LG Household & Health Care announced on Thursday that “The History of Whoo,” its cosmetics brand, surpassed 2 trillion won of accrued sales as a single brand for the first time in the cosmetics industry of Korea.
“The History of Whoo” achieved the sales record of 2 trillion won after surpassing 1 trillion won of sales in 2016, 14 years since the brand was launched. When converting The History of Whoo’s sales into consumer sales basis, it reaches nearly 3 trillion won. This means that The History of Whoo has developed into a brand that can compete with the global top three luxury cosmetics – Lancôme (5.3 trillion won), Shiseido (4.7 trillion won), and Estee Lauder (4.4 trillion won) – based on market research firm Euromonitor International last year.
The company pointed out a fancy design incorporating the story of The History of Whoo and a differentiated marketing strategy such as luxury marketing of royal culture as its secret to growth.
LG’s next generation brand “Sum” is expected to reap 440 billion won of sales this year, which is 15.8 percent higher than last year’s. The sales of the two brands – The History of Whoo and SU:M – this year are some 2.44 trillion won, which exceeds the entire sales of LG Household & Health Care in 2009 (2.2165 trillion won).
“Sum is also growing rapidly in Vietnam and Singapore with China in the center recently,” said LG Household & Health Care. “We will foster our luxury brands of The History of Whoo and SU:M.”
Ga-In son gain@donga.com