[On the Job] The LG Brand Book: Inspired by Brave Optimism

In this edition of On the Job, we meet Park Sol-mi from the LG Global Marketing Group’s Brand Strategy Team. She shares how her interactions with the company’s employees inspired her to create a compelling Brand Book that embodies LG’s spirit of brave optimism.  

Park Sol-mi, global head copywriter at LG Global Marketing Group’s Brand Strategy Team 

To mark the one-year anniversary of its “Brand Reinvent” announcement, LG brought its brand values and unique employee DNA together to create the LG “Brave Optimists” Brand Book. This book is based on the experiences of employees from various fields, regions and time zones, and features 28 unique stories beautifully curated into four chapters: “Uncompromising customer experience,” “Human-centered innovation,” “Warmth to power a smile” and “Brave optimists.” It includes narratives of how innovative products like the LG Styler, LG StanbyME and LG gram came to be. 

The journey began when Park Sol-mi joined LG as its head copywriter. In this role, Park was exposed to various efforts and projects undertaken by the company’s offices across the globe, gaining an unrivaled understanding of LG’s brave optimism by speaking to the heart of the company – its employees. “My team and I could see what it truly means to be LG from a completely new perspective,” said Park. “We agreed it would be a shame to keep this to ourselves, so we began interviewing our amazing colleagues to publish a book that would effectively convey the essence of LG.” 

Over 15 months, she interviewed a total of 47 people including former and current executives and employees working for different business units and regions. She even paid visits to retired executives and travelled around the country to meet a technician working at LG’s service center. All these unique narratives came together to capture the essence of LG. 

Park emphasized how this book promotes many powerful messages that people, whether they have a strong connection to LG or not, can resonate with. One particular story she empathized with was of a senior employee’s overseas sales experience and how “when one aims to experience the unexpected, that’s where the value of premium comes to life for them.” 

However, making this Brand Book was not without its challenges. With a history spanning more than half a century, LG’s early years were much harder to explore than its recent endeavors, necessitating a bold approach. “If LG was a person, it would be someone with a long history, much like our parents,” she explained. “While it’s important to evaluate and question things critically, our goal was to create a book that also sheds light on the layers of history, culture and values that have been established over time.” 

Joining the company with the aim of sharing the company’s myriad strengths, Park was confident about taking the love and admiration for LG to the next level on a global scale. Prior to joining LG, she saw the people of LG as kind and warm, simply laid-back individuals. However, after becoming part of the team, she quickly realized that ambition runs strongly through the employees.  

As a part of the Global Marketing Group’s Brand Strategy Team, Park ensures all branding and marketing activities across LG’s global subsidiaries reflect a consistent brand identity. Her role has expanded to include copywriting, where core principles like “write with a smile,” “write with insight” and “write with design” were established. These guidelines were distributed to global subsidiaries in local languages to maintain a unified and unique voice across the company.  

With her unwavering dedication to internalizing and solidifying LG’s unique style of communication, Park hopes that one day a single sentence will unmistakably convey LG’s essence in any language. “Writing for both internal and external audiences brings me pure joy, as I feel most alive when I’m confident in my writing – it’s my Life’s Good moment,” she mentioned. “I believe that these two forms of writing complement each other and will create even greater synergy.” 

Although not featured in the Brand Book, an honorable mention must go to LG Crew, a program run by university students that gives insights into Gen Z culture and opinions. Its dedicated members come together on the weekend to share and discuss current trends. Park recalls an unforgettable interaction with an LG newcomer and former LG Crew member, who impressed her with their dedication to answering simple questions about emerging trends. They delved into their own experiences and expertise, demonstrating absolute confidence in their knowledge of current trends. 

Every chapter of the Brand Book offers a new insight into the brave optimism LG pursues in everything it does. Stay tuned to the LG Newsroom to discover more ways its teams around the world are spreading optimism and hope. 

# # #