Contents
Executive summary.............................................................................. 3
Gold Miss and Supermom love to spend .............................................. 4
Trends to beat the Kospi .................................................................... 23
Strong brands and channels .............................................................. 40
Investment ideas ............................................................................... 77
Company profiles
Amorepacific ............................ 83
Bioland .................................... 85
Cosmax ................................... 87
Daum ..................................... 89
E-mart .................................... 91
Hana Tour Service ..................... 93
HDS........................................ 95
Hotel Shilla .............................. 97
KT&G ...................................... 99
LG H&H .................................. 101
Lotte Shopping ........................ 103
Modetour Network .................... 105
NHN ...................................... 107
Orion ..................................... 109
Shinsegae ............................... 111
Shinsegae Intl ......................... 113
Woongjin Coway ...................... 115
Appendices
1: Pricing power ............................................................................. 117
2: Recommendation history ............................................................. 119
All prices quoted herein are as at close of business 17 January 2012, unless otherwise stated
Spending psyche
We surveyed 500 Korean consumers to see how they define success. Their answers describe a society that attaches great importance to the Confucian values of family, health, hierarchy and wealth. These ideas drive the megatrends of wellbeing, status, travel, “lookism” (a term used to describe Korean’s fascination with appearances) and online spending - which stimulate spending, especially by women, on luxury goods, cosmetics and tourism. LG H&H is our top lookism pick. We also highlight Shinsegae (status), Woongjin Coway (wellbeing), Hotel Shilla (tourism) and NHN (online spending).