Businesses focus on building brands in addition to increasing profit

International visitors visit the booth promoting Vietnamese coffee. Photo: CTV

Many new opportunities

Recently, the business community has faced fierce competition due to production and business difficulties, insufficient orders, and market shortages. In particular, the brand story is an important factor for businesses to have a foothold in the marketplace.

According to Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute for Brand Strategy and Competitiveness Research, the brand is the "price" that partners, customers, and consumers are willing to pay more for the product. Many Vietnamese businesses today have such valuable brands. In particular, in the current context of deep integration, the brand is the appearance of the enterprise. “Brand image in the international arena is very important because it reflects creativity and technology... In branding, if the business can affirm the brand in a developed country with a demanding market, they can also prove the capacity, quality, and reputation of the enterprise", Dr. Vo Tri Thanh affirmed.

In particular, on the global playground, a brand is no longer just a means to promote and support sales but is a valuable asset that can be valued, even valued at billions of dollars. Vietnamese businesses have also gradually caught up with global trends, investing in intangible values ​​in businesses, typically brand value, thereby significantly contributing to increasing national brand value.

Sharing the story of branding, Mr. Gruber Alexander Lukas, Director of Saigon Professional Roasting Services Joint Stock Company, representative of Alambe's finest Vietnamese Coffee brand, said that Vietnamese coffee is famous for its quantity and low price. Therefore, it is necessary to invest in building a brand, creating unique quality, and classifying coffee into good, premium, and standard grades... Only then will coffee exports have added value. Accordingly, the company has invested in roasted coffee for export, premium ALAMBE coffee, and created added value through the personalization of coffee plus roasting and packaging in Vietnam. On the other hand, the company promotes domestic consumption and creates more value by creating a local coffee.

Consider brands as strategic weapons

In another aspect, differentiation strategy is an important tool to affirm a business's brand. According to experts, differentiation strategy is a branding method that focuses on creating uniqueness for a business's products, services, or brands compared to competitors. Creating a differentiation strategy aims to position a unique position in the minds of customers, and attract and retain customers, by providing them with different values ​​and experiences.

Sharing with reporters, Mr. Phan Van Hieu, Chairman of the Board of Directors and general Director of CVI Pharma said that on the global playground, Vietnamese enterprises cannot focus on competing on price or production scale but must focus on the brand story and strengths of typical products such as plants, herbs, and culture. International customers now care a lot about how special the local cultural community that creates the product is and how the sale of this product impacts their lives. “Currently, CVI Pharma has invested in production technology that meets the standards of most demanding countries such as the US and EU. However, when exporting widely around the world, businesses have to redesign and invest in R&D (research and development) to suit the strict standards of each market. The quality management system and post-inspection must be tightened," Mr. Hieu shared.

Mr. Gijae Seong, Managing Director of Amazon Global Selling Vietnam, said that building and developing a brand is an important step, and there needs to be a roadmap to develop the brand sustainably. This is our effort in recent years to help Vietnamese businesses understand the story of branding and use advanced tools, technology, and solutions from Amazon to develop an effective and long-term branding strategy.

In the past 5 years, the number of Vietnamese businesses participating in Amazon's Brand Registry program has increased 35 times. This shows the seriousness of businesses in the story of online export through Amazon. It is not only a story of selling products, operations, or how to optimize revenue, but also a question of building a brand for sustainable development.

However, the competition in online exports is also extremely large. For example, on Amazon, there are many businesses providing products in the health care field from India and Thailand and operating very effectively. Because those businesses have many years of experience selling on Amazon, the procedures for bringing products to the floor are very standard and fast, with good supply orders, good prices plus diverse and eye-catching designs.

Therefore, businesses need to consider the brand as a weapon, not just a tool. Only when possessing that weapon can businesses compete fairly with other businesses and brands.