The statements on the current position of Vietnamese brands, the solutions to enhance the future position of Vietnamese brands, combined with Secoin's real journey of driving the art tiles to more than 60 countries as six continents, the opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese brand in the post-Covid period are the main contents analyzed by Mr. Dinh Hong Ky in his speech.

The forum attracts the participation of many experts and businesses

Which position is Vietnamese Brand in the world market?

In order to the position of Vietnamese Brands in the international marketplace, it is necessary to have an objective assessment from the outside as well as an analysis of the current situation from inside. According to the report "Nation brands 2020 ranking: of Brand Finance, the ranking position of Vietnam in 2020 is 33, an increase of 9 positions compared to 2019! In that report, there is a paragraph "Vietnam is a fastest-growing national brand in this year's rankings with brand value shooting up 29% to USD 319 billion. Vietnam, which records surprisingly low COVID -19 deaths, has emerged as one of the leading site in Southeast Asia for production and is increasingly becoming an attractive destination lead to investors".

Regarding the 2021 Soft Power Index (Global Soft Power Index 2021), Vietnam is the only country in ASEAN to achieve a 3-level increase compared to 2020, from 50th to 47th.

Mr. Dinh Hong Ky – Chairman of Secoin Corporation shared at the Forum.

At the meantime, also to rank the countries in the world, FutureBrand, a prestige global brand transformation company, released the report “The FutureBrand Country Index 2020”. This report is based on 6 groups of criteria and 22 factors that are assessed via many aspects of a country. These 6 criteria include: Tourism; Heritage and Culture; Quality of Life, Business Potential, Value System; and “Made in” (the country's product). Vietnam ranked at 66 (down 5 levels from 61 in 2019 and 64 in 2014).

Improving the position of Vietnamese brand and The stories of Secoin

Noteworthy in the FutureBrand Country Index 2020's ranking is the “Made in” criteria with assesses of authentic products, product quality, product uniqueness and whether consumers are willing to buy the products from that country or not. According to Mr. Dinh Hong Ky, Vietnamese enterprises when building their brands for Vietnamese products on the world market need to pay attention to the "Made in" criterion. The stories about the Secoin brand in the journey of pursuing the world market shared by Mr. Dinh Hong Ky turn around the elements of this important criteria.

Regarding to the "authenticity" of Secoin products, the story of Secoin encaustic cement tiles with the tradition since 1910 is a clear evidence that a pure Vietnamese products are highly appreciated with unique artistic value from the hands of Vietnamese artisans, with historical and cultural values ​​through many generations. The prestige of Vietnamese encaustic cement tiles has surpassed countries such as Spain, Morocco, Mexico, Brazil... This authenticity helps the Secoin brand make the impression for foreign customers.

To create the "unique", the "novelty" for the product, Secoin has cooperated with the famous designers in the world to create exclusive collections for Secoin, i.e. designers from America, Europe. Secoin also cooperates with the world's leading gemstones group Swarovski to develop the Secoin handmade tile series combining gemstones.

Regarding the "quality" factor, Secoin has quickly satisfy global business standards such as building a quality management system; social responsibility assessment; working environment assessment, occupational safety, employee benefits, and environmentally friendly products assessment.

Are consumers around the world willing to buy Vietnamese branded products? To answer this question, Mr. Dinh Hong Ky mentioned the story of Secoin step by step bringing the art tile products to the world with the message "Made in Vietnam" in the early stage and "Made by Secoin in Vietnam" in the next stages.

The story "Made in Vietnam": "Recalling 2010, we visited and worked with European clients such as the Netherlands, France, Germany… At that time, most of our clients were in Developed countries are quite hesitant when we concerned with the Vietnamese origin of encaustic cement products. At that time, there was no mandatory regulation for the country origin on the product, so many customers avoided mentioning Vietnam, instead, Portuguese tiles, Mexican tiles or Moroccan tiles images were used. The Vietnamese brand of encaustic tiles seems to be "inferior" compared to other countries despite their superior product quality. Having to be persistent in step by step driving products into the market, finding every possible opportunity to incorporate the logo and the words "Made in Vietnam." By the end of 2020 and early 2021, Vietnamese encaustic cement tiles has been raised to number 1 globally and our customers in Europe, America, Canada, ... started promoting "made in Vietnam" tiles and proudly sees it as an added value for interior and exterior art products. ”

The story “Made by Secoin in Vietnam”: “12 years ago, Sven Erik - a customer of Secoin in Norway came to Vietnam to discuss the distribution of encaustic tiles in Norway and Nordic countries. After nearly a week of tense negotiations, two sides reached an agreement in most of the term. Among them, the issue of using brand name to promote products was spent the most of time. Secoin wanted to use its brand - a pure Vietnamese brand with more than 20 years of history to enter the market, while the partner wanted to use their own brand. Finally, Secoin had made a proposal: For the partner to become the exclusive distributor in Norway, provided that the product's packaging has a small inscription "Made in Vietnam" and the brand name ‘Secoin’. This proposal has been approved and thanks to that, the brand "made in Vietnam" has begun to appear in the Nordic market."

“How to build the product images which are designed and made in Vietnam’? “How can the tiles designed and made by Vietnamese people reach to consumers under Vietnamese brand names?" Two big questions that Mr. Dinh Hong Ky is posing to his business to continue to make further strides on the global value chain map.

Opportunities - Challenges for Vietnamese brands in the post-Covid

In addition to the tremendous impacts on the whole society, the Covid 19 pandemic also brings some certain opportunities for Vietnamese businesses in the world market. The global online environment are creating opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to build up their images and quickly reach to consumers around the world.

For the construction and building materials industry, Mr. Dinh Hong Ky gives an example of Secoin's export market development opportunities when the demand for building and repairing houses increases in many countries. The story of Secoin's distribution system in Japan and France with 20% growth in 2020 is a rare phenomenon in the context of the global economic decline.

Parallel to the opportunities are great challenges for all Vietnamese businesses. The Covid-19 pandemic is compared to an environmental crisis, prompting major corporations in the world to speed up the process towards a circular economy. Mr. Dinh Hong Ky tells the story of a global supply chain with more than 3,000 suppliers and more than 4 billion products/year that Secoin is participating as a supplier. The aforementioned Corporations organized meetings and guided global suppliers at two programs, Positive Products and Solar Impulse. Vietnamese brands that want to keep moving in the supply chain will have to renew themselves and build systems according to the orientation of these two programs.

Positive Products (on the basis of 5 cores):

• Safe for people and the earth

• Make from recycled and recyclable resources whenever possible

• Be produced responsibly for human rights, labor rights, and pollution prevention

• The product is durable

• Designed to improve the environmental performance of the house, such as in terms of water and energy use

Solar Impulse was evaluated based on five criterion, grouped into three themes:

With the big challenges that are currently apparent, Mr. Dinh Hong Ky has suggested that the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Trade Promotion Agency should refer to Positive Products and Solar Impulse programs to build new criterion for the Vietnam National Brand in the post - Covid 19.

Mr. Ky mentioned an objective assessment from Brand Finance to Vietnam National Brand program: “Thanks to the efforts of the National Brand program “Vietnam Value”, the Vietnam's Food processing industry currently contributes up to 17 billion US dollars in exports of the country. The garment industry accounts for more than 22 billion US dollars of exports. These economic contributions are critical to Vietnam's overall growth and would not be possible without the concentrated efforts of the Vietnamese government. A well-managed national brand is the key to the success and able to bring the enormous benefits”.