Brand development for logistics enterprises in Viet Nam

21Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion BRAND DEVELOPMENT FOR LOGISTICS ENTERPRISES IN VIETNAM Nguyen Dang Hai*, Nguyen Van Kieu† Date received the article: 4/3/2019 Date received the review results: 4/9/2020 Date published the article: 25/9/2020 Abstract: With the impact of external factors creating pressure, logistics businesses need to quickly fi nd ways to improve their competitiveness, to be sustainable, to bring their own mark. Moreover, logistics companies often provide quite similar services, so to create a diff erent point, building and owning an outstanding strong brand will be an eff ective and sustainable solution in a competitive strategy of the enterprise. The article mentions the brand development strategy for logistics enterprises in the future in Vietnam. Keywords: Logistics; businesses; brand/trademark; Vietnam. * People’s Deputies Newspaper † Regional Political Academy I 1. Logistics and logistics enterprise brand The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifi c (ESCAP) stated: “Logistics or supply chain management is a movement of synchronizing inputs and outputs in production and deliver goods and services to customers”. Meanwhile, the US Logistics Board (CLM) has stated: “Logistics is an effi cient process of planning, implementing and controlling, saving costs of the fl ow and storage of raw materials, inventory, fi nished products and related information from point of origin to point of sale, for the purpose of satisfying customer requirements. From the perspective of supply chain management, logistics is the process of optimizing the location, storing and transferring resources / inputs from the fi rst point of origin, from the supplier, through producer, to the wholesale and retail sales, reach the consumers through a variety of economic activities”. In Article 233 of the Vietnam Commercial Law passed by the National Assembly on June 14, 2005 and Decree 140 / 2007NĐ-CP of the Government stated: “Logistics services are commercial activities. Accordingly, the trader organizes one or more tasks including receiving, transporting, storing, storing, customs clearance, other paperwork, customer consultation, packaging, marking, delivery or other services related to the goods as agreed with the customer for remuneration.” Tạp chí Khoa học - Trường Đại học Mở Hà Nội 71 (9/2020) 21-25 22 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion Logistics enterprise is a business enterprise providing one, a group or a chain of diff erent services in the entire logistics service supply chain such as: warehouse rental, warehouse management, internal transportation services. location, sea transportation, air freight, product distribution services, delivery, consulting activities to support production and management, accordingly, a professional logistics service company should have the knowledge and in-depth understanding of each industry that we aim to include production and business processes, operational management steps, logistics service needs of each industry to provide logistics services. “Package” according to diff erent wishes of customers’ businesses; Logistics enterprises can plan, implement, and take charge of both controlling and managing the process of transporting, storing, storing all kinds of goods, raw materials , according to the customers’ needs. At the same time, logistics companies can also perform concurrently the role of managing information in the entire logistics chain, solving documents and all diffi culties that may arise in the implementation process... Trademarks are distinct symbols for the purpose of identifying the seller’s goods or services and to distinguish them from those of competitors. Some of the key points to correctly identify a business’s trademark include: (1) Only exists in perception, although the brand is shown through some physical signs, trademark itself is only in thinking of employees, customers, partners, and shareholders; (2) Contains values or commitments that customers, partners and shareholders value trust and are able to touch their emotions, making them feel the business’s reputation and the meaning of good things in life; (3) Characteristics change over time. For logistics enterprises, decisions related to choosing a partner for a deal are often complicated and high risk. Moreover, for logistics enterprises that provide similar logistics services, so the business’s trademark will be more and more necessary now and affi rms a very important role for the business’s. Most of the trademark of logistics enterprises are also trademark of the services they provide. Some large enterprises with diversifi ed sizes and services will have small service brands under the enterprise, however, the brand name of the service type will be named according to the enterprise brand along with the type of service. For example, DHL will have DHL express, DHL Logistics, DHL parcel & e-Commerce or like Kuehne + Nagel, it will only brand new outstanding services like KN FreightNet and KN Login, not all services that the company provided. DB Schenker is well known for DB Schenker rail and DB Schenker Logistics. When building a business brand for a logistics enterprise, the fi rst thing is to focus on the brand of the enterprise, followed by the service sub-brand or service package, because the enterprise brand, the name of the enterprise is the decisive factor to create a solid position for sub-service brands. 2. Developing trademarks of Vietnam Logistics enterprises Logistics enterprises in Vietnam are mainly concentrated in three big cities, 23Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion Hanoi, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City with the rate of 18.2%, respectively, 10.8% and 54%. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh are the two largest consumption markets in the country and are also important transport gateways to the entire Eastern and Southwestern region as well as the North. Hai Phong holds the third position and is home to a relatively developed seaport system connecting the entire North. Vietnam logistics enterprises are mainly small and medium size with small business capital, so they still face many limitations in their fi nancial capacity in investing to expand their business operations methodically and training management capabilities and professional working skills for employees. Among logistics enterprises operating in Vietnam today, domestic enterprises (88%), 10% are joint ventures and only 2% are foreign- owned enterprises. The logistics industry in Vietnam is still in its infancy and Vietnam does not yet have international branded logistics enterprises. On the other hand, promotion activities and brand image marketing programs are new activities for Vietnamese logistics enterprises which they have not done it or have not done it well while this is an important factor to help customers who know the brand, trust and use the service. The concrete evidence is the activities of building trademark image with logo, slogan, website ... However, many companies still have not built their own website to introduce and manage goods online. Some companies have built websites but the information is not much, not invested, not updated regularly. Most of the company’s customers are appointed by foreign agents, so businesses are often passive in updating information and building images on the website. This leads to negative consequences for the image of the enterprise in the eyes of customers, blurring the image and brand of the enterprise. Meanwhile, foreign logistics companies have been present and thrived in the Vietnamese market for a long time through joint ventures such as Schenker, a joint venture with Gemadept, Lotte Sea, a joint venture of YCH-Protrade Distripark, ... along with other names. others such as Damco, DHL, Toll, Linfox, CJ GLS, ... The long presence of major logistics names in the Vietnamese market has more or less built up its image in the minds of big customers in Vietnam. If only considering building branding in terms of website building, most logistics enterprises can only accomplish the sole goal of introducing preliminary information about the business or listing the types of services provided. However, on the websites, there is a lack of regularly updated care, and there is no integration of utilities thanks to technology applications that help customers track orders, ship schedules, e-booking, document tracking ... Enterprises has not built trademark to connect with the needs of customers and satisfy their needs, thereby building sustainable values such as trust, appreciation, and love from customers for the business’s brand. However, Vietnam’s logistics market is considered to be a potential market and it is forecasted that there would be strong competition in the future between domestic 24 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion logistics enterprises and foreign enterprises and between foreign enterprises and other foreign enterprises. Therefore, brand development becomes important and urgent for enterprises in their business. Furthermore, Vietnamese logistics enterprises will have to fi nd a way to develop the right brand development strategy as well as eff ectively implement it to develop, expand, and further improve the brand value in business to compete with foreign enterprises. 3. Some branding solutions for Vietnam’s logistics enterprises In the World Bank’s Effi cient Logistics Report 2014, several forecasts about Vietnam’s logistics market to 2020 and 2030 are given as follows: - Regarding the structure of the freight market, the volume of Vietnam’s goods by mode of transport is forecasted by the World Bank to 2030 as follows: the volume of goods by road is 640 million tons, by railway 47 million tons, inland waterways is 395 million tons, coastal ships of 38 million tons, aviation 0.3 million tons, and total of all modes reaching 1,119 million tons. The annual growth rate will be around 4.8%. - Increase the proportion of logistics fi rms 2PL, 3PL, 4PL, 5PL. It is forecasted that in the coming years, many large foreign enterprises, including regional and global enterprises of logistics services, will continue to enter the market when Vietnam opens a wider market according to entry commitments. WTO and the implementation of the next generation of Free Trade Agreements. Decision 200 / QD-TTg dated February 14, 2017 of the Government on “approving the Action Plan to improve competitiveness and develop Vietnam’s logistics services until 2025” has identifi ed 6 groups of key tasks including: “1. Improve policies and laws on logistics services; 2. Complete logistics infrastructure; 3. Improve business capacity and service quality; 4. Develop the market for logistics services; 5. Train and raise awareness and quality of human resources; 6. Other duties”. In order to develop brands of Vietnamese logistics enterprises, we need to implement a number of solutions to help businesses improve the branding process. The following are some of the proposed article solutions to help Vietnamese logistics enterprise managers establish and complete the process of developing appropriate corporate brands: - To Raise awareness about the brand of logistics enterprises and planning the brand strategy of logistics enterprises, it is necessary to organize fostering and training to improve knowledge of brands, brand strategy of logistics enterprises, service brands, brand in the enterprise market, understanding of brand value, brand strategy goals, marketing program implementing brand strategy, directing and controlling the implementation of brand strategy ... for staff of branding so that they can build a brand development process that is suitable to specifi c conditions of the business. The training can be organized internally by enterprises themselves or send full-time staff to participate in training courses, seminars to share knowledge and experience of trade experts on branding and branding strategy organized by third parties. - In training, updating and applying analysis and market research tools to better analyze the marketing situation and brand strategy, enterprises need 25Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion to have training and sharing solutions to help employees update new tools, understand and use analytical tools, market research to eff ectively analyze the marketing situation and brand strategy, thereby forming a solid foundation for the identifi cation, development orientation and brand strategy goals of enterprises. - To complete the content of value planning, customer sharing through improving service quality, developing diverse types of logistics services, gradually moving towards providing a package of logistics services, enterprises need to develop a clear step-by-step plan, through each stage, how service quality will be improved and what types of new services will be provided to customers at each stage towards the goal of providing a full service to customers after a certain period of time. - To complete the content of social value planning through the development of corporate social responsibility policies: proactively formulate corporate social responsibility policies (CSR - Corporation Social Responsibility); Having a clear policy on business ethics and social responsibilities that businesses want to contribute will help businesses map out the orientation and plan appropriate social values in the brand equity of the company. - To complete the planning of marketing and brand communication programs through the tactic of using marketing channels, communication and two-way interactive technology, Vietnamese logistics enterprises should suspend the planning of mass marketing programs. It is necessary to strengthen the brand connection of the company on each contact point (customers, investors ...), ie. to build more oriented marketing programs, focusing more on the customers of the enterprise. In order to well plan two-way interactive marketing and communication programs, businesses need to grasp and use two-way interactive marketing and communication channels such as applications on websites, mobile phones, email and even interact directly at the transaction offi ce. The advantage of logistics enterprises is that their customers are mainly enterprises, so they can completely control the quantity, and the implementation of two-way interaction in the marketing and communication program is absolutely possible to do better than businesses operating in the consumer market. In the current context, building strong brands for logistics enterprises becomes an important job that has a major role and impact on the development of the economy. References: [1]. Nguyễn Thanh Thủy, Đặng Đình Đào (2012), Một số vấn đề cơ bản về quản trị cảng biển trong hệ thống Logistics, NXB Thống kê [2]. Trần Hải Vân (2015), Thương mại điện tử cách thức hữu hiệu giúp doanh nghiệp xây dựng thương hiệu, Tạp chí Công thương số 6/2015. [3]. Biinform Division (2017), Vietnam Logistics Market 2016 Report, Biinform Division. [4]. Marquardt A.J., Golicic S.L., Davis D.F. (2015), “The Current State of Logistics Services Branding”. Springer, Cham. Author address: People’s Deputies Newspaper Email: hbkhoikhoa@gmail.com