제가 나가는 다른 클럽 자료입니다. 꽤 재밌는 내용이죠. 책에 관한 것이구요.

[jollyman]

Luxury Korea - why Korean society intoxicated with luxury brands?



- translated from Dong-a daily



A country where 39.1% of the total population has, at least once, purchased luxury goods import!ed from abroad... A country where fraud luxury famous brand watch is transformed into ‘luxury brand watch with 180 years of tradition’ and sold out even with extravagant price...



This is the portrait of 21st century of Korea intoxicated with luxury brands. Then what kind of elements are working on the state of mind whose owners buy luxury goods and the social structure fostering this mental state? The book, 'The country of Lavishness - Luxury Korea' written by prof. Kim, Nan-Do(Seoul Univ.), is casting a closer look at the recent symptoms of Korean society.



In this book, Prof. Kim extends 'Vigneron and Johnson model', which analyses the types of consumers with the standard of show-off and prestige, to an enlarged domain to understand the consuming patterns of Korean luxury purchasers on the basis of in-depth interviews, and he draws out 4 patterns of luxury consumers - Show-off, Jealousy, Fantasy, and Bandwagon.



‘Show-off’ type is driven by elitism, who denies mingling in the group of commoners, added with ingenuous Korean sense of keeping up his or her face and ranking in the society. ‘Jealousy’ type has envy which can be explained by a Korean adage, 'why not me to shoot an arrow?', and peculiar Korean sense of equality which can be said like, 'feeling stomach ache when a cousin procures land'. Fantasy type projects their own desire to look different and decent onto designer bags and dresses. Here we find designer made items are working like armors protecting people not to be busted with shabby self by the others. Bandwagon type is engendered by the sense of instability to be left out. They are stirred by the peculiar Korean culture of group consciousness like 'going to Gangnam after friend'; meaning going to a good place after friend.



According to this book, consumers of designer goods are classified into 3 categories - Old money, New money, Fake money. Old money type is famous for their parsimonious way of life and has accumulated wealth for a long time, New money type is someone like being newly rich, who are mainly targeted by the luxury marketing because of their great knowledge about luxury items and brand literacy. Fake money type is not rich but pretends New money's consuming pattern of brand products, who are mainly people in 20~30s picking up one item which was on their mind for a while.



Prof. Kim told that among the 4 types of purchasing patterns only ‘Show-off’ type belongs to New money but other 3 types are attached to Fake money. He analyses that ‘Jealousy’ type is mainly found in the middle class people who have strong sense of inferiority; ‘Fantasy’ type is among some young people who are easily bound in narcissistic fantasy to change into a splendid figure, especially among people who are working at an entertainment spot; and the ‘Bandwagon’ type is in the group of teenagers who are eager to keep themselves in vogue.



Luxury consuming trend in Korean society is the outcome of materialistic culture rather than of the genuine human nature, the desire to make classes, he argues. 'Luxury Korea' is the fruit of the compact and crammed growth of economy in this society where there exist the riches but not exist the upper classed or noble people who have social obligations. After the crisis of foreign exchange of 1998, this fruit of the past success of Korea has been nourished with government aid to promote consumption, which can be described by this motto, 'consumption is virtue.’



Lastly, Kim points out that overconsumption is a national problem which is not easily resolved with the integrity at the level of persons or social class because the desire for conspicuous consumption of the rich people and the eagerness to follow them in the common people gets bigger as the wealth of a society gets concentrated more in a stratum of the social hierachy.



- written by Kwon, Jae-hyun and translated by Park, Sung-hoon







Questions



1. Have you ever bought luxury items? If you have, what kind of item have you bought and have you felt good when you purchased it and why?(Don’t get me wrong. Nobody blames you simply because you bought it or like it.) Or have you not, why not and you like to buy one when it is affordable for you?



2. The author, prof. Kim, is definitely talking about the role of the state unleashing people in this overconsuming spree. Do you think this or former government has to be blamed for the trend of luxury consuming trend prevailing in this society recently? What have they done wrong?



3. Have you heard a trend of PRAV(proud realisers of added value)s nowadays is getting popular among young people in London? What do you think about this popular culture abroad?



4. In this article, the author of the book, ‘Luxury Korea’, mentioned something about this society’s situation having the riches but no upper classed people or nobles and this kind of luxury favoring trend is originated from the fact lacking upper class. Do you agree with him? If so, what is the obligation or responsibility of them confronting this luxury cherishing trend in Korean society?

[jollyman]

사실 제가 장난삼아 번역해본 기사입니다. 칸님이 자유게시판에 다른 클럽에서 뭐하나 한번 올려보면 어떻겠냐고 하셔서 한번 올려 봅니다.

[Khan]

wow, you are a good translator. By the way, what is PRAV?, would you give more inforamation about it?

[jollyman]

그러니까 기존에 명품족들은 루이비통이나 헤르메스 같은 아주 비싼 브랜드 들고 다니면서 자랑하죠. 그런데 프라브들은 거꾸로 꽤 괜챦지만 싼 중저가 물품들을 사는데 열을 올립니다. 그리고 스타일을 자기가 만드는거죠. 그러면서 동시에 프라브들끼리 모여서 누가 더 싸게 샀나 비교해 본답니다. 같은 퀄리티라도 더 싸게 산 사람이 더 자랑스러운거죠.