K-Drama Star Kim Soo-hyun Leads Caffe Bene Worldwide To Destroy Starbucks
If people were to be asked what company they think of pertaining to coffee giants, they will most likely answer Starbucks. Established back in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, Starbucks has since grown to become the world’s largest coffeehouse company in the world. The Inquisitr over the years has reported on the latest pertaining to Starbucks, mostly on their successes such as incorporating wine and upscale appetizers for their branches that stay open late and adding “Mini-Frappes,” a size for those who are on a diet.
It should be noted that Starbucks isn’t invincible. They’ve had their share of bad news, ranging from something serious as their mobile app being hacked to something ridiculous such as a Harlem pastor claiming a “special ingredient” in their coffees makes patrons gay.
Now there is more bad news for Starbucks, and this time, it isn’t something that directly deals with the company but with who is now in the coffee game. South Korean coffeehouse company, Caffe Bene, is ready to take on the world. Not only that, they have signed on one of the biggest K-drama stars to help in their endeavor, Kim Soo-hyun.
According to MT Media through KDrama Stars, Kim Soo-hyun has signed on to a one-year exclusive modeling contract with Caffe Bene. Through the conditions and stipulations of the contract, Soo-hyun will represent the exponentially growing South Korean coffeehouse company on a global scale. This includes participation in television ads, pictorials, and other marketing activities.
To be fair, having Kim Soo-hyun as a global representative doesn’t seem like the right choice if Caffe Bene wants to expand in territories like the United States and Europe. Wouldn’t Caffe Bene get a prominent star for said respective countries if they want to progress on what The Korea Times calls their “unrealistic ambition?” The answer is that Kim Soo-hyun is the perfect representative to assimilate Caffe Bene in the one large market they’ve targeted recently: China.
China has a growing taste for coffee, as reported by China Daily. To help further this point, Starbucks currently has the most coffeehouses in China, totaling to 1,700 accumulated over the past 16 years. Caffe Bene currently has 583 coffeehouses in China, which is monumental given the fact it took them only three years to get to that point when it took 14 for Starbucks. As for Dunkin’ Donuts, they don’t even count as competition with their meager 16 coffeehouses.
This is where Kim Soo-hyun comes in. In China, Soo-hyun is the most popular K-drama star. As a matter of fact, Soo-hyun’s last K-drama, My Love From The Stars, was downloaded and watched over three million times and has influenced Chinese modern culture ranging from clothing to friend chicken sales. That’s right — fried chicken sales. And with the next K-drama starring Soo-hyun titled Producer recently releasing, Caffe Bene seems to have made an incredibly smart business move with their promotion.
[Featured Image via Caffe Bene, Post Image via Wikipedia]
