Hasta La Ideas

pimg alt=”0jungelectrol.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/0jungelectrol.jpg” width=”260″ height=”409″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pIn South Korea the pressure to buy homegrown products is high; walking the streets of Seoul you will see more Korean cars than you’ve ever seen in your life, and with the exception of the iPhone, it will seem anything containing electricity is made by Samsung or LG. Korean society is also patriarchal and strongly reverential towards the elderly–it’s one of the few countries left where you’ll see teenagers spring out of their seats on the subway if a senior is approaching–so if you meet anyone in charge of anything big in Korea, chances are it will be a guy with grey hair./p

pAll of which makes Jung Hyun-joo’s story surprising. Jung is young (35), female, and the CEO of Electrolux Korea, whose parent company is in faraway Sweden. The IJoongAng Daily/I newspaper has A HREF=”http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2920437″ an interview up with Jung/A detailing the challenges she faces representing a foreign brand in a domestic-dominated market. An excerpt:/p

blockquoteBJung:/B [One] strategy Electrolux employed was an emphasis on product design. Electrolux was already known for its Scandinavian design even before it came on the local market. One element consumers value most whenever they purchase a product is design. So Electrolux approached consumers with designs that appealed to their emotions, making them want to own the products. Consumers did not really care about the design of a vacuum cleaner before. But Electrolux has contributed in raising consumer awareness of putting designs [in that area].

pOf course, not everyone likes the Scandinavian designs that Electrolux produces. Some consumers complained the design was “too bulky.” However, our design can’t satisfy everyone since they all have different tastes. So we target a certain group of customers who like our products. Also, we try to spread the Scandinavian design philosophy among consumers. Scandinavian design focuses on naturalism, purity and simplicity. It’s not just about appearance but also how comfortable it is for consumers to use./blockquote/p

pRead the full interview A HREF=”http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2920437″ here/A./p

p(My apologies for the bad pun in the blog title, which will probably only be amusing to Koreans; in native-speak, the English “cee” sound often comes out sounding like “she.”)br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/electrolux_koreas_she-eo_on_bringing_in_swedish_design_16564.asp”(more…)/a
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