Winners and losers of 'V-nomics'

Kim Nan-do, a professor of consumer studies at Seoul National University (SNU), poses during an online press conference to promote his new book "Trend Korea 2021," Tuesday. Courtesy of Miraebook Publishing

Best-selling author unveils consumer trend outlook for 2021

By Park Ji-won

Cover image for "Trend Korea 2021"

Kim Nan-do, a professor of consumer studies at Seoul National University (SNU), and his team at the SNU Consumer Trend Research Institute, has unveiled his "Trend Korea 2021," an annual consumption trend outlook report that gives companies insights into business opportunities, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kim said it is inevitable that the economy will continue to suffer the consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic next year. One of the fallouts will be economic polarization which will result in what he calls a K-shaped recovery ― characterizing it as "V-nomics." Kim combined the words "virus" and "economics" to create a singular new word here in Korea that expresses how he thinks the entire economy will be heavily affected by the virus.

He predicted that the impact of the virus will be differentiated depending on economic sectors, thus it's important for companies to pivot fast with their business models to survive, while stressing that the COVID-19 pandemic, or an "era" he describes as "VUCA ― volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity ―" shortens the lifespan of existing trends.

"What COVID-19 has affected is not the direction of trends but the speed, which is very important to know. The infectious disease is not leading the trends or creating some new trends. Instead, it highlights some existing trends or weakens them," Kim said during an online press conference Tuesday to promote his new book "Trend Korea 2021."

Kim and his team have been releasing the "Trend Korea" reports annually since 2008. The reports introduce words reflecting Korean society, and predicts the trends of the upcoming year.

Stressing that "pivot" is the most important term to understand the trend during the pandemic, he said, "Pivoting has been one of the most important business strategies in start-up businesses, which means an ability to change strategies quickly and be experimental. However, bigger companies, such as airlines, have difficulties in their businesses because of COVID-19. It is necessary for them to adopt a pivoting strategy."

Kim added that, "It is also important to come up with consumer products that reflect the trend of the moment to target the "MZ generation," rather than taking time to come up with mega-hit products by putting a lot of time and efforts in it."

His so-called "MZ generation" encompasses both millennials and the Z generation, who were born between 1980 and 2004.

He also predicted that the second-hand products market would grow as young people think differently about used goods.

"The older generation would only think of buying used goods as a last resort to save money. But the younger generation think differently. They think buying a product which has already been used by someone else several times is the same as buying a new product … We expect that the used goods market will grow larger very quickly next year."

Kim said that companies should revise their marketing strategies to target the younger generation because they are digital-natives and different from older generations.

"My generation, X generation, lived in the era of a growing economy. The MZ generation, who are also digital natives, face financial difficulty and low economic growth. They have high expectations, but have never been easily satisfied with anything and have no expectation for economic growth. They think differently. So companies should take these differences into account when coming up with marketing strategies to target this generation."

He said the book features the Konglish acronym "COWBOY HERO" as a catchphrase which stands for "Coming of V-nomics"; "Omni-layered Homes"; "We Are the Money-friendly Generation"; "Best We Pivot"; "On This Rollercoaster Life"; "Your Daily Sporty Life"; "Heading to the Resell Market"; "Everyone Matters in the CX Universe" "Real Me: Searching for My Own Label" and "Ontact, Untact, with a Human Touch."

Kim continued, "The upcoming year 2021 is the Year of the Cow. We created COWBOY HERO hoping that the cowboys, or heroes of our time, can control the wild cow which can be interpreted as COVID-19."

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