Building and promoting brands: Solutions for sustainable craft village development!

(Baonghean) - In recent years, traditional craft villages in our province are being restored. However, the craft villages have not yet built their own brands, or are not interested in building brands, leading to difficulties in finding markets and increasing production value.

Recognized by the Provincial People's Committee as a traditional craft village since 2011, Thanh Luong blacksmith village (Thanh Chuong) currently has 30 professional production households and 40 seasonal households. For a long time, the blacksmiths have been operating at a low level, making it difficult to sell. The reason is that consumers are "overwhelmed" by the massive appearance of imported knives and scissors with beautiful designs, bright white color, and no rust... Thanh Luong blacksmithing is famous for its good quality products, but up to now, the lives of those working in the profession are still just enough to eat, unable to become well-off or rich. Because the main products are still agricultural tools, the scale of production is small, made to order from wholesalers, so prices are often forced down; designs and forms are limited, lacking competitiveness... so they have not penetrated the high-end household goods market; Meanwhile, agricultural production is gradually mechanized... Therefore, the blacksmithing profession in Thanh Luong is being quietly passed down, without a strategy to build a brand, promote products and is at risk of fading away.

Confectionery production in Xuan Bac craft village, Dong Ha (Dien Van commune - Dien Chau).

With hundreds of years of history and many ups and downs, the craftsmen of Phu Nghia civil and fine art carpentry village, Quynh Nghia commune (Quynh Luu) have been contributing to preserving the cultural values ​​passed down from their ancestors. With their talented hands, they have created sophisticated wooden products such as mahogany beds, tea cabinets, and various types of tables and chairs in Asian and European styles. To meet the tastes of customers, in recent years, Phu Nghia craftsmen have turned to producing civil goods such as doors, wooden ceilings, stairs, etc., and at the same time, introducing handicrafts (mother-of-pearl inlay) into production. The products of the craft village are not inferior to those of famous carpentry villages such as Dong Ky in Bac Ninh and Van Diem in Thuong Tin in terms of design and quality, but the market price is only 70 - 80% compared to the same products of the above famous carpentry villages. According to Mr. Ho Van Minh - owner of a wooden furniture manufacturing facility in village 1, Quynh Nghia, that is because the products of the craft village have not found a stable market and have not built their own brand; the production of the craft village is still small-scale, according to households, each person does their own thing.

Up to now, the province has had 126 craft villages recognized by the Provincial People's Committee. In addition, the whole province has 285 craft villages recognized by the District People's Committees. From 1995 to now, the province has had about 400 products registered for trademarks, but the number of products from craft villages and small-scale industries is still low; the number of craft villages that have built brands can be counted on the fingers. In addition, although many businesses have built brands, they do not have a promotion strategy, so their products are widely available to consumers. Especially when expanding to the market outside the province or internationally, craft village products lack brands and are not highly appreciated. Therefore, there are many valuable items that are being sold on the floating market or exported through intermediaries, having to carry a different brand, so in general, the value of the products earned for the craft villages is low.

According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Phong, Director of the Center for Industrial Promotion and Industrial Development Consulting (Department of Industry and Trade), there are many reasons why craft villages are not interested in building brands, the main reason is the mentality of relying on long-standing traditions, many people already know the products of their craft villages; combined with the manual production method, most of which are separate businesses, the connection between households in the craft villages is not high, few craft villages have representatives to act as the focal point for purchasing products, trading with the outside and representing the legal representative of the craft village. Due to indifference to the issue of branding, many people think that craft villages belong to the public, no one has boldly taken the initiative to carry out the trademark registration procedure.

Among the craft villages in our province, Cua tile craft village (Nghia Hoan commune - Tan Ky) is considered a craft village that is quite "quick" in creating a brand for local products. The Cua tile craft village production, business and service cooperative has registered a trademark for its satellite system, and Cua tile products have been protected by a trademark granted by the Department of Intellectual Property on April 10, 2007. To proactively protect the reputation of the product, the cooperative has promptly had a solution to inform a large number of customers of the cooperative's dealer system, or directly notify the cooperative's hotline number to receive accurate advice on prices, designs, sizes, etc. to help customers avoid counterfeit goods and recognize "genuine Cua tile" products. Up to now, Cua tile products have been strongly consumed in the markets of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh provinces, and are also present in markets such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces of Xieng Khouang, Khammouane (Laos)... Each year, the revenue from this craft village reaches over 110 billion VND; creating jobs for about 1,000 local workers, with an income of about 3 - 4 million VND/month. Currently, the craft village has dozens of brick and tile kiln owners with a revenue of 600 - 800 million VND/year.

In recent years, the support and encouragement of craft villages and enterprises to build brands and promote products have been implemented by many functional agencies. Since 2009, the Provincial People's Committee has issued Decision No. 10/2009/QD-UBND on incentive policies to support organizations and individuals in technological innovation, research and application of scientific and technological advances to enhance the competitiveness of products in Nghe An. Accordingly, support of 2 million VND for domestic trademark/design registration and 10 million VND abroad. Particularly from the beginning of 2014 to now, with the industrial promotion capital, the Industrial Promotion Center has developed 64 projects with a budget of 3,990,700,000 VND. The main focus is on the following contents: support for building technical demonstration models, technology transfer; Support businesses and organizations to participate in fairs and exhibitions, develop markets and promote brands in some of the province's advantageous products such as tea, textiles, rattan and bamboo weaving, fish sauce, brocade weaving... For example, Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company, with support from the provincial and national industrial promotion funds, in the period of 2002 - 2012, the company participated in many booths in most fairs and exhibitions in Vinh City and some fairs in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho... Brand building and market development have helped the company's products to be present in most domestic markets and are also very popular in the Lao market. Notably, for the first time, in 2012, the company exported 1,800 liters of fish sauce to the Malaysian market.

In early 2014, Duc Phong Company Limited, which produces rattan and bamboo products for export, was supported with VND 92,700,000 to participate in the Ambiente International Fair in Germany. According to Mr. Thai Dai Phong - Director of the company: "The EU market is very demanding in terms of quality, factors related to the environment, consumer health, especially design plays a very important role, accounting for 30 - 50% of the success of orders when entering this market. Therefore, we always research and launch new collections every year, with unique designs, combining many types of raw materials on the same product and importantly, designing products according to consumer needs...".

At the above fair, the company's rattan and bamboo products were highly appreciated for their designs and quality, and many requests were made to learn more with the desire to cooperate. The development of new product designs by Duc Phong was approached through many channels such as: Participating in international fairs, seeking support from the professional design team of the Vietnam Handicraft and Gift Export Association... to find designs that are suitable for the characteristics of the company's products and the market's consumption trends.

Obviously, building brands and promoting products have been effective in promoting the sustainable development of craft villages. In fact, many craft villages have guaranteed quality and beautiful designs, but have not promoted them to consumers for trust and use. In this field, craft villages, business owners, production and trading establishments need to clearly identify that the State's support is only for encouragement, and the fundamental thing is that craft villages need to promote their own internal sustainability. Therefore, promoting brand building, trade promotion, and participating in exhibitions and fairs to promote products should be considered an important step, even playing a decisive role in the existence and development of craft villages in the context of economic integration.

Article and photos:Ngoc Anh