VNPBW - Fifth Week in Town
This week is called an experiment week with an unsuccessful online survey and few coffee-interview with some expat friends who are living and working in Vietnam. I found it interesting that in Vietnam a coffee corner would be everything, for everybody and in any styles – it can be a HardRock or Starbuck style, it can be a traditional Vietnamese coffee style and it can be a small street coffee corner. A coffee corner can be part of any life story of Vietnamese people and it goes into many business stories too.
Back with the online survey, thank to a friend who has helped with client data I finally had a list of 50 selected female who are working in media, marketing, finance, tourism, education, IT fields - whom, I think, are more familiar with social media and know about networking concept. I was warned that it won’t work but was still hopeful what I was told has changed. The questionnaire was only 5 Yes-No questions, simple test but no any extra “offer” – what my friends called “priority” for any market survey in Vietnam. They were right, no any feedback after one week. Another lesson - marketers in Vietnam still prefer traditional market survey methods, a survey goes with a promotion campaign or a product launch campaign. There are very few professional market research agencies in Vietnam that I can name such as AcNeilson, TNS, FTA, Cimigo (Vietnamese). I don’t have budget and don’t plan to buy their services and/or data anyway, so back with face-to-face interviews and friend channel & network for this stage.
Another interesting experiment was about Vietnamese traditional women culture. Two week ago, a friend sent me “For Women, Can Too Much Ambition Be Toxic?” article by Jessica Stillman in which she interviewed Marcia Reynolds, the author of “Wonder Women” book. The article disccussed about the raising of “wondering syndrome” in today modern women who are raised to believe they can accomplish anything and they are special. According to this article, the shift in mindset that created the dynamics of the wanderer started in the 1960s when it became more important to raise children with self-esteem than with respect for others (they are both important, but the priority changed). This is the first time in history that girls grew up hearing this message en masse. So now as adults, they feel the need to be seen as special and to accomplish great things — a goal that is never fully achieved because there is always something greater you can do than what you just accomplished. And once you accomplish great things, you still feel hollow inside, so you keep seeking more (Jessica Stillman (July 2010), For Women, Can Too Much Ambition Be Toxic). More specific, Marcia Reynolds said “The best advice I received when I was 20 was that you can lose everything in life at some point, but you never lose who you are. Remind yourself who you are every morning and throughout the day when you begin to feel uneasy, impatient and frustrated” and she wrote “Wonder Women” to help women balance acceptance and ambition. But “the best advice I received when I was 10,20 was that you can lose everything in life at some point, but you should never ever lose your beloved family. Remind yourself every morning that you are no one without your beloved one”. That’s how Vietnamese women are raised. People take that advice differently but most of them take that by putting their family on top of everything as that’s their happiness, their life goal, their success. Interestingly, a friend from USA has asked the same question today that whether it’s better women are raised that way because of the fact that nowadays the rate of divorce is increasing significantly and part of the reasons is many women prefer single life to pursue their carrier, or business, or personal goals…. I believe this question is still an interesting debate for academicians. Another question would be why women can’t do both, implement a woman’s responsibilities and their own dreams? This question doesn’t seem right in Vietnamese women case, at least at this decade. The right question is, in my opinion, they are ambition enough to do that and/or they are inspired and supported enough to do that. And that’s what I am trying to find out.
Think I should wrap it up here. It’s rainy again and Terrace café corner is getting crowded now. The noise of rain, the noise of exciting conversations around, the smell of coffee, the smell of rain and dirt..… life is beautiful still no matter my WEWOMEN platform comes to real or not :) :)
Sunday, July 25.
