[비즈한국] Familiarity is a powerful asset for a brand, but it can sometimes become a weakness. The longer a brand has been around, the more consumers think they already know what it sells and what kind of image it has. A single new product or advertisement rarely catches their eye. Yet, one cannot create something entirely new every single time. Ultimately, what matters is how you show what you already have in a new way.
The brands that gained attention in August slightly twisted the application of their familiar assets. Helinox’s chairs, usually seen at campsites, became tools for relaxation in the city while listening to music, and Burger King infused a "local diner (baekban-jib) vibe" into its global franchise. Yongsan I-Park Mall transformed itself into a destination space specifically for "fan culture (deokjil)," and the thousands-of-years-old classic "Odyssey" began to be read again after meeting Christopher Nolan’s film "Odyssey." The beauty and medical platform Gangnam Unni, instead of just talking about procedures, began a long conversation about the standards of appearance set by society.
For August, bemyb selected Helinox for "Wearing," Burger King for "Eating," Yongsan I-Park Mall for "Staying," "Odyssey" for "Enjoying," and Gangnam Unni for "Using." Every month, we examine about 100 brands encountered in daily life and select brands by sector based on criteria such as identity, timeliness, differentiation, communication, and buzzworthiness.
Something new does not necessarily start from something that never existed before. It is about making the familiar unfamiliar. That is the different approach the August brands showed.
Wearing: When a camping chair met shoes, ‘Helinox’
The collaboration product that Helinox released with Crocs at the end of July sold out all its online stock within 5 minutes. The combination of an outdoor brand known for chairs and tables making shoes feels unfamiliar from the start. However, if you look at the direction Helinox has been moving in over the past few years, it is not a sudden choice.
Helinox’s brand philosophy is "AT HOME, ANYWHERE," meaning you should be able to rest comfortably anywhere. The important word here is not "camping" or "outdoor," but "anywhere." That is why Helinox has continuously moved its familiar camping gear to unfamiliar locations.
At the complex cultural space "Camerata Hwang In-yong Music Space," they held a "SUMMER MUSIC CAMPING" event, allowing people to rest on Helinox chairs and tables while listening to music. They also provided products for singer Jang Beom-june’s guerrilla concert project "Buska Buska" and "Reading City," which combined electronic music with reading. As chairs once seen in mountains and campsites entered concert halls and reading spaces, the meaning of the product changed as well.
The same goes for their products. They have made patches, chairs, gym sacks, and duffel bags, and have collaborated with brands like Supreme, Leica, and PAF. Last year, they launched "Helinox Wear" with Kolon FnC, transferring the technology and design accumulated in camping gear into clothing. Adding this Crocs collaboration, it means that everything from chairs to bags, clothes, and shoes has gathered under the name Helinox.
Yet, the brand does not look distracted. This is because they set the standard of "comfortable rest anywhere" before expanding their product line. Instead of just making more camping gear, Helinox is transferring the experience gained from camping gear into other parts of daily life.
Eating: The reason Burger King brought out the ‘local diner vibe’
The phrase "Breakfast is available" appeared in front of Burger King stores. It is a sentence that is nothing new, but placed under the logo of a global hamburger franchise, the story changed. In late July, as Burger King expanded the number of stores selling its morning menu, it put up posters and sandwich boards featuring primary colors. They chose a design that reminds people of a local "baekban-jib" (a Korean home-style meal restaurant) rather than a sophisticated advertisement.
Burger King is originally skilled at twisting its brand image. When they re-released the "Truffle Mushroom Whopper," they parodied a popular dating show, and before the launch of the "New Whopper," they surprised consumers with the message of "Whopper Discontinued." This time, they created fun out of an mismatched combination of a global brand and an old-fashioned Korean restaurant.
What is interesting is that they are preparing a completely different face on the other side. At "Flame Ground," the world's first flagship store opening in Seongsu-dong, they are putting their core asset, "flame-grilled flavor," at the forefront. Unlike typical fast-food stores, they plan to elevate this flame-grilled taste into a gourmet experience by providing exclusive menus and tasting courses.
On one side, it is friendly like a local diner, and on the other, it is serious like a premium restaurant. Though they seem contradictory, they are the same in that they make people look at the familiar Burger King in a new way. They don't just stop at protecting the brand image built up over a long time; they sometimes know how to break it themselves.
Staying: Beyond shopping, the transformation of Yongsan I-Park Mall
Shopping malls are familiar. They are places where you buy clothes, eat food, and watch movies. The problem is that people no longer visit malls for these reasons alone. You can buy most items online, and tasty food or movie theaters are everywhere. Yongsan I-Park Mall injected "taste (or preference)" into this.
Recently, content with strong fandoms—such as animation, games, and characters—has been increasing rapidly at I-Park Mall. The global figure brand Good Smile Company store, which opened earlier this year, was visited by 13,000 people in just one week. Chiikawa Shop and Bandai Namco Korea Store have settled in, and they also created the experiential space "Dopamine Station" and a pop-up exclusive space "The Corner."
The direction of their events is also clear. Like "Mallang Festa," which gathered plushies, and the "I-Park Mall Keyboard Festival," where over 20 keyboard specialty brands participated, they chose tastes that strike a chord deeply with specific people rather than content that is just moderately popular with everyone. On top of this, they strengthened designer/street fashion and running/outdoor brands so that people who came to see the content would naturally go on to shop.
The change also appeared in the numbers. According to bemyb data, during the period when visitors to Dopamine Station increased, I-Park Mall's total sales rose by 38% compared to the same period last year. It is the result of turning the shopping mall from a "place where many people might come" into a "place someone absolutely wants to visit."
Enjoying: A 3,000-year-old story is new, ‘Odyssey’
Paradoxically, the hottest movie this summer brought out the oldest story. Director Christopher Nolan’s "Odyssey" brought Homer’s epic poem "The Odyssey," written about 3,000 years ago, to the screen. It is the story of Odysseus returning to the kingdom where his family awaits after the Trojan War.
As the movie became a hit, an unexpected wind blew through the classics as well. At Kyobo Book Centre, book sales related to keywords including "Odyssey" and "The Odyssey" increased by about 600% in July compared to the same period last year. On Millie’s Library, the search volume for "Greek and Roman Mythology" jumped to 3.6 times the daily average before the film’s release. There were not a few people in their 20s and 30s who picked up the Greek and Roman mythology books they had read as children once again.
Another device that made the 3,000-year-old story new is the screening method. To properly see the screen of a work filmed on IMAX film, audiences moved to find special screening theaters. In particular, the CGV Yongsan IMAX, which implements the original aspect ratio, saw heated reservation competition, and "expedition viewings" from other regions to Seoul followed. The difference in screens between IMAX and general theaters became a meme circulating online.
The interesting thing about "Odyssey" is that cutting-edge film technology was not used for a completely new story. Instead, it attached itself to a story humanity has been reading for thousands of years. The meeting of the oldest content and the most modern cinematic experience made people want to reread a familiar classic.
Using: Beauty and medical platform asks about the ‘standard’ of beauty, Gangnam Unni
If it were a beauty and medical platform, you would expect it to talk about what procedures are popular, how much they cost, and which clinics have good reviews. But in the YouTube content Gangnam Unni recently started, such stories are not the focus.
On a podcast called "Standard Departure Meeting," designer Park Si-young, YouTuber Honorary Foreigner, and Kim A-young, director of the publisher Muje, appear. What they talk about are "age-appropriateness," "personal taste," "control," and "appearance evaluation." They exchange their experiences and thoughts for nearly an hour on the standards that society subtly demands of people.
The background of this change is the rebranding conducted last July. Gangnam Unni unified its global brand name to "Unni," and changed its logo and app UX. It means they will go beyond a service that provides beauty and medical prices and reviews to become a "Global Beauty Navigator" that helps individuals choose the beauty that suits them. Their new brand mission also focuses on "me-like beauty" and confidence in one’s own choices.
"Being like myself" is a term commonly seen in advertising. What makes Gangnam Unni look a little different is that they didn’t end it as just an ad copy. In "Standard Departure Meeting," the actual stories of the performers are exchanged, from experiences of having their appearance evaluated to ways of loving oneself. Instead of telling people how to become beautiful, the beauty and medical platform began to ask, "Who decided the standard for being beautiful?"
August Brand: ‘Burger King’
Few foods are as familiar as hamburgers, and few franchises are as self-explanatory as Burger King. Therefore, the older a brand is, the harder it is to become new. This is because consumers do not look at a brand in a new light just by having one more new menu item.
August’s Burger King showed two ways to make a familiar brand unfamiliar at the same time. One is the morning campaign with a "local diner vibe," led by the phrase "Breakfast is available." The unexpected combination of a global hamburger brand and a design reminiscent of an old neighborhood restaurant caught consumers' eyes. Given that Burger King has continued bold and playful marketing—like parading dating shows or the "Whopper Discontinued" campaign—they did not lose their signature brand humor.
The other is in the exact opposite direction. At "Flame Ground," the world's first flagship store in Seongsu-dong, they shed the familiarity of fast food and emphasize a premium gourmet experience. They composed the space centered around their core asset, "flame-grilled flavor," and prepared exclusive menus and tasting courses not seen in regular stores. It is like descending to be as friendly as a local diner while going as deep as premium dining.
What is interesting is that while the two strategies point in completely different directions, they are both "so Burger King." Burger King did not suddenly pretend to be a high-end brand to create a premium image, nor did they cling only to price competition to reach the masses. When meeting the public, they utilized their unique humor, and when showing the brand deeply, they brought out the "flame-grilled flavor" they have kept for a long time. They did not add a new identity to create novelty, but rather showed their two existing strengths in an unfamiliar way.
The way for a familiar brand to become new does not necessarily lie in transformation. Sometimes, it is enough to make people see again the sides they could no longer see because they were too familiar. From the local diner vibe to the premium flame-grilled taste, making the familiar Burger King feel unfamiliar in the most "Burger King" way possible. That is the reason we paid attention to Burger King as the brand of August.