Splendid, stunning and attention-grabbing...
I am trying to take a list of words to describe Lolita Lempicka fragrance in the picture seen above. The fragrance brand is currently ranked 4th in France, so-called the Mecca of beauty products. Interestingly enough, few French consumers know that it was launched in 1990 by Amore Pacific, the biggest cosmetics company based 5,500 miles away in South Korea.
(For your information, believe or not, I am keeping up-to-date with the cosmetics field thanks to my dad, who used to work for Amore Pacific for 15years and has been running a cosmetics packaging company for 10years or more, in collaboration with Amore Pacific. I also look forward to jumping into the cosmetics field in the near future.)
Back to the point, Amore Pacific had been through hard time since its first operation in France, thereby learning that Made in Korea, being associated with a product of low quality, attracted only sneers in elegant Parisian boutiques; however, Kyung Bae Suh(my role model...), the CEO of Amore Pacific, was determined to get a foothold in France for the long-term success globally. Conspicuously stamped on a label on the bottle were the words " Made in France". Smart "Glocal strategy" managed to put itself in the situation where it can compete fairly with French brands, all other things being equal.
This is an interesting case... Marketing your product/brand in a forign market is not easy, and cosmetics and fashion in France is as difficult as it gets. It's reason for the same in this case is shameful, but then again consumers are not always rational and local behavior and thinking is difficult to change easily. A local presence is often comforting and familiar to some consumers, and hopefully this one is a strong foothold for further European expansions.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure exactly how the Korean brand was labelled "Made in France". Most governments require evidence of local value added before they let products be labelled made in that country.
ReplyDeleteI would like to apologize for making you confused. Let me convey a clear understanding of this issue on the next post.
ReplyDelete