Written on 12.11.2014 - Industry
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KOREA (SOUTH): Hankook Tire launches lower-priced brand

Hankook Tire has launched a lower-priced product branded Laufenn as part of efforts to widen its global customer base, the company said on 6 Nov. 2014. Laufenn-branded products are now available in the United States.

The Seoul-based company will release them in 10 strategic markets across North America, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific in phases. Hankook said nearly 80 percent of its sales were overseas.

A spokesman said that as the company's overseas market continued to widen, the company felt the need to diversify the price of its products.

He said Hankook Tire-branded products were widely recognized as high-priced premium products, making it difficult to appeal to price-sensitive consumers.

"Laufenn will enable us to widen our customer base without denting Hankook Tire's premium brand image," he said.

"We developed the Laufenn product line to combine value with solid fundamentals, stable performance and style," chief marketing officer Cho Hyun-bum said in a press release. "We are committed to growing the Laufenn brand, first in the U.S. and then globally."

Laufenn means "run" in German.

Source: Daily “The Korea Times”, Seoul; 6 Nov 2014
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)