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Newspaper Article
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It’s Largely Matter of Trust in Korea
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By Tom Coyner
Korea Times
August 9, 2007
In Marketing 101, we studied the Four P's of Marketing: Product, Price,
Promotion and Place (i.e., distribution). Later Ries & Trout added a fifth P
-- Position; a concept anchoring the four aforementioned P's to a single
point of the market. And yet, of course, there is much more to marketing--
there is also trust or credibility. Without it, the four or five P's of a
marketing strategy crumble. This issue was surveyed by Edelman Public
Relations' director, Steve Bowen, at a recent Seoul Rotary meeting.
Mr Bowen reviewed the importance of customer trust as a requirement in any
market. He also focused on some of the unique aspects of doing business in
Korea. As a public relations professional, he centered his discussion on the
public's awareness and causes of attitudes toward companies and their
products and services.
As one may expect in most markets, trust in Korea is vested more in a
company's solid products and services along with effective management than
within the softer social issues. Yet, Edelman has discovered that employee
relationships and the public's perception of a company's employee relations
can be a major driver of the company's reputation. Given that, Edelman
recommends their clients' external communications be focused on business
tangibles -- and social programs should be clearly linked to core
competencies. For example, an international carrier may donate its shipping
services to special disaster relief efforts, highlighting employee
participation and volunteerism.
Today, traditional top-down media still retains highly credibility in Korea,
but as one may expect, the Internet is now on a par with newspapers,
television, etc. While hardly unique to Korea, UCC (User Created Content) is
a hot trend. Koreans in their 20s and younger are very comfortable
interacting in web- and cell phone-based, two-way dialogue-driven
promotions. Many, in fact, prefer UCC promotions over traditional one-way
communication.
While UCC may be a great way to go, credibility does not automatically
accrue from the process. The wise marketer in Korea looks for ways to
incorporate company positive, third party web content into feature-rich
local Web sites. In so doing, one needs to recognize up front that there is
a tradeoff between message control and message credibility. Therefore, one
should be prepared to cede some control over the message in favor of
dialogue-rich relationships with influential stakeholders.
It's important to remember that when we form an opinion about a product,
service or company, we are likely to hear various messages from different
sources. Some of these sources are ignored because we know nothing about
them or we may have had negative experiences with those kinds of
spokespeople or media. Traditionally, we have trusted word of mouth the
most. Today, we are getting increasing volumes of personalized information
from email, blogs, cell phones, etc. Often these messages are not literally
personalized, but they are much more targeted to suggest that the messages
are from a "person like me."
According to Edelman, the top three characteristics most likely to increase
Koreans' trust in someone sharing information about a specific company are
"shares common interests" (61 percent of those surveyed), "is of the same
profession" (46 percent), and "holds similar political beliefs" (45
percent). Perhaps surprising to many of us foreigners, commonality in
nationality, race, religion, and community were substantially less important
credibility factors in Korea. "A Person Like Me" is rapidly becoming a
highly credible commentator on one's company -- aided by the rise of social
media such as blogs and UCC promotions.
Still, to minimize the risk inherent in having highly credible third parties
talking about the company, it is critical to find ways to build trust-based
relations with multiple stakeholders, given the second tradeoff -- the
balance between message reach and message credibility. In Korea, non-aligned
commentators, such as NGOs, are becoming increasingly credible. This
suggests that a good marketing program should build highly tailored
communications channels aimed at different stakeholder groups using
different third party spokespeople.
An interesting twist is for domestic communications campaigns to include
international media as effective routes via which to reach key stakeholders
in Korea. Sometimes international media coverage may come across as being
more credible in Korea. Needless to say, outreach to international media
needs to be based on a very different story angle from a Korean media
campaign, but if done correctly, international media may offer a special
kind of validation or credibility.
Getting back to employee relations, Edelman has noted increasingly the most
important standout public perception characteristic of companies in Korea is
the way companies treat their employees. This is partially because during
the past decade there has been a restructuring of employee and labor laws as
well as welfare and benefits systems. As a result, there is a new emphasis
on employee rights.
Therefore, it is becoming more important to develop communications campaigns
from the inside out, particularly in terms of buy-in from internal
stakeholders. Corporate reputation starts with employee relationships. That
means building strong relationships with employees, who are among a
company's most credible commentators. Since one's employees are prone to
talk and send messages over the Internet, it is more critical than ever to
foster internal feedback processes. It's important to keep in mind that
Koreans are the world's leaders in sharing negative, credible opinions of
companies, products and services over the Internet.
While the National Tourism Organization now proclaims that ``Korea,
sparkling'' sums up this country, I maintain ``Dynamic Korea'' is the better
nomenclature. The rise in social media, such as blogs, UCC, cell phones, is
being matched by increased credibility of third parties, such as NGOs. While
it is certainly premature to disregard the importance of the traditional
media with a focus on business tangibles, one needs to recognize that
communications channels are becoming increasingly fragmented, with
non-traditional media channels becoming more prevalent.
The days of ``one size fits all'' are still not over, but in broadband
Korea, the most competitive and capable companies are using messaging and
channel strategies effectively as they gain better insights into their
increasingly narrowly-defined target audiences.
And if it is not enough to appreciate the benefits of learning to surf
Korea's cyber waves, consider the potential cost of getting it wrong. As I
stated earlier, Koreans are more likely than any other nationality to
complain online about companies they don't trust.
Tom Coyner is president of Soft Landing Korea, a consulting group
focusing on sales and human resources issues. He is co-author of
Mastering Business in Korea: A Practical Guide.
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