Experts share branding lessons from corporate culture

According to experts, corporate culture is the core value of every business, the foundation, helping businesses create a difference in business activities. Therefore, corporate culture also plays an extremely important role in building a business's brand.

Expert Le Quoc Vinh, Vice President of the Vietnam Association for the Development of Corporate Culture (VNABC), affirmed that in the context of current business operations, the most basic foundations that create strength for a brand are their cultural identity.

“We can imitate business models, we can imitate the branding methods of enterprises, but culture is something we can never imitate. It is an inherent characteristic of each enterprise since its formation,” Mr. Vinh emphasized.

Social mission makes the brand successful

According to Mr. Vinh, there are 3 criteria for developing corporate culture: First , corporate culture is all the values that the enterprise agrees on to develop together. Second , corporate culture is not written rules, specific requirements but includes all behaviors, ways of behaving, relationships that each member of the enterprise builds together. Third , corporate culture is associated with the mission, the reason for the enterprise's existence.

Mr. Le Quoc Vinh believes that the core concept in corporate culture: Brand Purpose - Brand purpose, the meaning of the brand is the reason for the brand's existence, surpassing the purpose of making money.

Khi văn hóa kinh doanh được xây dựng từ sứ mệnh xã hội

Branding expert Le Quoc Vinh shares the success story of Tokyo Life. (Photo: Vi Vi)

As one of the leading experts on branding and with many years of consulting on brand building, Mr. Le Quoc Vinh believes that most of the very famous brands in the world today have successfully built their own social missions.

“A brand purpose is not a brand promise. A brand promise gives customers an idea of what to expect from a product or service, but a brand purpose goes beyond that and gives us a sense of the social benefit the product or service will bring. A brand purpose connects with consumers on a more emotional level,” Vinh said.

Mr. Vinh analyzed that brand purpose is actually the mission that each business sets for its brand to create values for society and the community. From this perspective, social mission is an unchanging goal, a sustainable value that businesses always aim for.

“That mission is different from the vision that businesses set, such as becoming the leading company in Vietnam in 10, 15, 20 years. Social mission is the core of corporate culture, where there is passion, inspiration and dedication for that mission. Businesses with social mission will inspire people around them, from which they themselves can achieve their position in the future,” Mr. Vinh cited.

Using the branding story of the famous Tokyo Life chain of consumer goods and fashion stores as an illustration, expert Le Quoc Vinh shared that the success of this brand was formed on the spirit of the mission to become a "happy fishing lake", an environment filled with humanity, where people with disabilities can find joy in work and confidently become useful people in society.

Or the journey to affirm the brand of the social enterprise To he, founded in 2006 with the mission of creating a creative playground for disadvantaged children. The enterprise aims not only to sell handmade products but also to help each customer who approaches and uses their products find their childhood and their own innocence... "There are many examples like that. To see that the path to developing a sustainable brand is to become a beloved brand," Mr. Vinh affirmed.

Building corporate culture is building national brand

Highlighting the role of business ethics and corporate culture, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Van Loi - Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, said that these are factors that help businesses have a long-term vision and create their own brand and invisible strength. "Business ethics and culture are considered cultural genetic factors but cannot be imitated or copied. This factor is built from internal strength, bringing competitive advantages, commercial advantages and sustainable development of businesses," said Mr. Loi.

To build business ethics and develop business culture, national cultural traditions are the foundation and important support. Vietnamese culture is a culture that values ethics, humanity, upholds justice, reason, and is closely linked to environmental friendliness, always putting national and ethnic interests first. These cultural traditions have permeated and spread among Vietnamese business people and are increasingly recognized to be inherited and promoted in building current generations of Vietnamese business people.

Chuyên gia chia sẻ bài học xây dựng thương hiệu từ văn hóa doanh nghiệp

Associate Professor, Dr. Le Van Loi - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics. (Source: Business Forum)

Regarding credibility in production and business and the role of ethics and corporate culture in building a national brand, Mr. Loi assessed that building a business's credibility is much more difficult than building a person's credibility. Building and maintaining long-term credibility and integrity in production and business is a process of changing thinking, awareness and realizing it through persistent, persistent and consistent contributions from business leaders and managers to each employee.

“Building corporate culture should be done from the beginning, in which business leaders and managers play a decisive role. Building ethics, business culture, and corporate culture contributes to building a national brand.

Currently, Vietnam's national brand is increasingly being improved and promoted. Vietnam has become a responsible and prestigious member of the international community, making an important contribution to maintaining a peaceful and stable environment in the region and the world," Associate Professor, Dr. Le Van Loi emphasized.

Source