"The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing"

In Lady Windemere's Fan (1892) Oscar Wilde's Lord Darlington famously defined a cynic as a man "who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing".  Pedantically it may have been more accurate to define this cynic as the man "who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing". The intended criticism being that it can often be shallow or shortsighted to assess a thing based on its cost rather than the value of having it.  However a century later our global economies are still, self-evidently based on the (perhaps, super-cynical) ability to look for every possible opportunity to maximise the difference between the cost and the value of an item; obtaining it at the lowest possible cost, maximising its value and selling it for the highest possible price.  For most of what we buy the price of a thing is so finely tuned to its perceived value that the cost is rarely even considered.

Physical assets such as property, cars and jewelry as well as less tangible commodities such as health, education and career development are priced in terms of their value perceived by the consumer rather than the cost of actually providing them. Property is valued by demand, not by the cost of construction.  Cars are valued by speed and luxury, even though traffic jams make the former redundant and perhaps only the latter really relevant.  Gems are valued by their rarity which is itself manipulated by hoarding vast stockpiles to artificially restrict supply.  Similarly the prices of private health, education and career development reflect perceived value rather than cost.  Such is the world we have created.

In many ways Korea is a soft target, perhaps even a willing victim, of the global advertising and marketing strategies used to hype the perceived value of international products.  It is nothing short of bewildering that Korean cars such as Kia are regularly voted 'International Car of the Year' but Korean consumers are desperate to pay eye-watering premiums for foreign cars which are usually not as good as the cheaper domestic products.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_of_the_Year

Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus from The Matrix, promotes Kia's K9 at the 2014 NFL Superbowl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diPICUxtRdo

Meanwhile South Koreans defiantly prefer to spend their hard-earned cash on imports .........

The Mini Cooper is a firm favourite in Seoul - even without any promotion by Trinity or Neo

Another glowing example is smartphones.  In January 2015 it was reported that Apple secured 33% of the market in the last quarter of 2014.  This was apparently the first time that any foreign smartphone gained more than 20% of the Korean market.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/21/apple-grabs-33-smartphone-marketshare-in-south-korea-a-historic-record-for-foreign-manufacturers-in-samsungs-home-turf/

Naturally there was much furious debate in the press, fairly or unfairly praising the IPhone and criticising Samsung's rival, however all of this rather missed the point. The explanation was a little simpler and it was entirely based on the price. The IPhone sells at a significant price premium to the Samsung which basically states to anyone who is paying attention that the owner has money to throw away. Quite simply for every unattached guy out there, there is no other choice but an IPhone - until he is lucky enough to find 'The One'.

Technically Samsung recovered some lost ground with its next model but cynical observers believe that the key to Apple's market share is simply its price premium, which male customers simply won't pay for a domestic product unless the phone comes complete with the all-important Dream Girl.

Perceived Value: in Korea the IPhone gets you the Dream Girl
Good luck with that then !

Last but not least, since 2015 the competition between domestic and international products expanded to include the normally uncontroversial (= positively snoozeworthy) furniture market.  Rumours of the opening of Sweden's first IKEA store were stoked by months of hushed murmur among Ladies who Lunch (LwL), fuelled with intense speculation in spas frequented by the rich and pampered and fanned by frenzied email exchanges between people who actually have to work for a living.

The prospect of coffee tables more than 30cm high which one doesn't sit around cross-legged on the floor was enough to set every expat heart fluttering. The possibility of beds that can be lifted to reveal enough storage space to store all of last year's clothes which are simply the wrong colour to be worn again this year lifted the spirits of every Korean national.  The mouth-watering flavours of IKEA meatballs smothered in gravy with french fries was like a call to an oasis after 40 years wandering through a parched desert.  It was the biblical epic which everyone had been waiting for.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/12/15/2015121501559.html

IKEA visitor numbers have already surpassed 10 million.
The store is credited with stimulating new business for national manufacturers.
Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery; the question is; will national rivals start to sell meat balls ?

Order yours now !