According to a survey conducted by the Consumers of Korea last month, the most expensive B.B. cream of Amore Pacific was 15 times more expensive than the cheapest B.B. cream produced by Cushi. In addition, imported lipsticks were 8 times more expensive in domestic consumer price than the imported cost. These results angered numerous consumers- nevertheless, the prices still seem to remain in the same high levels. The companies of imported cosmetic products assert that high-pricing is reasonable due to product transportation, personnel expenses, margin and so on.
Huh Ji-hyun, the assistant administrator of Consumer YWCA, mentioned that the enterprises are making high-priced products counting on the few customers who actually buy them despite the price. In fact, according to a survey on consumer awareness, 92.7% answered that the imported cosmetic products are expensive. Nonetheless, despite this realization, 67.3% answered, “the expensive products would bring a better result due to its price,” and 48.5% answered, “despite being expensive, I want to invest in my skin.” Therefore, since the number of customers who are still looking for premium products isn’t decreasing, the companies maintain their products’ price, leading to marketing competition and reinforcement of high-priced policy. In addition, with numerous middle-aged women continuing to demand goods from these domestic companies, there is no possibility that the companies would lower their premium product’s prices.
The government is now trying various actions in order to decrease imported products’ monopolistic circulation and enhance parallel import. However, the difficulty in decreasing prices as long as demands on premium products persist is absolute among the cosmetic enterprises.
On the other hand, others are bringing up the fact that the companies who are persisting high-priced policy should keep their eyes on customers’ changes. These days, customers tend to switch from products to products easily to use the best product rather than using the same product steadily. This means that the consumers who are in their 20 to 30s would take over the market, thus forcing the enterprises to change their present policies in the next few years. Depending on the customers’ will, we can expect that there is enough possibility for a rearrangement of the policies regarding high-priced products.
