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The Big Dog Brands

Hi everyone!

So I told you I would talk for a while about brand names that are big in S. Korea. Obviously, these are mainly domestic Korean brands, but still, here goes.

As for the non-domestic: a lot of the eateries, mainly fast food or chain restaurants, are American. 7-11, Burger King, McDonalds, Popeyes, KFC - all very prevalent and easy to find. American luxury fashion brands are also very big - Coach, Chanel, all the big ones.

For cars: This is one of a few areas where Korean society is EXTREMELY homogeneous. Virtually everyone drives a Kia or Hyundai, and all in either black or silver. Im not exaggerating - I have video from the highway, and there is not one single car of any color. Weird, huh? So i saw dealerships for all types of car, even completely impractical ones - Hummers (as wide as half an avenue) and McLarens (why own a 200mph car when youre in bumper to bumper traffic all day?) So most people settle for the Kia or Hyundai in the end. The nicer model Hyundai, called the Equus (we dont have them here) resembles the Mercedes E-Series very closely and are quite nice on the inside. Mopeds/scooters are also very very popular, virtually all students and delivery people have them. Im still looking into the best brands for investment. Harley-Davidson has a strong following there as well. More on the cars in the full report.

Like I said last time, for drinks: Korea is the #1 importer in the world of Whiskey (I believe) and #2 for cognac. Hence Ballantines, Jack Daniels etc. are very strong there. This is a drinking culture. Also Soju, though for this Im still looking for the best brand for our purposes.

And then came tech. Obviously, Illsave the elaboration for the full report, because this is my bread and butter. But in sum: Samsung, LG, Pantech/Curitel and oh yeah, more Samsung and LG. They do everything: phones, computers, flat panel televisions, home appliances, the whole gamut - and most people buy from them. In fact, I'll explore it more later but Samsung and LG have sooo many branches - each has convencience stores, brokerages, insruance, credit cards, consumer electronics, home appliances, fashion - the list could go on. I feel like Samsung still has the edge, but LG is very competitive. As a point of reference, I own a 32" LCD tv. The list price is around $4-5000 (thank you online shopping for bargain hunting!). In Korea, a Samsung or LG LCD of similar size would probably run no more than $1000-1500 list price. Yes, domestic brands do have a big advantage.

One more to mention now: SK Telecom. These guys are very important, and I will have a lot on them in the full report. They are already one of the worlds most prominent telecoms (even though they are almost exclusively Korea-only, unlike most of the big Western telecoms). They are everywhere, have the best phones from Samsung and LG to work with, and are the main investor/distributor for a very big new technology called DMB (digital media broadcasting) - basically many channels of live tv and radio, straight to the phone. Like I said, Ill have much more on this in the full report.

And one last point, to make up for all my prior teasing: The meeting I referenced was with Dr. Beomjae Yoo, the Director of the Intelligent Robotics Research Center at KIST (Korean Institute of Science and Technology). KIST has one of the worlds most impressive humanoid robots right now and I learned some VERY incredible things talking with him. More on this in the full report.

Until tomorrow,

Alex Chinn

May 3, 2005 in Alex Chinn in Korea | Permalink