This month, Vietnam Financial Review Magazine, asked the red brand builders team to contribute our views and approach in an article to help local brands to compete with the ever-growing number of imported international brands in the Vietnamese domestic market.
The article discusses that central to the most successful brands is the emotional relationship people have with the brand and that currently many Vietnamese brands have failed to compete with international brand imports precisely because they have failed to understand or create emotional relationships with their customers.
red puts forward their 3-step proprietary ‘brand building with impact tm’ process as a way to help build brands with that critical ‘emotional differentiation’ ingredient that’s now so important to Vietnamese customers in their brand choice.
A big thanks to the VFR team for this opportunity to share the red team’s thinking.
Download a PDF of red brand builders article in Vietnam Financial Review Magazine.
How to build Vietnamese brands with ‘emotional connection’
With the economies of Europe and the USA set either for a double-dip recession or minor growth at best, as a brand building practitioner, I would like to advise you that it is time for Vietnamese companies to recogise the potential of the Vietnamese market and build your brands in new ways that appeal to the local people around you.
So, how can you build your brand in a new way to connect locally and beat your competition?
First of all, consider the following thoughts my team and I share at red brand builders….
Central to the most successful brands is the emotional relationship people have with the brand.
Vietnamese and many Asian brands have failed to compete in new markets overseas or with Western brand imports precisely because they have failed to understand or create emotional relationships with their customers.
Traditionally, Vietnamese businesses have focused on (and limited themselves) to building businesses (not brands) for short-term gain around products that offer functional attributes and features at ‘lower than the next guy’ prices.
Meanwhile, the living standards of local people have increased along with their expectations of what life (and their brands) should offer them, saying, “excite me,” “uplift me,” “give me something new – please!”
From our experience at red, the central most important factor of any powerful brand you seek to build is to ensure your brand has impact through emotional differentiation – the ingredient that makes your brand unique in a way that is relevant and appealing to the emotions of your target customers.
A company or brand without this impact, without emotional differentiation, is destined to compete only on the functional components (the nuts and bolts of the product) that are now a given to local customers and will continue to ‘race to the bottom’ by competing on lower price alone.
So, why is emotional differentiation in brands so important to Vietnamese customers now?
Because, just like you and me, customers are emotional, they have a personality, and as living standards move from simply needing food and shelter, they spend a great deal of their lives in an emotional crucible searching for new ways to educate, give meaning, express and satisfy their ever-changing needs and desires for – quite simply – acceptance, love and happiness. (Search ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’ for more information on this.)
Strong brands, like strong people, have strong personalities too.
People, consciously or sub-consciously, are highly adept at understanding other people. Just as they choose friends and loved ones, they choose brands with strong personalities to express themselves emotionally. They essentially choose brands to express ‘their personalities’ – often to an extent that the brands they choose to eat, drink, wear, play and live with each day actually define them to themselves, their friends, family and colleagues.
To better understand and identify emotional differentiation in successful brand’s, let’s look at some of the most successful and, not surprisingly, distinctive, brands in Vietnam….
Apple – to think different, (I’m writing this article on an Apple Mac,) Honda – the pleasure of freedom (remember how good it felt to break free of your parent’s neighbourhood?), Nike – inspiration and empowerment, Heineken – refreshes your friendships, Louis Vuitton – self-esteem and confidence of French high fashion, The Body Shop – we can save the world, VinaMilk – health for us and our society, Tiger Balm – Asian authenticity and heritage, IBM – dependable reputation.
All these qualities are the intangibles that really drive our potential customers decision-making process to buy a brand. All of them are unique and almost impossible to copy completely. Only Apple can be Apple and who would ever want to listen to a Michael Jackson cover band?
In summary, I’d like to share an overview of a 3-step proprietary process that we use at red brand builders called ‘impactTM’ process’, to lead a brand’s audience from first impression to lasting action.
The process helps to build brands with that critical emotional differentiation ingredient that’s now so important to Vietnamese customers in their brand choice.
Step 1 – Contact
At the heart of red’s ‘‘impactTM’ process is making ‘contact’ with your target audience, competition and brandscape. You need to understand and gain insight into the needs and desires of your target customer, and then how to build and position your brand so that it speaks to them – heart to heart. Ultimately a brand purchase is like a marriage – both head and heart are involved – and the ultimate result we want to achieve is a love affair between our customer and brand that creates respect and loyalty over the long term – turning customers into advocates for the brand.
Step 2 – React
With this understanding we ‘react’ to what we’ve learned together and create a distinctive ‘Brand Personality.” The vision and personality of your brand should be defined by you, agreed by your Chairman / board and documented succinctly as the foundation of what your brand will stand for, how it will make that emotional connection with your customers and become the basis for your future brand image and communications.
Step 3 – Attract
By building this solid ‘Brand Personality’ or foundation for your brand you are now empowered to define how your brand will be expressed (through the likes of brand logo, identity, colours, imagery, messaging, advertising, pr, website etc.) to appeal to your customers. It’s time to align your whole team around the same set of messages that you will use to stand out from the competition and ‘attract’ your local customers in new ways that form the all-important emotional connection with them.
By truly knowing and defining what your brand stands for, you will be more efficient, effective and consistent in spreading your brand’s emotional differentiation across the multiple communication ‘touch points’ available. This ‘impactTM process makes it easier for your audience to reach you, to truly engage and connect with your brand at moments that matter most to them and moments that they will grow to treasure and love your brand by. I have confidence is saying that the return on your brand building and marketing investment will be greater for it.
The author of this article is Chris Elkin, Managing Director of red brand builders. Chris and the red team regularly contribute their industry views on “The blog to help you building your brand” that you can view at www.red.tm/blog/
red brand builders is a branding consultancy and marketing agency with offices in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne, Australia. red’s world-class branding is delivered by an inventive, multi-national team using a proprietary “impact‘ process to lead a brand audience from first impression to lasting action. To connect with Chris and the red team visit: www.red.tm
