Sawadee Khrab (Hello in Thai)
Greetings from Bangkok. If you’ve never been to Bangkok before, it’s hot as shit.
100+ degrees with 70%+ humidity every day. Oh yes, quite fun.
I’ve been here for about a week now, and it’s quite an amazing place.
You can pretty much do whatever the hell you want to do.
Stop your car in the middle of the freeway because you feel like it? Sure!
Park your car diagonally because you just saw a street food vendor that you GOTTA try at even though there are cars whizzing by 20-30 MPH literally inches away from your parked car? Sure!
Get onto a bus that doesn’t stop all the way (i.e. rolling stop) and hop on hoping that you’d make it into a bus? Sure!
Get a pad thai noodles for a buck, drink beer on the street, and go partying at RCA (Royal City Avenue) with thousands people with zero police security whatsoever while people are throwing water at your face (during songkran) and hot girls are dancing all over the stage? Sure!
It’s the wild wild west here, ladies and gentleman.
If you’re libertarian or republican who believe in zero or little government, come to Thailand. Trust me, after here, you will appreciate bureaucracy and big ass governments.
As an entrepreneur and marketer, even though all this stuff is quite fascinating (since I am a tourist here), this isn’t what’s most exciting.
To me, there are three striking things about Bangkok.
1) It is definitely an up and coming city.
You’ll notice quite a lot of economic progress going on here. Lots of constructions for new buildings, bridges, freeways, and other public works. You can easily find new high rise development next to a row of old dilapidated houses built in. gawd who knows when.
Wouldn’t be surprised if in decade or so, Bangkok becomes a world class city like NYC, Tokyo, or London.
2) Entrepreneurship thrives.
Of course, a street food cart business what most of us (especially those of you reading this blog) find exciting, but for people living on couple of dollars a day and with limited skills, selling food as business is not a bad opportunity.
Most people here aren’t looking for handouts and government welfare checks. They take responsibility for their lives and start businesses, even if they are meager food carts. Even though the competition is stiff, entrepreneurship is thriving here.
Take my host family in Thailand for example.
As a graduate student in US studying English and MBA, she saw a need in US – that hiring skilled nannies cost a lot and because of the differential in the various monetary systems around the world, bringing aupairs internationally would be more cost effective.
The host family in US would literally save thousands over the course of the contract and that the aupair nanny gets to have American education, improve and hone their English skills, and of course, a job.
A win-win situation.
So she started an aupair agency and now her thriving business is expanding internationally and into different niches like study abroad programs now that she’s become a pro in international visa applications.
3) Street vendors are awesome marketers.
Let me elaborate.
If you go to Khao San road (where lots of American and European backpackers go), you’ll notice insanely stiff competition among the vendors for tourists’ dollars.
During songkran (Thai new year) and people are celebrating by chugging water in your face and splattering your face in flour, not only are the tourists out.. but the vendors are also out in droves.
Of course, this means insane competition from each other. Good for consumers, not so great for the merchants.
One striking thing I noticed was how one girl (she was no more than 4-6 years old) got to DOMINATE the ½ block radius she was on. She didn’t sell anything earth shattering: water bottles and cold drinks. But she did manage to draw a HUGE crowd of customers around here while her adult competitors were just doing mediocre.
So how she dominate?
She got on top of a table and SCREAMED her lungs out.
Sure, you can make the argument that a cute little girl trying to sell for her parents is about the cutest thing you can experience as a tourist…. Or that this isn’t really marketing, but she definitely was telling the world what she had to offer.
The sight of her showing so much passion and enthusiasm for what she was doing was mesmerizing.
One thing came to my mind: why don’t I do that?
As marketers and entrepreneurs, we spend hours, days, weeks, and even months learning about the latest marketing trends, SEO/PPC tactics, inbound marketing ideas, etc etc.
But how many of us can actually say that we have the BALLS to get up in front of people and tell them what we have to offer instead of hiding behind a computer screen and hoping that someone would buy our stuff?
Yes, not many.
Getting on top of a tree and telling the world what you have to offer – you might say it’s so primitive, but you can’t deny – it is effective.
Next time, you see a fully grown man screaming “for saleâ€, don’t blame him. He probably just read this post.
songkran sounds like so much fun!!! hope I get to experience it one day
Totally recommend it. 5 days of nationwide, insanely fun party
all i know about Bangkok is what I learned from the hangover II
That’s like saying people outside of US know all about America watching Baywatch and eating McDonalds
that was awesome. good read. seems so simple yet so many people are too afraid to actually stand up and scream to the world what they have to offer.
Thanks Antoine.
Im learning as well. Why be afraid to sell… Be like the little girl and Jeremy. Tell people what you got to offer!
its hard to scream out to the world what you have to offer when you are marketing online and to the world as a whole instead of a street full of people. but a great idea
i guess one good thing about not having the government that we do is that people aren’t sitting around waiting for a hand out!
jumping on to a rolling stopped bus?? sounds exciting. and very dangerous.
i don’t think I could live there with the lack of structured rules. being an American born citizen has made me more comfortable with government breathing down my neck
Good old freedom vs. security debate, i guess…
the humidity sounds horrible but at least there are people throwing water in your face
love the picture of the guy in front of the coke posters! He’s definitely putting out there what he has to offer.
Looks like I have to go to Thailand.
Never Go to Thailand!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04jJWHpJlcM
asdasd
You should attend a
clickminded – an seo course so that you can also share it with other SEO beginners.
Yeah, it’s hot here, but awesome. I love living here.
You always have some of the funniest pictures!
That place seems wayyyyy too crazy for me..
Well after seeing Hangover II and reading this I just gotta visit Bangkok some time haha
Props to that little 4 year old!
amen brother
Is that the car you drove while you were there? I like it..
For some reason this reminds me of the hangover ;0
Have never been to Bangkok but would love to visit sometime soon! How long are you there for?
I agree with you. Bangkok is growing and they are really smart over there. They are evolving faster than I thought they would
We have a local food vendor around us here and I really think it would be a great idea for them to have a app that would tell people where they are located for the day especially if it is your fav one
Great post! Love food vendors and I can tell you their margins have to be outrageous
That aupair site is really impressive. Great idea and there is definitely a need for that in the US. What better way to have an experience over here learn english and get PAID
Yeah it’s great
She’s expanding operations to US and Canada.
Actually.. the REAL beneficiary of aupair is not the aupair him/herself… it’s actually the host family. They save tens of thousands of dollars AND get to have international/cultural experience for their kids without going anywhere.
Usually the aupairs are college educated (and sometimes even those w/masters) folks who want to be immersed in English speakign country to improve their English (for “free”).. not necessarily to make money. Even for Thai people’s standard, $250-300/week ain’t much…
New brilliant ideas sometimes only can be learned in the strange time and on the strange place! 🙂
How do you get that guy to post for you? Now that is hilarious
I havent been to Thailand,sounds like I have to experience your post by myself there soon. Thanks mate for such interesting post.
I think I should visit Thai at least four to five times in my Life!
If you can make it selling off the sidewalk in Bangkok you can pretty much make it anywhere
[…] months since I arrived in Thailand (you can read about my Thailand inspired marketing ideas here, here, and […]
[…] months since I arrived in Thailand (you can read about my Thailand inspired marketing ideas here, here, and […]
[…] I learned about TRUE marketing from a 4 year old Thai girl http://www.shoemoney.com/2013/05/08/how-i-learned-about-true-marketing-from-a-4-year-old-thai-girl This could be the world’s best way to compound your wealth […]