제 24 호 “JJ Dessert” Leads Dubai Chocolate Trend: Successful Start-up Story of Sangmyung University
Kicker: SM NEWS
“JJ Dessert” Leads Dubai Chocolate Trend:
Successful Start-up Story of Sangmyung University
by Si-ho Park, Editor
You've probably seen it before. Starting with pop-ups at Lotte Department Store in Dongtan and Time Villas in Suwon, "JJ Dessert" is a brand that successfully hosts pop-ups of Dubai chocolates at department stores in various parts of Korea, including Guri, Incheon, Jamsil, and Yeongdeungpo. This brand was founded by Lee Seung-bae, a professor of Global Business Administration at Sangmyung University, and his students. Let's vividly learn about the successful founding story of the company through an interview with Professor Lee Seung-bae.
Photos of JJ Desert’s Dubai Chocolate | |
Start-up Story: How SMU Professor and Students Sold Dubai Chocolate Together
Professor Lee Seung-bae is currently the head of the Startup Support Center at Sangmyung University and is conducting a course about start-ups based on his experience of successful start-ups before becoming a university professor. He and the students met through a class called Export-Import Basics. He emphasized trying various things, such as start-ups, in this class, and one student who wished to start a business visited the professor.
After talking about starting a business, the three students and the professor gathered and borrowed an acquaintance's office to start a business. They heard Dubai chocolate is becoming a trend, so they tried various recipes by looking up YouTube videos and others. After finding a good recipe, they submitted a proposal to the Lotte Department Store and got an opportunity to conduct a pop-up. The entire process of the start-up, from recipe development to packaging material design, was done directly by themselves.
A Difficulty and the Secret to Success in the Process of Starting a Business
Since Dubai chocolate is a food product, the biggest difficulty was that it was important to keep it free of foreign substances. Therefore, JJ Dessert carried out the last process on site. It seems that one of the big factors of its success was the on-site demonstration of the process of putting melted chocolate in a mold, hardening it in the refrigerator, and removing it from the water heater. Customers recognized this as a performance, and bloggers posted this process on their blogs, which created a natural promotional effect.
At first, their plan was to open a pop-up store once or twice on a small scale. However, the first pop-up store in Dongtan had an open run for two weeks, which was a huge, unexpected success. And this success gave them the opportunity to have another pop-up store. However, JJ Dessert, founded by a Sangmyung University professor and students, did not have a lot of production staff. Suwon Time Villas provided conditions for immediate sales, installing refrigerators and other production lines in its education center. And the pop-up that they conducted in Suwon succeeded as well.
A Rapid Change in Tastes
JJ Dessert not only makes Dubai chocolate but also continues to produce and sell other dessert products, including chestnut tiramisu. Professor Lee Seung-bae describes the F/B (Food and Beverage) industry as “fast-F/B,” just like fast food and fast fashion. As trends change rapidly, F/B companies have to continue to develop new things.
JJ Dessert entrepreneurs hear a lot of opinions from the media and department store managers, and they heard that the trend of Dubai chocolate is gone, and the trend of S’more chocolate is newly rising. After hearing it, they directly developed and released S’more chocolate, but the response was not good. Meanwhile, chestnut tiramisu was introduced by a Netflix series “Culinary Class Wars.” They again developed a new recipe and released chestnut tiramisu to keep up with the trend. They produced the sample product in a day and changed the S’more chocolate corner into the chestnut tiramisu in the pop-up store.
However, selling multiple items in a single pop-up store can confuse people and reduce sales. Therefore, chestnut-tiramisu is currently being sold at the Lotte Department Store in Incheon through a Christmas-style stand, with a good customer response.
The Most Important Thing in a Start-up
Professor Lee Seung-bae emphasizes what is more important than a brilliant idea is “executability." Ideas that are only in your head have no meaning, and we can only grow by bumping directly into walls and overcoming them in the course of implementation. Professor Lee Seung-bae’s advice that students should try more when they are young. He wants students to invest a lot of their time in one thing and have the experience of fully focusing on something. This experience will be a good qualification even if you succeed or fail. By experiencing it in person, you can learn more about yourself, such as whether you like challenges or you prefer something more stable.
JJ Dessert is currently developing something that can continue its popularity regardless of trends. Since October 10th, the Dongtan store has been selling Jeju Hallabong Tteokbokki. Please visit and taste it and find out that you can also enjoy this success if you try something yourself. If you have something in mind, whatever it is, try to realize it. Make it happen in the real world. I hope you gain a lot of experience at Sangmyung University so that you can boldly challenge yourself when the opportunity comes.
