2021 A year for brands with strategies and improvisation

Lai Tien Manh Managing director Mibrand JSC

While the country was locked down, many businesses were physically shut down and thus had to cope with huge costs. However, there was also great opportunity for businesses that already had some plan for innovation and market leadership – the key values under the Vietnam Value Programme initiated and managed by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

This government-sponsored trade promotion programme helps market local brands as representatives for the country in the global markets. Starting in 2003, the programme continuously encouraged local businesses to focus on the three core values quality, innovation, and leadership.

The most effective innovation for Vietnamese brands in 2021 was digitalisation. The pandemic caused huge changes in consumer attitudes and buying behaviour. As companies were shut down and people stayed at home for months, digitalisation was sped up, with many great results.

Banking and finance were the most beneficial sectors because they had better prepared themselves for going digital before the pandemic. As one of the first banks to reveal its digitalisation strategy at the end of 2021, Techcombank serves now a total of nine million retail customers via digital banking and remains in the leading position in online banking transactions. Along with its focus on customer experience, Techcombank improved its internal environment by digitalising the working experience for staff, saving 25 per cent work time.

New innovations

VietinBank also adopted different technologies, such as AI, big data, and cloud computing, in improving retail customer experiences at both counters and within the mobile app. Meanwhile, MB Bank launched its self-service station, MB Smart Banking, to become one of the leading banks in providing such a solution. The bank also successfully synchronised its services with the MB Bank App to provide a new digital experience to customers.

Meanwhile, Bao Viet was another leading brand in customer experience innovations. After launching Bao Viet Pay as a convenient payment gateway, the brand introduced the Bao Viet Direct App, allowing customers to manage contracts and claims easily online.

Innovation and digitalisation also helped in business management. Vinamilk – the largest dairy brand in the country – allowed its staff to use e-office solutions, digital signatures and contracts, a remote operation management system, and a centralised production system to better accomplish their work. Those activities helped Vinamilk ensure production as well as supply capabilities.

Other brands such as Ahamove also deployed cloud computing in improving the customer management process. However, a big part of digitalisation is e-commerce and cross-border trading. The pandemic pushed many traditional sales channels into stagnation, with sales close to zero.

Brands had to find new ways, and websites and social media channels took the leading role. Fashion brands, such as Ivy Moda, An Phuoc, and Viettien, were among the leading fashion brands to go online and gain significant results.

Last year, according to Google, Temasek, Bain & Company, Vietnamese e-commerce sales increased 51 per cent and transformed the country into the fastest-growing online market in the region. In short, brands that went digital as of their innovation strategy had a big advantage for growth in 2021.

So, why are some brands active in digitalisation and getting ahead of rivals, while others are not?

The brand consultants at our consultancy group, Mibrand, understand that the answer lies in their business and brand strategies. Business operations within large corporations will be best managed through a well-planned and strong strategy.

For example, all companies in the Vietnam Value Programme have their brand strategies that strongly focus on quality, innovation, and leadership, each with its own way of implementation.

With that, they can easily identify and take digitalisation as the most important tool to compete in the market. Also, most of these companies have already had long term plans to go digital well before the pandemic. Going digital is a strategic move, not something that happens in a short period.

Switching objectives

On the other hand, some companies that had been pushed into a bad situation, have overcome this by improvisation and strived for the development of new products.

For instance, Vietcombank introduced four different types of accounts to serve the various demands for basic transactions and heavy online buyers, and as a result, recorded a double-digit growth rate in the number of digital users. Bitis also quickly introduced Bitis U Care, special flip-flops used for medical staff. Meanwhile, Khanh Hoa Bird Nest released new products for children and older customers.

In some cases, these new products meant the only way for businesses to stay alive throughout the pandemic. VACS, a company specialising in providing airline food, started providing meals for on the ground, such as for quarantine hotels and centres. Many textile companies switched production lines to make face masks and fulfil the soaring market demand during the worst times.

Blue C – a member of Media Venture Vietnam (MVV) – deals in internal communications and researched how staff were impacted during the pandemic. The results showed that companies with a strong corporate culture could be more effective in implementing anti-pandemic solutions than others. In addition, those companies also recovered and stabilised very quickly.

Another company in our ecosystem, the MVV Academy, focuses on training and capacity building also noticed that successful brands spend far more budget on staff training compared to others. According to research on corporate training demand, business leaders nowadays also want to receive more training on strategic thinking and business management skills.

However, the research also showed that not many companies own a qualified brand communication management team. Therefore, looking for support from external resources, such as consultant agencies, seems an obvious choice for many business owners.

As a professional brand communication consulting group, MVV understands the role of the Vietnam Value Programme and its long-term purpose of assisting local companies to build up their brands. In 2021, the MVV group became the official partner of the programme and has been playing a key role in organising the selection and honouring of companies in that time.