Please tell us about yourself.

My name is ByungKwon Rho, and I lead the marketing for Daily Beauty at Amorepacific. Since joining in 2021, I have been in charge of our eight hair, body, and dental brands. Before this role, I spent 18 years in the beauty industry with experiences from hair care brands to beauty venture business in the Asian market across Korea, Singapore, China, and Japan.

What does Daily Beauty mean to you?

Daily Beauty – which is what we call our category for hair, body, and dental products, includes items that everyone, regardless of gender or age, uses daily. Because we use it so often, its accessibility can make it seem trivial. But for the same reason, I believe it is an essential category that can affect consumers’ daily lives.
In Asia, Japan had led the trend and was admired for its good quality in the past. More recently, Korean companies like Amorepacific are wielding considerable influence in the market. From China, Japan, to Korea, local companies are in fierce competition with one another. It’s like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The overall quality of products in the category improved, and now practically anyone can start a brand with acceptable quality. So, I expect brands that can understand, empathize and engage well with customers will succeed. Brands that deliver an ‘emotional quality’ – things like packaging, scents, and other sensory attributes – will outdo the competition in this sector.

What makes Amorepacific’s Daily Beauty products special?

In the past, Amorepacific's Daily Beauty sector was called the 'mass' category, distinguishing it from the cosmetics unit. The name changed in 2016, and so have our focus. While absolute quality was the sole criteria in the 'mass' era, we have evolved to focus on the emotional value of our products just as much.
Our Daily Beauty products continue to boast superb quality, and because the company houses multiple cosmetics brands across categories, we can leverage our beauty insights into the Daily Beauty products, creating synergies. For example, Mise-en-scène hair coloring products borrow from our makeup brands' tone and color diagnosis. An array of beneficial ingredients used in our skincare brands is also incorporated into our scalp care brands Labo-H and Ryo.
With these advantages, our key brands like Ryo and Mise-en-scène are continuing to grow globally. Ryo's overseas sales exceeded the domestic sales last year. Mise-en-scène is recording over 200% growth in Southeast Asia. Our newer brands, like Illiyoon and Labo-H, have been growing exponentially in Korea over the last two years, ranking first and second place respectively in Olive Young's body hydration and total hair categories.

How is this category evolving? What are the latest trends in body, hair, and dental care?

These days anyone can start a brand and develop products of quality. Now that many long-tail brands are out there, the competition is becoming more intense. In the end, I think it all comes down to the factor I mentioned, emotional quality. Only the brands that are desirable in packaging, fragrance, what they feel like and how they introduce themselves, or what the content is, will survive.
I think COVID-19 was what spurred this rapid transformation of the market. Since people spend more time at home, they are now selecting designs that go well with their home interiors, scents that enhance the moment, and brands that look decent and elegant when they appear in social media photos. Consumers reveal their philosophy and values through the brands they buy and use, so sectors like clean beauty are gaining popularity. So we can also expect to see hair, body, and dental care sectors will also see great quality products that are clean, vegan, and sustainable.

Is ‘sustainability’ an important value for Daily Beauty brands?

Absolutely. We use Daily Beauty products frequently on a daily basis, so you must run the brand with sustainability in mind. Amorepacific has been increasing post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics in packaging. Starting this year, all brands under Daily Beauty will only use PCS plastic for plastic containers. Since our sector uses a lot of plastic bottles, the Daily Beauty category is pushing strong on the 100% switch to PCR plastics. This initiative also applies to our new brands. Our new upcoming hair brand ‘Long Take’ is not only vegan certified but has also received an Excellent grade for the ease of plastic recycling. It is the first haircare brand that passed all the clean beauty standards set by Olive Young this year.

Tell us what else is in store for Amorepacific’s Daily Beauty business.

In the past, Amorepacific’s Daily Beauty brands have focused on promoting the absolute quality of our products. We will direct our focus on adding the ‘emotional quality’ I mentioned before. We’ll be launching the renewed Happy Bath and Mise-en-scène product lines during the first half of this year. We will also introduce new brands, like hair care brand Long Take and toothpaste brand Gentist – with ‘emotional qualities’ that Amorepacific’s Daily Beauty aims to add.