On June 7, Suzie Moon, a current manager in the Group Strategy Team at AMOREPACIFIC Group, visited Yonsei GSIS to give a presentation about driving global expansions and strategies and advancing K-beauty on the world stage from her perspectives in the industry. She previously was a Group Strategy Intern at Amorepacific, with prior experience at CJ Foodville and CJ CheilJedang . Currently, her role is to Inspire individuals to discover, live, and enjoy a healthy, fulfilling life. At Amorepacific, she discussed global expansion and market Presence, in which they Entered China in 2000; key global brands include Sulwhasoo, LANEIGE , innisfree 이니스프리 , and COSRX. Though the main market is in Asia, with 16% in Greater China and 2% in Japan, they shifted to focus on the European and the North American market, with notable partnerships such as Sephora. Some of the business highlights include: Post-2017 there was a market decline in China, but overall maintained a stable presence in Asia (excluding China) and in the Americas. With recent acquisitions, there has been investments in large scale events such as Sulwhasoo Night at the Met, Laneige’s global presence and Space NK launch. This was a huge investment, as one of Sulwhasoo’s global ambassadors, Rosé from Blackpink, was invited, and many others. Many of the attendees were students enrolled in Professor Claire Wonnie Jo ‘s course and attracted students outside of their course to hear some further perspectives from a professional in the K-Beauty industry.
K-Beauty Growth, Challenges & Trends, Diversity & Inclusivity:
These days, K-beauty is so extremely popular in the beauty and youth community. K-Beauty products have been exported to over 165 countries, and with growing awareness of K-beauty, people have been innovative with skincare routines such as the previous trend of the ‘Multi-step skincare’, toner layering mask, and now the viral personal color makeup trend. Additionally, thanks to social media and Tiktok’s influence, the product, Beauty of Joseon’ has seen significant increased sales in the US.
With the monopolized competition with CJ Olive Young Co., Ltd. , this has proven to be an ongoing challenge. Additionally, the K-Wave Influence, such as the popularity of Blackpink and Jeon Jihyun, has aided in the process of the K-beauty market, so K-wave and K-Beauty need each other for growth. Another challenge is the Diversity and Inclusivity aspect. To address the lack of shades for darker skin tones; trials for customized BB cream/foundation are in the works, and they are working on campaigns to showcase diverse skin tones in the US market. Finally, with ESG and Sustainability being a hot trend in companies, Environmental initiatives: Collaborations with Innovation Lab, campaigns for reduced plastic usage. Amorepacific continues to lead the K-Beauty wave with its commitment to innovation, inclusivity, and sustainability, driving growth and inspiring beauty globally.
Fun fact: During the session, Suzie prepared a few quiz questions related to the history of the K-Beauty brands and some students won some freebies(body wash, soap, etc).
The Q&A Session had Professor Claire Wonnie Jo come to the main stage as the main moderator. Students submitted questions beforehand when they signed up. ‘I am quite impressed with everyone’s creative and intelligent questions about K-beauty”. Though she had to take some time to think how to answer some of them, it made the session an enriching experience. The session lasted around 15 minutes and the session wrapped up with networking time and additional questions.
Conclusion
The key takeaways? The Long term perspective is that K beauty should keep being innovative, in terms of whether the consumer would keep using it. It is their job to maintain their image as a company while providing good-quality products. In terms of strategy, there is no specific strategy for products popular in one area but not popular in the other. Interestingly enough, some products are easier to penetrate the US market and then expand in Korea. With K-beauty becoming more global, ‘clean beauty and inclusive beauty’ is one of the rising issues in the west, so this is something Korea needs to address. Finally, the last few questions ended with her tips on securing employment in Korea for foreigners. “We are trying to hire more international talents. In terms of Korean level, speaking Korean is still important to an extent, so while you do not have to be fluent in Korean necessarily, maximizing your skills in the local language opens more doors generally.”
Thank you once again to Suzie Moon for visiting Yonsei GSIS for the lecture and I would also like to extend my appreciation to Claire Wonnie Jo for inviting Suzie and preparing this great event for the students at Yonsei GSIS. Shoutout to Hana Kužnar for assisting with the event and the amazing pictures from the session.
The End
Mason He, Yonsei GSIS, News Reporter
MKH Productions