This particular tweet on #Sauder464 totally grabbed my attention because this advertising campaign looked super interesting and it took place in my home country. Click on this link to view the full version video: Tesco Homeplus Virtual Subway Store in South Korea (2:30)

Homeplus is a second largest discount store retail chain in Korea that is owned by Tesco. In order to increase market share without adding more stores, they came up with the idea of “let the store come to people“. As a result of the campaign number of new registered members rose by 76% with 130% increase in online sales.

Source: http://cheoneui23.egloos.com/2294404

Although I truly appreciate their creativity, I think there are some aspects they need to consider. First of all, I thought the use of QR (Quick Response) code was not the best option to engage customers to make purchase. It is virtually dead due to its bothersome process of downloading the app on mobile phones. I mean who really uses QR code anymore??

Secondly, I don’t think they have researched or thought deep enough about the nature of subway stations in Korea. Subways in Korea usually come every 3 to 5 minutes only and most subway stations during rush hours are way too crowded for anyone to even try shopping – losing their target segment. Would you try shopping in such a crowd(refer to the image below) by scanning each product with your phones? NO WAY.

http://www.fnnews.com/news/201308081318308532

Also, I believe many people would prefer to buy groceries at the actual point of sale, especially for items that quality varies depending on its freshness (meats, vegetables, fruits, etc). It is not easy to convince customers to buy meat from looking at picture displays.

In the end, I think the campaign was successful in increasing awareness and grabbing people’s attention in short term but not much more than that.

Source: http://www.newstomato.com/RealTime/RealTimeDetail.aspx?no=222928

I have done more research about this campaign and realized that it actually took place 3 years ago, in 2011, when the use of QR code was probably more active and popular. I also found out that they expended this concept of ‘virtual store’ to some of bus stations a year later but it was not as successful in expanding awareness or sales. Furthermore, according to blog postings about the campaign, the app did not work on Apple devices – lost sale and credibility.