[Consumerwide - Jinil Kang Reporter / Yohan Bok Reporter]  Character is becoming a measure of consumption. For this reason, more consumers are purchasing and collecting products with their favourite characters. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the character industry generated 2 billion won in 2022, up from 1.2207 billion won in the domestic market. Referring to the 2022 Character Industry Report, 57.2% of 3500 respondents in 2020, 62.4% in 2021, and 64.2% in 2022 said that character influences their purchase decision. (White paper). Reflecting the result, the industry is pouring out plenty of products with character.

Recently, the industry began to differentiate their items with their own characters, in contrast to the former trend, which used to apply popular animation characters to toys, stationery, and clothes. This year, again, popular characters seem to be leading the Korean market. The new sponge-off items of Korean parents are Hello Kitty, My Little Star, Kerokerokeropi, Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, My Melody, and Pompompurin, all of which are Sanrio characters. The Sanrio character ranked in the top five among the entire age group (teens, twenties, and middle-aged) in 2023 Chracter User Status Research published by the Korea Creative Content Agency. Consequently, more Koreans are collecting products with Sanrio characters.

Seven Eleven convenience store chain released Sanrio characters' suitcases last year. The accumulated sales record of this product totals 8 billion won. Along with that, the product became a signature product.

Last year, the Seven Eleven convenience store chain introduced a suitcase featuring Sanrio characters. This product has sold 8 billion won in total over two years. The product obtained the reputation of a signature item. The same year, 12,000 units of snacks with Sanrio characters released by Lotte Mart were sold out in two weeks. The sales record of Lotte Watta chewing gum has increased by 40% compared to a year prior due to the Sanrio character collaboration since January. (Watta X Sanrio Characters Season 1) Shinhan Card has released the Fly Sanrio characters in March 2023. Over 50,000 cards were on the waiting list after four days of release. More than 11,830 units of the My Teens credit card from Shinhan Card, which targets teens, were issued in October 2023, 11,418 units in 2022, and 3,072 units in 2021, which was a 285% increase over the past two years. The accumulated sales record of Watta chewing gum from Lotte Wellfood has increased by 43% between January and November 2023, which is 8 billion won compared to a year prior. Among the increased sales, Watta gum with Sanrio characters, which include eight types of Sanrio popular characters on its sticker items, took 75% of the increased sales. The Curlysue-Sanrio Korea collaboration (kids wear), Cinnamorolle collection, was completely sold out after ten days of release.

This year, the industry appears to be enraged to enter the market with Sanrio characters. KT has chosen Cinnamonrolle for kids phones this year. T-money has released six types of Sanrio Characters Transparent Icon Tmoney Card and three types of Sanrio Characters Silicon Keyring. CGV has presented Kuromi and My Melody character-cooperated cups along with Seolhyang and Strawberry Latte products. Green Finger (Infant brand) has released Sun Cushion and Lotion production using Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kuromi, and Cinnamonrolle characters. Anybody has presented mink span and cotton pyjama sets, mink span pants, and cotton long-sleeve t-shirts with Kuromi and Cinnamonrolle designs. Sanrio characters are entering even amusement parks and travel markets. Everland is presenting a tulip theme garden along with the Sanrio Characters concept, which includes Spring Hello Kitty, on March 22 for the first time in Korea. In collaboration with Sanrio Korea, Paradaise Hotel & Resort offers afternoon tea sets and drinks featuring the Hello Kitty character.

Korean characters, including Pocketmon and Kakao, are also attracting consumers in the Korean character market. SKT has chosen Pocketmonster, while LGU has chosen Kakao Friends characters Lion and Chunsik in the kids phone market, where there is a furious competition. The sales record of CU character collaboration products has increased 4.2 folds in 2023 and 12.5 folds in 2022 compared to a year prior. Zzanggu character, which took 44% of entire character product sales, had the highest record last year. The records of the rest of the characters are as follows: One Piece 20%; Case Closed (Detective Conan) 16%; Cookierun Kingdom 12%; Eiwootgib (Neibourhood) Tongtongie 5%. CU presented Manggeureojingom (Kakaotalk) and Minini (Linefriends) as the first runner-up in character products this year. Besides, CU has presented Joguman, Todaeri, Hyeottalbeun Ankko, and Butterfamily on Valentine's Day. Seven Eleven (a convenience store chain) has been presenting character-collaborated products since 2008. In 2022, over 2 million units of the character keyrings (Pocketmon and Zzanggu) were sold at Seven Eleven. This year, they are particularly targeting the character product market with The Ordinary Days of Pangpangyie. (Pangpangie Pogeulie messenger bag, Pangpangie Ueolgul bag set, Pangpangie eco-bag set) During Valentine's Day, Pangpangie, Yangpakungya, and Disney character products were sold at Seven Eleven. Dongwon F&B has collaborated with Jangmanglooppi, one of the popular characters, and Senka has released the Pocketmon edition.

KT, Woori Bank, KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, and NH Nonghyup Financial Group all use authentic characters in their marketing. The character of each company is as follows: KT: Laon (mint cat) for Samsung Electronics Galaxy 24 series promotion (Laon Goods since 2019); Woori Bank: Webeefriends for credit cards and passbooks along with a plan for ads, animation, and social media promotion. KB: Starfriends, Shinhan: Shinhan Friends, Hana: Hanafamily, NH: Allonefriends. In the homeshopping industry, the authentic character (Bellygom) of Lotte Homeshopping is attracting consumers with as many as 1.6 million SNS followers. The sales record of Bellygom goods is 5 billion won, and with the licence contract sales record of 15 billion won, for a total of 20 billion won, with character products. Hyundai Department Store is speeding in character business by presenting toys, key rings, tumblers, and t-shirts along with their authentic character, Heendy, which was first presented to the public in 2019. GS25 is using Moomoossi to root for the consumption playground platform industry. Moomoossi is a characterised Tibet fox. This character attracted over 22,000 SNS followers along with 1 million accumulated sales records and 1.6 billion won of sales records in the year since its release. GS25 plans to promote a variety of products with Moomoossi while expanding sales to online and offline channels along with external cooperation. Daewoong Pharmaceutical has recently introduced Areumi through a YouTube channel. And Donga Pharmaceutical presented a children's Gagreen Package with Gageulings, Kaakie, Ohreulo, and Gageulbot characters. The food industry is also initiating authentic characters. Hollys (coffee brand) is using Hollybear for whole cakes, while Knotted (dounut brand) is using Sugarbear.

In order to win over consumers, who are likely to open their wallets to character products, the industry is focusing on character marketing. The character creates fandom, and this leads to another purchase by consumers. In particular, it's got a point effect to attract consumers to their products among plenty of other competitive products. The character collaboration strategy can attract consumers of all age groups while sharing brand ideas through popular characters. It can be expanded to product, emoticon, and character businesses. For this reason, a number of businesses are starting to develop their own characters and cooperate with popular characters. I perceive that this war is going to be even more furious this year.