/PRZWT/Recently, POP MART Korea Myeongdong store officially opened in Seoul. This is POP MART's first K-POP-themed store. Before the opening, local fans can vote for their favorite IP, and the IP with the highest popularity on the opening day will "debut". The way that suits the local consumers' favorite makes Myeongdong store not open first.
In 2018, the gears of POP MART's overseas business began to turn in South Korea, accumulating a large number of trendy fans. The opening of the Myeongdong store deeply integrates the K-POP culture that has influence in Korea and even the world, and is a new starting point for POP MART's business in Korea.
Detonate Seoul Myeongdong with K-POP
Seoul Myeongdong is the most representative shopping destination in Korea and one of the representatives of Korean fashion and culture. This time, the style of POP MART Myeongdong store adheres to its usual immersive shopping atmosphere. A lot of K-POP elements are added to the design, providing both trendy and high-value rich trendy play, while also paying attention to the immersion of the shopping environment to create a unique cultural atmosphere.
The Myeongdong store is located at No. 36, Myeongdong 8th Road, Central District, Seoul, with a store area of nearly 400 square meters. The store is divided into three layers with a multi-IP theme in the style of K-POP. Each floor is equipped with a camera clock in the area, and consumers can interact with their favorite IP at any time. The first floor combines the K-POP theme to create a MEGA stage. The third floor is equipped with a K-POP music video atmosphere photo area created with the design concept of "Become the protagonist of MV", providing fans with a separate space to interact with IP.
In this opening, POP MART has prepared several limited-edition games for fans, including the world-premiere Korean limited-edition PINO JELLY Violet Dream, the world-premiere Molly's 12th anniversary classic sculpture "Remember the beginning? Resurrection 2006 Edition Special". Before the opening, POP MART held various activities online and offline, such as IP character popularity voting, to select the IP that will "debut" when the Myeongdong store opens, so that fans can experience the process of choosing their favorite IP from voting audition to final "debut", and enhance the sense of interaction with fans.
Before the opening of the Myeongdong store, POP MART conducted in-depth research on the business district and local culture. The business district has many trendy stores around K-POP, and the Korean consumer culture also has a strong culture of taking pictures. Therefore, in the design and operation of the Myeongdong store, bold innovation has been added to a large number of local cultural elements.
Select the target market and place more emphasis on influence
When selecting a target market, POP MART not only values the commercial potential, but also the cultural influence brought by this market. For example, choose Singapore as the first stop in South East Asia, because Singapore is equivalent to a billboard in South East Asia, which can radiate the entire South East Asia market through Singapore's layout.
In 2018, POP MART began to expand overseas, and the first stop was the Korean market; in October of the same year, the local Korean official website and shopping APP were launched; then POP MART continued to up the ante Korean online and offline channels, gradually established a perfect sales network, and accumulated rich experience in localization operations; in July 2022, POP MART's first overseas flagship store opened in Hongdae, Seoul.
Combined with the recent opening of POP MART's LABUBU theme store in Thailand, it can be seen that deeply integrating the Tide Play IP into the local culture and continuously exploring differentiated gameplay has become one of the core ideas of POP MART's overseas business expansion this year. In the previous operation of the Korean market, POP MART has been constantly exploring ways to integrate with the local culture, and has signed many original designers in Korea, launching Tide Play products that are loved by consumers around the world.
For the Korean market, Wen Deyi, president of POP MART's international business, said that South Korea's trend culture is developed, the entertainment and media industry is mature, and it has a strong influence on young consumers in Asia, Europe and the United States. In the development of the Korean market, POP MART attaches great importance to its cultural radiation role, hoping that through the creation of offline stores with a great sense of cultural atmosphere, more young Koreans can immerse themselves in the charm of trendy IP.
