Seminar at Incheon National University

From March to June 2014, on Wednesday afternoon, this course organizes presentations with various representatives of the EU established in Korea. The purpose is to gather various expatriates to discover the potential of European companies and institutions, their presence here in Korea, and the good and bad of being a European in Korea.

Furthermore, our students are interested to learn what requirements and skills are needed by European companies to get an internship or a job.

Thus during three month, guided by motivated students, different companies and institutions are invited to visit us and briefly introduce themselves, respond to the students questions, and have an enjoyable experience presenting their homeland and their objectives in Asia.

The atmosphere of these presentations is meant to be very pleasant for all of us, and to celebrate the participation of our guests properly they are invited to enjoy a dinner afterwards at the University restaurant.

Our students are studying German or French and European Trade. English skills are required. Most of them are in the 3rd or 4th academic year. Also our international exchange students can participate in this class.

In order to graduate, each group of students supervising one of the eight delegations will have to make a presentation and remarks on the website of this class:  www.europetrade.blogspot.kr

Classes always on Wednesday, 2.30 – 5.30 pm

Room 502, College of Humanities, Bldg. 15

Program

1           Wednesday, March 5^th                Short Introduction

2           Wednesday, March 12^th              No Class, University-Birthday!

3           Wednesday, March 19^th               History of Korean-European relation

4           Wednesday, March 26^th               How to do Power-Point?

5           Wednesday, April 2^nd                    European Companies (in Korea)

6           Wednesday, April 9^th                     Intercultural Aspects, Job-Application

7           Wednesday, April 16^th                  Austrian Business Chamber, Seoul, Ms.

Andrea Robitza, Commercial Attaché

8           Wednesday, April 23^rd                  Airbus-Industries (France/Germany, …)
                                                                       Mr. Loiche Cyril, Business Analyst

9           Wednesday, April 30^th                  Russia and the Far East 1 (Prof. Dr.

Werner Lehfeldt, Göttingen University)

10         Wednesday, May 7^th                     Russia and the Far East 2 (Prof. Dr.

Werner Lehfeldt, Göttingen University)

11         Wednesday, May 14^th                   MAN (Germany) / European Chamber of  

Commerce & Industry, Mr. Thilo Halter,

President, CEO

12         Wednesday, May 21^st                   Muser Trading (France),
                                                                        Mr. Christophe Muser

13         Wednesday, May 28^th                   European Furniture & Household, N.N.

14         Wednesday, June 4^th                    No Class, Election-Day!

15         Wednesday, June 11^th                  Car Supplier, Final Remarks

          Topics for student’s presentations:

a)    Austrian and Swiss companies

b)    European Air- and Space-Industry

c)     Eastern-Europe, Relations with Korea

d)    European Commercial Vehicles (Trucks, Buses, Agricultural Vehicles, …)

e)     Korean Trading with Europe

f)      Furniture and Household-Machines from Europe in Korea

g)    European Car Supplier, Car Electric, …

 

Austrian Business Chamber

On April 16th visited Ms Andrea Robitza from the Austrian Business Chamber our class. She explained business relations between Austria and Korea.

On April 16th, our team gave a presentation of Austrian and Swiss Companies.

When our team was preparing for the presentation we thought about Austrian and Swiss companies and Red Bull & Nestle was one of the first things that come to our mind.

 

First of all, Red Bull is very famous with energy drink instead of the company have had a relative short life. The company continued their unconventional marketing by focusing on sports such as soccer, Formula One and extreme sports. Red Bull had already spread tp foreign markets and today they are available in more than 166 countries and around 40 billion cans of Red Bull have been consumed so far.

 

The other famous company of Swiss is Nestle. This company is a Swiss transnational food and beverage company and it's the largest food company in the world measured by revenues. Nestle always seek to be the leader in nutrition health, wellness. They become the most famous food company in Swiss and also in all over the world with their symbol "Good Food, Good Life".

After this presentation, we had more great time from Austrian Business Chamber.

Ms. Andrea Robitza and also the Austrian student who was working as an intern at Austrian Business Chamber. They told us about Austria and also the relationship between Austria and Korea. We learned a lot and would like to know more of Austria.

Airbus Group

 

Mr Cyril Louiche from Airbus-Group introduced his company on April 23rd. He explained, which airplanes are sold to Korean Airlines or Asiana Airlines.

On April 23, we gave a presentation about Airbus. We are Kim Eun-A, Choi Soo-Hee and Hwang Seon-Ae. Since we major in French language and literature, Airbus is familiar to us.
Airbus is an aircraft manufacturer which is headquartered in Toulouse, France. Airbus manufactures passenger aircrafts, military aircrafts and freighter aircrafts. 
Originally Airbus is started from EADS group. EADS stands for European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. Airbus has become a subsidiary company of EADS through acquisition and merger. So in 1970 Airbus started. Now, Aerospatiale (in France), Deutsche Airbus (in Germany), Aerospace (in U.K) and CASA (in Spain) are co-shareholders of Airbus. Now Airbus is the biggest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world.

Airbus is comparable to Boeing which is an aircraft manufacturer in America. However since Airbus had been a second mover in aircraft manufacturing industry, Airbus decided to develop a new product which compete against Boeing’s products. So in 2005 Airbus released Airbus 380 (shortened as A380). A380 is the biggest passenger plane in the world. This product has a nickname Super Jumbo because of its size. When A380 lands on the ground, the size including its wings area is comparable to the size of a soccer field. Also the cabin can seat up to 525 people. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have bought this airplane in 2011 and in 2014.
And now Airbus always tries to develop an advanced airplane. So they have their specific objectives. The first objective is reducing CO2 emissions. The second objective is reducing fuel consumption. The third objective is to make passenger journey time quicker. So, by considering environment with efficiency, Airbus tries to ensure sustainable growth in their business.

After our presentation, a member of EADS gave a presentation about EADS and Airbus. Thanks to his presentation, we became aware of the information about Airbus group and jobs in Airbus. He said that if you interested in Airbus, you can apply for a job in Airbus, regardless of your major. And he said he majored in geography. So, if you interested in Airbus, we’d like to say “Apply for a job in Airbus”.

Russia and the Far East

Russia is an European country, but also a neighbor of (North) Korea. Prof. Dr. Werner Lehfeldt from Georg-August University in Göttingen/Germany gives a lecture about Russias way to the Far East on April 30th and May 7th.
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On may 7th, we, the French language and literature students Yeondoo Jang, Hyewon Tak, Sungmyung Seo, presented a product that gained huge success in Russia, Doshirak.

Doshirak is a cup noodle that is produced by the company “Yacult”. Before the story of “Doshirak”, Korea Yacult and it is 100% Korean company. At the beginning of this company’s foundation, it was incorporated with the investment of Japanese. But today, it is exactly Korean company.
The reason why did we choose “Doshirak” as the subject of our presentation, it’s because the way that this cup noodle gained success in Russia is different from others. Generally, when a company wants to expand its market place, it has to establish a base in domestic market. But in case of “Doshirak”, although it did not succeed in Korea, it showed a big share of Russian market.
The expansion of “Doshirak” passed three steps.
First, after 1990’s establishment diplomatic ties with Russia, many Russian small traders bought “Doshirak” and tasted them. Soon, they became attracted by the flavor and they spread products in the Far East.
Second, since the first presentation in Russia, “Doshirak” won the popularity. So, who saw the possibility of success, Korea Yacult concentrated on aggressive marketing. Also in 1997, they built a business office in Vladivostok and carried forward the export.
Third, when they faced a limit of the export, for example duty and distribution costs, they constructed a local production line. Due to the constant marketing that we will find out in next part, “Doshirak” could achieve the high sales.

Successful marketing strategies
1) Multidomestic corporation
Yacult is a multidomestic corporation. In Korea the cause of Doshirak's failure is a mild taste. But it is strenghs in Russia beacause almost Russia food is oily and mild. So Yacult produces Doshirak addedly new flavors in the light of local's favorites. such as chicken, mushroom, pork, beef, and prown. Those products are not in Korea.
The interesting point is about mayonnaise. Russians like it, so they added it in cup noodle. Yacult grasped their culture and developped ' Doshirak plus' which has mayo sauce. Also useful fork in Doshirak captivated Russian's heart. Localization strategy is the first reason of success.

2) Social economic aspect
Russians usually eat simply. They eat tomato, salads and black rye bread. In Russia, eating out costs is extremely expensive. For instance, the starbuck coffee costs about 8000 won and whopper set costs about 10000 won into Korean currency. But in this environment, the cost of Doshirak is from 800 to 1400won. So Yacult promotes thus “Doshirak is a meal that affordable”
Yacult discoverded that Russians like rectangular container for train travel. Because of square stability and insulation. They don’t have to worry about spill a cup noodle in train. After eating it , they reuse the container as plates and flowerpot. So Doshirak makes an image “Eco-friendly companies”. Social economic aspect is the second reason of success.

3) Commercials
Doshirak changed wrapping paper in their trademark for give a fresh image. The 99% ad of food company is Tv commercial. And also Doshirak participate as sponsor in famous  programs. Based on the humorous concept, Doshirak is rising their sales and brand awareness. So friendly marketing is the third reason of success.

Developement Plans of Doshirak
The corporation achieves good image through the cultural marketing, when multinational corporations go into the foreign country.

So, development prospect of Dosirak compare Samsung. Because, Dosirak need benchmark in order to grow major company. Benchmarking is the search for the best practices among competitors or noncompetitors that leda to their superior performance. The basic benefit of benchmarking is that can improve quality by analyzing and then copying the methods of the leaders in various fields.
An Organization’s culture has an effect on what employees do, depending on how strong, or weak, the culture is. Dosirak have to achieve strong culture because employees accept the organization’s key values and the greater their commitment to those values. Strong cultures- those in which the key values are deeply held and widely shared- have a greater influence on employees than do weaker cultures.

More Korean corporations are expanding their businesses into other countries. Overseas expansion is most attractive business at the same time, very difficult assignment. Dosirak has an unprecedented growth in Russia. We are proud of this success. This corporation achieved promotion thorough market research and localization strategies. In Russia, Dosirak is the perfect example of that.?

MAN Trucks / ECCK

On May 14th Mr. Thilo Halter visited our class. Mr. Halter is CEO of the German Truck-Builder MAN and also president of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK).

Korean trading with Europe: Imported cars

In Korea, imported vehicles were unwelcome by the reason of the domestic auto industry contraction, waste of foreign currency and a luxury trend could build incompatibility. But now their sale are up due to change of awareness and a rise in average earnings.

In 2012, its share broke the wall of 10% at the first time, so 1 in 10 nation people have an imported vehicle, finally it recorded 12.1% in last year.

The following table shows that the share of imported vehicles from Japan and the United States is lowering in the imported car's market, while European is showing a growth of market share. And the figure is expected to pass 80% in 2014.

Look at the top 10 foreign vehicle companies, you can see the European car companies swept the first four places (BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Audi). 

So why do the Koreans have been buying and liking Europeans cars?

First, let's see from an economical point, we divided into three.

Individual consumption tax for imported car exceeding 2000cc is reduced by 7 to 6%, and according to the Korea-EU FTA, tariffs on cars is completely abolished by 1.6 % to 0% in July.

Also due to a fall in the exchange rate the price of imported cars has been more competitive, as "European gasoline vehicle quota" is being released, it can import a variety of automobiles, they would be able to accept more customer base. In the end these companies dominated domestic car market by a good diesel are being able to take a small gasoline car market.

Then why are European car is preferred on the consumer's perspective?

I think these are the following two points:

First is European car's safety and durability. Could you look at the pictures? A car collided with a bike is made in China, and the bike is a German mountain bike. Despite being bumped into the car, the bicycle has a pretty good maintain appearance.

In addition, the durability test conducted by “Autobild” (a German auto magazine) showed that 6 vehicles in ranking 1 to 10 are Europeans. So domestic consumers have been aware of the strong durability and excellent performance of the European cars and have a great effect on imported car preference.

Second is the image marketing. European car's luxury image is famous in Korea. Let's see an advertisement of Hyundai. It uses the phrase "complete new pattern of European semi medium." I think, this phrase shows that domestic car is also oriented European style and it has the ear of the consumer. In this situation recent event that cars released in the overseas is more superior to the performance than in the domestic market roused animosity of consumers, so it raised reduction of consumption.

This time, I will show you another advertisement of Benz. This video shows the braking time of Benz. Like that, European vehicles consolidated the stability and the luxurious image, and stimulated domestic consumers. In addition, BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche's histories that created a reliable product in World War II support their images of robustness. Also they check and promote each other indirectly through an ad at the same time, and it was to get a win-win effect.

For this reason, more and more domestic consumers prefer European car, and its buying rate is increased. But the right after-service center of European vehicles does not exist in the country. European automobile companies need to build Infra and to expand a reliable management system, and it's time to find the way for 'increasing of customer satisfaction' such as introduction of used car purchase program.

                                                                                                              So-Hyeon PARK

Our guest Mr. Thilo Halter:

On May 14^th Mr. Thilo Halter visited to our class and informs us about the German vehicle company ‘MAN’ and ‘European Chamber of Commerce’, where he works.  I was so interested in, because our presentations were also about the European vehicles, which we showed before his lecture. And I was little bit curious about him, how could he get 2 jobs.

Actually I had just small knowledge about normal cars, for example, SUV, passenger cars. Therefore for me, it was taken bags of time to preparing about this theme. But while I prepared for many commercial vehicles, I could get much useful information and it was big help to understand Mr. Thilo Halter’s lecture. In fact, I am using often my dictionary application to understand the guest’s speech as much as possible.

His lecture leaded me to apply his company after I will have had bachelor degree. And if I were CEO one of the companies, I really want to buy just the commercial vehicles from MAN and let my employees work with their nice cars.

In contrast, his presentation about ‘European Chamber of Commerce and Industry’ attracted me not so much like the other. Because he mentioned with some professional words and showed us economical charts, that the students couldn’t easily understand, who don’t study business administration. But through free talking with him, professors and few fellow students during dinner after the class were of help to understand, which I couldn’t follow in class.

So Mr. Thilo Halter’s presentation has opened my eyes to other fields, which I was actually not interested in, and I hope also, such good presentations are continually held every semester.   

 

                                                                                                                 Son Kwon