Just like McDonald's, which introduced medium quality luxury coffee and espresso drinks and other “unorthodox menu” in its attempt to address slow businesses, this attempt by SCK could be regarded as another jumping the bandwagon moves. But Starbucks Korea which makes it a priority to sell “unusual experiences” in terms of their business philosophy, aims to add another “distinct moment” for customers’ sides by introducing this new service.

Seoul, KOREA ¶ May 12, 2012 -- Korea, dubbed as the Republic of Coffee thanks to its extraordinarily large consumption of coffee —has been recognized as one of the most important markets for many global coffee chains including Starbucks. The nation full of mania for the brewed beverage with a bitter, acidic flavor had 12,380 coffee houses making 2.48 trillion won of sales revenue as of 2011 – saturated enough for any luxury coffee brand to enter the fray.

Starbucks Coffee Korea (SCK), however, which opened its first store in Seoul in July 27, 1999, figures it has much room to brew over in terms of its growth strategies. SCK plans to add more storefronts from about 400 to 700 by 2016. Moreover, it wants to make inroads into premium upscale restaurant market opening its branded luxury food court in Seoul – the fourth such-style store following Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Just like McDonald's, which introduced medium quality luxury coffee and espresso drinks and other “unorthodox menu” in its attempt to address slow businesses, this attempt by SCK could be regarded as another jumping the bandwagon moves. But Starbucks Korea which makes it a priority to sell “unusual experiences” in terms of their business philosophy, aims to add another “distinct moment” for customers’ sides by offering this new service.

The new set of corporate strategies has been signaled by the logo change in March last year when they had also raised the proportion of food and tea categories and figured localization is a way to get emotionally engaged with the local customers and the food is the key. Now, Starbucks sells wine and beer in the U.S., and ready-made food in Hong Kong while baking bread in-store in the Netherlands, and runs a bakery-style café in Japan.

In Korea, the newly launched food stores offer home-made sandwiches, salads, soups, lasagna, and croquet-monsieur, along with a range of desserts such as muffins, scorns, cakes, tarts, macarons, and cookies. Regarding the store ambiance and interior, the company's Asia-Pacific president said given Korea is the one of the world’s most connected countries it is determined to make them into wireless flagship stores in the world by adopting the digital and wireless features in the interior.

Jeansun Kim (press@whowired.com)