Every Thursday Morning, the 'Sotong Baejjang-i' Visits You

Baemin Newsletter 'Weekly Baejjangi' Surpasses 100 Issues This Month
Food Essay Series 'The Taste of Life These Days' Also Published as a Book

Kim Gyeoul, Kim Honbi, Park Seoryeon, Son Hyun, Lim Jina, Cheon Seonran, Choi Minseok… Besides being young writers who have recently gained popularity in bookstores, they share one more thing in common. They all serialized food essays in the Baedal Minjok (Baemin) newsletter, which is sent out every Thursday morning. These writers’ pieces about meals that offer comfort in daily life resonated with subscribers and were recently published as a book titled “The Taste of Living These Days,” which is also the name of a corner in the newsletter. Baemin’s newsletter “Weekly Bba-jjang-i,” which shares small stories about the taste of living these days every week, surpassed its 100th issue this month. We looked into why the delivery app Baemin consistently shares food-related stories every week.

According to Woowa Brothers on the 23rd, Weekly Bba-jjang-i started in April 2020 and has published 102 issues to date. Weekly Bba-jjang-i consists of sections such as “The Taste of Living These Days,” where a new writer serializes a food essay each month; “Baemin B-Behind,” which introduces behind-the-scenes stories of the Baedal Minjok brand; “Preference Research Lab,” which covers food preference stories; and “New Product Research Lab,” which contains reviews of new products.

What sets Weekly Bba-jjang-i apart from various newsletters of other brands is that it started from Baemin’s fan club. Bba-jjang-i is an abbreviation for “those who love Baedal Minjok the most,” and it was the name of Baemin’s fan club. The Baemin fan club first began in 2016 and recruited members until 2019. In the first term in 2016, there were about 100 members, followed by about 250 members in the second term the next year, and about 400 members in the third term in 2018, showing its growing popularity. Members participated in small online and offline events every year, such as the “Bba-jjang-i Welcome Party” and “Bba-jjang-i Night,” and Baemin used these as opportunities to meet customers. Baemin explained that they planned the newsletter in the form of a bulletin to expand this and interact with more customers.

Baemin formed a dedicated team to publish Weekly Bba-jjang-i, and currently, four editors and one designer participate in producing the newsletter every week. Having continued for over 100 issues, the newsletter has received positive feedback from subscribers. A Weekly Bba-jjang-i official said, “Looking at various statistics, among newsletters that talk about their own brands, our subscriber count and open rates are very high,” adding, “We receive weekly feedback from subscribers, including comments like ‘Thanks to you, I decided what to have for dinner tonight,’ or ‘I started to see my usually rushed meals a little differently.’”

The reason Baemin puts effort into Weekly Bba-jjang-i is to strengthen communication with customers, which could be neglected as the number of delivery platform users increases and the business scope expands. The goal of Weekly Bba-jjang-i is to communicate more closely with those who like Baemin and gather more fans of the Baemin brand. A Baemin official said, “Rather than focusing solely on increasing simple numbers like subscriber count, we aim for a newsletter that communicates closely and is created together,” adding, “We strive to build strong relationships with each and every subscriber.”