Professor Seol Hyesim of Yonsei University: "Historically, consumption promotion occurred online before offline"

Productivity Headquarters, First Lecture of the '2020 KPC CEO Book Club'

Professor Seol Hyesim of Yonsei University is giving a lecture on the topic "Future Consumption Prospects Through the History of Consumption" at the KPC CEO Book Club on the 21st.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Korea Productivity Center (KPC, Chairman Noh Gyu-seong) announced that it held the first lecture of the annual educational program 'KPC CEO Book Club,' aimed at nurturing leaders in the digital economy era, on the 21st at the Millennium Hilton Seoul Hotel. The KPC CEO Book Club will be held a total of 16 times over the next seven months as Thursday morning seminars.

At this year's first Book Club, Professor Seol Hye-sim of Yonsei University gave a lecture titled "Future Consumption Prospects Through the History of Consumption." Professor Seol looked at history and society through the keyword consumption and presented seven future consumption themes. She stated, "Consumption has been depreciated in meaning compared to production, as reflected in the contrast between 'consumptive disputes' and 'productive relationships.' Although explosive consumption occurred in the 1980s, leading to global interest and research on consumption, there is still a tendency to taboo 'consumption' in our country. However, since consumption is more closely related to our lives than production, ignoring consumption means we cannot properly observe social changes," and emphasized, "We must be able to forecast the future through the past to overcome unexpected situations like the pandemic and ensure the longevity of companies."

Professor Seol continued, "Recently, due to the pandemic, contactless consumption and online platforms have gained attention, but historically, consumption promotion first appeared online rather than offline. The beginning of consumption promotion was through publishers' catalogs for pornography or religious banned books sales, evolving from catalogs to trade cards, from world expositions to department stores and shopping malls, and back to catalogs?consumption promotion has evolved and changed directionally from non-spatial to limited spaces and back to non-spatial."

Professor Seol identified the future consumption themes as ▲strengthening the 'meaning of products' consumption ▲decentralization ▲issues of trend analysis and big data ▲elderly consumption ▲individual versus group ▲increase in content consumption ▲anti-modernism and restoration of humanity. She emphasized, "Due to the pandemic, Korean baseball has gained attention overseas, and decentralization and glocal movements are intensifying, moving away from the American-style mass consumption society model. We need to focus on Korean characteristics. Also, content consumption is explosively increasing, and beyond platform consumption like YouTube and Netflix, human relationships and culture are being consumed as content, expanding and diversifying the concept of content. Along with efforts to create product stories and content, we must prepare for consumption related to the second life of seniors, which will greatly increase in the future."

The KPC CEO Book Club is a reading management seminar course first established in 2007 and is now in its 14th year. Since 2016, it has operated a program that deeply studies cutting-edge innovation trends applicable to our economy, focusing on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.