I have a lot more appreciation for marketing now, ever since my wife studied Business in university and I was able to casually peruse her textbooks and discuss these ideas with her. (Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.)

A brand that stands for everything stands for nothing. Specialization is the way to go, whether in restaurants or sports cars or coffee. They’re even starting to get that in Korea, what with the LG brand getting broken into LG and GS (they still have a ways to go, but hey, it’s a start). A good book is Al Ries’ “Focus…” and “Kotler on Marketing” ain’t too shabby, either.

Wedge

As for Starbucks, it’s more like 18 years where I live (Vancouver, Canada; disregard the flag), since this was their first trial market outside of Seattle. But yeah, it might have been hard to imagine at the time that there could be such a thing as a “coffee bar,” or that it would fundamentally change the way North Americans drink coffee (as indeed it has).

But in my earlier post I call for marketing to non-Koreans. Different clientele, different marketing.

Would it make sense to restrict your menu to one kind of food (say, mandu), thus potentially limiting your appeal, or to sell the usual variety of food, thus maximizing your appeal among as large a clientele as possible?

You could have made the same argument against Starbucks ten years ago. Would it make sense to make a chain based on coffee, thus potentially limiting your appeal, when the local diner serves coffee, hamburgers, and twenty other things?

I could be completely wrong. I didn’t study marketing. But let’s say there’s only a limited market for Korean food in town X. Would it make sense to restrict your menu to one kind of food (say, mandu), thus potentially limiting your appeal, or to sell the usual variety of food, thus maximizing your appeal among as large a clientele as possible?

Anyhow, that’s my take on it.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on why this would not work for any particular type of Korean food.

The key for each restaurant is to associate itself with one particular type of food, rather than as a “Korean” restaurant. A barbecue restaurant would do well in any market - just ditch the soju and go with red wine as some kalbi places are starting to do in Seoul. A ????°?/?¹??¹”?°? healthy rice theme would do well in a downtown business district as well.