When thinking about the most representative dessert in the United States, it's now donuts. Instead of simply saying, I'm happy because this donut is delicious, I hope people become happy by sharing it. I set up a hypothesis that I would be happier if I shared this, and then I thought about how people could be happy by sharing this. So, from that point on, I really shared a lot. How did I share? I divided them into two boxes each. I think the key point is that, I can't eat this much, or This is something I really like. One box is for me, and the other is for you. I met someone for dinner in the evening, and I knew that person really liked it. I said, Here you go, and by actually giving it as a gift, they started to perceive it as a gift. As these structures formed, the noticed sales almost took off like flying. Anyway,

If the relationship will be comfortable in 10 years, shouldn't it be comfortable from the first meeting? I was in charge of branding and marketing for the handmade burger brand Downtown Dessert Cafe Noted, especially making Noted, a bakery with 10 billion won in sales. How about the top contributor, author Heo Jun? He's really good, but what I want to change is, being a top contributor, just being humble and modest. Will you go into that mode? It's in my imagination, but there's never anything done alone, not in branding or anything. You don't raise a child alone, right? You raise it with your spouse, with your grandmother, with the neighbor next door, raising it together closely with someone, just as one of the people who raised it closely. Just a little bit, just standing out, okay? Okay. What was the beginning of your career? My first career started vaguely thinking about starting a business. I studied business administration, but...

When I went into the military, I got separated. It's usually divided into two, but since it was an overseas duty, I went there. When I went to the overseas duty, I had no idea at all about the selection or the training. By the time I was about to graduate, I was assigned to a provincial area, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to do it, but since I liked clothes, I just went for it and started working at a fashion company. There were a lot of advertising agencies in the fashion industry, and I didn't even know what kind of work they did. I went for an interview and the CEO found it interesting, so they hired me. When I joined, the first thing I did was, at that time, I was 26 years old. But in my early 20s, I had to help these 20-year-old girls. Please, help us by dressing them in our brand's clothes just once. Oh, the celebrities and stylists came, and that's when I realized my vision, all within just one year.

When I thought it would be nice to go on a trip abroad, a friend who had been on an overseas trip kept taking pictures and just kept posting them on SNS. Was there SNS back then? Facebook, Facebook. But if you go on a trip together, you should enjoy it. Why do you just take pictures and do that? When I said that, he said he wanted to record all the precious memories. But I was struck by his words, so I immediately created a Facebook account and joined SS like this. When you first join SS, there are certain characteristics of people you want to follow a lot. So, what do you do first? You start following everyone based on phone numbers or friends. Among them, the CEO of the company I was working at was there. Oh, normally, I shouldn't have done that, but I boldly followed him, and we became friends on Facebook. When I write posts, the CEO saw all these actions of posting pictures.

When I decided to quit my company, the CEO told me, Juna, you seem to have some talent in the online area or in essence channels like online viral marketing. I am planning to set up an online team. Would you like to come and work there once? At that time, I really thought about my career because I thought I would be good in fashion, but it wasn't what I wanted. I wondered if online viral marketing was the right fit for me. In my judgment, the online field was growing rapidly, so I thought I could somehow make a living out of it. I also thought it was good to be able to learn something new, so I decided to change teams. That's how I ended up working in the marketing, online marketing team for about four years. After I joined, it wasn't even a year yet.

Before six months had passed, my supervisor, who was originally the person I should learn from, left. I became the head of the team. I had been working in that team for about 3 to 4 years, searching for various things as a head, learning Photoshop as well. However, I kept feeling thirsty. Well, I'm not an expert in this, but as things were getting more advanced, I didn't know about it. So, feeling that discrepancy, I quit the company and took a break for almost a year, working as a freelancer with the concept of taking a break. About 8 months. At that time, were there marketing freelancers like this? Because I did public relations. But there were clients who were already working with me on marketing and such, so I really thought a lot from their perspective and worked sincerely. So, will there be brands of clients I worked with?

Instead of doing that, just come in and work at the in-house. So, I started working at the in-house because someone told me to. The gap between the brand I like and the brand I work for is different, and the products that come out next are not my preferred styles. It was tough for me to keep consuming them and promote them continuously. So, someone suggested that I try working for the brand I like. I ended up knocking on the doors of various brands like Musinsa, ADEN, and even knew people there. I went through all the interviews up to the final one, but the actual outcome wasn't good. I thought my life as a marketer was coming to an end. That's when I thought I should start a business. I asked many people around me who run FMB businesses. Among them was CEO GF Lee Jun-beom, who was an acquaintance at that time.

I came across a new Downta hamburger, which is very pretty. I really like hamburgers, so I went to eat with a younger friend. After enjoying it so much, I posted that it was delicious. The content exploded, and Junbeom Lee, the representative of Instagram, sent me a DM saying, Thank you so much. Let's do a little collab. I hope you can evaluate it after eating, suggest improvements, and develop it. So, I don't mean just to post it, I really want to receive evaluations. I went to Little League, ate a lot, wrote a sharp review, including criticisms and compliments. It seems like he found me quite entertaining. Since then, we have been getting along as older and younger brothers. Once, when things got really tough, I thought I couldn't do my job anymore, but then I heard something like, You should focus on your own work.

Suddenly, my brother said to me, Hey, you seem really unhappy these days. Instead of living unhappily, let's work together and live happily. It felt like some kind of proposal. Oh, he came up with this, but his words were really touching at the time. Because I was desperately looking for a breakthrough, feeling like I couldn't breathe, and it felt like a breakthrough was right there. And then, my brother said, Do whatever you want to do. I'll support you to do everything you want. So, I quit my job and started a business with my girlfriend. That was in September 2018, not that long ago. At that time, there were three brands, Downtown, Little Lick, and Noted. Downtown was already famous as a great place to eat, Little Lick was trying to move from Hannam to Cheongdam and establish itself, and Noted always had many customers, but the profit and sales were not there.

It wasn't a really great time back then. At that time, there were only a few GFG employees. When I joined, there was only one office worker, including myself. But by the time I left, the number of HQ office workers had increased to nearly 70. I can't remember the exact revenue from 2018 when I joined, but I think it was around 30 to 50 billion KRW. However, the closing revenue when I left in 2022 was reportedly about 99.7 billion KRW. In 2021, which was the peak year during my time, the revenue hit 70 billion KRW. Excluding the staff working in the stores, ultimately, it all comes down to the CEO. CEO's ability seems quite outstanding. CEO Lee Joong-beom. Personally, I wouldn't evaluate CEO Lee Joong-beom at such a high level, but one of the things he did really well was talent acquisition. Working together, you can see that he stirs up enthusiasm.

There were a lot of people, and it was great to see them synergize together. The kids at that house all worked and played together so happily, almost like they were just having fun. Of course, it was tough, really tough, but still rewarding, fun, and enjoyable. The style was a bit trusting, you know, like Come and do whatever you want, which made things exciting. But some people found it burdensome, while others liked it. Which side were you on back then? Now, it seems burdensome, right? But at that time, I didn't know anything, so I didn't feel burdened. Would a newborn baby be scared of a tiger? No, right? Like that, I just went along with it, okay? But when I actually sat at the table, I didn't know what to do first. The first thing I did back then was, well, marketers need to look at numbers and analyze them.

I created it with sales data. Big companies have ERPs, you know, where everything comes out when you enter. But here, we didn't have that. It was just a real mess, at a really basic level. So, I started consolidating that into an Excel file and began creating things to see the fluctuations in sales. Based on that, I started creating situations where strategies could be developed. It wasn't anything extraordinary, but choosing to do that at that time, I think, was a very good decision. It was really helpful for me. It's basic, right? And it helped me understand the company much better. Oh, by the way, do you remember when we talked at the cafe earlier about wanting to open an ice cream shop? There's a reason why I want to open an ice cream shop. When I was young, I was really envious because my friends had bakery or Chinese restaurant. Oh, my dad's friend had a really nice noodle shop. It was so great, but our daughter...

From our house to the way to school, there is a commercial area by the lake park. So, if I open an ice cream shop there, oh, then my daughter will bring her friends. Dad, I came. Our daughter is here. So the kids can come and eat comfortably, and moms can come and watch together. Then, I can also take pictures there. I really want to create a space like that because there aren't many places to relax. So if moms come, it would be nice, and I want to create a space where you can see kids playing cutely from the cafe. I feel happier when I talk about myself rather than listening to others. It's nice when I talk about my child. When you went in, there were brands that had established their positions, but there was a brand that couldn't establish its position, which was noted. Yes, the rent was 56 million won.

When you go out, a cup of coffee costs 5,000 won. Even if you just cover the rent, you have to sell a thousand won worth. That's right, it doesn't make sense. If we shoot YouTube videos like this for two hours, it's as if we're stuck here. The table price is 15,000 won, but since we only operate for about 10 hours a day, we can only do it five times. Assuming we turn it over immediately, 15,000 won five times a day means our daily revenue is only 750,000 won. There are always many customers, but when someone looks at it, they might think we're doing well, but in reality, there's nothing inside. That's when we started developing take-out menus. We even tried making yanggang (a type of Korean sweet) by going to a famous place for binding. But there's something missing.

Then, we thought about what kind of food we should sell. Since we have the highest understanding of American food and culture, we wondered what the most representative dessert of America would be. Eventually, we decided on donuts. We started creating beautiful packaging and launched what we now know as Noted Donut Inside Donut. We hoped that people who eat it would be happy. The brand identity and core values were established around the concept of happiness. So, we decided to launch it as a product that delivers happiness. We pondered on how people would consume it and how we could make it appealing to them. We thought about our core value of happiness and what happiness really means. Reflecting on when we were happiest, we realized that the peak of happiness for us was exchanging gifts and sharing that feeling.

The act of sharing itself was a great joy to me. It's not just about enjoying this because it tastes good, but I hope that by sharing this, others can also find happiness. So, I came up with a hypothesis that by sharing, people can find happiness. From then on, I started thinking about how people could find happiness by sharing. And actually, what I did the most was sharing a lot for free. But how did I share? I shared two boxes each. I think that's the key. Sharing two boxes each was really cool, I think. The reason I could do this was because of CEO Lee Jun-beom. He told me to do whatever I wanted. In fact, it's all about the cost, but by changing companies and now providing something to influencers.

They complained a lot even though they received it at the store because they wondered why they were giving this and that for free. I worked hard to make this, why should I give it away? At that time, there was no such thing as GP, and there were even kids who took care of things first without me having to say anything. But because the kids were proactive on their own, the recipients felt good about receiving it. And actually, by performing this act as a gift, people started to recognize it as a gift. In reality, when we did Noted, there were quite a lot of people who bought 100 boxes at once. Yes, as these structures were formed, Noted's sales started to soar as if it had grown wings. Next, the movement is now about giving and receiving, somewhat like Kim and Jang, right? Giving and receiving, coming out, and me coming out, it's about creating something good together. Right now, we are trying to focus on consulting for about eight months.

I'm working hard, but it's so difficult. It's actually confusing because I'm doing various brands, and I can't focus well. But in a way, it feels like I'm working as a freelancer. I think I'm pioneering a new direction for consultants. Lately, what I mean is, when you see most consultants like FMB, they create a brand, incubate it, open it, have a ceremony, and say, I made this, then take a shot. With influencers coming in, after building the brand, after a few months, suddenly that person loses interest and moves on to another project. It's so unpredictable. Then they wonder why it didn't work out as they expected, saying, Why didn't it go as I did? So, it's kind of like consulting, a bit like that. But what I'm doing now is...

It's somewhat similar to having a personal trainer. The reason for paying a high price for a personal trainer is that they control not only my diet and exercise but also my condition. Even if it's somewhat coercive, they provide solutions on how to exercise more effectively, adjust my diet, and more. You can think of it as a brand providing these services. Therefore, the work of other consultants may be slightly different. First, you need to sign a 6-month contract. During these long 6 months, there should be a team including a marketing team. Then, you train them, have meetings with them, so that after 6 months, they can perform their tasks voluntarily without me. In a way, it's like being a temporary team leader, right? Think of it as renting a CMO. It's interesting. The company's size is around 2 billion to 10 billion won, mostly between 5 billion and 10 billion won.

I'm working with companies where I can communicate almost directly with the CEOs, so I sometimes mix the voices of my team members and my own voice to deliver messages, and I also adjust the CEOs' voices slightly to sync with them. I do a lot of work like that. While giving direction to the strategies I've created, I've entered one place. In fact, I'm doing more of a CFO role than a CMO role, adjusting financial statements, finding ways to increase revenue, cut costs, improve how employees are utilized, and prevent wasting money as much as we earn. Some companies also have ways to brand B2B, but the best is through SEO. Therefore, I connect with B2B companies to win contracts.

I have a job, and then I am preparing for IR at another company. It's hard to get investments these days, but I am preparing an IR deck and making IR materials. I'm not an IR expert, so I can't make everything, but I can create the logic and then some companies help with creating materials like that. Another company needs to create a new brand. What is a substitute coffee brand? Growing coffee trees is very environmentally challenging. Coffee is well grown in the middle of the mountains, but as you go up to higher altitudes, it becomes harder to extract. Last year, the amount of coffee decreased for the first time because the production volume was low. The coffee prices skyrocketed, and they will continue to rise. Coffee will become more expensive. That's why alternative coffee was created. But what's the difference if you drink alternative coffee instead of regular coffee?

I judged, but I didn't like that. It's like a fake, right? That's what they say. Actually, when the word replacement is used, last year, we did a guerrilla popup event. We didn't say it was coffee, we called it a beverage, so we gave out 200 cups for free. While people were drinking, if they said, Oh, this is really good, then we asked, What do you think about the taste of this beverage? We talked about things like, What kind of beans are used, what is the origin of the beans? Oh, really? That's why, but in the end, I said, But this is not coffee. What do you mean it's not coffee? It's not coffee, then what is it? That's what I was talking about at that time. So, if it tastes exactly like real coffee, then I wanted this. Try it without prejudice first, then judge if you can distinguish it from things without prejudice.

The motivation came from an old story with Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, where Pepsi did a blind taste test against Coca-Cola, and when people actually tasted it, they said Pepsi tasted better. Drawing inspiration from there, they changed their approach, starting to position this as a replacement for people. They wanted to eliminate that and hoped people would experience this new brand. So, continuing the guerrilla marketing, around August to September this year, these brands are scheduled to be launched. Oh, they haven't been officially released yet, I see. For the new brand, they are just creating a narrative or even planning the concept. They are incubating these things together, ultimately, in the end, when you keep going around in circles, you want to do your own thing, right? So, that's why they are now asking directly what I am preparing.

That was it. Now I should do mine. So when I first started at the company, I actually talked about wanting to do business. In fact, even before entering the company, I was someone who wanted to do business. I couldn't let go of that. Now I think I will finally do it. First of all, everyone is asking a lot, so what are you going to do, what kind of business? Oh, I'm thinking about going into the bakery industry. Oh, but at Glove, they have these really huge stores, digging up the ground, having ships floating. They also have mega stores, like Lotte. When Lotte was around, I wasn't there, but in Cheongdam and then Gangnam, even at the Kakao store, they have a lot of mega stores. But I think, instead of mega stores, this is just my guess, in the future, the economy will become much tougher, and the more difficult it becomes, the more it will be like a micro-hytech store, just a neighborhood store.

I want to create a bakery that offers delicious food at a very reasonable price, like finding the taste, and then share happiness there. I want these bakeries to be spread all over the country so that anyone can easily consume something without feeling burdened. That's the concept of this brand, and based on that, I am diligently planning. Some people have high expectations when they hear that I am creating a brand. In fact, I am not a trendy person. Instead of following trends, I deeply delve into what I like and can persuade well what I like. I have already created logical structures like the happiness of Christmas gifts that I like and can empathize with. Now, by layering colors on this brand, ultimately, people will.

I want to create a brand where we can continue to do those things, whether it's next year or the year after, and be loved together and share something together while empathizing with that. Actually, that's the essence. But the medium is bread. I mentioned earlier that I want to do ice cream. I'm actually a bit serious.

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