Amorepacific was where I first started my career after graduating from college, and I have been working with Amorepacific Group for 23 years ever since. I was fascinated by the world of makeup, as many teenagers these days are. I even took makeup classes outside of school while in college, making friends with people who worked in the industry.

Amorepacific was already Korea's best beauty company then, as it is now, so naturally, it was my dream workplace. After graduating from college, I applied for a position at Amorepacific, and although it was competitive, I got the job. With my dream of working at Amorepacific fulfilled, I was motivated to work hard and enjoy my journey here at the company, and here I am now, as the President of ETUDE.

After joining Amorepacific, I worked with various brands, including LANEIGE, Mamonde, and IOPE. Then, about five years ago, I joined the ETUDE. When I took on an executive position, I quickly taught myself the different aspects of the business and thought over and over again about how I could make the brand's business grow. I realized that I needed to have a thorough understanding of the practical aspects and actively pursue areas where efficiency could be improved. I followed through with that mindset. Additionally, my team and I entered into new distribution channels and adopted a new marketing approach in which customers, the brand, and influencers became one to create products and grow the brand. It gave birth to our most loved products like the Shadow Shading contour powder, SOON JUNG sunscreen, and mascaras. We received rave reviews from our customers, and we ranked first in various distribution and sales channels. Our profits also improved. All of this was made possible thanks to the trust and support of the members of the ETUDE team members.

ETUDE is all about making makeup enjoyable, creating a makeup ‘play’ culture. The reason we call it ‘play’ is because we believe makeup is something that is shared and enjoyed together, rather than done alone. That's what makes it more fun. Our goal is to bring together people who appreciate those aspects of makeup, offering them products and content tailored to their taste, as a curator of their makeup playlist.

ETUDE listens closely to the voices of its customers, more than anything. We make the effort to thoroughly understand what they want, what they don't like, and what they appreciate. We combine our technical expertise and know-how with the creativity of influencers to create products that customers will love. Thankfully, this approach has led to positive testimonials from our customers for collaborations, including “Cho Hyo-jin X Shadow Shading,” “Director Pi X SOON JUNG Sunscreen,” and “Customer X Curl Fix Mascara.”

We have had some adventures throughout the process. When we dropped SOON JUNG Sunscreen, all 3,000 units of the initial batch were sold out within 12 hours. Our employees were thrilled with the quick sell-out, but many customers who weren't able to get their hands on the product left comments on our social media channels as well as Director Pi's channels, requesting us to quickly restock the inventory. We had no choice but to open an additional website on Naver the same day. Even that additional inventory sold out within 2 minutes.

As for the Shadow Shading contour powder, we initially collaborated with influencer Cho Hyo-jin for a single launch contract and developed the product. After its release, however, customers who tried the product started asking on the social media channels of ETUDE and Cho Hyo-jin if we could launch a “cool tone” version. As per the request of our customers, we ended up launching Shadow Shading 2.0, “Cool-tone Shading.” Customers actively requesting product development, coupled with influencers posting about these processes on their channels, created a buzz even before the launch. This, in turn, led to high sales and created a positive cycle of success.

When we decided to transform our brand keyword into ‘Makeup Playlist,’ we started looking for a muse who would represent playfulness and healthy joy. Kazuha fit this description perfectly. She really loves ETUDE Curl Fix Mascara and Fixing Tint, so our products often show up on LE SSERAFIM's YouTube videos, even when they are not paid ads!

I have actually been with ETUDE only for about 5 years. I was appointed as the Marketing Division Manager in 2018, and last September, I became the President. But ETUDE's roots go all the way back to 1985. At that time, Amorepacific had a makeup cosmetics brand called ‘Oscar,’ which was the first Korean brand to export its highly competitive products overseas. Building on this legacy, ETUDE has since been providing a variety of cosmetics to cater to the makeup needs of teenagers and those in their 20s, accumulating unrivaled makeup expertise along the way.

ETUDE will continue to develop innovative, fun products that capture our unique strengths to make makeup easier and more playful for our customers who truly appreciate the art of makeup. We have plans to expand our business not only within Korea but also globally, so that we can reach a wider audience.