Hygge Lifestyle in Korea

 

Everyone may be very familiar with YOLO (You Only Live Once) lifestyle, but I guess many of you have not heard of Hygge lifestyle. Hygge is a Danish and Norwegian word which can be described as a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture.[1] In 2016, Meik Wiking the founder of The Happiness Research Institute of Copenhagen published <A Little Book of Hygge> and the press including BBC introduced ‘Hygge.’ After that, the boom of Hygge spread worldwide and Collins English Dictionary named ‘Hygge’ the runner-up as word of the year in the UK in 2016.

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Honestly, Hygge lifestyle seems opposite from most of Korean’s lifestyle because we are usually used to ‘Quickly Quickly’ lifestyle. But in Hygge lifestyle, people want more relaxed environments.  Slow than fast, simple than complicated, old than new and so on. These are what Hygge lifestyle goes for, which seem very different from what general Korean people are like. Also in Hygge lifestyle, spending time with beloved people like family or living a simple life is important. These days when many people are talking about YOLO, they usually focus on themselves/ However in Hygge lifestyle, people want to make not only themselves but also other people happy. They want to make the best of their current lives planning the happy future and remembering the happy past. To sum up, Hygge is creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. The warm glow of candlelight, sitting round a table, and this kind of small and simple things in life are all Hygge.[3]

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Since Ikea store opened in Korea, people’s interest in Nordic lifestyle has been markedly increasing. The popularity of Ikea shows that more and more people want Hyggeligt life. Ikea and Hygge are all about Northern European lifestyle so we could say that they are interconnected. Only one Ikea store was in Korea but recently one more store opened. It shows how interested people are towards Nordic interior designs and lifestyle. Actually more and more products regarding Hygge lifestyle are selling than luxury items. According to an online shopping mall G Market, the sales of flower vases increased 270%, the sales of Cocoa powder increased 58%, and the sales of fragrant candles increased 53% within November 2016. The increase of such products does show that Hygge sells in Korea.

 

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So, designers in various fields should keep this in mind when they design things. It is not that only fancy and colorful things attract people. The increase of Hygge lifestyle shows the change of what people want. In this competitive society with high standards, people want to get away from complicated things and they want peace in their mind. Due to cultural difference, bringing exactly the same Danish Hygge lifestyle to our lives would be difficult. We need Hygge lifestyle that fits with existing Korean cultures. Then Hygge lifestyle will successfully settle in Korea, and it will bring inner peace in people’s mind.

 

[1] Wikipedia ‘Hygge’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

[2] https://www.farmersalmanac.com/health/2017/02/06/what-is-hygge/

[3] http://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark-hygge

[4] http://lwp.georgetown.edu/2017/06/19/wcp-fear-of-hygge-and-working-class-social-capital/

[5] https://hypebeast.com/kr/2017/10/ikea-goyang-store-open

NERDY in Vogue, Same with SBENU or Not?

NERDY is a street clothing brand which is popular these days especially among celebrities in Korea. For example, a famous Korean rapper Zico wore NERDY training suits in the music video of his song ‘Artist’ and a famous Korean singer IU also wore Nerdy training suits in Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast, which is a popular TV show in Korea. It is not only them who are wearing NERDY clothes. So many celebrities are wearing sweatshirts or training shirts from Nerdy, and naturally NERDY clothes are being exposed to many people. Then, is NERDY going to be able to be loved by many people for a long time like other beloved clothing brands? Or is NERDY going to disappear after a while just like SBENU?

The beginning of SBENU was very much similar to that of NERDY. SBENU is a shoe brand that was once popular for a moment in Korea, but disappeared after a while. Just like NERDY, SBENU utilized star marketing very effectively. Back then in 2014, ‘장미빛 연인들’ was the most popular TV series that hit 22.7% of viewer ratings in Korea. SBENU was the main sponsor of this series, and SBENU was frequently exposed in the series. Not only this series but also in 2015, a famous TV series ‘프로듀사’ had a lot of famous celebrities starring such as IU, Kim Suhyeon and so on. IU, who acted the main character of the series wore SBENU in the series, and SBENU was successfully exposed to many people.[1] However, the thing is that SBENU was not even financially stable enough to sponsor those series, and there were quality problems from SBENU sneakers as well. So naturally, SBENU started to gain notoriety rapidly and the CEO of SBENU could not stand it anymore and he closed the business. SBENU seemed to succeed from aggressive star marketing strategy, but it eventually failed from aggressive star marketing not considering the financial status in reality.

So, some people are actually doubting about the popularity of NERDY lately. Since NERDY literally came out of nowhere and suddenly became so popular just because so many celebrities wore them, some people are worrying that NEDY would suddenly disappear just like SBENU did because their marking strategy seems to be similar. Not much information about the marketing strategy of NERDY is known for now, but we can clearly see that they are using star marketing very actively. However, consumers are smart. They care about design, quality, price and everything. It seems like many people are satisfied with the design and quality of NERDY clothing, but it has not been a long time since NERDY started business, so we have to see more.

Maybe, this time would be different. SBENU ignored the complaints about the quality from the customers. They only focused on marketing. Marketing is of course a very important part of business, but everything should start with good products. If there are some problems in the product itself, any good marketing strategy cannot work ever. The design, quality and price of the product should meet the customers’ wants first. I would say NERDY is so far doing well with the quality and design of their products. However, they should keep producing better products with better quality and better design. Only through this way, they will not go along the way of SBENU’s failure.

 

Reference :

[1] 안치성(2016), 뉴에이지 마케팅 전략에 관한 연구 : 스베누 사례 분석, 연세대학교 석사 논문, pp.51-54.