Marketing In North Korea (6)

- Imagine school supply brand

Jeon Byung-kil

Senior Consultant of YESInnovation

former of Secretary General of UniKorea Foundation

3 products for North Korean children - school bag, notebook, and soy milk

Regardless of time and place, Parents are all the same. They want to provide their children with good school supplies. Even in North Korea, where the economy is struggling, parents don't skimp on school supplies. Merchants also actively attract customers by offering discounts. In the capital, Pyongyang, people buy school supplies in department stores, while in the provinces they buy them mainly at marketplaces, Jangmadong.

Despite its high educational aspirations, North Korea has poor educational facilities and learning materials. The economic downturn of the 1990s prevented continued investment in education. Since Kim Jong-un took power in 2012, North Korea has been trying to improve its school supplies production facilities and innovate in education technology, as it has in other manufacturing sectors.

North Korea's media often portrays an idealized image of happy children. On June 1, 2021, North Korean media outlet Uriminzikkiri reported, "Our children are learning with the benefit of 12-year compulsory education while carrying <Sonamu>(means pine tree) school bags and writing in <Mindle>(means dandellion) notebooks and drinking soy milk."  While soy milk has been mentioned in North Korean media for more than 20 years, <Mindle> notebook and <Sonamu> school bag have only appeared since 2016.  

<Mindle> notebook with a hometown heart

On May 1, 2016, KCNA reported that the Dandelion Notebook Factory is producing a variety of high-quality notebooks.

/ Yonhap News Agency

<Mindle> notebook was first launched in 2016 and produces more than 150 million copies of 65 different notebooks per year. <Mindle> categorized its consumers by age group, from kindergarteners to university students, and generated products according to the characteristics of each subject of study. The North Korean media has praised and promoted <Mindle> as a factory that the Workers' Party of Korea is most interested in. 

It is also reported that Kim Jong-un himself created the brand name and design for Mindle. The flower's name and brand title, "Mindle," is taken from the first verse of the North Korean song "Blue Sky of My Homeland." The song, written in 1986, emphasizes patriotism and is widely sung in North Korea. 

When Mindle notebook was released, there were various promotions related to it. One of the most prominent is a poem called "Mindle notebook". The poem, published in North Korea's Children's Literature magazine in September 2016, captures the excitement of using Mindle notebook and the pride of using national products.

A North Korean woman tries on cosmetics from the Nari Cosmetics Factory at the '2022 Women's Clothing Exhibition'

in Pyongyang, held from October to November 2022./Yonhap News Agency

On December 1, 2021, the North Korean media outlet Korea Today published an article titled "Mindle Fruit". It is an anecdote about a daughter who attends middle school and a son who attends a elemantary school arguing about whether or not there are fruits in the <Mindle> notebook. 

The older sister said, "How do you get a fruit out of a notebook without being scientific?" while the younger brother said, "You just have to study hard and get a perfect score in your notebook to get a fruit stamp." 

The words of the pure son left a deep impression, and he hoped that the fruits produced through <Mindle> notebook would become the foundation of a strong country. <Mindle> gave meaning to the notebook and symbolized what would happen in the future through it. 

<Sonamu> school bag over shoulder

According to the March 31, 2017 edition of the Rodong Sinmun, <Sonamu> school bag expresses the hope that North Korea's children will grow up strong, just like the green and powerful spirit of the pine tree.

<Sonamu> school bag, like the <Mindle> notebook, was promoted through the media as soon as it was released. On May 27, 2017, <Uriminzikkri> introduced the <Sonamu> school bag as a synonym for products made in North Korea, and naturally, the article continued with pride. Sonamu school bags are also featured in the North Korean official promotional video "Friendly Parent" made in 2024.

<Sonamu> school bags are popular among university students in North Korea. Backpacks are the most representative. July 23, 2018 issue of Choson Shinbo, a pro-North Korean media outlet in Japan, reported on the craze for backpacks among North Korean university students, noting that the company has enhanced the functional convenience of the bags by putting sponges inside to protect laptops, and has created various types of bags based on the lifestyle, hobbies and preferences of university students from the planning stage. 

A collaboration with Clever Racoon Dog and brand imagination

<Mindle> notebook and <Sonamu> school bag are among the products that feature characters from the North Korean animated series Clever Racoon Dog. Clever Racoon Dog was produced and aired in North Korea from 1987 to the early 2000s and is considered a combination of knowledge transfer and fairy tales. Its popularity among North Korean children is reminiscent of the South Korean animation Pororo.

The Clever Racoon Dog character, which is familiar to North Korean children, is featured on school supplies such as bags and notebooks, a kind of North Korean collaboration. This collaborative strategy is common in capitalist societies, but brand licensing is somewhat foreign to North Korea. The popular South Korean character Pororo has already monetized collaborations with more than 200 brands in various industries, including beverages, medicine, and school supplies. In North Korea, the Clever Racoon Dog's collaboration with school supplies is an expression of North Korean brand imagination.

Imagination is what drives us to constantly create something new. Even if it's just an imitation. Imagination is a brand survivor and a weapon to generate ideas in the business jungle. When imagination and innovative ideas meet customer needs, powerful brands emerge that transform markets.

The words "Let's learn for North Korea!" are emblazoned on every school in North Korea. The phrase is said to have been first uttered in 1953 by Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, who was 10 years old at the time, and has remained the signature slogan of North Korean education ever since. When <Mindle> notebook was first produced in 2016, Kim Jong-un reportedly wrote "Let's learn for North Korea!" in notebook.

Learning for the sake of motherland is important, but the "what," "how," and "why" of learning are just as important. Whether it is building a future workforce full of imagination and creativity or a rigid, regimented workforce. 

Even today, children and teenagers in North Korea go to school with <Mindle> notebooks in their <Sonamu> school bags.