Selecting and preparing a product for export requires not only product knowledge but also knowledge of the unique characteristics of each single market that you target. Your market research, especially through field research and through the contacts made with foreign representatives, will give you an idea of which products can be sold in which markets. Before selling, however, you may need to modify a particular product to satisfy buyer tastes or needs in foreign markets, thus creating a unique selling proposition for your products.
Your bestseller: If your company manufactures more than one product, you should start with the one best suited to your targeted market. Ideally, you choose one or two products that fit the market without major design modifications. Make what you’re good at and what you know, inspired by your culture. Make everything as perfectly as you can, especially the finishing.
Quality comes first: The international consumer constantly expects higher quality at a better price, and this expectation leads to re-structuring the medium and low-end market that most of Vietnamese handicraft items belong to. To meet this expectation, even mass merchants upgrade to higher quality, better-designed goods as Chinese factories improve quality and production methods while still keeping prices low. They have set a new quality standard for low priced mass products and have put tremendous pressure on every other market segment to lower prices and improve quality by comparison. Therefore, to position yourself in the marketplace, you should always produce the best possible quality you can, even for inexpensive items. Constantly strive to improve quality.
Different products for different customers: In order to make as much business as possible, Vietnamese handicraft exporters tend to offer everything they produce or source from craft villages to everybody who will buy. This strategy may give you more orders in the short term, but may prove a disadvantage in the longer term. When you (and many other exporters in your area) sell the same things to multiple buyers, the market quickly becomes saturated and oversupplied, and the uniqueness of the products gets lost. As they can be bought in many places, they become more ordinary and are perceived to be less valuable. However, depending on the actual situation, you can consider offering the same products for different markets.
Do not copy from others but develop unique products: For foreign buyers it is easy to find hundreds of websites of Vietnamese handicraft exporters, but often they are disappointed because they do not see much difference in the products offered on the websites. The pictures of products in some websites operated by different producers are exactly the same. Also, when visiting a foreign show, especially in the International Furniture and Handicraft Fair in Hochiminh City, you will find that many stands display the same products. By doing this, Vietnamese producers severely restrain their own competitiveness and that of their fellow producers, because in the end no company will have a unique product.
You should learn the product trends by observing the market but do not copy from them. Try to develop your own products based on your analysis of trends. You can find a lot of finishing patterns from a trade fair, e.g. circles of mother-of-pearl inlaid into lacquered vases, embroidered circles on the pillows and cushions, circles on the wall papers etc.. All of those tell you this: circles can be a trend in the market, and you can apply the “circles” idea to decorate the surface of your ceramic pots in creative way. Designers often collect magazines, and catalogues and make a “catalogue” of finishing patterns to develop their own products, and that is also what you can do to develop your unique products.
The cruder and less unique your product, the more you will be expected to lower your price.
The better your workmanship, the less you will have to negotiate on pricing.
Develop a collection: Home decoration products are fashion items subject to the fast- changing whims of consumers. Consumers buy products they find attractive and which fit to what they already own. It is better to develop a collection of several matching items rather than to try to develop unrelated stand-alone products e.g. a collection for table tops, with a tablecloth, table runner, placemats and coasters. Always bear in mind what the best combination of functional and decorative characteristics of your products can be.
Use professional designers: Fashionable product development is a key pre-requisite for
success, and professional designers are the ones who differentiate your products. And it would even be better if you developed new collections in cooperation with your customers. On the technical side, you know very well what you can make. In addition, your customers know what they can sell, and will be happy to give you design and color information when you have established a trust-based working relationship. Try to combine design advice from your customers with further development by own Vietnamese in-house designers.
Add value to your products: Make your products functional in addition to being decorative. Improve the design and desirability, making useful things fashionable too. A pillowcase is functional and decorative. A pretty box is also useful, it can hold things. Multi- use and reusable things have a higher perceived value. Quality and finishing are most important, even for inexpensive items; you can use several materials or patterns, more than one production technique, or moving parts, in one product.
Adapt your products to the market: It is quite important for your company to adapt products to the geographic and climate conditions that prevail in your target market, and to take the availability of resources into account. Factors such as topography, humidity, and energy costs can affect the performance of a product or even determine its usage. Given the case of spun bamboo articles, which are mainly produced in Cat Dang village, Nam Dinh province - these articles have been exported to many countries all over the world, especially to Germany, UK, France, USA and Japan. Many producers of these articles (vases, boxes, trays...) received complaints from customers because the products cracked in the customers’ stores and showrooms after only a short period of time. The reason for this was the low humidity in the foreign country. To avoid this problem, Vietnamese exporters should apply more treatments to protect the bamboo core from the outside environment, or use some raw fabric to cover the core before lacquering to strengthen its solidity.
The problem of humidity also affects the exportation of wooden articles, especially wooden furniture (chairs, tables, cabinets...). These are produced by exporters or producers in the craft villages who have no advanced treatment (drying) technologies.
In addition to adaptations related to the climate conditions and cultural and consumer preferences, the exporter should be aware that even fundamental aspects of its products may require changing. For example, electrical standards in many foreign countries differ from Vietnamese standards. You cannot find two-hole sockets in the States and your beautiful bamboo lamp with silk shade would be rejected by a US client if you fixed your lamp with a two-pin plug. If you are involved in exporting lighting equipment, you need to install different electrical wires for each country, like CE standard for EU, UL for America, UK for England, PSE for Japan and OVE for Australia, etc.
Understanding the product sales periods: In Japan, the months of March, June, September and December are said to be the period when household goods sell well as gifts. In March they are bought as graduation presents, while in April, they are bought as presents for entering school and for successful job placements and transfers; in June and September, they are given as wedding presents; and in December they are mainly sought as Christmas presents.
Products from craft villages: In many cases you need to source out your production to many households in the craft villages. For large orders that comprise one or two product styles only, you may need to employ just one or two villages, but with thousands of households involved.
For some orders, you need to consolidate products from many craft villages and some of them are not close to each other at all. In any case, you may find that the final products are not consistent in term of shapes, measurements, colors and even finishing patterns.
To ensure the quality of your products, you are always requested to control the quality permanently during the production process and to inspect all products before they are loaded into containers. You should reject all products which are defective or do not match with the approved samples.
It is a matter of fact that, the more you control the production at household level, the less work you have to do at your factory. It is therefore recommended that you make efforts to build the capacity of your producer groups in the craft villages in terms of quality management.
Consider venturing into machine production: With today’s factory production methods, it is possible to produce large volumes of products that have the appearance of hand-made items at very low cost, making it difficult for the average consumer to differentiate between handcrafts and machine made products. It is not the authenticity of the material or the production method that is critical for the consumer; it is what can be done with it in terms of design, what the look is like.
If another material, weave, or production method looks just as good, most consumers will easily be convinced to purchase the item, especially if it costs less. So unless there is a specific design or another feature that is obvious to a western consumer, you will find it very difficult to sell products made with more expensive hand production methods and raw materials. The average consumer cannot tell the difference and just wants to buy the “look”, not the authenticity.
Handmade is more valued in the high end art market, where it adds artistic value.