GLOBAL

BRANDING
ASSESSMENT 1A: Reflection practice-based tasks.

Student name: Do Ngoc Diep

SID: s3927203

Course code: MKTG1417

Lecturer: Ngoc LB

Word Count: 700

Chosen brands: Co Mem and Innisfree

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction 2

II. Reflection 2

1. Brand awareness 2

2. Brand association 3

3. Perceived quality 4

4. Brand loyalty 4

5. Proprietary assets 6

III. Conclusion 6

IV. References 7

V. Appendix 7

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 I. Introduction
Co Mem is a local cosmetics brand in Vietnam known for its healthy and genuine beauty
supplies. The products are made entirely of natural substances without hazardous chemicals (ITP
Pharma n.d.). Innisfree is a cosmetic brand from Korea that produces goods using
ingredients from Jeju (Innisfree n.d.). Both are my favorite brands and have many similarities, so
I chose them for the assessment.
II. Reflection
1. Brand awareness
Public relations,  a fusion of traditional and contemporary communication trends, including
images, digital solutions, and blogging (Adverum, A.V 2019), is the primary source of Co
Mem’s brand recognition. There are many blogs and articles regarding Co Mem, where I first
heard about it. Innisfree was launched in 2000 as Korea’s first natural brand (Innisfree n.d.). The
brand benefits from being the first-mover, enabling the company to build strong brand awareness
and customer loyalty before rivals enter the market (Tarver, E 2020). I first learned about
Innisfree through its partnership with Wanna One, which also increased brand recognition.

Co Mem has no official stores outside Vietnam yet, so it is reasonable to compare their
popularity there. When comparing their social media popularity (Figure 1), the
difference between Co Mem and Innisfree recognition is less significant on Facebook than
on Instagram. To get more accurate observations, we will compare their awareness using Google
Trends (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Comparison of popularity on social media.

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 Figure 2. Comparison of brand awareness in the past 12 months using Google Trends.

In conclusion, Innisfree has greater brand recognition in Vietnam than Co Mem. This indicates
that Innisfree is at the brand recall level or even top-of-mind to some consumers in the awareness
pyramid when referring to natural cosmetics brands. In contrast, Co Mem is between brand
recognition and recall level (Appendix 2).
2. Brand association:
I utilized Brand24 to find the brand associations of my chosen brands. However, one drawback
of this website is that some words may sound nonsense as they are not phrases, especially the
Vietnamese ones for Co Mem. First, the two share similar brand associations: keywords related
to makeup, skincare, and nature. For Innisfree, the word "Jeju" denotes where its products derive
their ingredients. While "volcanic" and "clay" refer to the Innisfree Volcanic pore clay mask, one
of its best-sellers (Figure 3). In contrast, Co Mem's keywords, which include "soft" and "non-
silicon," indicate the product's attributes (Figure 4).

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 Figure 3. Brand associations of Innisfree from Brand24.

Figure 4. Brand associations of Co Mem from Brand24.

3. Perceived quality:
People expect skin-friendly products from natural cosmetics companies. Synthetic substances
may temporarily brighten the skin, but they can be irritating and harmful over time. Because of
this, many individuals are considering buying products that help the skin balance and heal
(Vevera n.d.). Co Mem won the "Inspiring Brand" prize at APEA 2021 for its "Healthy and
True" products. This award recognized businesses around Asia, encouraging innovation,
creativity, and friendly competition while promoting long-term socioeconomic prosperity
(VnExpress 2022). This proves the quality and reliability of Co Mem's products. While the
quality of Innisfree is shown by extraction methods that preserve the purity of beneficial
components. No harmful chemicals are added to guarantee that the product is skin-friendly
(Felton, M 2020). Since irritation never happens to me from either brand, I have a favorable
impression of their quality.

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 4. Brand loyalty:
Regarding not working for both brands, we are unsure how frequently an individual purchases
their goods. So data from websites are used for analysis.

Figure 5. Innisfree's official commercial website.

On Innisfree's website, the heart icon shows that 475 people have added this product to their
wishlist or are tempted to repurchase. This figure is significant compared to the 703 ratings,
indicating high customer loyalty to this product.

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 Figure 6. Co Mem's official commercial website.

Although Co Mem's website has no heart icon, the 4.5/5 rating from over 3000 customers is still
impressive. We cannot determine which one has more brand loyalty due to the disparity in web
designs, but the data shows that both of their best-sellers enjoy significant levels of loyalty.
5. Proprietary assets
Proprietary assets refer to any help regarded as intellectual property. They should not be
revealed, such as all customer-related information, including names, addresses, phone numbers,
and other contact information, as well as any additional personal or business-related data
(Ventureline n.d.). Businesses selling their products online, like Innisfree and Co Mem, usually
have this information at the bottom of their official website (Figure 7 & 8).

Figure 7. Innisfree's proprietary assets.

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 Figure 8. Co Mem's proprietary assets.
III. Conclusion
According to prior research, Innisfree has stronger brand equity in Vietnam than Co Mem,
thanks to its global recognition and long development history.
IV. References:
Adverum, A.V (2019), ‘Why should blogging be a part of your PR strategy?’, PRGN, accessed 7
November 2022, <https://prgn.com/pr-tips-trends/why-should-blogging-be-a-part-of-your-pr-
strategy/>.
Felton, M 2020, Ultimate Guide to Innisfree, AdoreBeauty, accessed 7 November 2022,
<https://www.adorebeauty.com.au/innisfree/guide/ultimate-guide-to-innisfree>.
Innisfree (n.d.), ‘ABOUT Innisfree’ , Innisfree, accessed 4 November 2022,
<https://www.innisfree.com/my/en/BrandPage.do?pageName=brand_jeju>.
Innisfree (n.d.), ‘Brand history’, Innisfree, accessed 6 November 2022, <
https://www.innisfree.com/sg/en/BrandPage.do?pageName=brand_history>.
ITP Pharma (n.d.), ‘Cỏ mềm Homelab’, ITP Pharma, accessed 4 November 2022,
<https://itppharma.com/thuong-hieu/co-mem/>.
Tarver, E 2020, First Mover: What It Means, Examples, and First Mover Advantages ,
Investopedia, accessed 5 November 2022,
<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/firstmover.asp#:~:text=Being%20first%20typically
%20enables%20a,price%20for%20the%20new%20item>.
Ventureline n.d., PROPRIETARY ASSET Definition, Ventureline, accessed 6 November 2022,
<https://www.ventureline.com/accounting-glossary/P/proprietary-asset-definition/ >.

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Vevera n.d., What are the main benefits of using natural products?, Vevera, accessed 7
November 2022, <https://vevera.dk/what-are-the-main-benefits-of-using-natural-products/ >.
VnExpress 2022, Cỏ Mềm - mỹ phẩm thuần Việt giành giải thưởng châu Á APEA 2021,
VnExpress, accessed 7 November 2022, <https://vnexpress.net/co-mem-my-pham-thuan-viet-
gianh-giai-thuong-chau-a-apea-2021-4408002.html>.
V. Appendix:

Hình 8. Blogs and articles about Co Mem.

Appendix 2. Pyramid of Awareness.