HÀ NỘI — Up to 80 per cent of enterprises invest less than 5 per cent of sales revenue in branding development, undermining the domestic and foreign market share for Vietnamese products. This was one of the issues discussed at a conference in Hà Nội on Wednesday on improving competitiveness through branding development.

The conference, organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), was designed to discuss the current situation and trends and solutions in the development of Vietnamese brands, trends in consumption and the role of geographical indications in brand development.

Đặng Thúy Hà, director of Nielsen Việt Nam, said that 80 to 90 per cent of consumers say brand origin is more important than other product characteristics. Enterprises should therefore focus on consumer trends with specific customer groups and devise long-term development strategies.

"Enterprises should pay attention to increasing the advertisement of products and firms’ brand names on mass media, especially on the internet. At the same time, firms must also concentrate on domestic and international trademark registration,” Đặng recommended.

Declan P Bannon, senior lecturer at British University Việt Nam, said Vietnamese businesses should priortise researching and setting targets for better strategies than their competitors, and more importantly, to focus on the intrinsic customer-side of the business.

"Building branding creates a huge advantage in sales. However, to develop a brand, the products must be of high quality. Good branding will help boost sales. If consumers are happy with the quality of the products, they will buy more. When customers are favoured, even medium-quality products combined with good branding will help build the brand into the desired product," Declan analysed.

The Việt Nam National Trademark Programme was launched in 2003 with the aim of building Việt Nam’s reputation for diversified goods and services in order to improve competitiveness of Vietnamese brand names in domestic and international markets.

The programme also promotes the awareness of distributors and consumers of Vietnamese brand name products, builds the image of Việt Nam as associated with the values of ​"quality, innovation, creativity, leadership". In addition, the programme helps raise the country’s prestige, pride and attractiveness, contributing to promoting tourism and attracting foreign investment.

Đỗ Kim Lang, deputy director of the MoIT’s Trade Promotion Agency, affirmed that the strategy for brand development for major export products, on the basis of coordination between the product brand names and geographical indications for local brands, will create a favourable environment for branding development activities of enterprises.

At the same time, the promotion of national brands and national branded products through mass media channels or international trade events will help raise awareness of and national pride in domestic brand products. — VNS