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Katie: Hey business All-Stars, you're listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Katie Laird -
Esther: And I'm Esther Steinfeld.
Katie: And thanks for coming back for a great Chapter 3 and we're gonna be jumping into what we like to call "American brands in foreign lands".
Esther: Mm-hmm.
Katie: 'Cause I mean it's very interesting to see a lot of entrepreneurs here in America try to take businesses that have achieved some success or very large corporations try to make the jump over the pond and just how the business world accepts them, how the consumers, the customers view them. It's fascinating.
Esther: And just the strategy you have to have to go into a new market -
Katie: Exactly.
Esther: - especially like if you're a food company, you've gotta consider dietary limitations in that country -
Katie: Exactly.
Esther: - you know, just all the different rules and regulations you have to take into consideration. I think it's -
Katie: Absolutely.
Esther: - how complicated it is.
Katie: And what really kicked this off in our minds was an interesting New York Times article that's talking about Mr. Softee.
Esther: Mmm.
Katie: Have you ever had Mr. Softee Esther?
Esther: Of course.
Katie: It is amazing.
Esther: It's delicious.
Katie: Yeah, I am addicted to soft-serve ice cream, like truly. (Laughter) It's so amazing.
Esther: So good.
Katie: And anything from a food truck really gets me very excited. (Laughter)
Esther: Of course.
Katie: So, Mr. Softee of course started in New Jersey and is certainly a giant, giant hit in New York City -
Esther: I can't tell you how obsessed my father is.
Katie: (Laughter) With Mr. Softee?
Esther: He's from New Jersey.
Katie: (Laughter) Ah, that's awesome!
Esther: Yeah, loves it.
Katie: But now if your dad is gonna be traveling anywhere in the distant future in China, he's gonna be able to get hooked up with Mr. Softee there too.
Esther: Nice, but it's not called Mr. Softee, right?
Katie: It's not called Mr. Softee. So apparently Softee, go figure, in Mandarin has no translation, which makes sense because in American it also has no translation. (Laughter)
Esther: Right, 'cause they just call it still Mr. Softee.
Katie: Do you think that they could, but instead, what the American translation of the Chinese new name is actually Mr. Soft Heart and I - I think something's getting lost there. But you know, what -
Esther: Yeah. Lost in translation for sure.
Katie: - it's original, it's original. (Laughter)
Esther: Interesting.
Katie: So, it's interesting because the international expansion of the Mr. Softee brand, this certainly isn't like the first time that they've tried to branch out. Apparently they tested those international waters in 1961 in England -
Esther: Mmm.
Katie: - but it was never really a giant hit and it pretty much all but vanished not so long after it showed up.
Esther: Interesting.
Katie: But now, it's going in a completely different direction. So instead of hanging out in Brooklyn on the, you know, the hard-hittin' New York City street, it's out there in some pretty interesting smaller cities in China.
Esther: Oh.
Katie: So it actually, according to the New York Times -
Esther: And they have such an addictive culture. The people in China I'm sure are going crazy for Mr. Soft Heart.
Katie: Well, they weren't at first, but after the Mr. Softee developers - I don't even what you - what do you call someone that develops new ice cream flavors, which has gotta be one of the best jobs in the world?
Esther: Um, a job that I -
Katie: Ice cream developer? (Laughter)
Esther: Dream job.
Katie: Dream job. So they figured out that the Chinese palate is nothing like the American palate, which kind of makes sense. So instead, they've had to make massive adjustments and they actually went into major cities and started handing out, left and right, free ice cream to thousands of people to figure out -
Esther: Wow.
Katie: - what worked, what didn't work.
Esther: So what didn't work?
Katie: So, I mean the American flavors didn't work, I mean quite candidly.
Esther: Yeah, yeah.
Katie: So now they have flavors like kiwi. And hands down their best-selling flavor is called red bean blast, which is actually like has this red bean paste.
Esther: I like red bean paste
Katie: Okay, see. So it has that and has some sort of rice cake that they put the ice cream on top of and it is selling like hot rice cakes. (Laughter)
Esther: I like that. I would eat that.
Katie: Actually, I totally would do - and kiwi, that is awesome. Like I am a fan of the little fuzzy guy. (Laughter)
Esther: Yeah, I would eat that too.
Katie: And something else, just thinking about cultural differences that Mr. Softee's had to cross. So of course in China, the concept of selling food from a truck, not something that's been in their culture before, so they had to really talk their way in to government employees hearts saying, "Hey, it's a good thing, it's not illegal, it's nothing shady."
Esther: Yeah.
Katie: And even crazier still, they had to retrain their entire Chinese driving team to not be a crazy Chinese driver, I mean just to put it simply.
Esther: Wow.
Katie: So instead of worrying about people tipping the trucks and like spilling all the product in the back, because like very congested streets, you have to be very defensive. They had to completely show people how to drive these vehicles just to sell their product.
Esther: Oh my God, no way.
Katie: So, very interesting challenges when you take a soft-serve ice cream into a whole new land. (Laughter)
Esther: So crazy. And we were reading something that was talking about how technology brands actually fare so much better in this cultural jump because there's no emotional connection there.
Katie: Exactly.
Esther: It's just a chip -
Katie: Yeah.
Esther: - or a product that you use and everyone has to use if you wanna keep up in the culture -
Katie: Yeah, exactly.
Esther: - whereas food products a lot of times have a lot harder of a time kind of getting a foothold and not developing these polarizing opinions about them because you form these emotional attachments.
Katie: Totally. Exactly, exactly. So yeah, if you're not use to eating strawberry shortcake from your childhood in China, you're not gonna eat strawberry shortcake. (Laughter)
Esther: Right.
Katie: Unless it's really good. (Laughter)
Esther: I mean you think about McDonald's who has all of these different types of sandwiches no matter where you go all over the world -
Katie: Yes.
Esther: t - they have to have different sandwiches. They have to have vegetarian options in India.
Katie: Exactly.
Esther: If they wanna be in India they've gotta serve a vegetarian sandwich.
Katie: Exactly. Well, there's no cow there. (Laughter) Only the pet ones in the back. (Laughter)
Esther: That's right, that's right. So one large company that has had a little bit of a struggle but this is definitely big-time news, eBay is now in Russia. After a very, very bumpy start, eBay has opened what I believe is eBay.ru, so eBay Russia. And this is after fighting with PayPal who completely refuses to do Russian transactions. And then also fighting with Russian postal services who at this point -
Esther: To ship product.
Katie: - sometimes they're delaying like purchased delivery for up to three months in, you know, wherever it is that they land.
Esther: Wow.
Katie: And of course Russian postal workers are blaming like the customs officers at the borders because of all the political conflict that happens, so I mean it's a whole new ballgame.
Esther: Goodness.
Katie: But, what's exciting is that of course Russia is an enormous country. It has over 140 million citizens, but they only spend about $5 billion in online sales every year and I mean eBay alone expects to bump that up $15 billion to $20 billion total just by expanding their hold on the online market.
Esther: Oh my gosh.
Katie: So, I mean that's certainly not without its hiccups, but we'll have to see how it goes.
Esther: Yeah.
Katie: I mean it's exciting for people that may be in very, very distant, you know, terrains in the middle of Russia.
Esther: Wanna get their auction on.
Katie: Exactly. Well, and the thing is, is that they are not actually allowing any auctioned goods, it's only just the fixed-price goods that they're selling right now -
Esther: Okay, okay.
Katie: - so they're taking baby steps. It's a whole new world.
Esther: Again, you just have to see, you know, they don't want that -
Katie: Maybe not.
Esther: - that competition.
Katie: Exactly.
Esther: That's part of what makes eBay so successful in America is the competition factor -
Katie: Exactly.
Esther: - checking, checking, checking.
Katie: Exactly, and that's just not part of the culture at this point -
Esther: I'm gonna win!
Katie: - so yeah, we'll see.
Esther: Very interesting.
Katie: Going back to more of this food, what makes your belly and your family history happy, something that I thought was pretty interesting was taking a look at an article on a website called DrinkAmerican.us that actually goes through, and this is of course like specifically focused on like crazy passionate beer drinkers that apparently are trying to get very patriotic, which is good, like "Yay," that's awesome.
Esther: Good.
Katie: But they go through this entire list of all of the formerly US owned beer companies to the very short list now that is actually owned by United States corporations.
Esther: Wow.
Katie: So, and this was big news and I had completely blanked on this, but Anheuser-Busch is now owned by a Belgium company by InBev.
Esther: Right, that's right.
Katie: I completely forgot about this, completely forgot. But some of the things that they recommend if you're really wanting to get your patriotism on, you know, with a pint, Pabst Blue Ribbon sold from the US, Abita, Pete's Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada -
Esther: Saint Arnold's.
Katie: Saint Arnold's, the Houston hometown hero. So it's really pretty fascinating to see in our little brains. It's like we're just conditioned because it started in the US, it's not necessarily an American company.
Esther: It's still in the US, not anymore.
Katie: Yeah, but -
Esther: That's for sure. Lots of foreign investment.
Katie: Exactly, but the corporations that own these breweries are very smart in that. I mean they're really not playing too much with the recipe, with the packaging, like, they're keeping it the same, but there's definitely some changed guard.
Esther: Tricking us into believing that they're still American owned.
Katie: Exactly. You know, Ben & Jerry's. Like I completely forgot that -
Esther: Oh, they're not owned by an American company?
Katie: It was owned by Unilever which is British.
Esther: Yeah, yep.
Katie: Yeah.
Esther: Oh man.
Katie: So, hey. (Laughter)
Esther: It's alright, we took Cadbury from them, so -
Katie: Yeah. Ha-ha. "Cherry Garcia, no!" (Laughter) So hey, yeah. Good business goes global -
Esther: That's right.
Katie: - this was pretty interesting. (Laughter)
Esther: Yep. Well I guess that wraps up Segment 3.
Katie: Yes ma'am.
Esther: Chapter 3.
Katie: We went all over the world on this one, I like it. (Laughter)
Esther: We did. Around the world in 30 minutes. (Laughter)
Katie: That's right. (Laughter)
Esther: Well make sure to go to our Facebook page, Facebook.com/overtimeshow and go tell us what is SITCOM.
Katie: Sitcom.
Esther: If you were listening in Segment 1 and you don't know what that - if you weren't listening in Segment 1 and you don't know what that means, go back to Segment 1, listen again -
Katie: Exactly. We're all pointing and laughing. (Laughter)
Esther: Yeah. We're not gonna tell you right now, you've gotta go listen to Segment 1.
Katie: Nope. (Laughter)
Esther: And with that, we'll wrap up our show, So, you're listening to the Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld -
Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.
Esther: And we will see you next week hopefully.
Katie: That's right. (Laughter)
Esther: Join us at Facebook.com/overtimeshow.
Katie: Can't wait.
Esther: Go tell us what sitcom is.
Katie: See ya later.
Esther: Bye.