Tag: Victoria Secret

Spending spree

Right about now. If the economy is going to pick up, authorities should push spending. Credit card spending.

Gadgets are out. Electronic devices miniaturized. Skirts cut shorter even when it says Winter Clothes. Victoria Secret pulled Native American outfit from broadcast. Planned controversy or not, we don’t know. We just know that things are back to its normal pace.g. Windows 8,  I-phone 5 release etc…

With Halloween behind us, Veteran Day being celebrated, what else to look forward to besides Turkey and Tree.

We got the calendar seasons, then we got shopping seasons, but for centuries we live with only a few seasons (until they made up Fall and Autumn).

Seasons are good for the Soul. They roll in cyclically, to remind us there is a rhythm of life: hard times and good times.

Unlike compound-interests chart and monthly bills. These come in under a different chart and graph.

We still respond to seasons in awe: autumn foliage, first snow etc..

When something like Sandy screw up our lives, we are at a loss (blaming it on those new voiture in China and Brazil?)

Meanwhile, those with or without money still have to spend. For loved ones and for oneself.

Gotta get those midget gadgets: i-pod and tri-pod.

Who would find out that our taste for music has been the same for decades? or what content women read on airplanes (E-readers).

Something strange has happened  lately, but then nothing strange has happened lately (covert ops but overt affairs etc…)

Banks and retail stores are still into collecting ROI perentages. And we consumers still fall for it, willingly.

We are creatures of habit and of harmony. We put on warm clothes and winter clothes. We feel a warmth in our hearts when we see Christmas decoration  all around us. We  miss that fireplace scene and the gathering of the faithful. We long to belong and to be home (Train, plane and automobile) . We long for rest and comfort.  The world knows this. It will offer a different version of our hopes and dreams. It will instead offer false hope and unreachable dreams. It will in fact give us the opposite of what we hope for. In the race to embrace our dreams, often times, we have to outsmart those who claim themselves to be dream providers, of essentials that we need like homes, health and happiness. We gotta to own the process of attaining them ourselves. When we do, we will be rooted firmly in that which we can call home, that which anchors our restless feet and soul. True happiness lies in the heart of those who feel content and are not in denial of death, the only reality that matters most. So spend, spend, spend. But keep in mind that those gadgets will be obsolete next year. In their places, are successive versions and newer generations. That’s what keeps us awake at night.

Progress has its pain and price to pay. To stay in the game, one needs to constantly pedal forward and uphill.

Again, I admire people who stay up all night out in the cold for a shopping spree phenomenon we call Black Friday.

Just remember to leave those pepper sprays at home this year. Walmart is trying to outsmart the competitors by opening early. Thanksgiving night as a matter of fact, for your 24/7 shopping need.

Fragmented and segmented

Marketers have had a field day over the last few decades: market fragmented and segmented.

The former is a reality in our pluralistic society. The later, careful study and strategy to go after niche markets.

Microtrend covers this very topic: knitting, teen markets etc…as long as the niche constitutes 1% of the total mass market.

It’s a paradox: while American travel more, buy more online, and outsource more to overseas; foreigners who came FOB ended up clustering in Chinatown, Chicano town etc.. to  insulate themselves culturally.

In my neighborhood, the “turf” and territory have invisible boundaries: one supermarket got turned over from Korean to Chinese owner, both cater to Vietnamese-American.

Next block, you will find a Vietnamese restaurant, struggling to have walk-ins in the middle of a predominantly Hispanic strip mall.

Meanwhile, the “white” folks in mobile-home parks either too old to move away, or couldn’t decide to cash out during the real estate boom (mobile home here was worth more than a house elsewhere), hence missed out the bubble.

Talking about fragmentation.

Being a marketer, mindful of ethnic variety and overseas flavors, I have never stopped being amazed.

Underneath it all, everyone seems to enjoy a loss-leader hot dog at Costco, or Tu-Th Pop Eyes specials.

America and its lowest common denominators.

At the public park, I also notice Asian women still wear hats to avoid skin cancer. No more cone hats (which BTW, were most efficient per material used, heat-preventive and light-weight), but straw and trendy hats Victoria Secret models would wear for summer catalogue.

In short, the process and idea of Americanization is still going strong. New blood are being added daily, if not hourly (at major ports of entry).

But they seem to follow a certain set pattern of acculturation: first outwardly, then internally (bi-lingual households, interracial marriages etc..).

Segmentation divides a map into red/blue states, Southern White, Non-Hispanic White (European American) …Not as easy as just buying a Super Bowl ad, since digital media start taking an increasing larger share of the Ad pie.

In this close election, this point hit home, for the White House or the green house (another micro trend: home-grown organic fresh).

Tales of a Recession

Two men were caught on surveillance camera for stealing $2000 worth of Victoria Secret panties.

http://www.wpbf.com/news/22568081/detail.html

73-year-old Tampa man was arrested last week for robbing a bank to pay his mortgage.

In California, a unionized plumber got laid off, now sleeps in his truck.

When the city of Tustin laid off people, an employee, a Vietnamese man, jumped from the municipal building to his death.

Meanwhile, Congress is doing business as usual (filibustering), among other things, a compromised job bill.

As of this edit, it is shut down (first in 17 years).

A bunch of people are selling their memoirs (“On the Brink”, “Too Big To Fail“, “the Quants“) for fear that a recovery will mean a faded public memory of the fiasco.

At least, there has been a face and a name that went down in history with this uncertain time: Madoff.

Every civilization manages to “crucify” someone for the collective sin we all committed.

With that behind us (Ash Wed is coming up, so it’s fitting to contemplate this morbid human tendency to scapegoat), we can go on pretending life is beautiful.

I could not let news like “students in Central Vietnam got scarred when long-buried bomb exploded” slip by without reflecting on what has been done to that country.

In “Good Morning Vietnam“, we were shown a lush-green rice field shot from a moving helicopter, and the voice track was “It’s a wonderful world” just to underline it with a sense of irony.

I guess during this Recession, a lot of us (1 million Telecom veterans) will never find a job in our field (which no longer exists in the traditional sense- unless we acted young and zany, with a frequent commute between “campuses” by bike like googlers”), job bill or not.

Maybe we should start thinking out-of-the-box. Some men in Florida did. The older one got caught. The other two got away. I bet their adrenaline level was pumping high when finally safe inside their get-away vehicle. Try to recover those V-Secrets loot as “untainted” evidence of a crime.

 

worthless currency

The bus rider paid for the fare in Trillions of Zimdollar. Or else, a live chicken will do.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090816/ap_on_re_af/af_zimbabwe_zimdollar

I experienced this back on May 1st, 1975 aboard a Seventh Fleet warship on the way to Subic Bay (thank you President Ford).

We learned from word of mouth that the South Vietnam currency in our possession (my mom emptied her educator’s life savings two days before) was no longer good! From treasure to trash, educator to invalid.

But the sales guy in me wouldn’t give up. I ended up selling some of those worthless papers to bypassing navy guys in the Bay

for souvenirs (their coins enabled me to buy Coke from the vending machine).

I empathize with the Zimbabwe people. Money is money.

A researcher in Dartmouth also found US paper dollars tainted more with Cocaine (due to Recession stress??) than found 2 years ago.

He must have all the latest instruments for detecting tiny traces of the substance.

I admire University labs. Any TA can come up with a thesis to extend H1B visa.

One interesting finding in the study: Detroit, Boston, Baltimore and DC dollars carry more traces of cocaine than Salt Lake City‘s. It certainly indicates that young Mormon men got sent overseas for two years, thus depleting the potential drug using market in that city.

I would start a bridal service in Salt Lake City in anticipating for these guys’ return to start a Mormon family.

(and my ideal brand extension would be a baby clothing line, not Bath, Bed and Beyond, but Marry, Mummy and Munching).

That is, if they are not back from Zimbabwe. My stores will have to take US dollars , not foreign currency.

It’s hard enough to kick-start another consumer craze in this country, much less receiving Zimdollars for all the Chinese-made goods. Man, since when that things get so difficult yet so simple: start a Christmas in August movement.

At least it’s still hot enough to sell high-margin Victoria Secret summer stuff. Will you take live chicken for that?

P.S. As of this edit, London treasury bank notes are no longer issued in cotton. Instead it’s now in plastic. Signs of the time.