All posts by Jaewoo Joo

Jaewoo teaches and writes about design thinking, behavioral economics, and field experiment for customer experience. He is professor of marketing and participating professor of experience design at Kookmin University. Jaewoo has been Visiting Scholar at Stanford University since September 2024.

Reducing eye pain in a shopping mall

DML_Nuri eyeIn a large scale indoor space, people need breaks to reduce pains. In a shopping mall or at an exhibition, for example, people often take micro breaks on a bench to reduce the pains in the legs or feet. At a recent exhibition, I met a relatively new solution for the pains that have been little articulated: pains in the eye. When people look around many booths inside the indoor exhibition, they often suffer from dry eyes. Although wearing customized contact lens or dropping artificial tears reduce the pain, shoppers have had no instant solution for this so far. A company introduced electronic devices (blue plastic glasses) to reduce dry eye syndrome or xerophthalmia. Although it looks strange or scared, this device could be installed in shopping malls in the near future for those who want to reduce their pains in the eye.

 

Electronic Vehicle Charging Station in Seoul

An EV charging station stands in the parking lot at my university. DML_EcarProbably, the department of automotive engineering installed it and owns the electronic vehicle. My first impression about them is that they do not interfere the traffic flow inside the busy parking lot because the charging station occupies a tiny space and it charges a small BMWi. However, I was concerned what happened when strangers mistakenly/intentionally unplug it although the screen said, “please do not unplug while charging.”

Electronic vehicles are popular in California. Interestingly, many EV drivers found it difficult to locate the charging station. A recent news said that some building owners promote their buildings having the charging stations at their parking lots. I hope to see more electronic cars on the road and more EV charging stations in Seoul.

 

 

Pillow preference

DML_PillowPillows are important for a good night’s sleep. Regardless of whether innate or learned, people have their own preferences for the firmness of pillow. When they go to hotels or visit their friends’ places, however, they cannot help but accept the given pillows. Some of my friends who have a strong preference carry their air pillows.

Interestingly, at some resorts, they are able to “choose” one between a soft pillow and a firm pillow. At some hotels, they could even “reserve” one in advance among a wide variety of pillows (e.g., Sukhothai hotel in Bangkok).

Old is good intuition

Although we are always attracted by something new, we sometimes try something old to enjoy its authenticity.

For instance, when a restaurant places an nostalgic vintage signboard outside or when it serves dishes in an ugly pot, we infer that the restaurant must have been loved by many people previously. This “old is good” intuition is so strong that it can even distort the quality of the dish.

I recently visited an approximately 15-year old restaurant and ordered a fish soup for two. It was served in a pot that was all wrinkled up. Although this fish soup was not delicious, I enjoyed it simply because the pot of the soup looked old.   

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Reference

Fuchs, Christoph, Martin Schreier, and Stijn M.J. van Osselaer (2015), “The Handmade Effect: What’s Love Got to Do with It?,” Journal of Marketing, 79 (2), 98–110.

Despite the popularity and high quality of machine-made products, handmade products have not disappeared, even in product categories in which machinal production is common. The authors present the first systematic set of studies exploring whether and how stated production mode (handmade vs. machine-made) affects product attractiveness. Four studies provide evidence for the existence of a positive handmade effect on product attractiveness. This effect is, to an important extent, driven by perceptions that handmade products symbolically “contain love.” The authors validate this love account by controlling for alternative value drivers of handmade production (effort, product quality, uniqueness, authenticity, and pride). The handmade effect is moderated by two factors that affect the value of love. Specifically, consumers indicate stronger purchase intentions for handmade than machine-made products when buying gifts for their loved ones but not for more distant gift recipients, and they pay more for handmade gifts when purchased to convey love than simply to acquire the best-performing product.

Sterilizer in beauty stores

Must buy items in Korea are skin care products. As the Korean entertainment programs including TV programs, movies, and music videos became highly popular in Asia, the beauty products made in Korean enjoy its strong brand power. Many cosmetic stores in Seoul are crowded by foreign visitors.

I have noticed in the stores that many foreign visitors avoid trying on samples because of their hygiene concerns. Interestingly, many cosmetic stores have their own sterilizers, like labs or hospitals. Visitors can use them by simply putting the skin care or body care products or beauty tools inside for 5 minutes.

DML_Cosmetic sterilizer

Mobile messaging apps in Asia

Short / Instant / Mobile messaging apps compete fiercely. It has about 5 year history and has a numerous players (e.g., WhatsApp, Line, Wechat, QQ, and Kakao Talk, Snpachat, Telegram, and Viber, to name a few). Some focus on simple communication and others provide interesting features including stickers and animated figures.

I visited YongPyong ski resort recently and learned how popular mobile messaging apps (MMA) are among young Asians. Tourists who are staying over Seoul and want to have a one-day trip to this ski resort can book their round-way bus tickets via four MMA including QQ and Wechat (for Chinese), and WhatsApp and Kakao Talk (for English).

DML_Messenger(1)

DML_Messenger(2)

Verbal instructions do not work

People often use verbal signs to give instructions to others. The store owner posts a sign on the window saying, “This is a window, please use the door.” Government officers paint “Look Right” at the pedestrian crossing. However, I have observed numerous store visitors and pedestrians mistakenly push or slide the window and look left before crossing the road. In these cases, a visual signage might work better to attract their attention and guide their behavior.

DML_London_Glass

DML_London_Road

Break: take a rest vs. get inspired

We need breaks from our everyday work. Although they have a single objective, breaks have at least two different forms. For instance, some of my friends want to take a rest without having interactions with others. They turn off mobile phones, go to an all-inclusive hotel, and then spend time on doing nothing but reading casual books. Differently from these tranquil seekers, others want to get inspired by having more interactions with new things or strangers. They go to a city and then eat a wide variety of local food, visit museums and shops, and do not sleep at night but enjoy nightlife. They do many things.

Interestingly, my Asian friends tend to prefer the former option, taking a rest, probably because they are overwhelmed by meetings and schedules. In contrast, my European friends want to get inspired by exposing themselves with diverse stimulation probably because their everyday work is stable. There is a chance that the way I separate my friends or the way I understand their works is biased. However, what is important is that we need quality breaks to see the big picture of our everyday work. I recommend you to go to Vietnam and take a rest at an all inclusive resort at Da Nang and then have one-day local tour at Hoi An!

 

DML_Hoi An_Bobo

Train experience: Mechanical vs. Electronic

I recently traveled on trains in UK (London – Edinburgh) and in Korea (Seoul – Busan) and found two interesting differences.

First, I used a physical train ticket in UK and used an electronic ticket in Korea. In UK, I collected a paper ticket at the station and then physically showed it to the conductor on board at the time of ticket control. Interestingly, a slot was designated for train ticket on the headrest of each seat; thus, I did not have to interact with the conductor. Differently from this mechanical system, I paid for a train ticket online and my seat was booked in advance in Korea. Overall, I preferred the traditional mechanical way of working over the electronic one. Although the electronic system sounds convenient, I had spent more than 2 hours at home on going through hundreds of websites to buy a single train ticket online. I wish people do not replace the mechanical approach with the electronic one simply because the electronic approach looks cool.

Another interesting difference was that train seats in UK are higher than the train seats in Korea. In the UK train, people find it difficult to confirm whether a seat was taken or empty. However, it was relatively easy in the Korean train. Certainly, train seats were designed differently based on the average height of the people in each country. However, this difference further suggest that privacy matters more in the UK culture whereas publicness seems to be weighted more in the Korean culture.

DML_Train UK (1)

UK train (London – Edinburgh)

vs.

Korean train (Seoul – Busan)

DML_Train Korea

What is an advantage of having a popular first name?

First name (or given name) is the name that identifies a specific person. It differentiates a person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common last name (or family name). While last name is normally inherited, first name is “free to choose” and thus can be unique.

In some countries, however, only a few options seem to be highly popular. Many of my friends who were born and live in US, UK, or Canada have common first names. In English-based countries, Coke’s massively-distributed-but-highly-customized “first name” marketing campaign will work: each bottle of coke has its own first name label such as John, Sarah, Emma, and Alex. However, popular first names seem to be avoided in other countries. Most of my Korean friends have their own unique first names. In this country, Coke marketers may find it difficult to find popular first names and launch a marketing campaign using them.

DML_London_Firstnames on Coke

Then, why do some people pick up popular first names and others avoid them?