Application of Marketing Mix on 'K-Beauty'

Culture is one of the most important factors that influence the consumer behavior and marketing environment. Business organization concerns deeply on the culture while researching the target market of a country.

Country profile

Name of the country	South Korea
Capital	Seoul
Population	50,924,172 (as of 2016)
Population growth	0.53%
GDP (official exchange rate)	$1.377 trillion (2015 est.)
GDP (purchasing power parity)	$1.849 trillion (2015 est.)
GDP growth	2.6% (2015 est.)
GDP (per capita)	$36,500 (2015 est.)

Unique characteristic of South Korea

“K-beauty” holds a very significant characteristic of South Korean culture (Teng, 2015). South Korean culture is too much looks oriented. Most Koreans are giving their first attention to external looks and skincare issues. As a result, both men and women are spending huge amount to purchase cosmetics. South Korean women spend in beauty products twice of their income and men spend more on skincare compared to other countries (BBC, 2016).

South Korean job market is so competitive so that wearing makeup is an important issue in the game. Koreans’ are trying to show good facial impression in the job interviews by hiding their original looks. South Korean men are spending $900 million in purchasing cosmetics a year that makes the country most growing men cosmetics market (Fujjita, 2013). 

Product

“BB cream” takes the special attention in the cosmetics industry of South Korea. Cosmetics manufacturing companies of South Korea are innovating new types of BB cream for men and women with a different skin.

Features of BB cream

BB creams are having the following features:

·         Offer different skin BB cream for men like as dry, oily skin and normal.

·         Light and easy-to-apply texture at any time at any place.

·         BB creams emphasize on conditioning skin that South Korean men and women prefer.

Price

Price is the amount at which a certain product or service is exchanged (Conkling, 2011). In other words, price denotes the money value of a product or service. It reflects the worth of a product or service and the amount of money for which it can be exchanged. Price is an important determiner in the marketing mix. South Korea is very much price and quality sensitive (Teng, 2015). South Korean people pay attention to low priced product. As a result, they purchase low price Korean products instead of high price France or US brands.

Considering these factors the price of BB cream will set the penetration pricing strategy. It refers setting prices low to attract new customers and win in the price wars to lead over competitors (Hurd, Barcelona and Meldrum, 2008). South Korean beauty industry is very much competitive so that penetration pricing strategy appropriate for BB cream product.

Promotions

Promotion is the marketing communication package used to make the offer known to potential customers and persuade them to investigate it further (Blythe, 2009). For BB cream the following promotion strategies will apply:

·         Social media campaign

·         Celebrity shows

·         Advertisement on TV, billboard

·         Face-to-face

·         Promotional gifts

·         Advertisement on the internet

Place

It refers the location where the exchange takes place (Blythe, 2009). South Korean people are tech-savvy so that online shopping is very popular in the country. BB cream will be sold in retail stores, face-to-face sales, and online shopping stores. 

References 

Blythe, J. (2009) Key Concept in Marketing. London: SAGE 

Hurd, A., Barcelona, R. and Meldrum, J. (2008) Leisure Services Management. Leeds: Human Kinetics Inc.

Conkling, R. (2011) Energy Pricing-Economics and Principles. Oregon: Springer Science and Business Media.

Teng, A. (2015) The invasion of Korean culture. [Online]. Available at: https://tengzeming.wordpress.com/category/cosmetics/ (Accessed: 9 July 2017).

BBC (2016) The key ingredients of South Korea’s skincare success. [Online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35408764 (Accessed: 9 July 2017).

Fujjita, A. (2013) South Korean men cosmetics-crazed. [Online]. Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/05/south-korean-men-cosmetics-crazed/ (Accessed: 9 July 2017).