese businesses have been unmindful in brand awareness. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Office of Intellectual Property, about 15 percent among 90,000 brands registered for protection in Vietnam belongs to domestic businesses, while more than 80 percent of Vietnamese agricultural products are sold via foreign brands.

In addition, more than 80 percent of agricultural products are consumed in the domestic market without labels, leading to be inferior to competitiveness and disadvantageous in prices.

Bui Huy Son said that to promote brand names, Vietnamese businesses need to work on specific strategies, understand brand value, select appropriate models and apply right methods in building brands. In addition, it is necessary to participate in the Vietnam Value program organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to improve administration skills and bring their brands to new heights.

Vietnamese businesses should learn more from Korea for branding. Their national brands are usually promoted in TV dramas or advertisement trailers, which not only help to sell products but also spread the names to the world.

Lan Phuong