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Perceptions of New Zealand in South Korea, 2008

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has commissioned the Nielsen Company to conduct research into the perceptions of New Zealand business culture and values in selected overseas markets. A summary of the research carried out in South Korea in September, 2008 is below.

“Pure and friendly, but too boring and relaxed”

Korean business culture contrasts greatly with New Zealand’s.

Greater formality due to Korea’s vertical social structure based on age and social status.
Personal ties e.g., commonality of school, may take precedence over job seniority or rank.
Formal processes must be followed and copious information is required in the lengthy decision making process.

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Three stages of decision making seen in other countries apply to Korea in a broad sense.

Awareness – New Zealand must be on the radar in order to progress to the consideration stage.
Consideration – country is only important here if it offers a competitive advantage.
Final decision – based on the robustness of the business case and supporting relationships.

There is low awareness of New Zealand’s business capability and a perception that New Zealanders are not business minded. This is exacerbated by:

limited promotion of New Zealand, and lack of support for promotions which do happen
lack of identifiable New Zealand icons, meaning Australian icons are used instead.

The non-corrupt business environment makes New Zealand attractive to Koreans and this is supported by New Zealand’s human values of integrity, honesty and trustworthiness. However a perceived wariness of other cultures means that New Zealand’s human values are only obvious once the initial suspicion of foreigners has worn off.
Low business acumen is evident in New Zealand businesses through:

a preference for transactional rather than long term relationships
reluctance to understand Korean culture, consumer needs and market requirements. The “she’ll be right” approach does not work, and is unwelcome, in Korea’s formal business structure
low availability of information from New Zealand businesses, either general or targeted at the Korean market
the focus on lifestyle, particularly taking long holidays without any staff coverage.

Koreans are highly IT literate and web-based information is a strong tool in decision making. They look for sophisticated websites with in-depth information as an indication of a company’s competency and reliability. In contrast, New Zealand websites tend to be static with low levels of general information.
Despite the small market and lack of business sophistication, Koreans see great potential in New Zealand and are perplexed that New Zealand businesses do not appear to see the same potential.
Canadian and Tasmanian businesses are New Zealand’s chief competitors in Korea. They also trade on their clean, green image but have the business acumen to back it up and appear serious about doing business in Korea.
To improve relationships with Korean businesses, New Zealand businesses need to take the following steps.

Spend time learning about the Korean culture, consumer needs and market requirements.
Be proactive in promoting themselves to Korean businesses, provide plenty of information and be willing to form long term relationships.
Be flexible enough to adapt their product or service to meet Korean requirements.

Increasing promotional activities across all sectors, supported by relevant imagery will help to raise awareness of New Zealand as a business partner. In particular, creating awareness of New Zealand’s ICT capability will appeal to the highly IT literate Koreans.