Building a strong national brand

In the current economy, the more national goods or brands dominate the larger international market, the more a country is powerful.

On the other hand, brands of products, enterprises and countries also have a close relationship, interacting with each other directly. When the brand of an enterprise's products is reputable, the brand value of the business will be enhanced. Having many strong individual brands is an important foundation to elevate the overall national brand.

On the contrary, when the national brand is confirmed in the international arena, it also creates a guarantee of prestige and quality for enterprises, thereby improving the competitiveness of enterprises.

Vietnam Value programme is the Government's unique, long-term trade promotion programme aimed at building and developing a national brand through product branding. Throughout its nearly 17 years of implementation, the programme has achieved many positive results, attracting special attention, creating a high reputation for businesses, regulators as well as domestic and foreign consumers.

Specifically, the ranking of Vietnamese national brands has been continuously improved, currently valued at US$247 billion, now ranked 42nd among the 100 most valuable national brands in the world in 2019, according to Brand Finance, the world's leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy.

In another aspect, after having been recognised to have products with the National Brand, the competitiveness of enterprises has also significantly improved, reflected through the expansion of production scale, labour force or increases in revenue.

According to data from 124 enterprises recognised as national brands - Vietnam Value in 2020, the total revenue in 2019 of these businesses reached more than VND1.4 quintillion, total export revenue reached more than VND137 trillion and, total contribution to the state budget more than VND200 trillion, creating jobs for more than 471 thousand workers.

The increasing participation in free trade agreements is opening up new opportunities for Vietnam, an important factor helping the country maintain its economic developmental momentum in the context of a general decline in that of regional and global growth.

Along with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is an important highlight of Vietnam's economy in the new situation, expected to create an impressive flourish in economic, trade and investment relations between Vietnam with other countries.

In order to take advantage of the opportunities opening up in the context of increasing competition between countries and businesses, it is necessary to clearly recognise the limitations of developing national, corporate or product brands.

According to experts, in addition to good mechanisms and policies, the enterprise must also make strong efforts, show determination, a sense of aspiration, passion and creativity to quickly build and strongly develop their own brand name.

Specifically, businesses first of all need to have specific strategies to increase their competitiveness and assert their product's position in the domestic market.

Next, it is necessary to build strong brands to increase product value in the export market, and develop global brands, contributing to enhancing corporate brands in particular as well as the national brand of Vietnam in general.

It can be said that building the national brand is an effective tool to improve a country's competitiveness, while national competitiveness is a necessary condition for industries, businesses and products to develop sustainably. If applied effectively, the national brand will create opportunities for Vietnam to rise strongly in the current context of globalisation.