CJ Olive Young and Musinsa, which are each rapidly growing around beauty and fashion respectively, have recently filed various trademark applications in succession as they consider expanding into new businesses. Olive Young is strengthening the wellness field, a concept that adds health to beauty. Musinsa is even securing trademarks in areas far removed from its existing business.
According to industry sources on the 9th, Olive Young recently applied for a trademark called OLIVE BETTER. The trademark's designated goods include a variety of fields such as health functional foods, beauty and healthcare, cosmetics, and home medical devices. Observers say Olive Young could operate a wellness business under its private brand (PB) using the trademark or run it as a new store brand.
Olive Young classifies health functional foods related to its core beauty business, inner beauty, and W care (women-only products) as wellness product groups and is strengthening those areas. The Olive Young N Seongsu store, which opened in November last year, introduced a specialized "wellness edit" section that organized half of the third-floor space around wellness products.
In the past, foreign customers visiting Olive Young mainly bought beauty products such as sunscreen, serums and sheet masks, but recently purchases of wellness products have also increased. According to Olive Young, wellness brand sales to foreigners who visited domestic offline stores from Jan. to May this year rose more than 30% year over year. Within that, inner beauty category sales increased 55% year over year and W care category sales rose 66%.
An Olive Young official said, "Specific plans for the filed trademark have not yet been decided, but we are proceeding with business in a direction that strengthens the wellness field."
Musinsa has also recently filed a large number of trademarks derived from its private brand Musinsa Standard. These include Musinsa Standard Eyewear, Musinsa Standard Hotel, Musinsa Standard Residence, Musinsa Standard Living, Musinsa Standard Flower and Musinsa Standard Work.
For Musinsa Standard Eyewear, the designated goods included retail sales of sunglasses and eyeglasses. With Korean eyewear brands such as Gentle Monster and Blue Elephant achieving great success overseas recently, observers say Musinsa could target a value-for-money eyewear position by launching an eyewear specialist PB.
Among other things, the designated goods for Musinsa Standard Hotel and Musinsa Standard Residence included resort hotel business management and hotel corporate management, and the designated goods for Musinsa Standard Flower included flower retailing. These are far from Musinsa's current business but are seen as leaving open the possibility of entering new businesses.
Musinsa is currently pursuing an initial public offering (IPO). A Musinsa official said, "There are no concrete plans yet, but we have preemptively filed several trademarks to secure positions."