Redefining Korean Whisky

01 Dec 2014 --- HiteJinro approached Seymourpowell to work with them to create a new brand of whisky for a younger South Korean drinker: a drinker in their thirties. After many months of work HiteJinro launched 'The Class', a new brand of premium whisky for the Korean Traditional Ontrade market in summer 2014.

South Korea has a very strong regional culture where people's consumption patterns are more similar across the market segment than complex regions such as China. It was obvious from the outset that the first task for Seymourpowell was to uncover emerging cultural nuances in South Korea so HiteJinro's new whisky brand could be introduced strategically into an increasingly saturated market.

In South Korea spirits take a large share of the alcohol market. South Koreans drink 13.7 units of spirits per week on average, which is the most in the world, no other comes anywhere close. The Russians, the second biggest, drink 6.3 units of spirits per week.

Seymourpowell's initial research suggested that the traditional ontrade premises remain an extremely profitable channel for whisky manufacturers, but are slowly losing favour with the public. In this traditional ontrade environment, whisky is poured by bar staff and is often mixed in a large bowl with lemons and beer.

The hostess bar provides little of the sophistication that the new class of younger male and female business élite aspire to. Younger Korean drinkers are looking for new whisky experiences and flavour combinations that help express contemporary cultural changes and individuality.

The London-based design and innovation consultancy Seymourpowell has tackled many design challenges that target regions such as China, South America and Russia where consumer's lifestyle attitudes and needs are not only distinctly different from Europe but also highly diverse within the market. The South Korea Scotch whisky market, as we foresaw, is totally unique, and has a quite different dynamic from other markets around the world. Global brands play only a small role, and the biggest brands are developed especially for the South Korean drinker.

The new design needed to be distinct from the local competition while using a contemporary but familiar frame of reference. It was key at the beginning of the design phase to tease out those nuances and sensorial preferences in order to inspire the bottle design and the creation of the brand.