“Samsung” and “high-tech” are the words best describing Korea among foreigners. (image: travel oriented/flickr)
SEOUL, Korea, April 24, 2014 (Korea Bizwire) – About a half of the people in developed countries named “Samsung” and “high-tech” as the words best describing Korea.
On April 23, the Institute for International Trade, the research arm of the Korea International Trade Association said that 30.2 percent out of 248 Europeans answered “Samsung” and 29.4 percent answered “high-tech” to the question “What does Korea remind you of?”
Many of them mentioned “ICT-savvy (18.1%)” as well. Among 202 respondents in North America including the United States and Canada, 33.7 percent answered the keyword “high-tech” was best associated with Korea, and next came “Samsung (18.8%)” and “ICT-savvy (9.9%).”
(graphic:Kobizmedia/Korea Bizwire)
Many Europeans said the most impressive things regarding Korea were rapid economic development (34.3%) and rich history (29.4%), while North Americans seemed to be more impressed by Korea’s rich history (40.1%) than economic development (23.8%).
In particular, a great number of Americans reportedly regarded Korea as a “country of a history of five thousand years” and were intrigued by the exceptional ardor for education in Korea and its high level of culture.
Upon analysis of such data, KITA came to a conclusion that the high value of Korean culture combined with its long history could be a powerful marketing tool in developed countries.
(graphic:Kobizmedia/Korea Bizwire)
In both Europe and North America, “Esprit de corps” was the most mentioned as the greatest virtue of Korean society and “cut-throat competition” as its shortcoming. However, some have shown concerns that Korea’s esprit de corps is closely related to the insular nature of the society, and the national pride as a homogeneous nation can be perceived as a sort of elitism.
KITA Institute for International Trade research fellow Cho Sang-hyun said, “The research has shown a product or a service that incorporates Korea’s unique cultural and historical elements through designs or storytelling can be successful in developed country markets.”
Written by Robin Koo (linguistkoo@koreabizwire.com)
Technology (Follow us @Technews_Korea)
