Research Outline

Consumer Sentiment on Australian Brands - India and Korea

Goals

To analyze the attitudes in India and Korea toward Australian made products (providing beverage examples if/when possible) in order to provide some background data on the potential acceptance of a new beverage product.

Early Findings

Korea

In 2014, Korea and Australia officially entered into a trade agreement known as KAFTA (the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement), This is a comprehensive agreement which "substantially liberalizes trade with Korea and creating significant new commercial opportunities for Australian businesses."
Early in 2020, the "Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AustCham Korea) hosted the 2020 Australia-Korea Business Awards."
Highlights from the Wine and Beer to Korea report from Austrade include:
  • "In 2015, Korea’s wine market was worth US$189.8 million. KAFTA has helped put Australian wines on equal footing with Chilean, European and American wines by removing the 15% tax. "
  • In 2015, Australian wines made up 4.6% of Korean wine imports.
  • "Beer is Korea’s favorite alcoholic beverage."
  • Historically, Koreans have not looked for variety in beers. However, "Korean consumers (are) increasingly preferring drinks with a lower alcohol content and premium-quality beer. This is driving the rapid increase of imported beer sales."

SUMMARY OF EARLY FINDINGS

The initial hour of work has been focused on assessing the Korean market on a high level only. Time did not allow for the Indian market to be explored. It is recommended that additional research commence to further evaluate both markets and to provide cases studies of Australian brands who have been successful in penetrating each of the two markets.