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Introduction to Hi Seoul Brand Project and Its Brief History
Organized by Seoul City and the Seoul Business Agency (SBA), the Hi Seoul brand project aims to support companies experiencing difficulties in fostering their own brands due to inexperience in PR or marketing despite advanced technology and product excellence, by allowing them to use the Seoul City’s promotional slogan, as a joint brand and providing comprehensive marketing services to boost their marketing competence.
Since the Hi Seoul brand project was launched in 2004 with 11 companies, the number of participating companies has steadily increased from 30 in 2005, to 38 in 2006, 45 in 2007, 60 in 2008 and 75 in 2009 and 90 in 2010.
The sales of the Hi Seoul brand products grew sharply to 341.6 billion won in total in 2008 from 9.5 billion won in 2004, to 54.6 billion won in 2005, to 141.1 billion won in 2006 and to 267.5 billion won in 2007, enjoying an average annual growth of 187 percent.
Exports in particular skyrocketed to US$131 million in 2009 from US$1.7 million in 2004, to US$10.5 million in 2005, to US$ 32.3 million in 2006, to US$ 58.35 million in 2007 and US$93 million in 2008.
Criteria for the Selection of the Companies for Participation in the Hi Seoul Brand Project We select the candidates after rigid screening among Seoul-based companies with at least two years of business experience,
innovative products and advanced technology, and global competitiveness. Currently, 90 outstanding companies in the IT, fashion, cultural content, and consumer goods sectors are participating in the project.
Support for the Participating Companies
Once the companies are selected, we support them by allowing them to sell their products with the “Hi Seoul” brand logo displayed on them and offering various marketing support at home and abroad.
In particular, we are laying the groundwork for accelerating the Hi Seoul brand project participants’ entry into the Chinese market, the primary target region of the 2010 Hi Seoul brand project, in collaboration with SBA’s Seoul Trade Hall Peking.
Above all, we will provide the companies with opportunities to advance into the Chinese market by helping them to attend buyer consultations and three major trade fairs, including the Canton Fair, where the Korean exhibitors reaped significant results last year.
We will conduct test marketing of some Hi Seoul brand products in collaboration with KOTRA overseas branch offices. To ensure that the project participants gain easier access to the global market, we also plan to open shops for 30 of the Hi Seoul brand project participants in Yiwu, China’s largest commodities market attracting a host of buyers from around the world.
Additionally, we will offer support for attendance of small-sized trade fairs that can meet the needs of participants. Furthermore, we assist member companies in their individual registration in world-renowned B2B Internet sites such as Alibaba, thus helping them effectively publicize their products. We will strengthen overseas PR via local mass media to link with overseas road shows.
PR at home and abroad is also indispensable. We are consistently promoting the Hi Seoul brand and the products by the participating companies through various mass media including newspapers, magazines, and cable TV, as well as advertising on the subway and subway stations. We has also opened exclusive space for Hi Seoul brand products at the nation’s leading online shopping mall, G-market.
Moreover, Hi Seoul Brand Plaza, the Hi Seoul showroom on the first floor of the Seoul Trade Exhibition and Convention Center(SETEC), has been serving as a site for consumers and buyers to participate in various events and experience a variety of Hi Seoul “Hi Seoul” Aims to Be Global No. 1 Regional Brand SBA President Shim Il-bo brand products.
We are actively engaging in full-scale star marketing by naming world B-boy champions, Gambler Crew as the Hi Seoul brand’s PR ambassadors and producing CFs and flyers. In order to advance into the global market with the ‘Korean Wave’ popularity, we will be airing Hi Seoul brand ads on CETV (China Entertainment TV) to target major export markets, including China. Our activity as such is an excellent opportunity to enhance the Hi Seoul brand recognition and brand preference in the Asia market by effectively promoting the brand and building trust among consumers as well as overseas buyers with purchasing power. It is also highly beneficial for export-intensive project participants.
We intend to select companies with great growth potential and ultimately foster them into global star companies with export competence in order to lay the foundation for the Hi Seoul brand to raise its profile as a global brand by helping them to open overseas markets more actively in cooperation with the trade support project by SBA.
In addition, we will significantly expand our support for design projects for better global competitiveness of the Hi Seoul brand products. In doing so, we will develop the project to make “design” the competitive power of the Hi Seoul brand.
Future Plans and Goals
The objective of the Hi Seoul brand project is to develop the “Hi Seoul” brand into a “Global No. 1 Regional Brand” to stimulate excellent small- and medium-sized companies’ growth on the basis of strong brand power.
Toward this goal, plans are afoot to foster global star companies, transform member companies into those with the sharpest competitive edge and offer positive support for successful market exploration overseas. Efforts will be able to keenly utilize the “Hi Seoul” brand for their market exploration abroad.
We will concentrate our efforts on reaching our goal of US$1,500 million in exports in 2010 and reinforce the PR push for opening overseas markets. Thus, member companies will be able to eagerly utilize “Hi Seoul” brand for their market expansion abroad.
At the same time, sustained efforts will be made to hold export meetings (inbound and outbound) that are finely tuned to the requirements of member companies. Thus, we will keep advancing with our plans for reinforcing the global competitiveness of the member companies, including more vigorous design development and B2B overseas e-trade aid business.
We plan to establish a firm base for a successful joint brand project by spurring medium- and long-term joint cooperative projects with participating companies.
SBA Activities and Achievements
Funded by Seoul City, SBA was founded in March 1998 with an aim of providing comprehensive support for Seoul City’s project for industry and economy and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in accordance with the government’s “law on balanced regional development and the cultivation of small and medium-sized local companies.”
As a reliable partner with SMEs, the SBA offers various comprehensive services for SMEs or venture startup companies in Seoul and provides various kinds of support for their cultivation, marketing and exhibitions at home and abroad, foreign trade, and investment attraction through various infrastructures, including the Seoul Fashion Center, Seoul Animation Center, Seoul
Hightech Venture Center, DMC R&D Center, SETEC, Seoul Trade Hall Peking, International Cooperation and Marketing Support Headquarters, Design Cluster.
Seoul City named six new growth-engine industries or creative industries in tourism, fashion and design, digital content, banking and logistics services, R&D, exhibition and convention as Seoul City’s representative strategic industries.
In keeping with this, SBA plans to concentrate its support on marketing at home and abroad for each industrial sector.
As a self-contained professional organization, it will create an environment in which SMEs can grow themselves and enhance their global competitiveness through strategic global marketing rather than providing support blindly and fostering dependency.
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