A Korean traditional meal is not complete without Kimchi. Because the most critical factor in creating the Kimchi’s exquisite taste is the fermentation condition, the storage temperature must be well-controlled in order to ferment Kimchi well and keep its delicious taste last. A Kimchi refrigerator, designed specifically to meet storage requirements of Kimchi has turned into a must-have item for Korean housewives.

However, nowadays every Kimchi-fridge brand claims similar selling points such as freshness and the taste of Kimchi. Consumers could not find differences between brands, so they simply chose either the leading brand, Winia Mando, or the big name, Samsung. As a result, LG electronics became the number three in the market share battle.

LG Electronics needed an issue that could drastically change the market. Our product, LG DIOS Kimchi Tok-Tok, has a technology of optimizing the temperature for growing the bacteria, which ferments Kimchi well. This process of multiplying lactic acid bacteria creates the best taste of Kimchi. However, Korean housewives were not aware of the fact. If we successfully create an understanding that the bacteria indeed determine the taste of Kimchi, it could be the new standard for delicious Kimchi, leading housewives to LG.

To draw Korean housewives’ interests in the fact that lactic acid bacteria indeed determine the best taste of Kimchi, we focused on the process of Kimchi fermentation. After days of discussion and research, we found a unique sound that lactic acid bacteria make while Kimchi ferments well. This was the sound that nobody in Korea knew or heard of. Through TVC, we brought the sound of live lactic acid bacteria to light. Upon hearing the real Tok-Tok sound (Tok-Tok is an imitation of the fermentation sound), many people were wowed. It successfully drew Korean housewives’ attention.

Everything dramatically changed after the launch of LG DIOS Kimchi Tok-Tok campaign

Just 2 weeks after the campaign, more people than ever started to search LG DIOS Kimchi Tok-Tok online. The brand’s ranking in search engines has significantly gone up. Also, a top of mind awareness of the brand increased more than twice, from 9.1% to 20.6%.The reason for this significant increase was that the popping sound of bacteria ‘Tok-Tok’ was similar to the name of the brand, Kimchi ‘Tok-Tok'. The sound that we found matches with the brand name, not only enlightening the importance of bacteria, but also reminding consumers of the brand name. The index in the most preferred Kimchi-fridge brand has also increased from 16% to 21%. Most importantly, 210,000 more products were sold compared to last year, showing an 11% increase in sales. This is twice the number compared to the refrigerator market growth of 5.3%.

We built LG DIOS Kimchi Tok-Tok’s unique asset, lactic acid bacteria. Unlike any other Kimchi-fridge brands, we took an unusual tack of showing the real sound of deliciously fermented Kimchi. We believe that the brand firmly built its leadership in the market and consumers’ minds.