By Jane Han
Korea Times Correspondent
NEW YORK ― Every time Tina Shin digs into a plate full of spicy, double-fried chicken wings from Kyochon, she craves some chilled Cass, a Korean beer. But she can't readily order it off the menu.
That's because she's not in Korea, but Kyochon's newest U.S. outlet on 319 Fifth Avenue in the heart of midtown Manhattan.
"I guess I can't have everything, but it's awesome to enjoy Kyochon just blocks away from where I live," says Shin, a Korean-American who first tried the fried chicken during her visit to Seoul a few years ago.
The popular Korean wing franchise, which opened its modern $2-million, two-story space, already has several restaurants in New York and California. But the latest addition is located right smack in the center of Manhattan, a positioning aimed at targeting more American customers.
"We're going after the mainstream market," Kyochon CEO Kwon Won-kang said when the new shop was launched earlier last month. "We're not going to limit our accessibility."
Just like the chicken joint, other Korean brands are starting to move away from the traditional "Koreatown marketing strategy" toward a wider U.S. consumer base.
More and more established labels in a range of industries are taking a stab at introducing their businesses to everyday American shoppers.
Most recently, Amore Pacific launched its premium skincare brand Sulwhasoo at Bergdorf Goodman, one of New York's most luxurious retailers.
The company is now selling 12 different cosmetics products under the herbal medicine line.
For more casual consumers, Face Shop earlier began selling its mask sheets at Walgreen's, a mega drugstore chain with more than 6,500 stores nationwide.
Besides the cosmetics names, Hankook Chinaware recently opened its first showroom in Manhattan, while premium luxury brand MCM kicked off sales at New York City's Saks Fifth Avenue.
"Korean brands are clearly making inroads into the core U.S. market," said Kim Joo-hwan, a marketing consultant at Liberty, a Manhattan-based agency.
He said many Korean companies are taking a departure from launching their businesses in the Korean communities.
"You really can't say you've entered the U.S. market if your main consumers are Koreans," said Kim, who highlighted CJ Foodville's Tous Les Jours as a successful example.
The bakery brand, which is currently scattered across California, Texas and Georgia, intentionally doesn't open shops in areas dense with Koreans as part of its strategy to succeed in the mainstream market.
"Starting in a Koreatown can be easy at first, but it might be tougher later to move beyond that," he said.
Going mainstream is a good start, but the next step for Korean firms is to appeal to shoppers looking for high-quality and high-end products, says Helen Keish, a consultant at Cole Production, an agency that offers consulting for foreign startup businesses in the U.S.
"Products and services don't have to be expensive, but they shouldn't come off as low grade," she said, "because once the identity is fixed, it's hard to change."
jhan@koreatimes.co.kr
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