Brand and business culture seen from the story of Obama's vermicelli with grilled pork

(Baonghean) - Since the event of US President Barack Obama eating bun cha and drinking Hanoi beer on the evening of May 23, 2016, at the bun cha Huong Lien restaurant, Le Van Huu street, Hanoi, this restaurant immediately became a media hotspot with the new brand "Bun cha OBama".Every detail of everyday life is thoroughly exploited, impartially or professionally, with a purpose, and is of interest to readers, shared with interest.

The market response was so quick that the number of customers entering this restaurant skyrocketed; the line of people queuing up to wait their turn to enter the restaurant reenacted the popular commercial shopping scene during the subsidy period, although it was rare and "strange" in the current market economy. Western, Japanese, Korean tourists... even found inspiration to stand and take selfies outside the restaurant.

Domain names related to bun cha, such as bunchaobama .com .net .vn and .org have been formed and become new commodities traded with attractive profit opportunities in the social network market... On Google, "there are more than 150,000 search results related to the keyword "Huong Lien bun cha"; over 250,000 results related to "Obama bun cha" and about half a million results related to "bun cha".

The image of President Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain in a bun cha restaurant in Hanoi was promoted by Anthony Bourdain on his personal Facebook page. Photo from the Internet

Even thanks to the event of US President Obama eating bun cha in Hanoi, some restaurants abroad also enjoyed "a lot of luck" by serving "Obama's favorite dish" right in their local area, the number of meals of this type sold increased and of course at higher prices.

A golden opportunity opens up for Vietnamese folk dishes and for the press and media.

It is worth mentioning that the owner and staff at Huong Lien restaurant still politely maintain their traditional business culture, not taking advantage of the situation to overcharge or increase prices. The chairs and dining table that President Obama used were also enthusiastically chosen by customers, but they were not more expensive than other tables and chairs. However, this restaurant did not forget to remind customers, the new menu on the wall added "com to bun cha Obama", the TV screen continuously showed a photo of the US President taking a photo with the restaurant owner and a photo of Mr. Obama eating noodles here, there was even a polite sign apologizing to customers for waiting because the restaurant was overloaded...

The image of the US President - the most powerful man in the world and always the center of media attention, so even just a side activity during his visit to Vietnam has decided the popularity of a new brand beyond expectations.

This shows how important a brand is and how businesses need to build, promote, maintain and exploit the brand as a driving force for development and strong competition. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to building a common brand for the country and region, in addition to the brand for individual businesses and unique products.

Building and developing product brands, corporate brands, and regional brands are all part of Vietnam's national brand building and development activities. While businesses need to focus on investing in brand image, brand personality, brand message, etc., building regional brands requires attention to brand positioning and communication.

In particular, pay attention to exploiting "specialty factors" that create differentiation or natural advantages of the locality to build a common image for the region; constantly upgrade the quality and design of products and services to meet market demand and be associated with pride, self-respect and indigenous cultural values, subtly conveyed through continuous innovation and creativity in the production and business process, helping to create useful surplus values ​​and bring sustainable development to the enterprise.

The "Obama Bun Cha" restaurant is always crowded. Photo: Internet

Breakthroughs in high-tech agriculture, first of all in preservation, ensuring the quality and transportation time of post-harvest products, while modernizing and upgrading commercial civilization, paying attention to building and developing regional brands, overcoming the situation of selling in bulk, without packaging, labels, brands without posters, introduction posters... are new driving forces, opening up new opportunities, new expectations for fruits, key agricultural products and for the entire agricultural sector, as well as each locality of Vietnam in the integration period...

Dr. Minh Phong