[Opinion] A Country’s Image

In 1984, Coca Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta visited Robert Woodruff, the founder. Goizueta had gone to obtain approval of changing the manufacturing process and the brand name. They conducted a flavor test on 200,000 people, concealing the brands, and the new product (New Coke) placed first in this survey with the competing product and the existing product finishing second and third, respectively. With these results and from the objective figures, even the authority in brand strategy was at loss. 95-year-old Woodruff, with tears in his eyes, weakly said, “You have my approval.” New Coke turned out to be a major failure. New Coke had to be recalled in just three months after introduction due to the consumers’ neglect and protest. Coca Cola had forgotten the fact that it is the image that the consumers buy and not the flavor.

Seoul Dongdaemun market is in tears because fewer “peddlers” from Russia have been coming. It is easy to think that it is probably because price competition is falling because of China-made products, but actually it is said that the reason is that the “Made in Korea” image is becoming worse. The following is the explanation of Shin Dong-kyu, president of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, who recently came back from Russia: “Russians know that foreign workers from China, Nepal, and Bangladesh are making Korean products. Even if the Korean trademark is on the product, they regard it as ‘Made in China’ or ‘Made in Nepal’.”

A country’s image is largely affected when inducing foreign capital. As competition for inducing foreign capital become more intense, each country is bringing out incentives such as lowering the corporation tax. This lowering of the corporation tax and other systems are only secondary considerations. It is hard to distinguish between the merits and faults of each country since the tax law and systems are complicated. So, in the end, it is the country’s entire image that influences the decision whether or not to invest. As long as workers with red headbands, rocks, bottle grenades, iron pipes and bamboo sticks continue to fill up the entire CNN screen, there will be few foreigners willing to invest in Korea.

At the symposium sponsored by the Nation Image Committee, Patrick Naurus, director of Institut Français, said, “There is no image of Korea in the minds of French people. Korea is not a target of discussion.” This is somewhat lucky. At another spot, Xavier Smekens, honorary president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea, said to prime minister Ko-gun, “The image of Korea, which had improved following the World Cup, has been hit by the worsening relations between the labor and capital. What kind of effort is the Korean government putting in to polishing the country’s image?” If politicians were at the spot, this type of question could have been brought up. “Don’t you have any thoughts in putting a stop to ‘money laundering’ and putting efforts into washing away the ‘spoiled country’ and ‘battling labor union country’ images for a change?”

Editorial Writer Chun Kwang-ahm, iam@donga.com