While the West reminisces about glory days long gone, Vietnam has been quietly constructing the next chapter. Fifty years since the end of the "American War," they're done being the world’s factory. Vietnam’s making more than products. They're making their own brands, their own future — and soon, it’ll be our turn to follow. They’ve been invincible for millennia, and now, they're putting it to work.

Denis Diderot, the 18th-century French philosopher, writer, and encyclopaedist, might seem an unexpected figure to credit with shaping modern market research. However, his famous essay Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown (1769) offers a strikingly prescient analysis of consumer behaviour and brand association.