Background/Overview of Innisfree
Innisfree is a naturalism-oriented cosmetics brand launched in 2000 in South Korea. It is owned by South Korea’s biggest cosmetics company AmorePacific Corporation, which also owns popular brands – Laneige, Etude House and Sulwhasoo. Innisfree is all-natural by using only ingredients from Jeju Island, such as volcanic clay, canola, camellia and green tea. It is also eco-friendly, making use of recyclable materials and containers for its product design.

Innisfree’s first Singapore store was opened in late Nov 2013 at Takashimaya Shopping Centre, Ngee Ann City. It has been well received by Singaporean consumers and has expanded to seven stores in Singapore today.

Importance of Social Media Strategy to Innisfree
Since the time Innisfree was launched in Singapore, it constantly updates consumers about new store openings, new product launches and product benefits through its social media platforms. It also conducts ‘like and share’ product giveaways to increase brand awareness. Throughout these few years, Innisfree has built a strong brand presence in Singapore through various marketing campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Korean beauty wave is currently still a major player in the cosmetics industry with many Korean cosmetic brands still growing strong and actively engaging consumers. Singaporeans are also increasingly willing to try out new beauty and skin care products. With so many brands to choose from, Innisfree needs to better differentiate and strengthen its brand identity of being all-natural and eco-friendly, and to build a local community that believes and advocates it.

Social media is thus important for Innisfree to differentiate itself, as it allows Innisfree to reach and engage its target consumer demographic group, most of whom use social media.

Research Question
Hence, our research seeks to find out how Innisfree can utilise social media in a way distinctive to its brand, while leveraging on “best practices” from its stronger competitors and avoiding the pitfalls of weaker competitors. The value of this question lies in discovering how social media can effectively provide Innisfree with a competitive advantage in this saturated Korean cosmetics market.

Research Method
Our group will utilise both primary and secondary research to better identify the areas that Innisfree is doing well in, as well as the areas where it could improve on, so as to facilitate in answering our research question.  

1. Primary Research
   Evaluation of Social Media Content
   We will evaluate Innisfree’s posts on its Facebook and Instagram, taking into account their content, frequency of posting and reach. At the same time, we will analyse close competitors such as Etude House and Laneige on their social media platforms.

   Conducting Survey
   We will also conduct surveys with the general demographic group that uses cosmetics (i.e. females aged 18 to 30 years old), to gain insights on (1) what consumers are looking for in a generic cosmetic brand’s social media platform, (2) consumer sentiments with regards to Innisfree, and (3) any other preferences specific to Innisfree.

2. Secondary Research
   We will use Synthesio, Socialbakers, supported with further research on the market trends, to analyse the brand engagement of Innisfree on its social media compared with its competitors.

Conclusion
Moving forward, we will propose strategies targeted at the social media platforms, in order to increase interaction and engagement of Innisfree with its current and potential customers.

– Jia An, Samantha and Gena