Young MZ Generation High Foot Traffic Gangnam
'Testbed' Before Full-Scale Entry into Korean Market
Mainly Sinnonhyeon Station, Gangnam Station, Jamsil, COEX
However, Not All Brands Have Succeeded
Global famous food and beverage and dining brands such as Five Guys, Wingstop, and Super Duper are gathering in the Gangnam commercial district of Seoul, targeting domestic consumers. In particular, Gangnam, which has a large floating population of young MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), is called a kind of ‘testbed’ before global brands make a full-scale entry into the domestic market, and is also regarded as a kind of benchmark to determine the success or failure of entering the domestic market.
(From the left) Five Guys 1st store, Wingsstop Gangnam branch, and Super Duper Gangnam branch, all scheduled to open next month near Gangnam Station, Seoul. [Photo by each company]
According to the distribution industry on the 24th, Hanwha Galleria will open the first Five Guys store near Gangnam Station in Seoul next month. The Gangnam branch, located in the middle of Gangnam-daero between Gangnam Station and Sinnonhyeon Station, is expected to have an area of 618㎡ and about 150 seats. Hanwha Galleria plans to preserve the original style from the U.S. mainland as much as possible, from cooking methods to service.
Wingstop, a global chicken franchise with 2,000 franchise stores worldwide, landed in Korea in January this year. The first store was also established in Gangnam. Wingstop is operating both a dine-in store and delivery service simultaneously and evaluates that it has "successfully settled in."
Super Duper, a handcrafted burger brand from San Francisco operated by bhc, opened its first store near Sinnonhyeon Station last November and quickly rose as a hot place in the Gangnam area, attracting about 1,400 visitors daily. Next month, it will open its third store at COEX in Gangnam-gu.
In addition, Gordon Ramsay Street Burger opened its first store at COEX in Gangnam-gu, and Restaurant Brands International (RBI), a global dining company owning Burger King and Popeyes, plans to open Tim Hortons, famous as Canada’s ‘national coffee.’ Although the exact location and timing have not been decided yet, the industry is strongly considering the Gangnam area in Seoul.
The reason why global dining brands are successively entering the Gangnam area in the domestic market is that the commercial district has a large floating population and rapid changes in dining trends, making it suitable as a testbed for expanding into other domestic commercial districts. However, not all brands automatically succeed after entering Gangnam. Good Stuff Eaterie, known as the ‘Obama Burger,’ opened near Sinnonhyeon Station in October last year but decided to close within less than six months and eventually withdrew from Korea.
Professor Eunhee Lee of the Department of Consumer Studies at Inha University analyzed, "Gangnam is the place that shows and practices the most glamorous lifestyle in Korea, so it is a commercial district that leads new industries or trends related to eating habits. For foreign brands, it can be a good strategic point to test whether Korean consumers like their products or not."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
