Taga’s founder and CEO believes the worldwide reputation of Korean beauty merchandise isn’t sustainable, noting that the majority manufacturers lack a transparent philosophy to enchantment to worldwide shoppers. As well as, Korea’s retail distribution channels are targeting only a few main platforms similar to CJ Olive Younger and Coupang, providing restricted selections for each shoppers and sellers.
Search engine optimization Dong-hee accomplished Taga’s cosmetics lineup in November 2023 and launched gross sales final 12 months. The Seoul-based firm now ships to 19 nations, with a twentieth on the best way. Regardless of his quick profession, he has shortly developed a expertise for interesting to worldwide shoppers, guided by a easy philosophy: Every thing Taga makes should ultimately return to the earth in a biodegradable state.
For Search engine optimization, it’s onerous to search out an lively Korean magnificence model with a philosophy as clear and compelling as that of Taga’s. The 48-year-old CEO stated most Korean manufacturers stay caught in a advertising and marketing skirmish, counting on particular substances and selling them as rejuvenating elixirs. Whereas that technique could succeed domestically, he warned, it gained’t maintain world success, the place model identification issues most.
“We name our enterprise ‘conscientious magnificence’ as we take care of social values in addition to monetary values. I noticed that nobody right here cared for that. However I noticed a robust response to our philosophy abroad,” Search engine optimization stated in an interview with The Korea Instances.
“The worldwide vegan beauty market is now [valued] at about 330 trillion gained ($231 billion) and retains rising every year by 7 %. Compared, the home market is lower than one-hundredth the scale of the worldwide market. What made manufacturers well-liked in Korea has been gross sales, not philosophy. Our enterprise companions exterior Korea liked our model story. It makes a superb advertising and marketing characteristic for them.”
To place his philosophy into apply, Search engine optimization collaborated with the Korea Superior Institute of Science and Know-how to develop a carbon emissions calculator. Every Taga product shows the quantity of carbon dioxide generated throughout its manufacturing, together with data on how the corporate offsets these emissions. For each product bought, Taga donates 170 gained to the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute below the Korea Forest Service. The donations go towards sustaining a government-managed group of timber that stay uncut for 45 years, serving as a long-lasting supply of pure air purification.
Taga’s web site shows in actual time the quantity of carbon emissions the corporate has offset in collaboration with the Korea Forest Service. Captured from Taga’s homepage
All Taga merchandise are designed with out a steel spring within the pump, making the containers totally recyclable. On the corporate’s web site, every product lists the amount of its pure substances — data hardly ever disclosed publicly by Korean beauty manufacturers.
“We’re advancing our carbon emissions calculator with the College of Chicago after American enterprise accelerating agency Alchemist Accelerator chosen us. This time, the gadget will run on synthetic intelligence, making it extra correct and permitting us to share extra clear data,” Search engine optimization stated.
Search engine optimization additionally criticized Korea’s restricted distribution community, the place just a few e-commerce giants dominate the market and cost excessive platform charges. He stated this construction makes it troublesome for magnificence firms that depend on these platforms to show a revenue.
“Olive Younger and Coupang mainly management market costs,” Search engine optimization stated. “Olive Younger takes greater than 50 % of every product’s gross sales as a price. When these firms run main on-line promotions slashing costs, sellers like us see our gross sales drop, but the platforms nonetheless take their charges. Many native beauty manufacturers, though reluctant, proceed supplying to those platforms due to their reputation with shoppers.”
He stated some nations have much more numerous distribution channels than Korea, citing the US and Canada, the place offline retailers like Sephora, Ulta and Customers Drug Mart proceed to thrive alongside e-commerce platforms similar to Amazon. “Such broad selections for each shoppers and sellers make the market more healthy,” he added.
Taga CEO Search engine optimization Dong-hee demonstrates in his workplace how the corporate highlights its eco-friendly philosophy on each product, Monday. Korea Instances picture by Ko Dong-hwan
“In Korea, offline retail for magnificence merchandise has declined sharply in quantity, transitioning to e-commerce. Who buys beauty gadgets at Emart nowadays? Not many,” stated Search engine optimization, referring to the nation’s largest grocery store chain.
Getting ready a vegan model
Search engine optimization traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe in 2016 and 2017 to check the native vegan magnificence markets. “They had been already much more superior than Korea,” he stated, providing all kinds of merchandise and compelling model tales for shoppers. He added that the distinction wasn’t simply in scale, but additionally within the public’s extra mature consciousness of vegan magnificence.
When he established Taga in 2019, Search engine optimization initially focused the worldwide market quite than Korea, incomes certifications for worldwide enterprise requirements together with High quality Administration System (ISO 9001) and Environmental Administration System (ISO 14001).
The corporate obtained the very best “glorious” score from Dermatest GmbH, a impartial dermatological testing institute based mostly in Germany. It has additionally earned certifications from The Vegan Society in the UK, Eve Vegan in France and V-Label in Italy — a number of the most acknowledged vegan certification organizations in Europe.
Taga’s largest world markets at the moment embrace the U.S., Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and three nations within the Center East. Search engine optimization stated none of those nations requested him, “Which product of yours is hottest?” as a result of all of them appreciated Taga’s sustainable, eco-friendly philosophy.
“I used to be inundated with criticism from Korean magnificence firms for my clear, return-to-earth method to enterprise, which was unprecedented within the beauty trade,” he stated.
“They stated it was futile and, above all, [tried to] undermine my quick profession. However after I earned the B Corp. (a certification for socially accountable companies from nonprofit community B Lab) in February, I knew my path was the precise one. I thank these Korean firms for pushing me to enterprise into the worldwide market.”
