In order to increase product value and build brand names, Vietnamese enterprises should enhance the deployment of advanced technologies, paying attention to training human resources and using methodical strategies to develop the Vietnamese garment and textile sector on a par with the world.
Developing enterprises’s own brands
In addition to doing outwork for foreign brands, several Vietnamese enterprises have built development strategies, gaining some initial success.
The Garment 10 Corporation (Garco 10) was successful in negotiations to introduce its products on global e-commerce website Amazon.com with attractive advertisement information. After seven months, 2,000 shirts and T-shirts with higher prices have been directly delivered to American customers, bypassing third-party distributors or importers.
Deputy General Director of Garco 10 Than Duc Viet said that Garco 10’s strategy is to create products with a modern design style and international quality but make them available at Vietnamese prices.
In addition, An Phuoc Garment - Embroidery & Shoes Limited Company has set out a business model of developing its own brand through distributing products made by Pierre Cardin – a famous fashion brand in the world. Therefore, An Phuoc can sell its products that have the known quality of Pierre Cardin products but will fit the Vietnamese people’s physique. After the cooperation, the company has gradually diversified its product range and expanded to foreign markets.
Similarly, Viet Tien Garment Corporation has recently launched two luxury fashion brands for businessmen and leaders: San Sciaro in Italian style and Manhattan in US style. The expansion of the distribution system and pursuit of a multi-brand strategy to serve different segments of domestic consumption and aim towards exporting is a long-term strategy not only for the corporation but also among other textile and garment enterprises following the trend of international integration.
Affirming the brands’ position
Over the past years, brand development for Vietnamese enterprises has been mostly targeted at the domestic market. There were no Vietnamese brand names among the recent Forbes list of the world’s most famous brands.
Therefore, it is crucial for Vietnamese enterprises to work together in overcoming all difficulties and challenges and join hands to build a national brand.
Le Tien Truong, General Director of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) cum Vice chairman of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), said that enterprises should improve the quality of their wares to increase the added value of Vietnamese textile and garment products. Accordingly, it is essential to focus on forming a complete supply chain, increasing the localisation rate, proposing solutions on financial human resources and technology in order to gradually minimise outwork, and move to an ODM (Original design manufacturer) model.
Improving the quality of human resources
One of the core issues in developing brands for the textile and garment sector is securing the financial potential to improve the quality of human resources, investing in equipment and machines, aiming to increase the products’s added value and bringing higher profits for enterprises. However, very few Vietnamese enterprises can achieve this goal because most of them are small or medium sized.
In recent years, Vietnam's textile and garment sector has reached double-digit growth rates, with total export turnover of over US$31 billion in 2017. However, the products’ added value has been low, accounting for only 5% - 10% of total worth.
For labour-intensive sectors such as textile and garment, high quality human resources play a very important role in improving productivity and helping enterprises to utilise high added value phases in the global value chain such as fashion design, materials supply, exports and marketing. On the other hand, high quality human resources can help enterprises to quickly apply modern management models such as lean manufacturing (LEAN) and Just In Time into the production process.
In fact, in addition to the efforts of enterprises, the ministries and agencies concerned should accelerate administrative reform and set out policies related to finance, land, and trade promotion in order to create favourable conditions for enterprises to develop a national brand in general and their own brand names in particular.
