ICA secures contract for “Oull Honey Twinkle Mask Pack,”  and expects to increase exports to China

The Incheon Metropolitan City Government recently announced its “Four Year (2021~2024) Plan to Revitalize Incheon’s Beauty Industry” (hereinafter the “Plan”) to create a springboard that can propel the city’s beauty industry to new heights.

Incheon listened to feedback from market participants across the beauty industry in Incheon, and reflected its findings in the “K-Beauty Innovation Comprehensive Strategy” announced by the central government on January 27 this year. The City Government also hosted the “Incheon Beauty Industry Revitalization Conference” to gather input from the industry.

Using the Plan, Incheon hopes to fulfill its vision of creating an economic growth engine and positioning itself as a leading city in the beauty category by elevating beauty-related businesses to make sure they have the capacity to generate higher added value. Moreover, the City Government plans to revitalize the currently stagnant cosmetics market in Incheon and lay the groundwork for a new leap forward for Incheon’s beauty industry.

▲​​​ The Incheon Metropolitan City Government recently announced its “Four Year (2021~2024) Plan to Revitalize Incheon’s Beauty Industry” to create a springboard that can propel the city’s beauty industry to new heights. The photo from a product briefing session at Oull Cosmetics in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Plan includes the following promotional strategies and key initiatives: 

Support the growth of the beauty industry: ① Develop “beauty star” companies; ② Offer counseling for managerial and technical issues; ③ Support clinical trials; ④ Help identify potential markets (domestic/overseas); ⑤ Develop K-beauty industry experts; ⑥ Support testing, evaluation, and certification activities; ⑦ Support online marketing initiatives. With such support, the government will look to identify beauty companies with substantial growth potential, and produce a win-win outcome between small beauty companies and the beauty industry as a whole with increased support.

Establish an industry-academia-research network: ① Establish the Incheon Metropolitan City Beauty Industry Advisory Committee; ② Host meetings with beauty corporations across Incheon; ③ Host beauty-related conferences. The government will collaborate and promote the healthy growth of the cosmetics industry and boost its competitiveness.

Also, to help put Oull back on track, Incheon signed an agreement with ICA, operator of the Oull brand, for organizational reorganization and change earlier in March. The city plans to launch a total of 18 Oull products (new products and renewed) in the near future.
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▲Oull Premium Honey Twinkle Mask Pack. ICA secured a contract worth KRW 550 million to supply the Premium Honey Twinkle Mask Pack.

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Upon launching the renewed “Oull Premium Honey Twinkle Mask Pack” earlier this year (April), ICA signed a partnership agreement with Come Together PRK Co., Ltd., a comprehensive advertising agency based in Korea, to promote Oull (collaborative brand of cosmetics producers in Incheon) across Korea and abroad. To date, the partnership has helped secure a contract worth KRW 550 million for the Oull Premium Honey Twinkle Mask Pack.

To advertise and promote products to Chinese consumers, ICA is expected to open a branch office in China (June 2021) within the IFEZ office in Weihai, China. Moreover, ICA plans to acquire sanitary permits, obtain customs clearance, manage new and existing customers, and spur on local sales in China moving forward. In particular, it will look to strengthen its drive to promote Oull products through the IFEZ office in China and to increase exports to China. Not only that, ICA will pull its resources to raise brand awareness and boost sales with marketing activities using various media channels, including domestic and overseas online platforms.

In particular, ICA is paying close attention to the K-beauty Cluster, a specialized zone for the production, R&D, and human resource training of beauty industry-related products to create high added value for Incheon’s beauty industry. Accordingly, ICA is preparing to apply for the K-beauty Cluster project, which is scheduled for the second half of the year (central government initiative), and explore potential growth engines for the future.

 If designated as part of the K-beauty Cluster, the company will become eligible for benefits from the central government in regards to technology development, manpower training, distribution, sales, and policy support. Leveraging this support, ICA is expected to build a foundation for self-sustainable growth of the cosmetics industry and to push the K-beauty Cluster as one of the most notable hubs for K-beauty and Hallyu brands.