Product Lines and Brand Hierarchy of Packaged Rice in Korea

Case Analysis of Agricultural Cooperative's RPCs

Abstract

This study is concerned about the brand strategy for Korean packaged rice. Four rice processing complex (RPC) which sell packaged rice to the retailers are surveyed. In the survey the sales results of each product are checked and its brand elements are identified and how these RPC maintain product lines and brand hierarchy are analyzed. In the analysis two points of views are applied - the relatedness between brand factors (product name, logo, package, etc.) and the extension of product lines. Based on this analysis the characteristics of RPC's brand strategy for packaged rice can be summarized as follows:
First, checking product numbers and brand elements of each RPC, it is found that most of RPCs are extending product lines using brand hierarchy and product differentiation.
Secondly, all the RPCs modify their product lines with their production region name or the symbol for the region, which can be regarded as a common brand element, and this factor functions to guarantee the product's quality.
Thirdly, RPCs are extending their product lines because it is not easy for them to maintain the sufficient supply of differentiated products such as organic rice and high quality rice, but there is a problem that sales are heavily slanted towards certain low-priced products.