Strong brand names are very important for small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their competitiveness, a seminar heard on Wednesday in HCM City. — Photo hiephoidoanhnghiep.vn

HCM CITY – Strong brand names are very important for small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their competitiveness, a seminar heard on Wednesday in HCM City.

Speaking at “Building brand name – foundation to create competitive advantage and development for Vietnamese enterprises,” organised by the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Châu, a consultant in enterprise governance and SME development, said: “Brand names are the feelings society, community and customers have for products, services or organisations.

“The human brain cannot process too much information and brand names should be different to attract attention.

“A strong brand name should be different in vision, mission and strategy.

“In building brands, co-operation [between SMEs] is very important because only co-operation would enable them to take advantage of outside resources to develop.

“To start with a brand needs a unique, short, proper, easy-to-spell, friendly, protectable name along with an impressive and creative logo.

“If you can’t tell me what customers are saying about your brand name, it means your brand name has no special meaning and its effectiveness is not enough.”

Lê Thị Thủy, a lawyer and director of Lawlink Việt Nam company, said: “A brand name is an invisible asset of the company and should be registered with relevant authorities for protection.”

Việt Nam has several laws for brand name protection, like the 2015 Civil Law, the 2005 Intellectual Property Law, the Competition Law, the Enterprises Law, and the Criminal Law, she said.

“Enterprises must protect their brand names to ensure that their customers can distinguish their products from those of other companies. Brand names [could be franchised] and this encourages enterprises to invest in product quality.”

According to official reports, copyright violations and brand name thefts have increased from 276 cases investigated by the police in 2012 to 665 cases in 2014 and from 9,556 cases investigated by market watchdogs to 17,396.

“Protecting brand names is a must for enterprises and they should recognise the problem and register with relevant authorities to avoid violations,” Thủy added. -- VNS