Daerim keeps eomuk brand alive

Home > Business > Industry

print dictionary print

Daerim keeps eomuk brand alive

테스트

The beginning of eomuk in Korea traces back to the 1940s in Busan. “Busan Eomuk” became popular when the Jagalchi Fish Market started to sell the product.

Eomuk used to be called odeng.

It was Daerim that threw the hat down with its brand “Daerimsun.”

The company took the plunge into the seafood processing business. Daerim set up processing facilities that could process 35 tons a day by investing 4 billion won ($3.4 million) to purchase a pollack-processing ship in 1987. The company spent 10 billion won to build a factory at Banwol Paddy Fields in Ansan as well. In 1986, the company acquired Sangji Food, an eomuk-processing company.

After two years of preparation, Daerim launched eomuk products with the Daerim Eomuk logo in May 1989.

It took quite a long time to prepare for the nationwide cold chain system since eomuk has a relatively short shelf life. To deliver the image of being fresh and clean, the brand name became “sun,” because the Chinese character can mean fresh, clean and fish.

Freshly-caught pollack from the Bering Sea were processed on ships, then immediately frozen into tender meat and directly delivered to the factory in Ansan. It was a way to ensure the quality control of ingredients and differentiate from other firms.

While Japanese eomuk tastes sweet, Daerim put forth efforts to make the flavor “homely and clean.”

The company also extended its product lines by introducing steamed eomuk and baked eomuk, besides the existing fried version.

The company used pure Korean words for product names such as “Chunhyang,” “Hwang Jin-I” and “Um-ji” to deliver a sense of friendliness.

The differentiation strategy continued with advertisements including “It’s not just Eomuk, it’s SUN Eomuk,” “Fresh and Clean, it’s SUN,” and “Chosen by SUN.” The market size increased over 20 percent through the 1990s.

Daerim changed into Sajo Daerim when Sajo acquired it in 2006.

Nevertheless, the brand Daerimsun survives. The market leader held a market share of 24 percent in 2008 and 25.8 percent in 2009.

Annual sales hover at around 60 billion won.


By Choi Ji-young [ebusiness@joongang.co.kr]
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)