Doosan Corporation today celebrated the opening of its new Doota Duty Free store in Dongdaemun, Seoul.
The store is located in Doosan Tower, a major shopping complex in Dongdaemun. The latter is a popular tourism destination, especially among Chinese tourists who make up about half of the 7 million foreigners visiting the area every year.
Senior officials of Doosan’s duty free business, including Doosan Corporation President Hyunsoo Dong; Executive Vice President and Duty Free BG Director CW John Lee; and Doosan Corporation Senior Vice President and CSO Seowon Park, gathered at the store to celebrate the opening.
After a brief ceremony, help desk and in-store employees chanted “Here Only Doota!” the customer service commitment and brand slogan of Doota, as they greeted their first customers.
“We will focus on stabilising the duty free business and continue to attract more brands into the store to offer a wider range of products and services to customers,” said a Doota Duty Free official. “We will do our best to make Doota Duty Free Store the landmark of Dongdaemun when we have a Grand Opening in the second half of this year.”
Doosan said that Doota is Korea’s first duty free store that remains open into the night, from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., depending on the floor. Incentives provided to night shoppers include transportation cost support and an additional -5% discount.
Doota Duty Free features over 500 brands on seven floors (see table) with two more floors to be opened before August, bringing the total space to 16,825sq m.
Floor ‘D1’ features cosmetics and perfumes from the major global brands while Floor D2, scheduled to open in July, is designated for luxury watches and jewellery.
Floor D6 houses sunglasses, jewellery and various accessories while floors D7 to D9 are themed D-Fashion, D-Beauty and D-Mart, respectively. Floor D7 houses select shops featuring unique items made by rising, young Korean designers to help promote home-grown brands to foreign visitors and transform them into global brands, Doosan said.
Floor D8 contains a wide range of drugstore-type beauty-related products. Korea’s first market-type duty free store is located on floor D9, where inbound tourists can purchase everyday items including home appliances, health and food products and liquor.
SENSE OF PLACE
A ‘Descendants of the Sun’ Hall on floor D3 pays homage to the phenomenally popular Korean TV drama, vividly re-creating sets and offering visitors a photo-shoot experience in thematic zones and the chance to buy souvenirs and merchandise.
As reported, Doota Duty Free announced in April that South Korean’s hottest Hallyu celebrity, Song Joong-ki, is to star in the retailer’s new marketing campaign (see video below). Song rose rapidly to superstardom after starring in Descendants of the Sun, which has won a wide following across much of North Asia.
A behind-the-scenes video of the campaign’s photo shoot has been released through Doota’s official SNS accounts both inside and outside South Korea. The ads are also posted on the websites of major travel agencies in China, including C-Trip, Qunar and Mafengwo.
The strong Korean emphasis continues on floor D4, where a K-Culture Hall is designed to expose visitors to Korean traditional culture such as hanbok (traditional dress) and craftworks.
To coincide with the opening, an online duty-free store (www.dootadutyfree.com) was also launched today in Korean and Chinese. A mobile app will be released in June to allow tourists to shop online while they are on the move. Doota Duty Free Store provides free Wi-Fi to tourists at Doota Plaza, Doota Mall and the Doota Duty Free Store.
Doota Duty Free Store is hosting a variety of events to attract inbound tourists and raise brand awareness. As part of the opening event, all visitors were presented with a balloon owl, the Doota Duty Free Store’s character. Those who took a photo in front of the large owl character installed at the gate received a lucky bag packed with items from D-Beauty.
Depending on their purchasing amount, customers received various signature items, including a luggage strap, folding bag and jewellery box emblazoned with the Doota owl character design.
FORGING CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH TRAVEL AGENTS AND FREE INDEPENDENT TRAVELLERS
Doota Duty Free has signed an agreement with 72 travel agencies to attract tourists. The company also plans to attract large Chinese tour groups that are scheduled to visit South Korea after June.
To reach out to free independent travellers (FITs), who make up a large portion of visitors to Dongdaemun, the retailer is promoting its identity heavily, via banners around the store, outdoor digital video ads, voice ads in nearby subway stations, and ads on city tour buses and intra-city buses. To lure Chinese VIP customers, Doota Duty Free is providing limousine and shuttle bus services in affiliation with casinos.
A duty free store lobby, help desk, money exchange booth, baby stroller rentals and lockers are situated on the ground floor to enhance the shopping experience. Doota claimed that its sky lounge on floor D10 is the most spacious of any Seoul duty free store.
The parking lot inside Doosan Tower can accommodate over 900 cars while more than 110 parking spaces are reserved for buses outside the building.
DRIVING A DONGDAEMUN IDENTITY
Doota Duty Free said it is committed to carrying out a wide range of programmes to promote “win-win growth” with local businesses. The Dongdaemun Future Foundation, established last year, has provided free Chinese classes to local merchants.
Various marketing programs scheduled to take place include the ‘365 Fashion Show’ and a joint Dongdaemun marketing campaign to be held in partnership with the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP).
(Above and below) Celebrities don’t come any hotter right now than the charismatic Song Joong-ki, face of the Doota Duty Free marketing campaign and star of the TV drama phenomenon Descendants of the Sun |
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“Here only Doota!” A new force takes shape in Korean and Asian travel retail as Doota Duty Free is born |
