Where To Find That Authentic Korean Ingredient

We have seen the story of WebVan, which did not result in success due to the high inventory cost and the nature of products it was marketing. Food is consdiered challenging to sell online, partly due to its perishable character and partly due to consumers' preference for confirming the quality in store, However, there are some food stores that can be more active online. They will take advantages of online marketing such as bulk price, mass marketing, and consumer firnedly information.

Koa mart is an online Korean food store, delivering products to consumers in North America. Another Korean food store is H-mart, the largest offline Asian food store in North America.
They both have a rather narrower market, mostly Korean immigrants and international studnets. However, they have two strong competitive advantages: bulk price and market availability. As Korean food has still a narrower scale of consumers, they are not as accessible as Chinese food, for example. However, as more Koreans move to North America and more people grow their appetite for Korean food, the industry is getting more globalized. Therefore, people seek for authentic and cheaper Korean ingredients which are usually priced doubled in offline. In addition, Koreans living far from the Korean stores can now easily order their favorite cravings online.

What so neat about Koa Mart is the website that organizes the wide range of Korean products in different categories to allow easier search for consumers. Also, the products are cheaper than offline stores. The products range from processed food and health supplements to Korean DVD and restaurant table buzzer. It is also using social media like Facebook to promote Korean events. This viral markeitng can increase the web traffic and improve SEO.
H-mart is also availbale online to target consumers in wider range of geography by delivery. In addition, it has various events, targeting first generation housewives in a foreign country. The events include weekly special flyers, Cooking class, and Korean New Year Gift delivery.


As a more recognized and popular Korean supermarket, H-mart has a more polished website. Koa Mart may want to garnish their website to attract more online appetites. The appearance is often perceived to reflect what it can offer.


Koa Mart (LA): http://www.koamart.com
Facebook example: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=189415759520
H-mart (BC): hmart.ca

Food Website Design

The key to marketing food products is the desisgn of the website. As visual effect of food is as important as its taste, it is essential that food businesses, especially startup restaurants, display their best look online.

GourmetBusinessSolution (GBS) is a type of online marketing company, speicalized in marketing organic food. It postions as an expert in organic food to portray the image of professional character. The core serivces include the following:

-Marketing for new business startups
-Food sales and distribution
-Marketing and Advertising
-Public Relations
-Finance
-Business Development
-Account Management
-Mass Communications
-Internet Technologies and e-Commerce
-Web-Marketing, Web 2.0
-Graphic Design

One of the merits of consulting an online marketing company is the strong network it has built through years and the expert understanding of particular industry. For example, GBS has a more accurate grasp of which PR distribution site to display the press releases of client restuatnts. In addion, it can more easily get an access to targeted PR distribution site.



For example, a startup Korean restaurnats in Korea takes the advantages of online markeitng to expand its customer-base by consulting an online marketing company (EtoON marketing). The marketing company launches a post-payment service to attract more startup businesses in the midst of recession. Its strategy has the following steps:

1. Analysis on business marketability
2. Review on current menu and developing new menu
3. Study current sales and potential for future growth in sale
4. Meeting with the restaurant owner
5. Implement a profit sharing program


GBS website: http://www.gourmetbusinesssolutions.com/
Korean example: http://www.betanews.net/article/448687

iLocate

If you have an iPhone and $1.00 you can now instnatly have your comfort food even while you are traveling wherever in the world. iLocate is a comprehensible and searchable database for all the restaurnats you want. Here are the key features of the application:

-Find all locations closest to you (or where ever in the world by typing zipcode)
-Easily scroll through location with a smart one per line display
-One click contact info and direction (call with iPhone with one click)
-View by list or by map for easy decision making (more accurate GPS)



One thing I am still unsure of is this question: What makes it so special to download the $1-application ? Don't iPhone users most of whom already have access to internet and Google Map?

http://download.cnet.com/iLocate-Korean-Restaurants/3000-12940_4-75055761.html

About Dot Com

There are two benefits of using About Dot Com.

First it gives information in a causal way. It talks to online visitors with the right tone and language. In other words, the contents are written in the perspective of various backgrounds. For exmaple, if I search something about Korea, I can see articles written by Koreans, Korean Americans, and Americans, all in one page.

Second, it is more credible than other free information sites as it is reviewed by more users. The source may not be as credible as major news press, but it is worth taking their advise as the contents are created and commented by many users.


For example, if you cannot read Korean to surf Korean recipes at Korean websites, you can visit About Dot Com where all the North Americans and food writers who like Korean food gather together to talk not in Korean. Another advantage of this is that Korean recipes are somewhat adopted to North American appetite so that you can instantly watch a 3-minute video from YouTube to prepare the simplified version of your favorite Korean dish. Everything comes in one place here.


About Dot Com (Korean Food): http://koreanfood.about.com/

My Understanding of e-Marketing 3

Third, now I wanted to compare TV with internet devices to reflect some of the disadvantages of internet experience


Online: less physical noise; two-way communication; laptops still takes longer than TV to turn on; internet devices are getting smaller and personal, in general (ex- net book, iPhone etc.).





TV: more physical noise; one-way communication; takes less time to turn on; the louder volume and wider screen can get more people to feel engaged (ex- LED flat screens, home theatre).

My Understanding of e-Marketing 2

Second, the advantage of online marketing


1. Portable: since most physical noise in online marketing is the choice of viewers, it is more customized, personal and portable. In other words, it is not constraint to people in certain physical space in certain time.

2. Empowerment: since online marketing is two-way communication, it is an active form of marketing giving empowerment to customers.

3. Convenience: aside from the convenience of portable mobile devices that send the message of online marketing, it is convenient in a sense that marketing can be managed and viewed with one click.

4. Fast: since it utilizes the convenient devices with active viewers, it is faster.

5. Virtual Community: different levels of relationship are built among viewers of similar tastes as companies and customers are constantly leading and following the cyclical trend of sharing ideas. They may different identities in the virtual world.

6. Credibility: the added benefits of active virtual community can be higher relevancy, trust and loyalty.

7. Cost-Effective: it costs less than traditional advertisements. Also, online marketing is less constraint to location and time, it has larger scale of potential customers and yet the result is measurable with number of clicks, for example.

My Understanding of e-Marketing 1

Upon taking the e-marketing course, I need to make sense of the term "e-marketing"- so the following few posts are about "my understanding of e-marketing"



#1: how many ways to write to mean the same ?

On the back of my mind, it has been always telling me (someday) to track down how many ways to write e-marketing. Just altering the term "e" already makes a set of variety:

e-marketing
eMarketing
Emarketing
Internet marketing
i-marketing
Online marketing
Web marketing
web-marketing
and...Integrated e-marketing/e-Marketing/eMarketing etc.

Note: digital marketing does not precisely mean "internet" marketing. It not only uses internet but also includes devices that does not have internet such as mobile phones, SMS