Lowe Vietnam unveils Lac Bird as new brand identity

Vikas Mehta

To kick-off celebrations marking 15 years in Vietnam, Lowe Vietnam unveiled its new brand identity with a new logo inspired by the Lac-bird.

Lowe simultaneously rolled out country-unique identities for every country in Asia-Pacific region which draws inspiration from the local culture. Lowe Vietnam’ s managing director Vikas Mehta tells VIR’s Minh Thien about the change and future advertising and communication trends for 2011.

Why did Lowe pick the Asia-Pacific region to simultaneously roll out its new brand identities?

Look at the advertising market 10 years ago, the focus has historically been on the Americas and Europe. Today, Asia is driving growth for the world. For Lowe, Asia is a region of strength. We are leaders in many Asian markets including Vietnam.

We are very optimistic about Asia being the growth driver for the world and thus, decided to choose Asia to simultaneously roll out country-specific brand identities as the first region.

What is Lowe Vietnam’s new logo inspired  from?

The new logo of Lowe Vietnam draws inspiration from the Lac-bird, an ancient Vietnamese symbol that’s traditionally seen on the ‘Dong-Son’ drums. The new logo is a contemporarised version of this traditional symbol.

So far, Lowe has been in Vietnam for 15 years. We are proud to be a part of this rich culture. Lowe Vietnam was founded in Vietnam, developed in Vietnam, and now has embraced a symbol of Vietnam as its own identity. So now in Vietnam, we are uniquely Lowe Vietnam.

What do you think  of Vietnam’s advertising and communication market after 15 years of doing business in Vietnam?

When you look at Vietnam, the one thing that stands out is the tremendous energy of the country. In terms of advertising, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing countries in Asia. It’s a market we see growing for the next decade and becoming a front-runner within a decade. Our view on Vietnam advertising is optimistic and that’s the reason we continue to invest in its growth.

Apart from launching a new brand identity for Lowe Vietnam, what else does Lowe Vietnam hope to localise here?

It is not the start of localising, it is a statement about how we think and act now as a company in Vietnam.

As a company that feels a part of Vietnam, we have a great responsibility in contributing to the development of the market and in setting standards. Today, almost 90 per cent of employees and managers in Lowe Vietnam are Vietnamese.

Half of our management team is Vietnamese and we are proud of it. I would like to see someday soon, a Lowe Vietnam that is run entirely by Vietnamese. And we are working very hard to train and develop our people and getting them ready to play leadership roles in future. Developing Vietnamese talent is one of our top priorities.

So what are some weaknesses of Vietnam’s advertising and communication market?

More challenges than weaknesses. Like many growing markets, the country has more opportunities compared to capable people, especially in marketing and advertising. There are more jobs than good people and that’s a big challenge.

There is a very strong need for specialist education and training to expand the talent pool in Vietnam. Given the context, companies have to invest much more in basic training. So acquiring, retaining and developing  the best talent are the big challenges.

Another challenge is the fact that being a young country, the Vietnamese consumer is evolving very rapidly. Interestingly, some of the marketers are struggling to keep pace with it. The learning curve among the marketing community can sometimes be a barrier affecting the pace of development of the industry.

We feel that communication agencies need to play a bigger role in developing talent even for their clients. Not enough action on that front is happening right now

What are the differences in advertising and communication trends between today and past few years?

A few years ago, television, print, billboards and radio used to dominate the communication space. People were interacting with brands here. Today that interaction has gone much more complex.  We are surrounded by screens.

There are hundreds of touch-points available to reach out to people who are ever-connected and everything is a medium. Advertising and communications today is about engaging with people in a digitised and connected environment. The rules of broadcast advertising are quite redundant there.

Today, Vietnam has more internet users than any country in Southeast Asia. And these digital citizens are engaging with everything real-time.