A fried egg-shaped jelly, a slaps candy and a green onion-flavored cereal. These “funsumer” products have been popular among teenagers and young adults in recent years. “Funsumer”, which is a compound word of ‘fun’ and ‘consumer’, refers to a consumer who seeks the so-called “fun-efficiency” rather than the quality and efficacy of products. This fun-seeking behavior of consumers brings fun marketing strategies. More and more people have a tendency to participate in fun-seeking consumption these days. It has become one of the biggest trends in the country.

There are a few reasons why many people follow the trend. Firstly, people want to get psychological satisfaction through buying products that make them happy, especially in the midst of COVID-19 when they cannot go traveling or do anything fun that they used to do. This situation made them find substitutes in order to be more satisfied with their everyday life by consuming something special for their happiness.

Secondly, it is one of the characteristics of the MZ generation, who were born between the 1980s and 2000s. Young people tend to live their life and spend money on themselves, and the ‘consumption-for-me’ behavior is prevalent among the youth population. This characteristic leads them to get pleasure by consuming and enjoying valuable and fun items at home, instead of spending money outdoors.

Lastly, one of the human traits supports this. You may have heard about Johan Huizinga’s “‘Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture.” He claimed that we are Homo ludens, the playing man, and the feature of pursuing joy is as important as the rationality that Homo sapiens have. The MZ generation seems to embrace this notion and made it part of their own consuming culture. In addition, Korea has a history of enjoying demotic games, which have harmonized both work and play, instead of looking them as separate concepts. This distinctive recreational culture might be the main reason that the funsuming trend spreads in the country.

In accordance with this type of consumers’ demand and behavior, companies have created new marketing strategies and launched many products so that they may follow the taste of the funsumers, whose consumption tendency is central to their business. The Chonnam Tribune introduces several funsumer products by sorting them into three categories in the types of marketing as follows. Fusion marketing is a result of combining existing purposes or taste of goods. Unique collaboration marketing is an unusual or mismatched combination between different industries. B-rated culture marketing is a humorous, clumsy or retro culture-related strategy.

By Lee Da-hyeon, Tribune Reporter