It’s been close to half a year now and I still can’t forget how on my first visit to An’s, Claudia, who was seated with us for the Sắc tasting menu, knew that I’d published my first novel only a month earlier. We were halfway through dinner when she brought it up, asking about Neon Night and how it was going since it’d been released. Needless to say, that small interaction left a huge impression on me. Claudia was seated on the other side of the room, so we never got a chance to speak beyond that exchange. Still it has remained one of the most memorable moments from that evening.
Since then, a lot’s happened. I visited An’s again for a collaboration dinner with Chef Fumio from Japan and briefly got a chance to speak to Claudia then. It was then I started thinking of how there are many people who, though not the “face” of a brand, play an integral role in ensuring that place is the best it can be. Every facet of society is made up of countless individuals like this: they are the backbone of most industries, they are the unsung heroes who rarely get their flowers. This profile is one attempt at telling the story of such a person. This is the story of An's brand manager, Claudia.
Claudia was born in Hanoi. Together with her grandparents, her parents, and her younger sister, they lived a happy life during her formative years. Her father’s side of the family had more of a background in business while her mother’s side leaned towards academia and the arts. Claudia recalls her childhood fondly. She was blessed to grow up with her family members in good health, and they were comfortable enough that Claudia got to partake in various hobbies like playing the piano, dancing, and swimming. Though her aunts on her mother’s side of the family were all painters, Claudia admits that she never grew up with this talent. While she enjoyed art and had a particular interest in graphics and photos, she didn’t consider herself an artist. Reading magazines, on the other hand, was Claudia’s favourite hobby. Anytime she got a bit of cash she’d spend the money on a new magazine. There were local ones tailored to young readers such as herself, then titles like ELLE, Đẹp!, Teen Vogue, and Seventeen. Every time she bought one she’d marvel at how perfectly every aspect on every page slotted together to create a complete, stylised look. Her love of magazines was so deep that she even made her own magazine covers for herself. From learning about Photoshop to playing around with text fonts, formats, and colours, Claudia let her curiosity and creativity guide her with her creations. Though unbeknownst to Claudia at the time, this love of magazines and the manner in which various brands presented themselves would inform her future work.
Upon graduating high school, she headed to Hanoi University to study Spanish. At the time, the university was one of the only offering a Spanish course in Vietnam. Claudia chose it because she had an American dream: she wanted to move to the States and knowing that Spanish is the second most spoken language there, she wanted to be able to speak it on top of English. Having said all that, she found it difficult to learn the language and it was hard to enjoy her studies until she was in her third year when she got to study under a great teacher. It was at this time that Claudia also started working at a cafe as a barista and server. She’d always loved exploring new cafes and taking photos of them, so to work in one came naturally. She enjoyed the work, finding the F&B industry aligned with her interests but still, she felt something was missing. What she wanted was to be behind the marketing side of things, to figure out the best way to present the cafe to people so that they would be interested in visiting. She spoke to her boss who agreed to give Claudia a shot. Her first assignment was to create a campaign to persuade customers to visit during the summer. After some thought, she decided on creating a space where people could have impromptu photoshoots inside camping aesthetics and tipi tents which were trending at the time. Claudia planned the campaign, came up with a quote, and set the whole thing up. The success of the campaign represented a turning point in her life. From that point on, she wanted more.
By the time Claudia graduated from university, her American dream had faded. The reality of how much it would cost to move settled and she decided it was best to stay in Vietnam. Having said that, she knew that even if she couldn’t use her newly-acquired language skills in the States, at least she could do something with her skillset closer to home. This is why Claudia found a sales job for the Spanish-speaking market at a tour agency based in Hanoi. It was a well paid job and it lasted for two years but throughout the period she still had nagging thoughts of wanting to go back into F&B. This was when she came across Tung Dining. Though it’s currently known as one of the top fine dining restaurants in Hanoi, when Claudia joined it’d only been open for four months. She started off in restaurant admin but her intentions were clear: she wanted to get back into marketing. Once she was given the opportunity, Claudia dove straight in. She recounted how the way marketing works for a fine dining restaurant was vastly different to her previous experience in the cafe. The stakes were much higher and the guests’ experience was expected to be much more refined. At the time Tung had a tasting menu and Claudia’s role was to market this in the best way possible. It was a period of non-stop learning, one that taught her how to create promotional material, leverage social media, and even discover new ingredients and flavours she’d never tried up until then. She recalled how she’d never even heard about foie gras until working at Tung, and now it was part of her responsibility to figure out how she could weave it into Tung’s marketing campaign.
A year and a half later, Claudia decided to look for other opportunities. She wanted to expand her knowledge in marketing and advertising, and so she found work at an advertising agency in Hanoi. As an account executive and later a campaign planner, the experience gave her a deeper understanding of running advertisements online, how a campaign runs from start to finish, client briefing, and more. All in all, Claudia says the whole experience enlightened her to the nuances of the marketing and advertising world.
It was around the time Claudia was introduced to Vanny, the founder of An’s Saigon. A mutual friend had been speaking to Vanny, who had aspirations of building a place of her own, but she was still assembling a team and figuring out whether it’d be possible. As part of this would-be team, Vanny was in need of someone who could take care of the marketing side of the business. So began Vanny and Claudia’s pen-pal relationship. With Vanny living in Saigon and Claudia in Hanoi, the two corresponded through texts and messages, and gradually got to know each other online. Once Covid restrictions were lifted, they finally met up on a trip to Đà Lạt. Claudia remembered the trip as a great time. It was nice to finally meet Vanny after all the many text messages they’d shared, and the two got along just as well as they did online, in-person. Despite that, Claudia admits she wasn’t confident enough to consider that trip and all their many conversations as confirmation she was now part of what would later become An’s. It was only six months later—during which they continued to keep in touch—that they decided to work together. Claudia left her advertising job and in August of 2022, moved to Saigon to join the An’s team.
When An’s started, the idea was to create something of a club house made up of a restaurant, cafe, and spa. They wanted to sell memberships which would allow guests to visit on a pre-paid service and in this way, create a type of ecosystem at the center of which was the An’s brand. While they liked the idea, after some thought the team realised that this type of sales strategy wasn’t common or understood in Vietnam. Though they’ve kept the membership system for their spa, they decided to make the rest of the business more approachable. For Claudia, this meant creating a brand that customers could perceive as comfortable and homey. Essentially, somewhere people could visit for an afternoon or evening and enjoy some much-needed “me” time. When I asked Claudia to expand on this idea, she reiterated An’s three core values: proactivity, responsibility, and flexibility. In a nutshell, the team takes responsibility for their work, proactively tries to improve everyday, and are flexible enough to know when old habits need to be replaced. This allows An’s to live up to its philosophy of being a place that’s a home away from home.
An’s three core values also serve as guiding principles for Claudia and her role as An’s brand manager. When I asked her about the journey of An’s itself, she told me that the beginning was challenging. Due to a series of complications with construction, the opening of their restaurant and spa were delayed. This meant they started as just a cafe for their soft opening in October of 2022. Given that their name still wasn’t that known or recognised, for a period they were only serving coffee and pastries to family and friends. Claudia recalled how during this time, they relied purely on organic marketing. They didn’t pay for ads or invite guests from media houses to help spread the word and instead, chose to opt for a slower, more natural growth. The decision paid off. By December of 2022, Claudia recounted An’s welcoming walk-in guests and reservations which ended up filling the whole space. It was time to strike while the iron was hot. From then on, they invested into paid advertisements. For Claudia, this was a chance to leverage not only past work experiences, but also to return to that girl who loved making magazine covers when she was younger. After all, that’s a form of branding itself: all you’re trying to figure out is how to curate content that will resonate with your target audience. To do this, An’s three core values were taken into account while they pushed for creating a feeling of homely serenity—an apt choice given that An’s is a name derived from the Vietnamese word “bình an”, meaning, “peace”.
Since opening, a lot has changed. It’s been a constant learning curve for Claudia. As the brand manager, it’s been her duty to oversee not only the manner in which An’s presents itself to the world, but also how to function as a leader. She’s worked as a team leader in the past, but being a manager of the calibre she is now was a first. Though her team is small, she feels a much deeper sense of responsibility at building its members up, as well as ensuring that she leaves no stone unturned when it comes to figuring out how to make An’s even the tiniest bit better each day. For Claudia herself, this means getting better at building connections with people, something she sees as integral not only for her professional life, but her personal one. In regards to An’s as a whole, she’s referenced a few points that she believes separate them from other businesses. What stood out to me the most was their focus on sustainability and their An’s fund.
In terms of sustainability, the space itself allows them to be more environmentally conscious than your average restaurant in Saigon. Their back garden provides them with a place for growing their own vegetables and herbs for use in their cooking, while the sheer size of the building gives them places to store fermented and pickled fruits, vegetables, and drinks. As for the An’s fund, Claudia explained that this was basically a system whereby members of the team could chip in any given amount every month. Once the fund was large enough, they could use it in a myriad of ways. So far they’ve bought food and cooked for the Children’s Hospital in District 1, but they’ve also used the fund to help out their own. Namely, if a team member has some family issues or other such financial troubles, they can dip into the fund. These two initiatives once more tie into An’s commitment to be more than just a place guests come to have a nice meal or enjoy a coffee in their garden. There’s a humanity about An’s, and it’s because of the people behind it that this compassion shines through.
If An’s is a business built by people who care, then Claudia is a prime representative of one such person. Moving forward, she wants to continue building the brand, but doing so in a thoughtful, considered manner. She recently went to Bangkok where she got to spend a few days visiting various bars, cafes, co-working spaces, as well as restaurants that she’s always been curious about. Trips like this give her inspiration that she can then bring back to An’s to see whether they’ll fit into the work they’re trying to do. If it works, great. If not, Claudia and the rest of the team at An’s will continue working to ensure that whenever you step inside their space, you’re getting that sense of peace and home. Perhaps then, there is no better way to close this with what Claudia said towards the end of our conversation, “At An’s, it’s more about what the guests feel. We’re not there to tell them what they should be feeling. If they can be at ease and themselves whenever they visit, then we’ve done a good job”.
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