Seihaku’s Blogmarketing Bible

In the age of Internet, it is much more effective to convey messages through a simple image than to use long, logical explanations. This can be seen in DCinside’s bulletin boards, you can many ideas and visual effects rising as many pictures and articles were posted together. This visual element acts as a great power in moving the crowd of today.

This power of the bulletin board is demonstrated through the explosive sales increase of digital cameras. It can be the critical key point to rule the image in a situation like this. As the general public learned and were exposed to programs and technologies which they could not easily approach, this domain leveled off quite a bit and the control of creators weakened in comparison to the past. All visual technologies and techniques will become more and more leveled as time passes.

In order to rule the image, you will need both processes: ‘creative’ and ‘media’. This is where we can choose blog as a medium. Korean netizen’s point of view on image is world class and the desire for images are substantial. The industry that will grow the most in the digital world would have to be the design industry.

The demise of newspapers should be regarded as the demise of text and logic and the Internet is an undefeatable empire with the influx of multimedia. Then what would be an ideal contents to lure the Korean netizens, who are known for their high taste?

Netizens will show their concern for image over texts, movies over images, so the presentation of contents will be more critical than its substance. Distinction and acquiring prior occupancy will take a critical role in representation that is competitive. Then how should you create distinction? Firstly, to raise the level of perfection to a level above that of images used for advertising. Secondly, to mess it up so much that perfection doesn’t mean anything. And thirdly, do not use a conventional but use a new program.

But the core message that lies underneath should be extremely short and simple. Netizens want something that they can immediately understand the moment they see it. You can’t be a pro unless you can convey the message in that short given period of time.

It is obvious short, simple images are ruling the world of Internet.

Ess Board’s pioneering of the new market field possesses a great value.

Existing Korean manufacturers have established competitive edge by producing cheap imitation products from gathering photos of other products when they visited the international exhibitions. Taking the easy way by just following what others have researched and developed, Korean manufacturers began to focus on producing high quality products inexpensively.

Yet, nightmare begins when China, whose labor and material costs only 1/10 of the cost, starts to imitage Korean Products. Unless the Korean produces a unique, original product, the market becomes flooded with over supply of good due to the overwhelming quantity of Korean and Chinese imitations in a very short period of time. This causes the profit to fall steeply.

If there’s an overview of similar products in a small market like in Korea, producers are forced to lower their prices to make a sale and this in turn lossens the buyer’s desire. A consumer knows well that the price will drop just simply by waiting.

However, a Korean manufacturer thinks no different to a Chinese in thinking that sales increase can be achieved by cutting production cost. A big success in a Korean makret today is a consequence of a creative mind that explores where no one has gone before and to bring that creativity to a level of absolute standard where a consumer craves for that particular design.

Another thing that separates the American market with the Korean market whose intellectual rights is undefined is:

Firstly, the fast paced notion of time and
Secondly, by fortifying added value products such as copyrights, patents and by introducing new genre of designs so that competitors in Korea and China won’t be able to catch up in a given short period of time. Added value products like copyrights, patents and etc. take long time to generate a return on the investment and are expensive. Yet a design of new genre will raise immediate response of the market to shorten the time to generate a profit.

Then what are the similarities of the two core competitive characteristic?
I presume that it may be hard for the general public to fully comprehend its logic. Product have not been produced yet; so one cannot see or touch but only to grasp ins concept by imagining with your head and mind to analyze what’s invisible. It is obvious that a generation of ‘engineer’ CEOs who made their decisions solely on what they will have a difficult time. The situation can often be seen where the fresh ideas that will create added value gets buried or procrastinated with such as ‘timing isn’t right’ or ‘we can’t meet that stardard’. Precisely speaking, it is very difficult a management that persues a safe road of following where others have gone before to come forth with or to accept fresh ideas that will generate added value.

What’s more frustrating is that a Chinese manufacturer’s thoughts are no different from that of a Korean thus we see products with all sorts of similar designs. This can be seen through the market samples. Not one product truly is distinctive.

What should a manufacturer that used to produce ‘Blue Ocean’ (Uncontested market) products do when the market turns to ‘Red Ocean’ (Saturated market) all of a sudden.

1. Obtain all competing products in the market and develop a new product by comparing and analyzing.

2. Come out with a entirely new added value products in terms of design or patents.

Generally, many small domestic venture firms (except for few) do not processes the technology that surpasses that of a large enterprises therefore causing their product values to actually fall below the added material costs. Most enterprises seeked to survive by cutting material costs. Yet they are in constant danger of being dismissed from the market due to an imperative price competition of a Chinese firms. Precisely, those who aren’t aware of the situation or without an escape plan are slowly sink beneath the water, unknowingly.

The characteristic of a domestic venture firm is that its average capacity isn’t uniform. Before the IMF, manufacturing department handled the core operations of the firm. Buf after that, we can sense that the flow had changed to the funds department or the marketing department. If we look at the general common sector of the business management, excluding those with the exclusive technology in the global market such as biotechs field:

1. All things that human needs have been all productized,
2. Almost all the ideas that one could ever think of have been copyrighted, trademarked, or registered,
3. One can make diverse decisions based upon budget and interest.

Furthermore, we can expect to see high quality products from developed countries at competitive prices in the domestic market due to the FTA. The products from EU or Chinese will add to the touch market competition. Only a few globally competitive domestic corporations are expected to benefit from all this.

Ess Board was able to generate income just by manufacturing for 3 years due to the exclusiveness of their product in the uncontested market. Wheel sports allowed fast penetration of the market with very little investment. But because of its advantages, few domestic firms have contracted Chinese manufacturers to produce imitation products and export it globally. Other people in the industry have also taken measures to import a similar product, avoiding much of the copyright laws as they can. This in turn projected serious aggravation of the market income in contrast to the small market size.

Also, reality shows that firms weren’t able to quickly adapt to the current market as the firms concentrated more on the production, they weren’t able to quickly adapt to the current market due to the failure of long term marketing and their inability to build a firm corporate brand image. Importantly, most small and medium sized domestic enterprises are faced with complex problems mentioned above. I believe it is critical that we find ways to solve the current situation.

Indeed, what is the domestic venture firm’s competitiveness? How likely are we to survive?