CASE STUDY: Pulmuone's tomato 'attack' sells juice in Korea

Background

I’m Real, a new fruit juice, doesn’t contain water and is twice as expensive as other juices in the market. The brand, which targets working women aged 25 to 35, aims to reach its consumers by appealing to their emotional needs.

“Many people are tired of the dry city life," Park Ju-yeon, general manager of Medicom, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "They need to take a break to refresh with nature through fresh air and drinks.” The brand, which has no artificial colours and flavours, wanted to deliver the message of freshness and natural emotion.

Aim

Pulmuone wanted to increase brand awareness and sales.

Execution

The integrated marketing campaign was conducted from 2010 to 2012. Pulmuone created a new brand image, ‘Urban Nature=I’m real’, and hosted free tasting events, which were promoted on a dedicated microsite and a Facebook page.

In addition, a project called ‘Watering tomato plants in pots’ was carried out every April and May as part of the campaign. By applying through the microsite and Facebook, consumers working in offices stood a chance to receive tomato plants—delivered by a Pulmuone-branded 'green' car—to care for. 

Referred to as 'office attack', the approach helped express the freshness of the juice while focusing on the different natural flavours of the I’m Real line, Park said.

Results

From April to May 2012, the post of tasting events on Facebook received 540 ‘Likes’, 507 ‘Comments’, and 83 ‘Shares’. The brand carried out 40 outdoor tasting events and around 40,000 bottles of I’m Real juice were distributed to customers. About 1,000 plants were delivered to consumers. The brand’s Facebook page added 10,000 more fans, reaching 20,592 after the watering project and the outdoor tasting events.  

Since 2010, around 5,000 consumers have applied for tomato plants, with more than half receiving them.

I’m Real has maintained a sales increase of more than 100 per cent every year since the campaign launched. In 2012, the brand accounted for 31.4 per cent of market share and ranked No. 1 on sales in department stores in the juice category.