Luxury brands generated due to love of family

The boy was born as the 11th out of the 14 children to an impoverished family in Bonito, southern Italy in the early 20th Century. This episode happened around the time when he had to quit school at the age of nine. His younger sister felt really sad ahead of her first communion since she did not have shoes for the communion. The boy worked overnight to make shoes using deserted leather. This is the origin of Salvatore Ferragamo, one of the top-of-the-line luxury brands.

In 1913, Thomas Williams, a chemist in Chicago, the U.S., also created something for her younger sister Maybel, who had her heart broken after a failed love affair. What he created through painstaking efforts by combining coal powder and Vaseline was the world’s first mascara. His invention made rich and beautiful the eyelashes of his younger sister, who was discontent about the small size of her eyes. Perhaps due to this, Maybel was able to marry the man she loved eventually. Williams created the “Maybelline," the combination of Maybel and “line” from the word Vaseline. This brand remains the world’s best in its product category even today.

“Aladdin Family Bapsang (Meal Table), a restaurant with a snack bar atmosphere in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, earned fame due to “Producer Lee Yeong-don’s Food X-file” show on Channel A, a sister cable channel of The Dong-A Ilbo. The restaurant owner, Kim Wol-seon, created “healthy organic kimbap (rice and vegetable rolled in dried laver),” after she saw her nephew struggling with stress from study and relationship with classmates. She initiated organic kimbap with her wish that her nephew and his friends would grow well, healthy and happy. This gimbap costs 4,000 won (3.6 U.S. dollars) per roll, rather expensive for kimbap, but it sells like hot cake. Park Byeong-deok, CEO of Atopalm, developed Atopic disease-related products for his third child who was suffering from sensitive skin, and ended up establishing the company.

The reason that products created for family members make commercial success is simple. The secret of success lies in the best performance and safety. Recently, seasoned vegetable flakes that were made from substandard ingredients have caused stir in Korean society. But police did not disclose the products` names in question, while the Food & Drug Safety Ministry said, “The quality of materials is low, but since the products are not harmful, they are suitable as foodstuff for consumption in terms of food poisoning germs and E-coli standards.” What would have been the result if the authorities evaluated the products in question based on whether they can provide the food to their own family? If they did, no one would have made such products, nor would there be a scientific survey whose results were ambiguous and confusing at best.

Moon Kwon-mo, senior reporter at Consumer Economy Desk