Marketing Aussie wool in South Korea
With a population of more than 50 million people, an economy ranked thirteenth in the world, and the primary driver of customers’ apparel purchases being quality, South Korea is a key consumer market for products made from Australian wool. Below are two examples of recent marketing initiatives in the country.
Marketing collaboration with Korean online retail giant
The wool hub page on the Musinsa e-commerce site.
After a postive marketing collaboration in 2022 with Korea’s leading e-commerce fashion platform, Musinsa, The Woolmark Company last year ran a second, larger and even more successful campaign with the retail giant.
More than three times the number of wool products were promoted in the most recent campaign, resulting in it being The Woolmark Company’s largest ever collaborative autumn/winter campaign in the Korean market. There were approximately 350,000 wool items available to buy from 87 participating brands, representing an estimated 120 tons of wool.
Launched in October 2023, the extensive digital and social campaign boosted sales of a diverse selection of contemporary wool products across menswear and womenswear. There were an estimated net sales worth A$61.7 million across the campaign sales period, which is an increase of 360% from the previous year.
“We were pleased to continue our collaboration into 2023 following the successful results achieved in 2022. This has had a positive impact on Musinsa’s sales performance, for which we are grateful for this collaboration,” said Mr Heesun Yu, Manager at Musinsa.
South Korea ranks as the fifth largest e-commerce market in the world – and fashion is the largest segment, accounting for 27% of sales. Post-pandemic, online shopping continues to increase, making The Woolmark Company’s collaboration with Musinsa a strategic priority.
Products could be purchased via a special wool hub page on Musinsa’s e-commerce website. A 12-minute ‘unboxing’ style documentary that promoted the benefits of wool and the wool products was also produced by Musinsa and released on its YouTube channel. Outdoor digital advertising in central Seoul and a pop-up store complemented the campaign.
As well as showcasing the premium benefits of wool, the ‘Circular by Nature’ environmental credentials of wool were central to the campaign.
While the objective of the collaboration was primarily to drive sales of Merino wool in the autumn/winter 2023/24 season, working with Musinsa also increased The Woolmark Company’s brand image which could potentially encourage numerous brands on the platform to develop further Merino wool products for future collections.
Defending the suiting market in Korea
The Woolmark Company has provided support for an instore and online marketing campaign by Brentwood, a Korean formal menswear brand established in 1989. About 60,000 pieces were available to buy, representing an estimated 30 tons of wool.
Brentwood has been owned since 2009 by Korea’s fifth largest apparel group Kolon Industries which had annual sales worth A$6 billion in 2022. The new spring/summer campaign with Brentwood, which launched in February this year, follows on from a joint marketing campaign held last winter with Cambridge Members, which is another suiting brand owned by Kolon Industries.
Although the men’s suit market in Korea has faced downward pressure from the casualisation of apparel for a number of years, net sales in the men’s suiting market increased to about $5.23 billion in 2022, a rise of 6.1% from the previous year, as the COVID pandemic ended.
Through close work with Brentwood, The Woolmark Company provided ‘in kind’ support to ensure that Merino wool – which Brentwood has never actively advertised before – has become a core theme of the brand’s marketing going forward. Core messaging focusses on the fibre’s excellent breathability and comfort, even in summer, with remarkable wrinkle recovery and freedom of movement.
As well as digital and social media marketing, point-of-purchase displays promoting the wool products were on show at Brentwood’s 140 stores across the country.
The Woolmark Company is now liaising with both Brentwood and Cambridge Members on a project for this year’s autumn/winter season to ensure there is large scale promotion of Merino wool to affluent consumers in Korea.
This article appeared in the September 2024 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.
