Traffic light hustle

These guys sidle up to your open windows and engage you by showing you pages from a book filled with various car listings in the hopes of piquing your interest. Couldn't engage with them, but I'm assuming they get a commission for each car customer they manage to hook. On this page, a quintet of (relatively) affordable and practical Nissan Tiida's on one page, with a mixed bag of Jags and Audis on the opposite page - lots of interesting stuff to unpack about the relatively unformed impressions of various car brands. For example, remember the stories about the clever folks bringing Jags in over the Thai border and claiming they were not luxury cars but rather on par with, say, Toyota or Nissan, in order to avoid paying such hefty duties? Consider the dwindling number of contexts across the globe where such non-knowledge of a brand can be so powerfully exploited by those in the know.

Anyways, these traffic light hustlers leverage a few factors in a (perhaps) clever business model:

1) Captive audience at traffic light.
2) Potential envy-inducing factor of seeing nicer, newer cars nearby yours stopped at traffic light, ample chance to oogle them and reflect upon the perhaps sorry state of your own ride.

I was tempted to follow this scenario to its seemingly absurd conclusion to test the soundness of their system. "Yes, I'd like to buy that car. Yes, that red Audi, there. May I see it? Yes, right now." Based upon strength of cash economy here, and that the standard for purchases of such things as cars are that payments be made in (large, black garbage bags full of) cash, such an interaction wouldn't have many places to go after that. For the hustlers themselves, though, some considerations: how to choose potential customers to approach? Older cars vs. newer cars? Younger vs. older? Also, how to decide which pages to have open when approaching customers? How would a customer react to being shown a new version of the very model they were presently driving? Or, better to take the aspirational route and entice them with a "dream car"? Guess that also depends upon how their commission system works - a set amount collected per interested buyer, versus a percentage of the total price of the car sold.

I can't help but wonder how much longer the policies influencing the booming car market will continue to make this particular exploit worth their while - where else in the world are people sold cars while waiting at traffic lights?

Coffeemix = modernity

 

As Myanmar negotiates its path to modernity, inhabitants are deliberate in adapting signs and behaviors that indicate their modern status. One such affectation is the consumption of coffeemix.

One could argue that coffeemix is so widely favored for its convenience of preparation (all that's needed is hot water) or for its low price (prominent billboards brag of their brand of coffeemix costing a mere 52 kyats, or US $0.65). With packets of instant teamix available at practically every retailer that sells instant coffeemix, however, oftentimes it is possible to purchase  powdered teamix wherever powdered coffee is being sold. Thus, there must be other factors at play besides availability.

On this packaging there is a connection made between coffee and its consumption with modernity, tech savviness, and global cosmopolitanism. For cosmopolitanism, although the use of the blonde woman is heavyhanded (and the reproduction of her face on the mug that she is drinking from rather surreal/creepy), note also "Korea Style" (written above "iNTE{R}NET"). This "Korean connection" is a theme that can be seen across many products and services hoping to align themselves with all that is "modern" in Myanmar today. Myanmar looks to Korea as a model for modernity, mostly on account of the prolific amount of Korean soap operas and historical dramas that air on Myanmar television.

Also made notable by its absence is the complete lack of Burmese (not to mention Korean!) writing on the packaging. Although nominally "Korean Style", the lingua franca of the modern world (at least in the eyes of Internet Coffeemix's marketing department) is English.

Finally, the packaging norm illustrates the association in Myanmar between the level of packaging and the relative modernity of the packaged item. Although certain cultures have had their behavior towards packaging dissected and analyzed in the hopes of forming conclusions about that culture as a whole (i.e. Japan), in Myanmar the trend is progressing towards "more is better", with plastic the preferred packaging medium.

Contingent functionality

When one flip-flop (thong) breaks, the other is abandoned simultaneously (perhaps at the very spot where it broke). Compare this to these shoes - which brings greater status penalization? Wearing a different type of flip-flop on each foot (implying the matching flip-flop broke, though I've never seen this and wouldn't imagine much point to it), wearing "short-tailed shoes", or going barefoot? What does your cultural context decree, and where does the "frayed" or "worn" look go from low-status to vogue? Captured at downtown's Bogyoke Market on a quiet morning, how long do you think these would last here before they are picked up and whisked back into Yangon's recycling/repurposing system? How long would they last on the street where you are? Would they be reclaimed for repurposing's sake (their intrinsic value) or because of their status as an "eyesore" or "rubbish"?

In case the link doesn't come through: http://squareinchanthro.com/wear-pattern-flip-flops

Cachet and carry

This bag could be valued both for its durability (being made of a stronger kind of plastic than usually found here in Myanmar) and for the status-boost it awards its carrier as it asserts that the owner has traveled (and shopped) internationally. Seen on board a truck-ferry, there is an interesting status-disconnect between the bag's implied past behavior and the carrier's presently engaged behavior - wouldn't someone who has been to the Hong Kong branch of Giordano's be more likely to ride a taxi or drive their own car?

Airing clean laundry

Surprised that these creative public laundry hanging solutions are tolerated in tightly legislated Singapore, considering how behavior could be construed by some as a "low-class" behavior; visual confirmation of the clothing's owners being unable to afford (monetarily or space-wise) a dryer, or being unable to have their clothing professionally washed and dried, or lacking adequate space indoors for the drying of their clothing. I cannot recall where I was told that hanging laundry outside (that is, in a location visible to others) was taboo, but I regrettably never questioned the logic behind it.

Or, flip it around: in these green-conscious days this behavior could actually be encouraged. This is clear visual proof of doing one's part to lower electricity consumption by eschewing dryers in favor of air-drying. Is this Singapore's answer to Japan's Cool Biz (I can see the behavior-change inspiring public service banners already, unmentionables waving in the wind out of skyscraper windows, clothing emblazoned with Singaporean flag hanging from visible landmarks, etc.)? Interesting that these approaches to limiting energy consumption require the loosening of rules regarding formality and strictness, whether it be wearing short sleeves instead of suits or displaying one's laundry on the street to dry. Consider the different lengths a country's government/populace would go through to conserve resources, and what is "reasonable" or "acceptable" in different contexts.

All that aside, a fly in the ointment: the space constraints leading to draping wet clothing over a residence's barbed wire may give an aspiring thief some bad ideas.

Where the streets are paved with ginseng

This advertisement does double duty as both a dust and sun shield for the company's truck, and also a mobile advertisement appealing to global (ginseng-enabled) aspirations.

For an international lifestyle and the success you deserve, taking these ginseng pills appear to be the quickest way to get there. The status awarded to the Statue of Liberty (stage left), miniature-scale jetliner, and high-rise apartment complex the male holds in his hand are apparent. More ammunition for the traditional role of the male as "provider" in Myanmar culture. 

Ampharco, an American pharma company with some strong connections to Viet Nam, appears to have done their market research, to their credit. Myanmar's consumers are highly motivated by value and the idea that they are getting "more for less". Hence, the popularity of "3 in 1" / "2 + 1" coffee-mix (powdered milk, sugar, dissolving coffee powder) and tea-mix. I'd be interested to see whether their hunch that, for Myanmar's consumers, "more (in 1) is always better" holds true for medicine as well as powdered beverage packets.

The same goes for consumers' love of certifications - in an effort to attain "quality" and legitimacy in consumers' minds, often advertisers include a .jpeg of some sort of certification standard in the body of the advertisement (ISO 9000, World Health Organization Good Manufacturing Practices, etc.). Again, intrigued to see whether this would pay off in increased sales.

Moneybelt

Manufactured in Viet Nam and being sold in a Mandalay fashion shop, these blingin' belt buckles imply global shifts in the status of the cultures they come from. When does a currency become sufficiently valuable to justify immortalizing it in belt-buckle form? Does your currency make the cut? What standards are normally adhered to when deciding which currency to suspend directly above one's crotch? Which is more important - brand recognition or true value? Of course there is an advantage of an unknown currency - freedom to fabricate your own narrative about the superiority of your chosen lucre.

Before Americans get any bees in their bonnets, yes, they also stocked big-faced Bennys.

Food cart snapshot

 

Retro-looking "soft cream" machine, complete with pedals affixed to the bottom either for mobility or for advanced soft-cream customization options. Also premiering exclusively to this blog (remember, you saw it here first): a new member of the global burger monarchy.* Positioned outside of a shopping mall in a wealthier Yangon gated suburb, these food stands give a glimpse into the Americanization of Myanmar's diet in conjunction with the Americanization of its shopping behaviors as consumers move away from more traditional styles of "wet" and "dry" markets towards malls and shopping centers. 

* Or perhaps this is the opening volley of Druthers' Myanmar market entry strategy? Very savvy, if so, based upon the nascent food-cart/truck phenomenon in America. 

Candy Flavor Norms

 

A sampling of what some might consider "interesting" candy flavors. Dispensed on a domestic airline flight, what could have influenced the airline to decide that these were the ideal snack to give out on a flight? 

Out of the dozen or so flavors (including more conventional ones such as the predictable line-up of fruits; cherry, watermelon, grape, etc.), can the origin of these "extraordinary" flavors be generalized about? Does an "Iced" lemon taste different from a "Room Temperature" lemon (and judging by the presence of ice cubes on the wrapper, "iced" in this case likely does not mean "having had icing/frosting applied to it")? Though butter is included in dishes here, how high is the average person on the street's knowledge of what a stick of butter looks like? Probably not high, which is perhaps why one only sees this on an airplane flight - air travel remains out of reach for most people here.

Also, all four wrappers bear one attribute in common: their depiction of two miniature candy wrappers in the lower left corner. Does logic lurk behind this seemingly gratuitous graphical flourish?