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.
Publications

I pay more because this is my game

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Li, Y., & Joo, J. (2023). The mediating effect of psychological ownership on the relationship between value co-creation and the in-app purchasing intention of mobile games players. Behavioral Sciences, 13 (3), 205.

Abstract

In previous research on in-app purchasing, one of the revenue sources for mobile games focuses on users’ unilateral relationships, such as their achievement, loyalty, and perception. However, little has been discussed about the commercial impact of the bilateral relationship. We extend discussions by examining an unprecedented issue, that is, the role of the bilateral relationships between users and mobile game companies in increasing in-app purchasing intention. We borrow from the business literature and psychology to hypothesize that when mobile game users co-create value with a mobile game company, their psychological ownership of the mobile game increases, which in turn increases their in-app purchasing intentions. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a carefully designed study by recruiting eighty-six Chinese game users. Half of the participants were exposed to an imaginary mobile game whose interface allowed them to co-create value with the mobile game company and the other half were exposed to an identical mobile game whose interface did not. We recruited participants from the two online platforms in which Chinese mobile game players gather—Weibo and WeChat Moment. Using SPSS 26, we conducted an independent samples test to test the effect of value co-creation and employed Hayes Model 4 to test whether psychological ownership mediated the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention. We found that (1) when participants were allowed to co-create value, their in-app purchasing intentions increased, and (2) the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention was mediated by psychological ownership. Our findings provide fresh insights for mobile game designers and marketers.

Keywords

value co-creation; psychological ownership; in-app purchasing; mobile game

Publications

Design brief helps advisors help business people working with designers

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Bertao, R. A., Brum, A. L. D. S., & Joo, J. (2023) The design brief as a pivotal tool: A study of Centro Brasil Design’s practices to promote design, The Design Journal, 26 (2), 188-209. 

Abstract

In the early stages of the design and innovation processes, stakeholders often develop a design brief. As a document gathering all design requirements, it is adopted as an agreement and a roadmap to facilitate communication throughout the project. This study expands the current literature about design brief tools by delving into the briefing process within design interventions conducted by design promotion organisations. We investigated the strategies and practices of Centro Brasil Design to nurture design among Brazilian enterprises. Particularly, we focused on its Design Export program, which aims to insert design in export-oriented businesses. Supported by the Design Quality Criteria framework, our study probed the program’s development and its design briefs, as well as the designers involved in the projects. The findings revealed how a design brief could lever the design advisory service. We further identified a new approach to briefing procedures and a design brief model for design interventions.

Keywords

Design brief, briefing, Design Quality Criteria, Centro Brasil Design, design promotion

Publications

How to write and when to send traffic-boosting mobile coupons?

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Chu, W., & Joo, J. (2024). Targeting effectiveness of mobile coupons: from exposure to purchase. Journal of Marketing Analytics, 12, 342-354.

Abstract

This research examines the effectiveness of traffic-boosting mobile coupons through a randomized field experiment of over half a million South Korean consumers. The research question analyzes the effectiveness of the content (six message types) and context (three days out of the week for coupon distribution) of mobile coupons on response-to-coupon, store visits, and purchase amount for a health and beauty retail chain. Big data on individual customers, gathered from a field experiment, was analyzed through bivariate probit, mediation analysis, and tobit regression. The results show that message content affects store visits, which was fully mediated through response-to-coupon. In particular, messages that “made the amount of discount salient” and “formed a personal connection” were more effective than other messages. In terms of context, messages sent during the weekdays were more effective in increasing store visit, than those sent during the weekend.

Keywords

Mobile promotion · Mobile coupon · Message content · Message context · Coupon distribution · Field experiment

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our deep gratitude to Hyojung Kim, Sul Namgoong, and Joongjae Lee at Shinhan Card for their assistance with the collection of our data.

Please see the case study in Korean language here

Publications

If people have to control themselves, avoid cuteness

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Yoon, N., Park, W., & Joo, J. (2022). Dark side of cuteness: Effect of whimsical cuteness on new product adoption. In G. Bruyns & H. Wei (Eds.), [ _ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes (pp. 617–633). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

A wide range of businesses actively use cute characters such as the globally popular LINE FRIENDS characters for product design to increase consumers’ product adoption. Prior research has found that whimsical cuteness—which elicits fun and playful mental representations—can lead to higher product adoption. The effectiveness, however, has been investigated mostly in indulgent contexts. This article aims to uncover the opposite phenomenon, that is, whimsical cuteness could be detrimental for product adoption, in particular, in a non-indulgent context. In a pre-test, we measured the different types of cuteness of nine LINE FRIENDS characters, selecting one pair of characters differed only in terms of whimsical cuteness. Additionally considering product newness, the main study tested whether product adoption differed depending on the level of whimsical cuteness and product newness. The results demonstrate that participants were less likely to adopt a non-indulgent product when it was highly whimsically cute compared to less whimsically cute because the indulgence provoked by fun and playful mental representations conflicted against the restraint reinforced by a product for self-control. The adverse effect increases when the product has lower product newness whereas high product newness dampens the effect. The findings suggest that practitioners should carefully consider product nature and newness when applying whimsically cute features to product design and marketing promotions. This study has originality in that it is the first to demonstrate the adverse effect of whimsical cuteness on new product adoption and verify the moderating effect of product newness.

Keywords

Whimsical cuteness, New product adoption, Product newness, Self-control, LINE FRIENDS

The key practical significance is that a product design which makes products seem whimsically cute has potentially detrimental effects on consumers’ product adoption, especially when the products are non-indulgent. Although nudge is an interesting lens for designers (Chen et al. 2019), our finding suggests that whimsical cuteness can have counter-nudging effects (Saghai 2013; Sunstein 2017) that make consumers not to adopt self-control products, contrary to the expectation of designers and marketers. For instance, cute characters with high whimsical cuteness might in fact hinder consumers’ adoption of products for self-control such as diet foods and time and study management products. Thus, practitioners should beware of using whimsically cute characters on products related to self-control (pg. 629).

Publications

Play a video game and meet a psychiatrist

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Piao, S., & Joo, J. (2022). A Behavioral Strategy to Nudge Young Adults to Adopt In‐Person Counseling: Gamification. In G. Bruyns & H. Wei (Eds.), [ _ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes (pp. 1348–1363). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

Mental illness has always been an important issue for young adults. Moreover, initiatives resulting from the outbreak of COVID‐19 have had an even greater impact on the mental health of young adults. This study sought to examine the effect of gamification on whether young adults adopt in‐person counseling. One hundred twenty young adults (42 males and 78 females) with an average age of 29 years participated in our experiment. In the experiment, a 2 (Gamification: no vs. yes) × 2 (Vividness: low vs. high) between‐subjects design was employed. In the “yes” gamification condition, participants decided whether or not to read introductory material about in‐person counseling, and also whether or not to adopt in‐person counseling in the future. The results of the study show that: (1) gamification increased adoption, (2) participants’ perception of subjective usability of in‐person counseling mediated the effect of gamification to adoption, and (3) vividness of presentation moderated subjective usability. Our study demonstrated that gamification nudges young adults to adopt in‐person counseling while subjective usability mediates the relationship, and vividness moderates the relationship between gamification and subjective usability. Our findings provide counselors fresh insights into motivating people to access counseling services.

Keywords

Gamification, Adoption, Usability, Vividness, Counselling

“… gamification has the primary purpose of promoting human motivation and performance in a particular activity. The importance of gamification has been thoroughly discussed theoretically and practically in an increasing number of research studies for health professions education (Van Nuland et al. 2015; Verkuyl et al. 2017;Buttetal. 2018). Ourexperimental study found that gamification does have a positive effect on people adopting in-person counselling” (pg. 1360).

Publications

Bundling smart products better by considering consumers’ goals

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Abstract

Contemporary electronic manufacturers struggle with how to develop attractive bundles by combining their existing smart products. In the present work, we propose Goal Based Bundling (GBB) by drawing on the academic research of goal systems theory (Kruglanski et al., 2018) and shed light on two previously ignored aspects of bundling strategy: service and glue product. We applied our GBB to a collaborative project with Samsung Electronics, whose goal was to develop new product bundles for kids by combining multiple smart home products. We constructed a framework of Samsung Electronics’ smart products and then visualized it on its sales website. A UI design conveying the value of smart products bundle was developed based on GBB structure. We discuss the process and the result of our project to provide insights into the product managers who combine existing smart products to develop a bundle.

Keywords

Product bundle; Smart products; Goal systems theory; Service; Glue product; Samsung Electronics

“Although bundling tactics are frequently called upon in business, marketing research on product bundles is surprisingly sparse (Russell et al., 1999). This paper represents an attempt to identify bundling smart products by borrowing the key concepts from the Goal Systems Theory (Kruglanski et al., 2018). We posit that constructing a products bundle following a hierarchical goal structure overcomes the limitation of combining categorically dissimilar products. Moreover, it addresses an important role of service in smart product bundling.” (pg. 2898)

*Event

In the age of customer experience, marketing needs to be persistent and participatory

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I was invited by Contents Marketing Summit 2022 to help two professionals share their insights about marketing trends and activities in the age of customer experience. The two professionals are Hyewon Oh, Director of Brand Communication at HE Division, LG Electronics and Ginny Lee, Head of Sports Marketing and Key City Brand Activation at Adidas. They both have 20+ year work experience in the marketing field.

Customer eXperience (CX) matters significantly in Korea because product-based differentiation is challenging more than ever and people strive to experience something new. The invited two professionals introduced several interesting projects and provided participants with fresh insights.

First, LG Electronics is now running a pop-up store called “Geumseong (Goldstar) Recreational Room.” People could play video games with the high-end OLED TVs, having gaming experience. It is also collaborating with world-class artists such as Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor at the Freeze Art Fair in London and LA, Saatchi Gallery, and Venice Biennale at the same time. While introducing these activities, Director Oh highlighted that only persistent activities work out.

Second, Adidas Korea is running various activities to directly participating in numerous customers, from city tours with Son Heung-min to CSR running events all over the city. Marketer Oh emphasized that in order to engage customers, activities should be designed to give chances for customers to participate in special experience.

They both concluded that commercial impact of marketing activities in the CX era is difficult to be measured in a short run. CX marketers need to be persistent and participatory.

Publications

How should we customize design thinking training program for engineers?  

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Bertao, R. A., Jung, C. H., and Joo, J. (2022). Identifying inconveniences in daily life: a problem finding prompt to foster non-designers’ engagement in design thinking training. In Gabriela Goldschmidt and Ezri Tarazi (Ed.), 13th Design Thinking Research Symposium, Expanding the Frontiers of Design: A Blessing or a Curse? (pp. 354-368). Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa: Israel.

Abstract

In general, companies use training programs to implement design thinking’s creative problem-solving approach and encourage employees to adopt it. However, non-designers face individual barriers when joining such initiatives and experience challenges related to the implementation of regular practices in organizations. This paper conducts a case study of a design thinking training program developed by LG Corporation and explores a particular perspective applied in the initial phases of the design thinking methodology—namely, problem finding via empathetic observation. The initiative focused on helping non-designers develop the skills to identify customer inconveniences that may require design thinking’s problem-solving attitude. The program blueprint encompassed a preceding activity designed to increase awareness of design thinking methodology via immersion in customer issues and utilized innovative strategies to promote participant engagement in training.

Keywords

design thinking, training, boot camp, problem finding, LG Corporation.

Publications

Could AI be a creative collaborator?

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Bertao, R. A., & Joo, J. (2021). Artificial intelligence in UX/UI design: a survey on current adoption and [future] practices. In J. Cruickshank, L., Galabo, R., Perez, D., Gisclard, B., Bofylatos, S., Mortati, M., Valentine, L. and Hwang (Ed.), 14th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Safe Harbours for Design Research (pp. 404–413). Blucher Design Proceedings.

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has been disseminated across various industries, and algorithm-based activities are becoming common in design disciplines. Despite high expectations of collaborating with intelligent systems, whether designers are actually interested in working with algorithms has been little discussed. This paper summarises ongoing research findings that have probed the use of AI features in design practices. A survey of Brazilian UX/UI professionals was conducted to map their AI-supported activities and explore their perspectives on interacting with AI systems and future adoption scenarios. The findings indicate a low usage rate of AI tools in the Brazilian UX/UI industry and a limited operational perspective regarding the role, application, and impact of intelligent technologies on design. Surveyed UX/UI designers are more prone to adopt AI as a virtual assistant to facilitate practice and increase process efficiency rather than as a creative collaborator.

Keywords

UX/UI design; artificial intelligence (AI); adoption; design tool

Publications

What makes us search?

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Yoon, Y., Deng, R., & Joo, J. (2022). The Effect of Marketing Activities on Web Search Volume: An Empirical Analysis of Chinese Film Industry Data. Applied Sciences, 12, 2143.

Abstract

Prior research on consumers’ web searches primarily examined the effect of web searches on product sales or the characteristics of the web searchers. Differing from prior research, we investigate the effect of marketing activities on web search volume. We selected 314 movies released in China whose box office revenues were greater than RMB 10,000. Then, we collected data points on web search volume and marketing activities from the Baidu, Sina Weibo, and Douban platforms from the 3 weeks prior to the release of each movie. Marketing activity data points were derived from three sources: news media, social network marketing, and film stars. Our data analysis of 6594 observations revealed two major findings. First, news media, social network marketing, and the effect of film stars increased the web search volumes of the films. In particular, social network marketing had the strongest impact on the web search volume. Second, the previous‐day web search volume increased the present‐day web search volume without marketing activities, suggesting a spillover effect. We discuss the academic contributions and managerial implications of our findings in the context of online marketing and new product launches.

Keywords

web search behavior; film industry; news media; social network; star; new product