KANU, The smallest cafe in the world

The number of Cafes in Korea has grown tenfold in just five years.
On the other hand, the instant coffee market,
where Dongsuh Food had long held an 80% share, was stagnant for the first time.
It was an ideal time to develop a new product that can compete with café-brewed coffee.
So we developed new type of coffee, KANU, mixed brewed coffee bean and instant coffee.

We introduced the new product Kanu not as a new type of instant coffee
but as “the smallest café in the world.”
The packaging design was suggestive of a tiny coffee stand,
and image that was highlighted in TV commercials and print ads.
Web and mobile sites were launched in the name of “micro cafes.”
To give the consumers an experience similar to that of getting a drink at a coffeehouse,
Pop-up cafés were opened in downtown Seoul and Busan, which looks like its packaging

Kanu pop-up cafés attracted over 100,000 visitors in two weeks
and almost 410,000 people visited the on-line and mobile micro cafés.
The Kanu campaign was covered by major media
including prime time news with a viewership of 12 million.
In just a year, competitors followed Kanu’s lead with similar products,
Resulting in creating a new instant regular coffee market.
Kanu held a 94% share in this new market, with sales reaching 68million dollars.
Kanu was now perceived as an affordable alternative
for consumers who preferred to get their drinks at coffeehouses.

Awards

-Selected as one of Korea’s top 10 hit products of 2012 by Samsung Economic Research Institute
-Selected as one of Korea’s top 5 hit products of 2012 by Hyundai Research Institute

-Awarded Grand Prize in Consumer Choice Marketing Awards 2011 by Korea Advertisers Association
-Awarded the Best Design Prize at IT AWARD 2011 by Korea Design Association

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