MPRA Munch Personal RePEc Archve Pepero Day: Creaton and Evoluton of a Holday Brandon Walcutt Hankuk Unversty of Foregn Studes 1. December 2014 Onlne at http://mpra.ub.un-muenchen.de/63774/ MPRA Paper No. 63774, posted 24. Aprl 2015 12:38 UTC
I nt e r naona l J our na l of Bus ne s sknowl e dg ea nd I nnov aon npr a cc e( I J BKI P) Peperoday:Crea onandevol u on ofa Hol day Br andonwal cu December2014 Vol ume1,number2 Pages2329 I S S N: 2332340X( pr nt ) 23323418( onl ne)
Internatonal Journal of Busness Knowledge and Innovaton n Practce December 2014, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 23-29 ISSN: 2332-340X (prnt) 2332-3396 (onlne) Pepero Day: Creaton and Evoluton of a "Holday" Brandon Walcutt * Abstract Ths teachng case provdes an overvew of a reportedly manufacturer-created "holday" celebrated by South Koreans every year. Based on the case, students wll dscuss the benefts and labltes of the manufacturer's actvtes as well as dentfy any ethcal breaches that may also have occurred. The case s orented towards low to md-level undergraduate students and can be taught wthn a one hour class wth lttle requred outsde student preparaton. Keywords: Pepero Day, Lotte Confectonary Co., Ezak Glco Co., South Korea, holday commercalzaton Acknowledgment: Ths work was supported by the Hankuk Unversty of Foregn Studes Research Fund of 2014. * Assstant Professor, Department of Internatonal Studes, Hankuk Unversty of Foregn Studes, Seoul, South Korea, E-mal: travelngman2@gmal.com
24 Internatonal Journal of Busness Knowledge and Innovaton n Practce (IJBKIP) December 2014, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 23-29 Introducton In today's world, marketers enjoy a growng number of commercalzed or newly nvented holdays (Han; Schmdt; Wojck). One of these recent holdays that perfectly exemplfes the power of modern marketng s South Korea's Pepero Day, whch s celebrated annually on November 11. Peperos are cooke stcks that have been dpped n chocolate or a smlar sweet substance and are often covered wth varous types of nuts or sprnkles. The Pepero Day holday has proven tself vtal to the fnancal vablty of ts manufacturer, Lotte Confectonary Co., by earnng t roughly 50% of the frm's annual sales, or about $81.6 mllon, wthn a three month wndow surroundng the holday (Gale). Ths case wll dscuss the legend surroundng the foundaton of the day, related products, method of celebraton, marketng approach, competton and future of the holday. Pepero Day: The Legend There are actually two stores behnd the Pepero Day legend. The frst and more wdely-used offcal story s sad to start n 1994 when two teenage grls exchanged Peperos. The exchange was predcated on the belef that ths would make both grls as tall and slender as a Pepero. The 11/11 date was chosen as t remnded the grls of the snack. Through the resultng fad and urban legend, ths fabled date was expanded to rumor that people could lose weght f they consumed 11 boxes of Peperos at 11:11:11am on November 11. The second story s credted to a Korean mddle school grl who gave Peperos to her frends n hopes of them growng tall and thn lke the cookes themselves (Imatoe-Yun).
B. Walcutt Pepero Day: Creaton and Evoluton of a Holday 25 One ssue slghtly dampenng the holday sprt s the nablty to authentcate ether legend. Although local meda sources, as well as Lotte tself, contnually quote the offcal story behnd the legend, many celebrants doubt the clams and put forward other, more understandable explanatons. The chef asserton by naysayers s smply that Pepero Day was created by Lotte Confectonary as a marketng ploy to sell more products. Another problem wth the legend stems from doubts that weght loss through the consumpton of Peperos seems hghly unlkely gven the sugar and fat content of the ngredents. Despte the potental n-authentcty of the orgnatng legends and the doubt of the use of Pepero Day as a vald weght loss program, South Koreans stll fnd enjoyment n the celebraton of ths holday. Product Peperos, made by South Korea's Lotte Confectonary Co., are a type of cooke stck. There are reportedly nne dfferent flavors currently marketed that nclude chocolate, strawberry, almond, peanut, whte cooke chocolate, melon, nude (chocolate n the center), nude tramsu cheese and nude lemon cheese (Lotte Confectonary Co.). Another product that s smlar to Pepero, called Pocky, s marketed by Ezak Glco Co., a Japanese company. Pocky s a very smlar product to Pepero n that t s also based on a cooke stck that s coated wth dfferent types of chocolate or other flavorngs. Purchased Peperos or Pepero-lke snacks are not the only method of celebratng the holday. One common approach to the Pepero phenomenon s not to gve purchased snacks, but to make one s own usng specal Pepero creaton kts or even smply dppng long, sknny bread
26 Internatonal Journal of Busness Knowledge and Innovaton n Practce (IJBKIP) December 2014, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 23-29 rolls nto molten chocolate. A more expensve varaton can also be had by purchasng some of the hgh-end, hand-made equvalents at one of Seoul s department stores. Celebraton November 11th s wdely celebrated by thousands of Koreans of all age groups. On the days leadng up to the holday, stores, rangng from small neghborhood marts to Korea s largest and most prestgous department stores create colorful, towerng dsplays of the dfferent assorted varetes of the snack. The Peperos are then typcally purchased by the younger generaton, and gven to ther loved ones or company co-workers to show love or apprecaton. Celebraton of ths holday can sometmes be a tryng, stressful proposton. Korea s workplace has a relatonshp-centered culture whch can cause excessve competton and shatter cooperaton among offce teams by ndvduals who are tryng to fulfll perceved socal oblgatons that may not be apprecated or can even be seen as excessve ngrataton by ther co-workers. Ths stress often leads to almost a company-wde anxety wth ndvduals tryng to decde whether or not to gve Pepero gfts on ths holday (Hse). Marketng Approach In terms of marketng, Pepero Day n South Korea s hard to mss or gnore. Most retal establshments utlze, at mnmum, ether some sort of advertsements or a drect marketng dsplay or both. The marketng dsplays are often comprsed of smple boxes of Peperos or much more complex and extravagant premum gft baskets that sometmes even contan plush anmals or Pepero replcas (Imatoe-Yun).
B. Walcutt Pepero Day: Creaton and Evoluton of a Holday 27 Other marketng strateges are also used to promote Peperos or smlar products whch even nclude the use of a K-pop group called Grl s Day who has modfed songs to promote Pocky, a Pepero compettor, and even provde fan days to further promote the product. Competton Lotte s prmary compettor to the Pepero s the Pocky that s produced by Ezak Glco Co. of Japan. As prevously noted, Pocky s a very smlar product to Pepero n that t s based on a cooke stck that s coated wth dfferent types of chocolate and other coatngs. Accordng to Pocky, Pepero coped the concept of ther cooke when the product was launched thrty one years ago (Hse). Ths s a clam that Lotte denes (Gale). Glco had not made a major fuss over the perceved transgresson at that tme as each company had only mantaned presences n ther respectve homelands. Ths mtaton, however, could be vndcated when Glco launched a Pocky Day n Japan about 5 years ago. Lotte says that Glco s marketng ploy s a drect copy of Pepero s holday (Gale). Untl 2013, there had been relatvely few ssues between the two frms. In 2011, though, Ezak Glco launched a jont venture wth Korea s Hata to begn ther expanson nto the Korean market. Snce then, the two companes have been drectly competng n the domestc market. Ths move shows Glco s resolve to capture a pece of the market, whch s renforced by the plans of the local jont venture to earn roughly equvalent to $48 mllon by 2018 (Gale). Future The future of Pepero Day s not wrtten n stone. If the past can represent the future, consumers can expect a contnual evoluton of Pepero-based product offerngs ncludng
28 Internatonal Journal of Busness Knowledge and Innovaton n Practce (IJBKIP) December 2014, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 23-29 dfferent flavors and packagng beng offered durng the holday. Also, heavy domestc competton can also be expected consderng Glco hopes to make a heavy mpact n the local market. In addton, wth both Lotte and Glco lookng to expand ther markets, t s expected for them to begn a move overseas so Pepero Day may actually expand nternatonally. Lastly, there has been a growng resstance to the practce of Pepero Day and many are turnng to alternatve products such as non-pepero specfc goods. Overall, the future of Pepero, n general, can be expected to contnue, but eventual changes can be expected. Questons for Dscusson 1. Created or not, how dd Lotte take advantage of the Pepero legend to develop the current holday? 2. Are there any labltes to the approach that Lotte has taken? 3. How would you descrbe the external Pepero market n whch Lotte operates? Use a Porter s model or smlar approach to complete ths descrpton. 4. Do you beleve that Lotte commtted an ethcal breach f t used the Pocky as a benchmark? Are Glco s actons any dfferent wth the creaton of Pocky Day? Should ether company have taken further acton aganst the other compettor? 5. How can Lotte best compete aganst Glco now that they are sharng the same market? 6. What other companes or products n your domestc markets could beneft from the creaton of a smlar holday? Would t be possble to duplcate the same levels of success?
B. Walcutt Pepero Day: Creaton and Evoluton of a Holday 29 References Gale, Alastar. Nov. 11, 2013. On Pepero Day, a Japanese Rval Lurks. Wall Street Journal. Han, Jane. Nov. Oct. 25, 2007. Abundant Specal Days Fatten Sales. Korea Tmes. Imatoe-Yun, Naom. November 11th s Pepero Day. Koreataste.org. Retreved on 12/10/14. http://www.koreataste.org/lang/en/en/bloggng-en/pepero-day/ Lotte Confectonary Co. Retreved on 12/15/14. http://www.lotteconf.co.kr/eng/ Schmdt, LE. 1995. Consumer rtes: The buyng & sellng of Amercan holdays. Prnceton, NJ: Prnceton Unversty Press. Wojck, Danel. 1999. New Old-Fashoned Ways: Holdays and Popular Culture. Western Folklore, 58 (1). Yoo, Reera. Nov 11, 2014. 5 Fun Facts About Pepero Day. Iamkoream.com. Retreved on 12/8/14. http://amkoream.com/5-fun-facts-about-pepero-day/