Tag: Starbucks

Mac Miracle

My friend kept listening to Roger Waters‘ It’s a Miracle, whose lyric includes “they’ve got MacDonald in Tibet“.

Now, they’ve got MacDonald in Vietnam. More miracle!

Thomas Friedman put a spin on an old geo-political theory, which states that any two countries, with a MacDonald,

are least likely to engage in an arm conflict. In this latest case, it already happened. Next week, the two heads of States will meet up in Washington (fries or egg rolls?)

It’s been a long long road, from running girl (napalm) to running man (Arsenal).

In between, we got a bunch of walls (from Memorial Wall to moving wall) and a bunch of bridges.

From feeling betrayed to being bridged.

Ray Kroc would have been proud: shake shake shake, shake your conveyor milkshake.

Tourists would find a cocoon: coffee at Starbucks and a miracle at MacDonald (want fries with it?).

Modernization and urbanization are here to stay.

The last pitch is ” for here or to go”?

Industrial world wins out, to the last drop of ketchup (Heinz) in the bag.

Squeeze it!

Fast food, slow burn.

I am proud then I am sad.

It’s a miracle, yet it doesn’t feel exhilarating.

After all, it’s 2013. Countries are exploring space travel in Mars.

Colonization itself has found new frontier in outer space.

And we can barely find a clean bathroom here on Earth.

With machine-like efficiency, people raise expectations: like, yesterday.

Consistency, predictability and value. In short, brand value.

Hooters itself is having a make-over. With every new “convert”, its chain finds its renewed commitment to core values.

The frontier might not look that promising, but it’s important to its founders and its faith: that its multiplier effect will pay off. And with its new location, new customer life-time value, the brand is strengthened and not threatened.

Growth is not only the result of health. It’s necessary. It’s miracle, yet it’s natural. Anyone can shake the milk, cook the beef and fry the potato. But not all can maintain a clean bathroom, and the consistency of billions hamburgers served.

The Golden Arch will be here (yellow on red is just a co-incidence). It’s another miracle in a series of modern-day event. I fear for the ice cream stores nearby. Can’t beat the value of vanilla on cone, for just under a buck. Fully A/C.

I forwarded the announcement to my friend, hoping the next time he put on “It’s a miracle”, he would think of me,

his repat friend, in search of clean restroom and true miracle in modern age.

Continuous Improvement

Before Telecommuting and Online Retailing,  we got Management by Walking Around .

Then the gurus told us to “re-engineer” the corporation (Japanese influence).

Then, Toyota was on the roll with Continuous Improvement (Al Gore was buying into this when trying to re-invent the US Government). True to its form, Toyota continuously improves its R&D, from EV racing to 3-wheel concept EV. The Prius has established itself as the category leader.

If you don’t re-invent, someone else will (the Innovator’s Dilemma).

In fact, Steve Jobs did a great job at breaking the vicious cycle with 99 cents per song proposition, knowing that disruption would be followed by destruction (of the music industry).

Once again, we learn that corporations are sitting on their war chests full of cash.

They are looking to buy small and promising competitors, often times, to eliminate “disruption” in one fell swoop.

The big guys’ version of Continuous Improvement is Continuous Consumption, pac-man style.

From a Marketing standpoint, Hyundai and Kia have done a great job gaining traction and acceptance.

This is when GM, VW and other car makers all try to make a comeback in the face of pent-up demand (Recession hesitation).

Not only technology leapfrogs, consumers also buy in to the latest and greatest e.g. Galaxy IV.

More gadgets, more interconnection and integration.

From home to car to the office (even at those third places like Starbucks).

There will be a generation of consumers who take broadband for granted (reminds me of those pin ball machines, a 70’s must-have for off-campus hangouts).

Putting it all together. Companies need to continuously improve their products, services and ways to reach their target markets.

Buyers look for a positive experience, both on and off-line. Here is where the classic text, Influence, counts: social proof, consistency and scarcity.

When the Tesla is in back order, it’s a good sign (scarcity). So is the Prius (consistency). Before we know it, those with the guts to go for the Gold win e.g. full plug-in after trying hybrid cars(EV still needs critical mass -or Social Proof to be validated). With those war chests, I am sure companies can now afford to leap-frog their R&D knowing in their guts that there is a price for everything, including in-action. Even if you do nothing, just sitting on the track, you will likely be run over by a train. Kaizen.

Value Added

JC Penney “sales managers” are told to pack up, and get back in line to apply for their direct reports’ jobs.

Yahoo people back to the office.

And Best Buy mobile Geek Squad are told to park out back and get in the office as well.

Big-box retailers are suffering and pinching pennies.

The flip side of this tory is the rise of Amazon and other online retailers.

So consumers are still buying. Just not from traditional stores as much (auto parts are also sold online).

Maybe Pet.com can try again 12 years after the crash.

As long as you seek to “pour your heart into it” (It here refers to the Starbucks coffee cup), people can sense it.

The VAS effect.

Human empathy, listening and connecting.

Win-win value proposition.

Yes, I know how you feel. There has been one thing after another: the threat of annihilation, of elimination and of inflation.

We thank you for your patronage, knowing you have other choices.

Just to illustrate the power of a positive experience.

When I first saw Woodstock footage in my cousin’s theatre, I never forgot Ten Years After.

The solo guitarist has just died at the age of 68. But sure enough, he had made lasting impressions beyond ten years after  I saw the film.

Not only satisfied customers remember the VAS effect, they go about telling others (customer turned advocate). Hence, customer service closes the loop (Marketing-Sales-Service–Word-of-mouth marketing).

Remember to go beyond the sales, beyond deliverable, to complete customer’s buying experience. Good impressions last for years after.

New Context New Narrative

When Starbucks opened its first store in Saigon, it must have been a big blast.

Centrally located, visibly in-your-face, upscale e.g. wifi and air-conditioned.

Early stage.

When I had my cup of Starbucks, like this morning, in a Virginian Mall, there was no fanfare, no fuss.

Late stage.

Same store and story (pour your heart into it) but in different contexts.

Geographical expansion, and brand extension (more international e.g. Starbucks on the Allure).

With each new day, we add-on to our narratives new twists and turns with challenges in between.

The story of Starbucks as a brand, or the stories of our lives as biographical history, both evolve and encompass elements outside of our control.

Good to great stories require comparable-in-size conflicts.

But for many of us, ambition and adventure are better lived out by actors on the screen than us on the street.

Still, experiencing the tranquility of an enclosed Mall vs the bustling round-about near Ben Thanh Market, I felt out of context.

My body is here, overcoming jet lag. But my mind still replay the sound and sight of Vietnam (where people obviously don’t need a coat or jacket).

I know the iced latte is more popular there, while in Virginia, in the winter, it’s the opposite.

And the tip? That remains to be seen.

To top it all, my sister ran into an old American GI who had been in Da Nang and Hue 44 years ago.

He couldn’t stop talking about his experience back in Nam.

Had he stayed on and waited long enough there, he wouldn’t have to come back across the world, in new context, for that cup of coffee.

I am sure when he first returned 44 years ago, he would have felt the same. The body is here, adjusting. But the mind is else where.  That’s how we are: facing similar set of challenges from the outside, but the interior reservoir and responses are different. It makes us different and unique. It is that pause, however long, between stimulus and response, that defines who we are e.g. Walmart door opens on Black Friday (stimulus), people push and jump for stampede (response).

Same Starbucks, two different localities. East vs West. “And now, the end is near, final curtain…. ” In our own way, each of us is a Star in this Starbucks universe. They can recreate the franchise anywhere, but there is only one you, in or out of context but only one narrative. Own it. Celebrate it and don’t forget to share it. Your personal brand is un-franchisable. It rocks!

Go a bit more native

In 2000, after 25 years of being away, I made a short trip back to Vietnam.

What a culture shock (especially when I landed in Hanoi, where I had only heard about).

Twelve years. A dozen trips later. A little deeper into the alleys and byways.

I think I have touched on different parts of the proverbial Elephant.

Vietnam now has malls that are as sterile as the ones in the States (on weekdays).

The first Starbucks is having its soft-opening.

Raybans, I-phones and Vespas are as common as the remaining rice fields.

French colonial presence is confined in the centres with boulevards and sidewalks (just like in Cote d’Ivoire). But urban sprawl doesn’t stop there.

At the outskirts of Saigon, shops after shops compete for retail customers.

Fresh flowers are shipped in from the highland just in time for Tet celebration.

Coffee shops with Wi-fi serve up tea to go with coffee (East and West blended).

When you see a bunch of well-dressed Asian get off a bus, you know they are APEC tourists.

Or else, backpackers would try to hopelessly blend in with flip-flops and shorts. Lonely Planet. I read that guide on my first trip. Now, I rely on instincts and instructions from my taxi and scooter drivers.

Like any city, Saigon is divided into various social strata The upper crust lives behind iron-gates and tinted Mercedes.

Everyone else, crowded flats and scooters, wearing required helmets and optional surgical masks.

Fortune are made and lost here. One bubble after another. 1997 and 2008.

Not as severe as in Thailand. But the poor have always suffered, below the radar. They will probably continue this trajectory for a while, even with more foreign investments. With brands like Nike, Intel, Starbucks, KFC and Jabil , change is undeniably in your face.

Vietnam has grown out of the “war” box. It has evolved into an emerging market and “Happy” country (behind only Costa Rica). It is worth visiting and studying.

While people are increasingly materialistic, that alone is not what makes them  happy. Perhaps with the right mix, one can be content.

Let’s not forget, people do share the spoil, which makes them materialistic, but not yet individualistic.

To give is more blessed than to receive. But not for long since the mono-chronistic, individualistic and modernistic cultures are invading, and people start putting up fences and walls. Fences make good neighbors, as Frost put it.

But it also slices away those invisible connections people are born into for centuries, before the French, the American, the Russian and the APEC people arrived under the pre-text of global village. In truth, what do we know about life in a village? I certainly don’t. The US arm forces didn’t. Nobody did, except the people who had lived there, and now are living in the city. They too wouldn’t tell (I found “After Sorrow” by Lady Borton quite informing).  While I try to go a bit more native, they went the opposite (urbanized). Somewhere in between, we cross-path like two ships in the night. Oh, don’t forget to bring cash if you want to go a bit more native.

Retreat, retrench and return

40 years on since the last US combat boots pulled out of Vietnam.

Today, Starbucks lady returns, luring passer-by amidst the town square. Senator Kerry is getting his confirmation while a 40-year-old Vietnamese couldn’t tell an American from a Russian.

Vietnam is just a name, like Iraq will be 4 decades from now.

Vietnam today has Vespas (Italy), Mercedes (Germany), Honda (Japan), Kia (Korea), Haier (China) and La Vache qui Rit (France).

I enjoy reading translated literature from all over the world (sometimes direct translation without going through English).

40 years on.

The cyclos used to be common. Now they are relics of the past, confined to tourist districts only.  Machine is replacing muscles.

Then we buy gym memberships to exercise those sedentary muscles.

Talking about machine. News have been trickled in from BRIC nations: clubs from Russia and Brazil were burning (smoke machines for real, not just for special effects). The flip side of prosperity. Just like crime rates have been down  in NYC (people went online instead of walking the streets. 60% search inquiries were porn).

Home alone with hormones.

It’s easy to look at a poverty-stricken nation and make moral judgment (while a convict in developed nations would wear suits-and-tie sitting on the defense side of the bench, trying to deceive the jury just as he had done with thousands before).

40 years of regress and progress (Watergate to Bill Gates).

Good-hearted folks can’t help but see poor ROI the US have spent on arms.

Russia at least refused to play Russian roulette, so instead of pushing ICBM‘s, its leader went private, pushing Pizza (Hut).

We are evolving into a post-hardware era: software and soft power.

Those with thought leadership and social influence rule. And not for long.

Think not of the pyramid model. Instead, it is a kaleidoscope which keeps changing (the good side of this is if we can reinvent ourselves, we can reappear multiple times, like associates in Cirque du Soleil).

I am glad to see Starbucks here. I heard it is also opened in Forbidden City.

If Friedman is right (two nations are least likely to be at war when both have a McDonald) then perhaps Vietnam and China can avert another conflict, over coffee. American quintessential Starbucks coffee.

Clearing the deck

In about ten days, the world will see an exodus of millions. Chinese New Year.

Workers and students on The Last Train Home.

First day of the New Year (Snake) will be dedicated to ancestors e.g. visiting their graves or wherever the family altar happens to be.

From then on, neighbors visiting neighbors, catching up on latest gossips.

Saigon is about to be emptied out. Students have just finished their exams.

Workers party on with co-workers while try to save up for their home-bound trips.

Companies pay out bonuses. Not nearly enough. Hard times.

Money from the common pot, just changing hands.

Even Vietnamese American from overseas try to find an envy seat on those East-bound flights.

Back in 1975, some of them got experience, but at the opposite direction.

This herd-like movement is as predictable as the Muslim and Hindu pilgrims.

However, their sons and daughters have changed. More adapting to city landscape  and playground, with more mobile phones and supermarkets.

Even clubbing, an urban phenomenon, now a common practice in second and third-tier towns.

Parents put up one last-ditch effort to hold on. Who want to be an empty-nester!

Where have their children gone? Eyes glued to the screen, racing against the machine (virtual combatant).

This is not the first time parents learn to let go.

But it’s the first generation of parents who fail to understand the force of modernity whose grips are so strong on their fast-growing children.

We used to place blames on cultic figures (Jim Jones) or gang leaders (Hearst syndrome) who gather and garner followers.

Now, who can prosecute animation and urbanization.

A force of change here,  an adoption there. Before you know it, kids are strangers in their own homes.

They want to connect as they used to. But have lost the keys.

Alienation and estrangement. Celluloid and chip set. Instruments of change, but also instruments of divide.

I am glad people still go home each year. Keep them sane. When seeing yourself in the faces of others of common genes set, you can’t help questioning yourself.

No one comes out a winner. It’s not a race. Modernity and machine just keep going unstoppable. Up to us to regulate our internal filters and rate of adoption.

Last Train Home. There might be both blessings and curses awaiting at the last stop. Ironically, the symbol is that of a snake, which keeps you guessing, and sweating at the edge of your seat.

The things they still carry

The war novel with similar title was surprisingly good. I have known about it for a while, but couldn’t get myself to “carry” it home. Until now. Until it’s translated into Vietnamese.

It’s the opposite of reading Bao Ninh‘s The Sorrows of War in English.

Both novels had the same setting, same period, same conflict, same ending (went down with whatever they were carrying, on their bodies and on their minds).

Sorry winner and lucky loser.

All the while, the sound track for that same period was Proud Mary (you don’t have to worry, for people are happy to give).

In The Things They Carried, supplies were chopper-ed in (chocolate, cigarettes and C-rations). The military industrial complex was “happy to give”, from Hartford, from MN etc…

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river.

I could barely get through the first few chapters, reading about the members of this fictitious company as they went down, with the things they carried (one of them even carried sleeping pills – for eternal rest).

We can now look back, with recognized names like J. Kerry, J. Fonda etc… at a  safe and rational distance, away from the heat of Kent State and Watergate and My Lai.

I have seen the things people here in VN carry, on their shoulders, on their scooters.

But inside, unless they sit down and tell me, the hidden things that they still carry are scary.

Those with vivid memories are dying one by one, on both sides of the Pacific.

We got scholarly volumes and doctrine (Powell) on the conflict.

And we eventually got Burger King and Dunkin here in VN. It’s like the tunnel is finally closed  with sign which says “Go away, leave the past alone”.

For here or to go?

It’s Future Land now. Happy Land. Disney Land. Dream Land. It has to be.

Yes. Young students carry a lot with them today: book bags, smart phones,  eye glasses, cigarettes, lighters, even IDs. No dog tags. No Zippos. No memories.

Just a bunch of “nic’s” and passwords. Everything is in the Cloud. On Facebook. On Drop Box and Mail Box.

To search for them. Easy. Just Google. In Vietnamese, or English. No translation needed. Sorrows of War or The Things They Carried. Instant access.

Perhaps that war, Vietnam that was, was the last  “hardware-driven” conflict.

No wonder, the things they carried, seemed awfully heavy and burdensome when viewed from a light-weight I-pad.

Saigon vs Little Saigon

Burger King near the heart of Little Saigon, Westminster, CA is now closed.

Burger King at Tan Son Nhut Airport is now opened.

Just one of the many striking contrasts e.g. scooters vs wheels nation.

Skin coffee vs alley coffee, homeless folks vs lottery-ticket sellers.

On and on. People in Saigon have a vague notion of what their fellow countrymen are doing in Little Saigon. They saw it on Music Video.

They heard it second-hand via tourists (often consisted of inflated tales of infidelity or gender role reversal). Entertainers have found inspiration and served as in-betweeners.

Instead of setting city folks against country folks, contemporary comedy focuses on overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu)  searching for suitable wives. Sometimes, with the help of  a matchmaker (equivalent of head hunter in the working world).

The cultural gap widens when the prospective groom is from Taiwan or Korea.

But it also exists with Viet Kieu, who grew up in N America or Europe.

He could use the chopsticks, speak a few lines of greeting “Chao Bac”, but he also works out at the gym and drinks Corona instead of Ken (Heineken).

If he chooses Mexican foods over Vietnamese, he definitely is from Little Saigon, and not Saigon.

Saigon now has cappuccino and espresso bars, while Little Saigon just wants to offer Cafe Sua Da and Rau Muong.

Someday, the twain shall meet at Starbucks.

For now, both like AE brand (XS size) and everyone loves Hollister.

California Dreaming still.

The strength of Little Saigon lies in its flexibility and fluidity (to and fro both worlds), while Saigon itself, is rooted in colonial French and rich history of openness and optimism.

One doesn’t spend much on room and board in Saigon. Just put on something hip, and hit the town.

Again, if they were to order Mexican, you can tell they are from Little Saigon.

Go Chipotle and Corona.

Mountains and mole hills

It’s not that safe at Safeway, if you decided to munch on one of their merchandise (eat-now, pay-later vs pay-now, eat-later), as one pregnant Honolulu tourist found out.

http://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-mom-says-sandwich-arrest-horrifying-214407004.html

We learned in this AP article that no one stopped to say,” this has been taken far enough” i.e. we have made mountains out of mole hills.

If only the SEC regulators got the same zeal!

Still, property loss (especially eatable ) stirred more passion than job loss, until the author of “Pour your heart into it” decided to address it, $5 at a time.

Starbucks‘ Chairman decided to aggregate all the “Brother can you spare a dime” signs on a full-page NYT ad. “It costs a lot to look cheap”, says Dolly Parton. One unintended consequence of Occupy is regular homeless can blend in with Ivy League grads in tent cities (I was involved with mobile soup kitchen in wintry Boston, so I had some exposures to the brutal NorthEast weather).

Speaking of weather, it rained yesterday on the trick-or-treat parade.

It rained on policies which had tried to revamp the economy. One bright spot: Target which had some success with Cheap-Chic campaign, already set its Black Friday opening at zero hours.

Synchronize your watch!

I am sure our First Lady would want to pencil that in.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, they found “Abels” in Cain‘s closet.

The nail that sticks up must be hammered down.

There will be many more debates to contest and contrast, but not conceal.

The Huntsman’s daughters are also out on their own campaign (Remember Scott Brown‘s daughters? Or McCain‘s and Cheney’s?) I am seriously thinking of  stapling my daughters’ pics to my CV.

Use all your resources.

Follow the money.

And forget not your fellow-men.

If they stole, it was their fault.

But if many had nothing but to steal, then it’s our fault.

Once in a while, I went on YouTube and clicked on “He ain’t heavy, He is my brother”. It brought back memories of my time in Junior High, watching upper class men perform in Talent Show. Those guys went on to excel in school and in society.

They showed us what loyalty meant (defending your school honor and one another), what patriotism meant (losing lives and limps), and what winning meant (together and not being a lone wolf).

That song got a long tail and a lot of mileage (reaching 2 million hits). It was popular at the time when the nation refused to acknowledge its enlisted men. Yet, less than a decade later, in pardoning bigger crooks, they made mole hills out of mountains.

Somewhere, someone ought to stop and say “this has gone far enough” instead of waiting for justice from the Nine, while the 99 felt left out.  That “someone” was somewhere else, certainly not in Honolulu and not at Safeway at the time of the incident.

P.S. As of this edit, Safeway dropped the charge, but the offenders were still banned from shopping at Safeway for one year (start counting the day!!!).

http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-safeway-drops-sandwich-theft-charges-022842086.html  Wonder if there were a Vietnamese sandwich shop (Banh Mi Ba Le) where they get a bite?