Enter the Korean Market – Then Enter China and Japan

Secretary General Jean Jacques Grauhar made many interesting comments in the EU Chamber’s August 2011 issue of Infomag. He is the most Texas looking Frechman I have ever met. The Secretary General mentioned something that I think all global businesses should recognize.

He notes that:

While the world focuses on the Chinese market, company executives should also try to include Korea in their itinerary whenever they visit this part of the world, because a presence in South Korea is indispensable for truly global brands and could in fact constitute an excellent launching pad to reach the Chinese and Japanese markets.

In most cases, Korea is a great test market before entry into China and Japan. Many of my clients have successfully succeeded and also “successfully” failed in Korea and choose to enter or forgo the Chinese and Japanese markets based on these Korean experiences. Korea is simply a much cheaper place to do business than Japan and is a much smaller market geographically than China, thus lowering the cost of doing business.

Korea, however, is for many of my clients their largest market in Asia.