VietNamNet Bridge - While Bun cha Huong Lien and Habeco have been taking full advantage of US President Obama’s visit to the shop and the use of Bia Ha Noi to boost sales, Vinamilk has kept quiet, though its bottled water ICY was used by US delegates. 

Vinamilk ICY was officially used at official meetings with US delegates.

In Hanoi, ‘Bun cha Huong Lien’ is now called ‘Bun cha Obama’, as it was the bun cha shop where the US President had dinner on the first day of his visit to Vietnam.

The shop has become so crowded that many Hanoians complain on their Facebook that they cannot book a table on ordinary day. 

Meanwhile, a local newspaper reported that customers, instead of ordering separate dishes, always order ‘a serving for Obama’, i.e they want to taste what Obama ate that evening.

Buu Dien, an ICT news website, reported that nearly all the domain names with the key word ‘bunchaobama’ (bun cha Obama) have been registered

Bun cha Huong Lien and Habeco have been taking full advantage of US President Obama’s visit to the shop and the use of Bia Ha Noi to boost sales.

Bunchaobama with the suffixes of ‘.com’, ‘.net’, ‘.vn’ and ‘.org’ were bought quickly, and the domain names now cost much more than the initial price.

On Google, searching with the key word ‘bun cha’ brings more than 1 million results. Meanwhile, only 500,000 results show for searches with ‘pho’. 

Nguyen Duc Son, a branding expert, commented that Obama’s use of Bia Ha Noi has brought a golden opportunity to Habeco, the owner of the brand, to boost sales amid the big difficulties it is facing.

A report showed that in 2015, Habeco allocated VND256 billion to its advertisement budget, which was just equal to 1/5 of that of Sabeco, which owns Bia Sai Gon and 333 beer brands. 

A source said that a Habeco’s representative came to Bun cha Huong Lien Shop to buy the bottle of beer Obama drank. However, the representative was late. 

A member of the TV culinary show of chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, who ate with Obama, got the empty bottle.

However, Habeco has taken other moves to take full advantage of the golden opportunity.

It has cooperated with the bun cha shop to hang the pictures of Obama using Bia Ha Noi and the pictures of the US President at the Hanoi Convention Center where he said he had eaten delicious dishes such as bun cha and Bia Ha Noi

Meanwhile, no media campaign has advertised ICY, the drink officially used at official meetings with US delegates. This was surprising as Vinamilk is a big conglomerate and always allocates big budget to ad campaigns. 


CV