Now the beauty products are not just exclusive for women. The grooming (The Men’s Beauty) market is growing gradually, and the estimated market exceeds A Trillion won (1.2 Billon Dollar). This universal trend is now trending in Korea as well. No. Maybe, dividing a beauty market in two as Women and Men might be a meaningless act by now. This generation is currently living in ‘the genderless’ century at the moment. In that sense, today, let’s explore Korea’s very first gender-neutral beauty brand. LAKA.
Brand History
Laka was launched in May 2018 by Minmi Lee, who worked as the marketing director. After working for a major Korean Beauty company LG Heath and Beauty, and global beauty brands such as Estee Lauder, she soon came up with a mind of having her own brand. That was how it all got started. She put the brand philosophy as the first most crucial factor when founding. After a long while of consideration, she concluded with ‘Gender-Neutral’ and ‘Neutral Color.’ She wanted people to get interested in the concept of ‘the Gender-Neutral’ or either ‘the Neutral Color.’ Her goal is even to draw the attention of the group who are against ‘the gender-neutral.’ Her beliefs are embedded uniquely in every single way under their products.
Key Product
The most popular product in LAKA is lip products. Some may think that bold lipsticks are the representative signature product of a gender-neutral beauty brand. But well, LAKA planned out a smart approach. The took every single product photoshoot with both male and female models.
These kinds of posters are not that totally new to consumers, but what’s different from the previously established beauty campaign photo is the target. Previous images were designed to appeal to the opposite gender - which is women so obviously. But LAKA is for sure both targeted to both genders. Actually, the most popular lip color ‘Leonard’ for instance, 3 out of 10 consumers are said to be men.
Where to find
LAKA doesn’t organize offline stores at the moment. BUT it is not that a tough mission to check their products out in hands. EASY PEASY. Head to OLIVEYOUNG. Olive Young is the number one drug store in Korea. You can easily find a store in every mainstream street. LAKA was stored in OliveYoung since September 2018. Just 4 months after the launch, OliveYoung offered LAKA a space.
The one thing most inconvenient about online beauty brands is that customers have no chance to check out the products with their own eyes unless they buy the product. But for LAKA, that is not a problem at all. They are now stored in drug stores and also in department stores & duty-free shops as well. LAKA is now planning to expand its market towards Japan, Southeast Asia, China, and USA. Many are looking forward of LAKA’s global success.
LAKA is actually a Korean indie beauty brand just like ‘Melixir’ we’ve already introduced before. As the K-beauty market’s reputation is growing gradually, the market is becoming more and more competitive. Minor indie brands are newly launching every year and month.
In Yuri’s Pouch, more upcoming news about the indie brand will be published every week. So please keep on eyes, guys!