Brand Management at Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade

In terms of branding, the image of Vietnamese banks is no longer good according to people's assessment. Image promotion, internal communication and external communication are all being carried out reluctantly and in a fragmented manner.

A study published in the 2009 Banking and Finance Branding Conference held in Hanoi showed that no Vietnamese bank buys, studies or uses media market research data for its branding and development strategies. There are many banks that sponsor a lot of money for entertainment programs for advertising purposes but do not identify specific purposes or appropriate types. Media activities are not highly effective.

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ng to all its employees as well as to the whole society and it is also an opportunity to introduce and promote its bank brand to the public. In the past, banks have not done this well and the losses caused by the professional ethics of employees are proof of the lax management and education of employees by banks.

The group of tangible values is the external expression of brand identity, which also means the reputation of the brand. However, tangible values are not only expressed through the image of employees but also through the entities of the enterprise such as: internal process system, headquarters architecture, office, signboard, name, slogan, staff uniform, language used... This is the external expression of culture. Visiting a business with a large and beautiful headquarters, clear signboard, creating a sense of security and trust... many people can have sympathy and initially evaluate the business well.

Regarding headquarters: for a bank, the headquarters is a very important factor. The bank headquarters must be located in convenient, safe places and create trust for people coming to do transactions. Except for SBV, other banks have chosen prime locations for business activities, but in terms of form, they are not really spacious and there is no uniformity in design throughout the system. Typically Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV.

2.1.2.3 Brand protection

Regarding brand protection, Vietinbank is the only bank that has registered international trademark copyright. The Vietinbank brand is protected in Vietnam and more than 50 countries around the world (Dan Tri Newspaper, March 17, 2014).

On July 6, 2005, BIDV was granted a trademark registration certificate in the US by the US Patent Office, valid for 10 years.

In addition, Vietcombank has also registered for trademark protection in Vietnam and internationally, but almost no mass media has reported on this issue. The bank's staff also do not know anything about this information.

In the current information technology era, besides protecting brands by law, protecting domain names is also very important, but no bank has really paid attention to the issue of registering to protect its domain names and similar domain names to avoid domain name theft or similar domain names being used, for example: Vietcombank.com.vn; Vietcombank.com; Vietcomba.com.vn…. Losing a domain name is also losing a brand and that can cause disastrous consequences even for the country.

The above situation is caused by many reasons, both subjective and objective. First of all, it is in the brand team. Senior managers have little knowledge about

brand and has not really taken the role of brand in the market economy seriously, so the construction, management and development of the brand is still spontaneous and unsystematic. Internal communication is not really effective because the vision, culture, and other elements of the brand identity have not been shared, consistent and implemented synchronously from managers to employees. Employees are not really united under the brand banner and have not been oriented to achieve common goals. Most banks have paid attention to building an external image but have not really paid attention to building an image from within and unifying it with the external image.

It can be said that branding plays a decisive role in the existence and development of the banking system, especially in the current period of global economic recession. The criteria for building a brand for a bank can be summarized as follows: Promoting advantages, limiting risks, creating differences.

2.2 Brand management at Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam

The Bank for Foreign Trade was established on April 1, 1963 and operated as an exclusive foreign trade bank . On November 14, 1990, the Bank for Foreign Trade officially transformed from a specialized bank, exclusively in foreign economic activities to a multi-functional state-owned commercial bank according to Decision No. 403-CT dated November 14, 1990 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The official name of the Bank is the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam. The English name is Bank for foreign trade of Vietnam. The abbreviated name is Vietcombank.

From 1988 to around 1994, Vietcombank was known as a bank specializing in international payments. Although other banks were also allowed to operate international payments, Vietcombank was the bank that held 80% of the international payment market share, monopolizing the issuance and payment of international credit cards in Vietnam. Vietcombank was also the leading bank in developing the domestic card market, leading in the number of

ATMs and leading in modern banking technology. Foreign customers also only know that when transacting with Vietnam, it means transacting with Vietcombank. During this period, Vietcombank's leaders also paid attention to building and positioning the Vietcombank brand in the minds of customers as the strongest bank in terms of capital, technology, cards, and providing capital to large corporations and groups. But all of these factors seem to have benefited from the State's subsidies during the long years of maintaining the centralized planning mechanism.

Over 50 years of construction and development, Vietcombank has made important contributions to the stability and development of the country's economy, effectively promoting the role of a key foreign bank, effectively serving the development of the domestic economy, while creating important influences on the regional and global financial community. From a specialized bank serving foreign economic affairs, Vietcombank has today become a multi-functional bank operating in many fields, providing customers with a full range of leading financial services in the field of international trade; in traditional activities such as capital trading, capital mobilization, credit, project financing, ... as well as modern banking services: foreign currency trading and derivatives, card services, e-banking, retail banking services, ...

2.2.1 Vietcombank brand identity

Over the years, Vietcombank has been trying to build its own brand identity towards the goal of becoming Vietnam's leading bank by 2030. On that basis, Vietcombank has made a statement about its core values expressed in five basic values:

- Trust: Keeping reputation and professionalism;

- Standards: Respect the principles of standard conduct

- Ready to innovate: Always aiming for new, modern and civilized things

- Sustainable: For long-term benefits;

- Humanity: Respecting morality, being close and knowing how to sympathize and share

These statements are great but disjointed, long-winded, difficult to remember and memorize, making it difficult to convey the full message to employees and customers.

In early 2013, Vietcombank announced a new brand identity system with comprehensive changes: signs, logos, slogans, interior systems at transaction locations, staff uniforms, printed publications... Over the past 25 years, Vietcombank has changed its brand identity system 3 times. In 2010, Vietcombank built a Vietcombank culture handbook which included elements such as vision, mission, standards of behavior, conduct... with the aim of building corporate culture and thereby building its own brand culture: Vietcombank brand culture.

The values that Vietcombank aims to achieve are:

- Vietcombank's mission: Leading bank for a prosperous Vietnam;

- Vietcombank's vision: By 2030, become a powerful multi-functional financial group on par with major financial groups in the region;

Vietcombank's image and brand represent:

- A green and strong Vietcombank

- A prestigious and modern Vietcombank

- A Vietcombank that is close and sharing

The contents of the above intangible value group all affirm Vietcombank's core values of "Customer Orientation" in its corporate cultural identity. And this is also the bank's proposed value, its promise.

brand to customers. The slogan Vietcombank is using is "shared belief in the future". This is also the brand's communication message, affirming that Vietcombank is always ready to accompany customers on the path towards the future. But until now, those values have not been widely disseminated to all Vietcombank staff and workers. The author himself, an officer at Vietcombank, has only read the annual report but has never heard all those messages from Vietcombank's leadership. That shows the weakness of internal communication work, which will be analyzed in more depth below.

In the tangible value group, Vietcombank has also identified its core banking products as international payments and card services, but Vietcombank is gradually losing market share to other banks without any activities to promote its strengths to the public. Vietcombank's transaction offices are not really spacious, and their image is not consistent, so they have not created a difference in the minds of customers. Most of the branch offices are rented or have not been built to be spacious and worthy of the stature of a leading bank in Vietnam.

2.2.2 On internal communication and training

The mission of internal communication and training is to share Vietcombank's vision and core values to all employees, thereby conveying the brand identity to customers and building a solid brand image in the minds of customers. Each employee is informed about Vietcombank's culture, referring to Vietcombank's 5 core values. Branches have organized activities to explain the bank's core values to employees through competitions to learn about Vietcombank's culture. Strengthen training on professional skills and customer care skills for employees. Focus on training new employees by organizing courses specifically for new employees of the bank. Standardization

standards of conduct for employees in work and communication with customers through the book "Vietcombank Cultural Handbook". On that basis, many competitions were organized: "Vietcombank Smile", "Effective and civilized transaction office", "Excellent transaction officer" to standardize communication skills, customer service style, and at the same time honor excellent transaction officers, transaction offices with good quality, issue a set of standards for evaluating employees and transaction points... Unfortunately, the programs were not implemented regularly and continuously and were not widely promoted, so they did not create a buzz. Because they were not implemented regularly and continuously, old employees forgot and new employees were not informed. That created a lack of uniformity in perception and action of all employees as well as the brand team.

Regarding Vietcombank's vision, the communication is only at the level of the General Director's speech posted on the Website or in the annual report and disseminated to the Branch Management Board, but not really widely disseminated to each staff member in the entire system.

Vietcombank's senior leadership team has not yet made its staff understand Vietcombank's vision, mission, history and tradition. Each Vietcombank employee has not yet realized that he or she is a miniature image of Vietcombank, and that his or her innovation is Vietcombank's innovation.

Internal communication at Vietcombank is still limited and not focused on: communication activities are not unified and synchronized from branch to branch, but only focused at the central level and some large branches. The communication team is still lacking in both quality and quantity.

Vietcombank does not have a specialized team to manage and develop the brand: Currently, because a specialized brand department has not been established, brand-related issues are handled by many departments, so brand development is difficult.

Branding in the past has not brought high and consistent efficiency. Branding personnel have not been invested properly and the budget for brand investment is still low due to overlapping regulations between business brand development and the State's financial mechanism.

Brand building and development activities are mainly due to subjective will, lacking the consultation of experts and companies specializing in brand building and development. The brand identity that Vietcombank has just announced was consulted by a foreign brand consulting company with a large budget, but when implemented, it lacked uniformity, so it did not create the best effect for the public.

2.2.3 External communication

Vietcombank does not have a comprehensive strategy for brand communication to build a brand image that is deeply imprinted in the minds of customers. Promotional programs and advertisements for new products and services have not been invested in a systematic way, so they have not brought the highest efficiency. Introducing services to customers is still passive. Most customers know about products and services by accessing the internet, being introduced by staff at the counter. Communication work has not really received proper attention from Vietcombank. Perhaps the available advantages make Vietcombank fall asleep on its brand. Vietcombank is a leading bank in technology, in technology-based products and services, especially card products, but until now , few people know about this.

PR work is the most important activity of external communication work but has been the weakest activity of Vietcombank in recent times. With the advantage of being a large state-owned commercial bank, accustomed to customers coming to them, advertising and building brand image have not really received due attention. Before 2006, Vietcombank was the leading bank in modernizing banking technology and diversifying products.

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