Goods Tailored to Meet Korean Tastes

Global companies in Korea are pushing themselves to produce “Korean-taste” goods due to the picky taste of Korean customers who reject wares that are extremely popular in Europe or America.

There are a standing air conditioner for houses, a vacuum cleaner which can adjust its power, a toaster with display, and a car with menus in Korean, for example.

The panel of the Q7, a sport-utility car from Audi Korea, is written in Korean. All the menus of the entertainment equipment, like the audio, TV and CDs are displayed in Korean, and so are the buttons for apparatus like adjusting the height of car.

Volvo Korea and BMW Korea offer a Korean navigation system as an option. Peugeot Korea offers DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) for the model 607HDi, a large sedan.

Electrolux, a Swedish electronic company, manufactures a special version of “Twin-clean” for Koreans, which has never been changed in other countries. It can adjust its sucking power by stages upon the customers’ request. Unlike foreign customers who can be simply satisfied without dust, Korean customers want to change its power depending upon the situation as well.

The Korean standing air conditioner for the home from Carrier Korea is also designed especially to meet Korean’s tastes. Standing air conditioners are for stores in most countries except China. However, they put out new air conditioner according to the result of survey that Koreans prefer standing air conditioners with power and an artistic design.

Krups Korea, a German electronic company, attached an LCD display to a toaster, taking into consideration the impatience of Korean people. The LCD indicates how much the bread is cooked, and it helps people to wait for an adequate time. One of the surveys said that many impatient customers stop the toaster halfway and eat the toast regardless of whether the bread is fully toasted or not.

“Global companies think that they can succeed anywhere if they can satisfy picky Korean customers,” Ryu Kyoung-woo, an assistant director of Krups Korea, said.

cpu@donga.com