Forum highlights importance of brand building for sustainable exports

Hanoi (VNA) - The 2018 Vietnam Trademark Forum in Hanoi on April 20 sought to help Vietnamese firms build trademarks, looking to achieve sustainable exports in the context of intensive global integration.

The forum was held on the threshold of Free Trade Agreements setting to take effect in the near future, and given the fact that brand competitiveness has been going more fiercely.

The 2018 Vietnam Trademark Forum takes place in Hanoi on April 20 (Photo: VNA)

“A lot of Vietnamese goods have been exported to foreign markets but under foreign importers’ brands, not Vietnamese,” said Nguyen Quoc Thinh – lecturer of Trademark Management at the University of Commerce.

It means that Vietnamese firms face barriers in taking control over the quality and processing of for-export products that leads to the situation in which foreign importers still overlook products from Vietnam, Thinh clarified.

Given that, he proposed Vietnamese firms should shake their hands in developing brands for their commodities.

To that end, in parallel with the support from the Government and relevant ministries, enterprises themselves should raise their sense of pro-activeness in developing brands, said Luong Ngoc Nhan, Chief of Economic and Trade Promotion Department of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.

“Building brands is a hard work for small and medium-sized enterprises because they face a number of difficulties in terms of capital, skill, and access to information sources,” he said.

“That enterprises overlook the importance of building brands is another challenge,” added Nhan.

Building trademark is a right way to protect products’ values as well as the image and prestige of enterprises, delegates agreed.

“It’s important that the buyers know who you are and why you are diferent and better,” said Tony Pigott, a brand building expert from Canada.

Tony Pigott (standing), a brand building expert from Canada, addresses the forum (Photo: VNA)

“In a competitive market, consumer market for example, it’s even more critical that people trust what they buy and know who it is.”

 “I think in Vietnam you have so much quality and variety but the world doesn’t know you yet. As the world doesn’t know you, you’re not sure whether it’s going to work,” the expert said, suggesting that it’s time for Vietnam to build brands to build trust.

The forum attracts a number of representatives from relevant ministries and sectors, scholars, and businesses (Photo: VNA)

The forum forms part of the 2018 Vietnam Trademark Week organised in Hanoi, Da Nang city, and Ho Chi Minh City and lasting from April 16-24.

This year’s event focuses on improving competitiveness capacity to help enterprises develop markets, towards building brands for varieties of commodities.

The forum drew the participation of a large number of representatives from ministries and sector, scholars, and businesses which have paid much interest in developing brands to boost exports.-VNA