Issues Related to the Establishment of the Center Brand Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam - Essay Example

Issues related to the establishment of the centre brand Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam – Vietnam Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 The need to establish a brand centre 4 2.The steps to establish a brand center 5 3.Organizational chart of the brand centre 7 4.Functions and duties of the Department in the brand centre 8 5.Criteria for the brand centre 9 6.Relationship between the brand centre and other departments 10 7.The other related issues 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction The rapidly evolving global business and trade scenarios have created the need of every company irrespective of whether it is a public sector or a private sector industry, to create clear and recognizable brand identity. The brand value creation can be done with a number of objectives to be attained by the organizations. A properly recognisable brand can help an organization to be defined, differentiated from the competitors and recognized easily by the customers which is critically important in creating customer base as well as sustaining the businesses in the highly competitive global landscape. Creation of brand value and brand recognition has become equally important in the banking sector, even for established banks like the Bank for Foreign Trade in Vietnam. The Bank for Foreign Trade in Vietnam is an old bank which was established in 1963 by the Foreign Exchange Bureau of the State Bank of Vietnam. The Bank has been playing an important corporate role in the development and stability of the economy in Vietnam. Also, the bank has made several contributions in the local as well as global regional and financial communities during its years of operation as a leading bank for foreign trade. The bank provides a number of services including a wide array of financial services in both traditional as well as international services like credit, capital mobilization, capital trading, and project finance. Also, the bank offers other modern banking services like e-banking, international credit and debit card services, derivatives trading and Foreign exchange trading services. The bank has established itself as a leader bank in the banking sector in Vietnam and is an influential authority in the regional financial communities. Discussion 1. The need to establish a brand centre Brand centre of an organization is a department of the organization which includes the branding activities and branding materials like production kits, templates, logos, photographs etc. Also, proper guidelines for the creation of value with respect to the brand are included in the brand centre. The Bank for Foreign Trade in Vietnam is a large organization with a vast network including more than 357 transaction offices and branches. The bank thus has a huge number of customers and constructs huge volumes of transactions every day. The Bank has always focused on efficiency in their operations, providing value to the customers and improves the quality of management and corporate governance practices (Jenkins, 2004, pp.13-28). Though the Bank for Foreign Trade in Vietnam is the largest bank in the region, yet with the changing global landscape of customer services, sustainability factors and competitive levels, it becomes critical for the bank to have a dedicated brand centre that would work towards creating improved brand recognition, awareness and brand value. The most important work of the brand centre will be to cement the brand value among the customers. The creation of more brand value and awareness would increase the customer acquisition as well as customer retention in the business which in turn would improve the profitability, sustainability and competitiveness of the bank. A brand centre would cater effectively to the development of brand value by communicating the performance, products and services, values and philosophy, achievements and awards, objectives and functionalities of the bank to the existing and the potential customers. Also, the brand centre would act as a separate department focused on maintaining the value of the resources and activities that contribute to the establishment of the bank as a reputed brand. The Vietnamese economy is a rapidly growing economy with extensive trends of privatization, liberalization and globalization in the region. Also, the country is focusing on increasing the free trade flows and practices. In this background, it is critical that the Bank for Foreign Trade implements innovative and beneficial marketing strategies to ensure that the established brand value is maintained in the economy (Meyer and Nguyen, 2005, pp.63-93). The establishment of a brand center is one such strategy that would help the bank to improve its sustainable competitive advantage. 2. The steps to establish a brand center For the successful establishment of a brand center, the Bank must start with analysing the current market situations in the country. The bank should follow this up with suitable research on the future trends and demands in the market to understand the changes that are likely to affect the business in the coming years of its operation. A brand centre should be established as a separate department which will concentrate on maintaining the value of the brand through multifaceted activities. The central focus of a business is the customers, especially because the businesses are shifting from a market oriented approach to a customer oriented approach. Therefore, the brand centre should be established keeping in mind the demands of the existing customers and by implementing strategies and techniques to attract the interest of the potential customers for the bank. The banking sector is a service sector in which gaining the trust and confidence of the customers is key to the success of a bank. So, the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam should focus on communicating with the customers regarding their issues and queries. For this, the brand centre should include a customer service cell which would focus on creating benefits for the customers. This would be separate from the individual customer service department as the customer service cell in the brand centre would deal with the filtered issues related to brand recognition and brand awareness. The customer service cells should be divided into separate units to meet the specific requirements of groups of customers. For example, there should be separate units for informing the customers about the products and services of the bank. Separate departments should be established within the brand centre to promote the brand, to maintain the database of the customers, to communicate with the customers using traditional means like telephone calls and postal mails as well as new mediums like social media and electronic mails. Other departments with separate roles for assisting the customers in separate functionalities of the bank such as FOREX trading, derivatives, project finance, capital mobilization etc. should be established. The brand center should have at least 10-12 departments segregated for different levels of activities. The brand centre should include separate units for serving the customers of money market, credits, treasury operations, foreign exchange risk management and open market operations departments. The existing clients of the Bank of Foreign Trade in Vietnam and the new acquired clients would constitute the client base for the brand centre. Brand Centre Money markets treasury FOREX risk management customer service credit card dept insurance Credits operations open market operations premium banking advisory Skilled and knowledgeable employees should be place in different positions in the brand centre. The frontline executives should be well mannered with pleasing personality and convincing so that they can deal with the customers effectively and add to the brand image. Also, the set up should enhance the logos and colours used with respect to the bank so that a better image of the bank is built and the customers can relate the reputation of the bank to the brand centre. 3. Organizational chart of the brand centre The organizational structure of the brand centre should be simple and sustainable. Also, the organizational structure of the individual brand centre should be designed to keep it aligned to the organizational structure of the Bank for Foreign Trades in Vietnam. Since the bank is a very large organization with huge number of customers, employees and operates on a high scale and volume, it will be advisable for the bank to establish its brand centre using sufficient human resources and physical resources to ensure sustainability and efficiency of the new department. The bank should employ one CEO for the brand centre. The CEO would manage the brand centre and take the relevant decisions related to the functioning of the brand centre. The bank should employ at least two department heads to manage the activities of the department. The two department heads should be given separate roles and responsibilities and care should be taken to avoid any clash of interest between the two department heads. The other employees should include brand managers, creative artists for designing purposes, software people for website designing and maintenance, customer service executives, front line executives and employees dedicated to promotional activities. The functions and responsibilities of the individual employees should be clearly communicated. The brand centre department would follow a hierarchical structure in which the employees will report to their managers. The number of employees of the brand centre may be at least 120 with 10 employees in each department. 4. Functions and duties of the Department in the brand centre The brand centre should ideally be a repository that contains all the information related to the products and services, capabilities, achievements and facilities provided by the bank. The department of the brand centre would encompass a wide range of responsibilities and functionalities. The multifaceted responsibilities of the various employees would be combined to attain the ultimate objective of brand value creation. The department would work towards providing all the relevant information to the existing customers; create awareness of the brand through various platforms like mass media, social media, advertising and publicity etc. The brand centre would focus on creating an attractive brand image of the bank through proper logos, use of colours, taglines and designs that would perform two-way functionality. The use of these unique factors would create a positive image on the bank on the minds of the customers and also act as a medium to convey the vision, goals and beliefs of the bank. The brand centre would mirror the core strategies adopted by the Bank for Foreign Trade in Vietnam which includes the speed, quality, safety and efficiency factors (Estrin and Meyer, 2004, p.90). The brand centre would help the bank to strengthen the business by improving fund mobilization, wholesale activities, credit activities, service development as well as other activities through the enhancement of the value and awareness of the brand among the consumers in the regional as well as local financial domains. The brand centre would also decide on slogans, print materials, taglines, captions, images and themes to represent and communicate the core philosophy followed by the bank. Since Vietnam is a high context economy, the non-verbal behaviour and the attitudes of the bank as an organization would have more impact on the customers in the country. Therefore, the brand centre should concentrate on understanding the underlying customer behaviours and the cultural context of the country to suitably position the bank in the minds of the consumers. The brand centre should focus on the functional and emotional perspectives of the consumers to establish more brand value for the business. 5. Criteria for the brand centre The brand centre should be set up after analysing the evaluable resources and capabilities in the Bank for Foreign Trades in Vietnam to ensure that the resources can sustain the establishment and continued operations of the department. An effective integration and communication process should be established to support the working of the brand centre. The brand centre should be provided with the facilities, equipment and human resources to make it function effectively (Dawar and Chattopadhay, 2002, pp.457-474). Since the brand centre would have a critical role to play i.e. establish and maintain a positive image of the bank on the minds of the customers, the management and the ancillary departments of the bank should focus on supporting the activities of the brand centre. The brand centre should be placed under experienced department managers who can use their skills and expertise to establish the department as a fully functional and benefit reaping business unit within a short span of time. Also, proper control systems should be incorporated in the brand centre to measure, monitor and periodically review the performance of the brand centre as a separate business unit. The bank should invest sufficiently in the brand centre so as to increase customer retention through positioning the brand on the minds of the customers and delivering more value to the customers (McMillan and Woodruff, 1999, pp.637-658). The bank should facilitate and support the brand centre to become more efficient in its non-verbal communication with the customers. Since, the cost of acquisition of new customers is much higher than the cost incurred in customer retention, therefore, the bank should establish a dynamic brand centre so that the customer retention level is high. In this way the bank can capitalize on the already established vast customer base of the business. 6. Relationship between the brand centre and other departments The brand centre should act in a collaborative manner with the other departments of the bank. A high level of integration of the processes is required between the different departments of the bank and the brand centre for the brand centre to operate efficiently. The brand centre should have the relevant information about the organization and the businesses as well as the relevant processes , activities and results observed in the other departments of the bank including the human resources department, customers service department, sales and marketing department, accounting and finance department and the operations departments. The bank should ensure that a high level of communication and transparency is maintained between all the departments of the bank including the brand centre. The brand centre, when newly established should be supported and guided by the other departments by providing the required information and intimating the department about major changes in practices and processes. Any hindrance in the information flow and other communication between the other departments and the brand centre may have damaging implications on the functioning of the brand centre which in turn may pose much threat to the long established brand name of the bank. The bank should facilitate transparency and improved level of communication between the brand centre and other departments by using the latest information and communication technologies. 7. The other related issues There may be other issues that may be faced in establishing and maintain a brand centre for the Bank for Foreign Trades in Vietnam. The brand centre would need high investments because the department has to remain continuously updated with the changes in the market conditions and regulatory policies in the country. The department would also face the need of being strongly supported by the main business to function efficiently and flexibly adapt to the changing needs of the market. The alignment of the inherent business processes in the Bank for Foreign Trades of Vietnam and that of the brand centre should be properly done. In case of any misalignment between the processes and objectives of the core banking business and the brand centre department, there may be chaos related to the image of the organization which may lead to a loss in the customer base as well as the brand value for the bank. Since brand equity is highly driven by customer loyalty, therefore, the brand centre would have to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in responding adequately to the changing interests and preferences of the customers of the bank. Future plans of the bank are to make green banking without paper work with the adoption of advanced technologies in their banking operations. Conclusion Vietnam has emerged as a mixed economy in which the private and the public players across different sectors play major roles in shaping the economy. The banking sector is a critical contributor to the economy. The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam is the largest bank operating in the country which plays a major role in influencing the directions of Vietnam’s economy. The opportunities and scopes in the country are changing and even the huge organizations like the Bank for Foreign Trade are facing the need to create a sustainable position for themselves in the market. Thus focusing on creating brand value has become a core management strategy for the bank. The changing global landscape brings with it a number of challenges and obstructions for the Bank for Foreign Trade in Vietnam. The most effective strategy to meet these global challenges appears to be proper branding which can be created by brand awareness and recognition, customer loyalty and perceived high quality of the products and services of the bank. The creation and maintenance of a favourable and positive brand image in the minds of the existing as well as potential customers is a continuous process. Therefore, a separate business unit i.e. a brand centre should be ideally established to manage the brand image and values through effective strategies like creating competitive edge and long term profitability by acquiring new customers and retaining old customers and delivering more value to the customers. References Dawar, N. & Chattopadhay, A. 2002. Rethinking Marketing Programs for Emerging Markets. Long Range Planning. Vol. 35(1), pp. 457-474. Estrin, S. & Meyer, K. E. 2004. Investment Strategies in Emerging Economies. Cheltenham: Elgar. Jenkins, R. 2004. Vietnam in the Global Economy: Trade, Employment and Poverty. Journal of International Development. Vol. 16(1), pp.13-28. McMillan, J. & Woodruff, C. 1999. Marketing Distribution in Vietnam. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. Vol. 15(3), pp. 637-658. Meyer, K. E. & Nguyen, H. V. 2005. Foreign Investment Strategies and Sub-national Institutions: Evidence from Vietnam. Journal of Management Studies. Vol. 42(1), pp. 63-93. Read More