With the year 2023 quickly approaching, the Consumer Trend Center (CTC) of Seoul National University has selected ten new key consumer trends. New notions such as “Disappearance of average,” “Alpha generation,” or “Cherrysumer” are receiving attention as trends for next year.

What is a “Cherrysumer?”

The term “cherrysumer,” formed by the two words “cherry” and “consumer,” comes from the word “cherrypicking.” Cherrypicking originally meant picking the best-looking cherries or berries from a tree or eating the cherry on top of a cake. When defined in a more contemporary way, it is choosing and taking only the opportunities that are most profitable from what is available. Similarly, cherrypicking consumers, also known as “cherrypickers,” are those that do not care about the product itself but are only interested in the benefits the product pro- vides. Customers of credit card companies that open cards only to use the dis- count advantages are an example.

The term cherrysumer, however, can be interpreted in a slightly different manner. While cherrypickers are closer to black consumers which may cause losses to companies, cherrysumers are regarded as smart consumers who make rational decisions in terms of spending costs. They are closer to bargain consumers who spend reasonably by maximizing finite resources.

Why Did Cherrysumers Appear?

The cause for the growth of this term stems largely from the economic recession. There are concerns about the eco- nomic outlook for next year, which does not seem to show much improvement compared to this year. With the constant and radical rise in prices in addition to high-interest rates, consumer confidence is likely to shrink. This has led to chang- es in consumption patterns, and the appearance of cherrysumers can be viewed as the result of such changes – consumers are becoming more conscious about their spending, and they put in the greatest effort to spend money wisely.

In addition to the temporary economic depression, changes in household types could also be a cause. According to senior researcher Kwon Jung-yoon from CTC at Seoul National University, the increase in one-person households has boosted the importance of saving and efficient spending. This is due to single households being unable to split their necessary spending bills with other family members.

What Strategies are Used by Cherrysumers?

Cherrysumers buy only what matters to them and save what they can. They use several strategies including the “Half and half tactic,” “Piece tactic,” and “Soft tactic.”

The “half and half tactic” is a strategy used to save money by sharing costs. A typical example of this can be saving delivery fees by “shared delivery.” In line with rising delivery fees, people within the same neighborhood order food together and split the fee. Keeping track of this trend, one of the major delivery service platforms Baedal Minjok has added the function “deliver together,” which allows customers to conveniently add other individuals to the online payment page to split the bills. This sharing method is not only used in food deliveries, but also in buying daily necessities.

Another familiar example is consumers sharing online video services such as Netflix, Wavve, and Watcha. With shared subscription rates being more cost-efficient compared to when using it individually, people gather in groups to form a “family.” By splitting the bills together, consumers can enjoy the services at a much more reasonable price. This “half and half tactic” is not a completely new idea that appeared today, but the development of platforms and communication networks has contributed to its massive growth.

The next strategy is the “piece tactic.” According to researcher Kwon, consumers feel burdened about paying for one whole product or service, but at the same time, they want to have a small taste. The word “piece tactic” comes from this phenomenon; consumers try to break things into pieces as much as they can, making the least consumption necessary for them. Small-portioned fruit or vegetables from a convenience store or bottled water packed in small amounts can be examples of what cherrysumers pursue.

The third strategy is the “soft tactic,” which in Korean is called the “Mal-lang tactic.” This is used by those that are unwilling to be bound by con- tracts in terms of trips, insurance, or other subscriptions. What they want is flexibility, thus preferring contracts that can be changed at the last minute. Accommodations that allow cancellation without any fees even until the day right before the reservation date can be one of the examples.

Cherrysumers Leaders: The Generation MZ

The Generation MZ – including Millennials and Generation Z – can be seen as the current leaders of this new consumer trend. Professor Kim Si-wuel from Sang-huh College of Konkuk University notes that Generation MZ can be differentiated from other generations in that they are “digital natives.” In other words, this generation is proficient in using various online social media more than any other generation. Professor Kim adds, “With high digital competence, consumers of this generation acquire a wide variety of information including benefits of products through social media where everything is shared at a rapid speed. With active sharing of information on commodities within their market taking place mostly online, consumers have become more sensitive to all sorts of dis- count benefits or services needed to make their best choices.”

What Attracts Them?

Along with the consumers that put in their maximum effort for better consumption, changes in the consumer market would be necessary. Professor Moon Jun-yean from the College of Business and Economics at Hanyang University Erica Campus says, “To engage smart, but demanding consumers, it is important for companies to come up with items that are attractive enough.”

He states while various methods of advertising and persuading consumers were used previously, it is now important to provide information relevant to the products in ways that consumers can easily find. Becoming the talk of Generation MZ is now incredibly important since they are consumers that share information quickly through diverse media platforms.

Researcher Kwon mentions “half hocance1)” as one of the attractive marketing cases. Since affording a whole one-day stay is not easy for the majority, hotels have come up with a system where customers can experience a “piece” of their service. Staying for several hours, while enjoying the same facilities with less expense, is adequate to satisfy consumers although their stay is shorter.

Professor Moon also adds that presenting attractive benefits that can inter- est cherrysumers can be profitable to the companies in the long term. This is because cherrysumers, which mostly consist of Generation MZ, are likely to spend continuously once they become attached to certain brands. Thus, although providing one-sided advantages may seem like a loss in the short term, it would be a good chance to secure customers in the long term.

Future Prospects

The arousal of new consumer trends is a natural phenomenon that follows changes in the era. Though society is going through a severe economic slump with a rise in costs causing difficulty to merchants, cherrysumers are fortunately not the kind of consumers that simply seek the cheapest options. If they feel that an item is attractive, purchasing it will be regarded as worthy despite the price; the cost is no longer the only standard for reasonable spending to them.

Thus, coming up with new strategies to target cherrysumers by considering their behaviors and needs can contribute to providing companies with a new chance for growth under the forthcoming trend

1) A combination of the words, “hotel” and “vacance” widely used in Korea