Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Ye Manzhi
Lekou Lekou , which has always focused on "preservation", has fallen into "preservation".
A few days ago, Shanghai Lekou Lekou Trading Co., Ltd. was fined 39,900 yuan by the Shanghai Minhang District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for the poor quality of the trolley case sold by Shanghai for failing to meet the standards and confiscation of illegal income of 5,234.47 yuan. It is reported that Lekou Lok has applied for re-inspection for this result, but the re-inspection result is still unqualified.
The product involved is a colorful trolley case (LTZ956GOD). The data shows that the product "has the ball impact resistance of the plastic hard box surface, which does not meet the standards."
Regarding the unqualified product, on January 5, a reporter from Times Weekly contacted the relevant departments of LeKu LeK, but no reply was received as of press time.
As a Korean brand, Lok Lok products were once popular for "good sealing" and "long insulation/freeze time". However, in recent years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the gradual decline of Korean trends, the rise of domestic products, the operating conditions of Korean brands in the Chinese market have declined in different ways.
"Any trend has a cycle. If Korean companies want to gain a foothold in the Chinese market, in addition to improving brand quality and innovating product technology, they must also combine it with China's national conditions to create new products that conform to the mainstream of Chinese culture." Lin Jiang , professor of Economics, Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University, told the Times Weekly reporter.
Product quality problems were exposed several times
Lok Lok once glorious.
In July 2004, Lok Lok entered the Chinese market and established trading branches in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. In 2007, Lok Lok established a factory covering an area of 95,000 square meters in Suzhou , as a domestic sales production base in China.
At first, Lok Lok mainly engaged in kitchen daily necessities in the Chinese market, including storage boxes, lunch boxes and other containers. It is selling point to seal and preserve freshness and has been recognized by the market.
Related information shows that LeK Lock won the title of best-selling brand in the Shanghai market for three consecutive years in 2006, 2007 and 2008; in August 2006, in the field of household goods preservation products of the 4th China Market Brand User Satisfaction Survey, LeK Lock won the title of "The No. 1 Brand of User Satisfaction in China Fresh Box Market"; in May 2007, LeK Lock won the title of " Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sports Athletes Special Fresh Box" and carried out a three-year cooperation with the Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sports of China.
In recent years, Lock has begun to explore life fields such as luggage, maternal and infant products, bedding, etc., and has also turned its attention to the small household appliance field. In July 2020, Lockk Lockk's first LocknLock Plus flagship store in China opened in Shanghai, launching dozens of small home appliance products such as magic steam fryer, safety and epidemic prevention infrared camera , crossing from "unplugged" products to "plugged" products.
(Photo source: Visual China)
Lok Lok is committed to developing multiple categories, but product quality has frequent problems. As early as May 2021, a certain pressure cooker of Lekou, "the instruction manual item does not comply with the standards of GB15066-2004 "Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker", and the compliance statement item does not comply with the standards of GB4806.1-2016 "National Food Safety Standards, General Safety Requirements for Food Contact Materials and Products"" was detected as unqualified by Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Administration, and Carrefour was also fined for selling the product.
In the Weibo topic where LeQ LeQ was fined for selling inferior trolley boxes, netizens gave "bad reviews" to brand products.
"Lock Lock needs sufficient investment to strengthen product quality. It is definitely not enough to earn old capital. must have new technology and design research and development on product . It should not only be an expansion of product boundaries, but also pay attention to the updates and replacement of vertical products." Lai Yang , a member of the Expert Committee of the China Federation of Commerce, told the Times Weekly reporter.
However, Lekou Lok has invested a lot in marketing. In September 2021, artist Gong Jun became the global spokesperson of Lekou Lok Lok brand. Earlier, in September 2019, artist Deng Lun was the first Chinese brand spokesperson for LeKule.
Lost Korean brand
As a Korean brand, Lock Lock's reputation in the Chinese market has declined is not an isolated case.
Federal Korea Industry Federation (FKI) data shows that in 2020, the 30 largest Korean companies with the highest sales in China had sales of 117.1 trillion won in China, a decrease of 6.9% from 2016 (125.8 trillion won). At the same time, the share of 30 largest companies' overseas sales in China fell to 22.1%, a decrease of 3.5 percentage points from 2016 (25.6%).
Recently, Yuesifengyin, a brand under Korean makeup giant AmorePacific, will "removal of stores" in the Chinese market, from more than 800 stores to only 140 stores remaining, with a store withdrawal rate of more than 80%. According to the financial report, Incisive Fengyin 's operating income in 2020 decreased by 37% year-on-year to 348.6 billion won (about RMB 2 billion), less than half of the 770 billion won at its peak in 2016, and its operating profit also plummeted 89% to 700 million won (about RMB 4.03 million).
It is worth mentioning that Etude House, another brand under AmorePacific, has completely closed all offline stores in the Chinese market in March 2021 and converted to online sales. Since 2017, sales of Yiti House have been declining year by year. According to the 2020 financial report, Yiti House's operating income fell by 38% in 2020 to 111.3 billion won (approximately RMB 640 million).
Lai Yang told the Times Weekly reporter that in recent years, the domestic consumer market structure has changed, and more and more excellent brands have flocked to the Chinese market, and the original advantage of Korean brands is no longer obvious.
At the same time, the rise of domestic products has also squeezed out the market share of Korean brands. A 2021 Global Consumer Insight Survey China report shows that compared with March 2021, 37% of Chinese respondents said that under the same conditions, they are now more or more inclined to buy domestic brands.
"In addition to confronting international brands in the Chinese market, Korean-funded enterprises also have to compete with domestic products. Under double pressure, if Korean brands no longer innovate their marketing models, their market share will gradually become marginalized." Lin Jiang told the Times Weekly reporter frankly.
