Brand value has been well recognised among Vietnamese companies in today’s global business environment. But how to select a proper brand building model that fits the enterprises’ resources is still a major issue.

After many years of consulting on branding in Vietnam, Masso Consulting (MSC) has gained experience in applying international branding models in Vietnam’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). MSC has concluded that there isn’t any international model that is suitable for Vietnamese enterprises without adjustment. As a result, MSC has defined the need for establishing a branding model that is more appropriate with Vietnamese enterprises’ special characteristics. This has to meet two requirements: (1) be simple but comprehensive, ensuring the integration of international branding theories and models; (2) be specific but highly generalised and be realistic and easy to implement. Masso Consulting has built its own branding model, called LIP. 

L: Leader’s commitment (L stands for Leadership): In order to build a strong brand, leaders, starting with the CEO and Board of Directors (BOD), have to understand correctly and fully about brand equity and management, then commit to lead the organisation in a continuous attempt to build a brand. More than others, enterprise leaders are the people who understand their organisation’s condition and vision thoroughly, so the strategic decisions of the BOD play an important role in brand development.

Accurate and comprehensive understanding by managers and the BOD as well as their commitment are considered the very first step before they implement any brand-related activities. Incorrect understanding leads to missing investment opportunities in brand equity building, while little understanding of brand management decreases investment effectiveness. Only after the BOD has defined their leading role in building procedures and committed to the task can branding be successful. 

I: Branding strategy and standard branding identity (I stands for identity strategy). A consistent positioning strategy accompanied by a comprehensive brand identity, simply stating the soul (content) and the body (appearance images), is the second vital condition. The soul (content) component includes vision, mission, core value, brand positioning, and brand characteristics, all of which follow an enterprise throughout its life, acting as competitive advantages that differentiate it from its competitors. The defined “core content” is the base for building appearance images. The body (appearance image) - graphic design, colour, logo - are standardised in “Brand Identity”, which plays an essential role in expressing the brand consistently and professionally. 

P: Perception and participation of customers and concerned parties - staff, stakeholders - in branding (P stands for Perception & Participation). This last goal for any brand is to create a good perception then a tendency to use/purchase and become loyal to one brand among a range of competitors. If a company has an excellent branding strategy but lacks know-how to transfer this outside, its target customers and concerned parties will never know and experience the corporate brand. The most important thing here is how to communicate the brand’s identity strategy outside. The answer is communication via marketing components (Ps), including communications/advertising, product, placing (distribution), price, person, with high consistency.

Regarding communications/advertising, there is a need to implement Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). All communications activities need to be integrated and highly synchronised, meaning that companies must have a clear pre-implementation communication strategy, such as: What do we say? Who do we talk to? When will we talk? etc. Moreover, the communication strategy must be based on the brand identity strategy, to express the brand characteristics in a cohesive way, to have the best effect. 

From management’s perspective, branding needs to be executed through many steps: strategy, executing and auditing. In order to answer questions about whether the brand is correctly perceived by the target segment or whether there is a gap between strategy and perception, companies must frequently measure perception and participation of customers and concerned parties - staff and stakeholders. 

The implementation of the LIP model by enterprises can be summarised as follows. First is the issue of a brand audit - both internally and externally. This step is usually supported by marketing research techniques, including customer/consumer analysis and competitive and internal analysis. Collected information is then used in analysis for strategy building. 

Second is a consulting workshop for leaders (leadership). MSC usually holds consulting workshops with full participation of enterprise leaders, BODs and related parties, with the aim of helping them to understand correctly and fully branding equity, brand management and specific implementation in their enterprise’s own context, which mobilises agreement on leading roles and investment decisions in branding. Third is the building of a brand identity strategy. Based on the collected information and analysis, the consulting workshop helps Masso Consulting and enterprises’ leaders agree upon a brand identity strategy.  

MSC’s consulting workshops not only introduce strategy and implementation but also enhance capability, update knowledge and agreement in the BOD during implementing procedure. The special characteristics of this consulting form are the bi-direction conversation and implementation tailored for each enterprise. Brand’s visual identity design. After agreeing upon the content of brand identity strategy (“the soul”), the creative team works out different creative/design options on the basic approved identity strategy. The consulting team will work closely with designers and clients to ensure the visual identity reflects its contents. 

Building integrated marketing communication strategy (IMC). Approved brand identity strategy is followed by (i) integrated marketing communication to create perception in target customers’ mind, and (ii) recommended marketing mix (Ps). In branding, MSC considers related marketing activities to be important in implementing the brand identity strategy. Even though the LIP model doesn’t go into detail about marketing activities, the Ps components (product, price, place and people) must be consistently aligned with the brand identity strategy.