Rise of mini-sized goods in Korea
- 5 years ago
Time now for our "Life & Info" segment... where we focus on information that should be useful for your everyday life... wherever in the world you are watching us.
We have our business correspondent Kim Hyesung in the studio to discuss the rise of mini-sized products in South Korea.
Mini-sized products? Hyesung, tell us more.
Yes, across the retail industry, we are seeing a rapid rise in a whole range of mini-sized products.
As the name suggests, they are goods smaller than the regular size we're used to... and they include everything from food and drinks to home appliances.
First, snacks.
What we are looking at here is a kind of chocolate pie.
It's 198 grams, half the size of a usual one that weighs 384 grams, basically the size of a macaron.
Coming in packs of 12, it's around half the price of the original version.
"We tried different flavors like melon and peanut after our success using green tea and banana as new flavors. But they didn't work. After conducting surveys, we found that consumers snack at their office or at school, and want bite-size snacks, which are easier to eat and leave no crumbs. Since releasing these small-sized ones, we made over five billion dollars in the last five months. We also got a lot of feedback that they are cute and easy to eat."
It's not just Lotte. Orion, Haitai and other big Korean snack companies have all released similar bite-sized versions of their most popular snacks.
The industry plans to come up with more such snacks, but they added, it's not easy, given that they need to build brand new factory lines to make them, which requires billions of dollars.
2. They are cute, easier to eat. and cheaper too, It's easy to see why they are popular. I'm curious about the drinks? What kind of mini drinks can we buy?
Yes, you can now get beer in a can that is just 135 milliliters or 250 milliliters.
They've been on the market for over a year and became popular via social network site, Instagram.
Emart says in the first five months of 2019 through May, mini-can beer sales went up three-fold on-year.
Starting early this year, companies came up with smaller sized wine, vodka and traditional Korean drinks.
The number of different varieties is up from a dozen last year to more than 80 now.
"For the same cost, you can try several different drinks. It's good for people who can't drink a lot. When it comes to snacking and drinking, it's about mood, diversity and having fun or just quantity."
In fact, more than 80 percent of the buyers of these smaller sized alcohol products are consumers in their 20s and 30s...for various reasons, because the products are smaller and therefore cheaper.
But also because a growing number of people prefer " ", or drinking by themselves comfortably at home.
A survey by Nielsen Korea shows South Koreans' alcohol consumption went up 17 percent on-year in 2018, with more than half of the respondents saying they drank at home.
...
We have our business correspondent Kim Hyesung in the studio to discuss the rise of mini-sized products in South Korea.
Mini-sized products? Hyesung, tell us more.
Yes, across the retail industry, we are seeing a rapid rise in a whole range of mini-sized products.
As the name suggests, they are goods smaller than the regular size we're used to... and they include everything from food and drinks to home appliances.
First, snacks.
What we are looking at here is a kind of chocolate pie.
It's 198 grams, half the size of a usual one that weighs 384 grams, basically the size of a macaron.
Coming in packs of 12, it's around half the price of the original version.
"We tried different flavors like melon and peanut after our success using green tea and banana as new flavors. But they didn't work. After conducting surveys, we found that consumers snack at their office or at school, and want bite-size snacks, which are easier to eat and leave no crumbs. Since releasing these small-sized ones, we made over five billion dollars in the last five months. We also got a lot of feedback that they are cute and easy to eat."
It's not just Lotte. Orion, Haitai and other big Korean snack companies have all released similar bite-sized versions of their most popular snacks.
The industry plans to come up with more such snacks, but they added, it's not easy, given that they need to build brand new factory lines to make them, which requires billions of dollars.
2. They are cute, easier to eat. and cheaper too, It's easy to see why they are popular. I'm curious about the drinks? What kind of mini drinks can we buy?
Yes, you can now get beer in a can that is just 135 milliliters or 250 milliliters.
They've been on the market for over a year and became popular via social network site, Instagram.
Emart says in the first five months of 2019 through May, mini-can beer sales went up three-fold on-year.
Starting early this year, companies came up with smaller sized wine, vodka and traditional Korean drinks.
The number of different varieties is up from a dozen last year to more than 80 now.
"For the same cost, you can try several different drinks. It's good for people who can't drink a lot. When it comes to snacking and drinking, it's about mood, diversity and having fun or just quantity."
In fact, more than 80 percent of the buyers of these smaller sized alcohol products are consumers in their 20s and 30s...for various reasons, because the products are smaller and therefore cheaper.
But also because a growing number of people prefer " ", or drinking by themselves comfortably at home.
A survey by Nielsen Korea shows South Koreans' alcohol consumption went up 17 percent on-year in 2018, with more than half of the respondents saying they drank at home.
...