 |
Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association Le Quoc Minh. (Photo: Luong Hai Anh) |
How do you evaluate the activities of honoring national brands in recent times?
The Vietnam National Brand Program is a unique, long-term and specific trade promotion program of the Government on building and developing national brands through product brands, approved by the Prime Minister since 2003.
One of the tasks assigned by the Prime Minister is to raise social awareness of the role, significance and necessity of building, protecting and developing brands in production, business and investment activities; to propagate and promote the Vietnam National Brand Program and National Brand products with the aim of building the image of Vietnam as a country with prestige in high-quality goods and services, contributing to the development of foreign trade and improving competitiveness.
I think this is a very meaningful program, through which good brands are recognized and honored in an official and legitimate way, creating trust for consumers as well as potential partners.
On the occasion of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Day, October 13, Nhan Dan Newspaper has published a special issue with the theme “Joining hands to build a National Brand” in print and digital formats. Nhan Dan Newspaper is also collaborating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to build a large-scale National Brands page, with a lot of data on brands and businesses.
In today's fast-paced, up-to-the-second information society, what role do you think the press's consulting/orientation support function plays for domestic manufacturing enterprises?
In today's digital age, businesses can completely set up information channels to promote their activities without having to rely entirely on the press as before. We have witnessed many businesses effectively operating websites and channels on social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok ... and they can directly reach users. Even for many large businesses, the content they directly provide has become a source of information for the press.
However, the information role of the press has a certain credibility, especially the mainstream press. Once the press publishes an event or phenomenon, society often considers it a measure of the credibility of the issue.
Therefore, more than ever, in the context of information overload, sometimes with a lot of chaotic, incorrect, and distorted information, the press must return to its core values: honesty, fairness, balance, that journalists must work professionally in a modern style, and that all information must be verified through multiple sources.
Speed is important for information, but quality cannot be compromised to compete on speed. A single incorrect piece of information, sometimes just a few words in an article, can harm a large enterprise with thousands of employees, a single unverified piece of information can collapse an entire manufacturing sector.
Therefore, the press must take the lead in fighting, criticizing, and exposing wrongful and illegal activities, but also needs to commend businesses and entrepreneurs who have made great contributions to society.
The press should not paint society in a rosy light, but also should not blacken it, and should not publish too much critical content and forget that there are many good people and good deeds in life. The orientation of the press lies there, not through media contracts and business promotions.
We all know that small and medium-sized enterprises often face limitations in communication, especially in introducing their outstanding strengths to the public. As an organization of those working in the field of journalism, how does the Vietnam Journalists Association evaluate the current activities of introducing products/business activities in mainstream media?
Many Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises, have not paid attention to communication activities. This may be due to lack of human resources and funding, but partly it is also a matter of awareness of the importance of communication. Only when production and business activities encounter problems, or when what we often call a “communication crisis” occurs, do enterprises rush to implement coping measures, which often leads to wasting resources.
In fact, it is at the best times that we must do the strongest communication, not only to introduce our good products and services to society, but also to prevent "incidents". If there is a lot of positive information from before, the negative information later will be neutralized, reducing the negative impact. If there has never been any information before, when an incident occurs, users searching online will only read information about that negative incident.
However, how to choose a communication strategy and how to implement it is entirely up to the business. The Vietnam Journalists Association and the Vietnam Confederation of Industry and Commerce (VCCI) have reached a coordination agreement, which emphasizes supporting VCCI and its member units in communication activities, but I would like to reaffirm that communication activities must come from the intrinsic needs of the businesses and their leaders.
Whether a business is large or small, it is necessary to pay attention to communication and depending on its resources, "cut your coat according to your cloth". Of course, without finance, it is difficult to do communication, but please note that spending a lot of money on communication does not mean that it will be more effective.
Even with the press agencies, we also encourage finding more effective and flexible ways of communication for businesses instead of writing articles in the old way. We must consider press content as a special product to invest in differentiation to attract the attention of businesses.
In order for a product to become a national brand, strong enough to "bring the bell to strike foreign lands", in your opinion, what international aspects does the press need to further support businesses?
Whether or not a national brand becomes a national brand depends on the enterprise's capacity, but a national brand does not naturally become known to domestic and international users in the old concept of "good wine needs no bush"
Among the countless "fragrances" of many products, services and brands on the market, to spread your "fragrance" you need a diffusion tool, in other words, know how to use communication in addition to the business's direct marketing methods.
In addition to the traditional and classic ways of cooperation between the press and businesses, in the current digital information era, each press agency when having a cooperative relationship, coordinating with one/some businesses or production-business fields, needs to build unique products, with identity, targeting each specific market and audience. There are press contents/products for all classes, all audiences, but it is necessary to create products aimed at niche markets.
The media technology is very diverse and there will be many new technologies and new platforms emerging. The press and businesses need to know how to take advantage of these new media technologies.
Foreign languages are also an important issue, although modern technology has somewhat reduced the language barrier. However, if you want to go international, you must at least have content in English, but English alone is not enough because there are many large communities that do not consider it as their main language, for example, the French, Spanish, and Chinese speaking communities.
Thank you!
Source
Comment (0)