From snacks to sneakers, Jennie’s favorites sweep consumer markets

BLACKPINK's Jennie introduces Nongshim's Banana Kick during an episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, March 10. Captured from YouTube

BLACKPINK’s Jennie is extending her fame built on global K-pop stages to consumer markets worldwide, as her flamboyant style and favorites in fashion and other consumer brands influence her millions of fans.

Items she promotes or calls her favorites instantly become trending keywords, which translates into sales and operating profits for the brands. Whether it’s through official endorsements, modeling or even behind-the-scenes glimpses of her daily life, anything tied to Jennie is now seen as an almost-guaranteed jackpot.

Nongshim’s Banana Kick is one recent example. In March, Jennie appeared on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," a syndicated U.S. daytime talk show, and introduced the banana-shaped crispy snack as one of her favorite bites.

Banana Kick quickly became popular on social media sites, stirring its sales worldwide. Nongshim’s exports of the snack to the United States jumped 69 percent in April from a month earlier. Its domestic sales also jumped over 40 percent during the same period.

Nongshim’s market cap also jumped to 2.6 trillion won ($1.9 billion) from 2.3 trillion won after the show.

On the back of the trend, Nongshim has partnered with Korean dessert cafe company Cafe Knotted to jointly introduce the Banana Kick Cream Donut and Banana Kick Cream Latte to the cafe’s first overseas store in Los Angeles. The store, which opened in April, drew more than 30,000 visitors in one month.

Jennie wearing a pair of Adidas Taekwondo sneakers / Captured from Instagram

Adidas also saw its market performance grow after images of Jennie wearing its Tokyo and Taekwondo sneakers surfaced on the internet.

The company posted a record 6.15 billion euros ($7.09 billion) in sales in the first quarter of this year, jumping 13 percent from the previous year. It posted an operating profit of 610 million euros during the same period, an 81.5 percent jump from previous year.

The figures jumped after the sneakers worn by Jennie went viral on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube between March and April, leading to a short spike in their sales.

The quilted bag, a signature item by British brand COS, is another fashion item that blew up in popularity because of Jennie. First released in 2020, the bag started making frequent appearances slung over her shoulder at the airport, on flights and outside Korea. The item went viral online and sold out in COS shops here.

Seeing the bag’s popularity among Koreans, COS opened a quilted bag pop-up in Seoul’s Jongno District in 2023, its first pop-up in the world dedicated to the bag. The pop-up, which lasted two weeks and only accepted prebooked visitors, saw buyers trying to snag the highly coveted item by paying more than asking price.

Jennie in a Gentle Monster ad / Courtesy of IICombined

While these products gained popularity even without any official endorsements from the star, those she modeled have gained significant popularity as well.

Glasses brand Gentle Monster, by Seoul-based company IICombined, launched a line in collaboration with Jennie in 2020. Prior to the official launch, the brand’s online store saw its server crash after visitors inundated the website.

Tamburins, a perfume brand by the same company, also saw its sales jump after it signed a model contract with Jennie in 2022. The brand released a line of 10 perfume items in collaboration with the star. The marketing worked at Shinsegae Duty Free, where the brand opened its offline store in March 2022. Tamburins’ sales at the mall in October that year jumped four times from the previous month. Among the mall’s total sales that month, 50 percent was attributed to sales of the perfume items.

Gentle Monster’s revenue reached 615 billion won last year, up from 203 billion won in 2020. During the same period, Tamburins’ sales also grew to 165 billion won from 35 billion won. IICombined saw its sales jump to 789 billion won from 210 billion won and operating profit soar to 234 billion won from 14 billion won.