Why I Started Interviewing Customers?
Having talked to the founding members of the company, I defined Miso’s brand persona as someone with clear taste, preference and passion for life. If the company were a person, she would not be swayed by trends or fads, clearly knows her desires & wants and live passionately with a clear direction.
To clearly communicate the brand persona, I interviewed customers with such characteristics and published their stories under Miso’s name. Rather than hiring an influencer, I wanted to tell stories that would resonate with our customer base. Those stories, in fact, came directly from the company’s customers.
Curated, Translated Quotes from the Interviews
Jiyeon Lee, a social workerHow was it like to hold Yoona for the first time right after she was born?
Actually our Yoona came to us through adoption. My husband and I lived almost 20 years without a kid. I wasn’t able to get pregnant and wasn’t young enough to think of options other than adoption. It is easy to feel uneasy, but a close friend of mine was an adopted parent. When I told her of my worries, she kept suggesting that I adopt a child too. Still, I couldn’t make up my mind for more than a year.
I read essays written by adopted parents, and I could clearly see that they went through what I was going through: the same agony, worries and hopefulness. While I was weighing strongly toward adopting a child, I worked at a child center providing after-school care for kids in primary school. I got close to them so quickly and felt a sense of strong connection. I could see myself raising one of them. Thanks to the kids, I could muster up the courage to bring Yoona into our family.
Episode #2, ”Eventually, I decided to do what I love to do”
Eunhyeon Jeong, an e-commerce website manager What made you adopt these cats?
I adopted them after starting to live alone. It was quite scary and lonely to sleep alone at night. That’s how I first adopted Monji. Then she seemed as lonely as I was as the only cat in the house. I wondered whether I should adopt another one as Monji’s friend. That’s when I met Tanee at the animal shelter. It was love at first sight. I stopped by on the way to home from work everyday to stare at him for a while.
For a week, I said to myself that I’m going to take him home if he’s still there tomorrow. On the day I took him home, it felt like he wasn’t going to be there the next day if I didn’t take him. I couldn’t stand it once the thought sprouted in my head. And Tanee likes me the most among the three I have. Moka came along a few months after from a friend.
If your cats can talk to you, what do you want to hear?
I wish they can tell me when they are sick. I felt terrible for not noticing for day that Monji was sick. I also want to ask them whether they like me. I think they do, but that might not be the case. I want confirmations.
Heeyoung Ju, a realtorWorking as a young saleswomen in the 90s sounds like a tough job, considering how overtly misogynous some men could be.
I tried to look older. How I dress up now is how I dressed up when I was 25. I always wore suits and loafers, permed by hair and never swallowed what I had to say. I put my head up high to the point where some men thought I was scary. Maybe it’s in my eyes. (laughs) But I was still disrespected a number of times for being a woman.
What are your secrets as a successful saleswoman?
After closing the website business, I started an internet cafe. I registered to a local cooperative of internet cafe owners. The connections I made there helped me a great deal after closing the shop, as I delivered cafe staples for a living. Even then—trucking gatorades, chips and ramen—I always wore suits, loafers and heavy makeup to look professional. A salesperson must look sleek. A purple-like image matters too. You know, purple represent mysteriousness. You need to evoke curiosity, as if you always have something more to say. And that’s it for today. (laughs)
Junghwa Huh, a professor of piano pedagogyIt takes pain and agony to play piano. You have to pour in thousands of hours and practices to master a piece, but you still have to eat and sleep. You have give up other things like a good time with your friends and sit in front of a piano. You have to fight loneliness and carry on.
What allowed you to carry on with music?
The love for music! Piano is such a fascinating instrument. Violin or flute, for example, can only make one note at a time. A melody is the best one can create. For there to be a harmony, you need dozens of players with the same instrument. Whereas a piano can create beautiful harmony all by itself. A single pianist can function like a well-trained orchestra.
Music is a great joy in my life. The deeper you become acquainted with classical music, the happier you will be of understanding beauty more deeply. I listened to Bach's Mass in B Minor not too long ago and felt that way. There are measures that are exhilarating enough to make you understand what it feels like to write a piece inspired by the Holy Spirit. Those experiences of gushing emotions make me feel like I have made a right choice: pursuing a career in music.
Aren’t all the things we enjoy just the same? We can all live without great wine, artistic masterpieces and a trip to an unfamiliar country, but they sure fill your life with joy.
Kevin Kang-il Kim, a businessman exporting Korean foodWhy did you settle in Korea? I heard that you were raised in New Jersey and went to a college in the US as well.
It’s been 10 years since I first landed in Incheon. If this interview had taken place 10 years ago, I couldn’t have spoke fluent Korean.
I got a first job as a 21-year old in the US after college, and one day it got me thinking, “how high could I climb up in the social ladder in the US?”
Although I hadn’t experienced much racism in the US up until that point, I felt like the limitations were clear as an Korean-American. I looked up on the Internet and found that there were zero Korean-American chief executives in Fortune 500 Companies in the US. There was only one Asian CEO. It started to wonder how it might be to work in Korea, my parents’ home country.
I told my parents that I should move to Korea, but they were adamantly against the idea. I think puberty hit me quite late (laughs). But I still wanted to see what I can accomplish in a country with a Korean majority. I was back, first time in 20 years, and it was great. I felt somewhat comfortable although I didn’t speak the language fluently.
