Vietnamese Americans make up an astounding 80% of California’s manicurists and 43% of manicurists nationwide. For anyone wondering why, the new book from Jonah Berger, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, has an answer. The trend started in the 1970s when the actress Tippi Hedren was volunteering her time with Vietnamese immigrants near Sacramento. The women admired her beautifully done nails, so she introduced them to her manicurist. Before long, these immigrants were learning the trade and, not needing much English to do the job well, building careers in the nail business. As word of these early adopters’ success spread, others in their community followed, and others followed those followers, until Vietnamese immigrants came to dominate the profession.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up : https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails ) ]
Excellent article and thank Forbes India for publishing such a useful information. Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
on May 10, 2013