Baemindaum

We often talk about core competencies.
Just as Tsutaya is not a bookstore, but a company with the ability to provide a lifestyle, and Woongjin is not a learning materials or water purifier company, but a company with core competency in door-to-door distribution services.
Where does Baemin's core competency lie? Is it food or IT?
Our core competency is:
I don't know if it's right to say this, but I think it's about 'being able to look at the world from our own perspective.'
Our own perspective may be wrong.
But I think our core competency isn't that we're going to do it because people say it's good, but that we can define what we have, define the industry, and lead it with our own perspective.
That's how it's been done so far.

---From "What should I keep in mind as an entrepreneur?"

But Baemin's target audience isn't people who diligently look at offline outdoor advertisements, right?
that's right.
Our target audience is more active online.
These are friends who hang out on Instagram or Facebook.
So, when I create an advertisement draft, I always take a picture with my phone and do a final check.
This is a test to see if it can attract people's attention when posted on social media.
In other words, the condition of outdoor advertising that we consider is 'can it be hooked in an instant?'
We received a lot of love from people as they took pictures of our outdoor advertisement and posted them.
Since I majored in visual design in graduate school, I think that if you think about the functions of general advertising, you shouldn't do this kind of advertising.
There are no product features and I have no idea what they are talking about.
But I did it without fear.
“You don’t get fat by eating, you get fat by eating a lot.”

---From "How can we convey Baemin's unique sensibility?"

What kind of persona does Baemin have? What kind of person do you want to be seen by customers?
If we were to use a celebrity analogy, wouldn't comedian Park Myung-soo probably know more about good restaurants than anchor Son Seok-hee? For example, Naver is like Son Seok-hee in that it's always up to date and always delivers accurate search results.
If you ask him something he doesn't know, he's the kind of person who will tell you everything he knows.
But Baemin reminds me of Park Myeong-su, a friendly older brother who may seem a little lacking.
In that sense, our persona is a friendly neighborhood older brother who is easy for the youngest members to get along with, a returning student older brother who is easy to communicate with.

When ordering food, the person who suggests what to order is the senior, but the one who ultimately decides how to order is the youngest.
It would be nice to have a 'friendly neighborhood older brother' who can get along well with the youngest of 20s living in the age of Facebook and Instagram.
In fact, all of our store events and customer promotions are about communicating with customers.
It's not an expensive gift, but it feels a bit tacky, but it feels good to receive a gift that reads my mind exquisitely.
We want to make our customers feel like they are peers in similar circumstances.

---From "What kind of people are Baemin users?"

I've heard a lot about the various interesting promotions and advertisements.
For example, I don't think advertisements like Magazine Terror were made just for fun.

To be honest, just because there's a one-page ad in a magazine, it's not like people will suddenly remember Baemin and sales will increase significantly.
These days, the number of people reading advertising magazines has also decreased.
But we've been doing this for over three years, selecting one magazine every month.
Magazine advertising is a great way to train marketers and designers in the Baemin way.
We are continuously working on creating something ‘Baedal Minjok-like’ internally.
Our members have a meeting to pick copies for a month.
We keep talking in the group chat and discussing what is so special about Baemin.
Continuing this training is also a process of internally embodying the brand identity.
Even if you create something like a brand guide, employees don't read it.
But through the magazine ad ideation process, I unknowingly internalized the Baemin brand.
Isn't embodying the brand's identity in the minds and bodies of its members the most important step in branding?

I think a company's brand identity is like air or water.
That controls the company.
The most important thing in a brand is that Naver must be Naver-like and Apple must be Apple-like.
We are the ones who create brands, so we make sure you can feel it.
I made more than 36 of them.

---From "How to give your organization its own unique color?"

Baemin is currently doing well, a classic example of a startup, but what about the future? Will it be able to maintain its Baemin-like character even as it grows?
I think that would be a challenge.
So what I emphasize most is internal branding.
Internal members should be friends who really like the service they provide to their customers.
We need to have friends like that join our company and continue to enjoy it, and it should naturally become part of our culture.
There is no great significance in receiving data researched and analyzed externally.
Because it is an analysis of existing competitors and the market, it lacks depth.

All worries are one.
The question isn't 'How can I sell well?' but 'How can I make people love my brand?'
So, all of our members are really kind.
We all laugh among ourselves and say we're crazy.
People who like our culture come in and do HR, coding, and finance.
As I said before, both Lego and Disney have their own cultures, which is why they are maintained.
I believe that the core of internal branding is when people who are good at what they do come together and continue to work in a good way.
It's what makes employees continue to love Baemin.

---From "Can you maintain your comfort even as you grow bigger?"

Of course, creating a new corporate culture isn't Baemin's goal in itself, right?
Yes, what we think is important is that we have to be number one even though it is a new culture and not something that has been done before.
Among companies that pursue a free and horizontal culture, there are many that fall into second place.
We gave our employees freedom to be creative, but as things became more relaxed, many services were eliminated from the market.
So, my team and I still talk about how we have to be number one, we have to lead the market.
Then, people will remember the culture we created.

For example, if we implement a 4.5-day workweek and our company doesn't do well, then no one will implement that system in the future, right?
“Baemin tried a 4.5-day workweek, but it didn’t work out well, right?”
But if the results are good, people will say, “Wow, you keep coming in first even though you work 4.5 days a week.”
So now other organizations are saying, “We can do well with the 4.5-day workweek.”
“A five-day workweek isn’t the answer.” I guess so.

I hope to inspire and stimulate other new entrants and junior companies that will emerge in the future.
Changing the meeting format, working while chatting, and even letting people go home early for their children's birthdays are all attempts and goals we have made to change the corporate culture.

---From "Can the workplace really be a fun playground?"

To get to the Baemin office, you have to pass the Jamsil Station intersection in front of Lotte Department Store.
It's a chronically congested area, and these days it's even more congested because of construction.
In Seoul, a traffic hell, a little lateness might be understandable, but when it comes to Baemin, even being even a minute late can make you break out in a cold sweat.
This is because the phrase written at the entrance to the conference room, “9:01 is not 9:00,” keeps coming to mind.

Creativity comes from discipline and training, never from a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.
However, this does not mean that Baemin binds or ties down its members for the sake of discipline.
All rules of this company are created autonomously by the members, but once created, they are strictly followed.
All of Baemin's activities are carried out within these principles.
Even B-grade culture, such as kitchen parodies, is being created in a complete manner within its own rules and framework.

Because creativity and innovation are based on repeated practice and diligence, discipline is even more important for businesses that rely on creativity.
Jeff Goins, author of The Art of Work, explains the "paradox of creativity and discipline," emphasizing that just as discipline is both a formidable enemy and a good friend to artists, strong discipline is essential for pursuing creative work.
The "How to Work Well in Songpa-gu" rule, which Baemin members voluntarily created, is being implemented with surprising thoroughness and has become the company's central framework.

---From the "Epilogue"