Inflight Brochure Monitor: Korean Air Sky Shop – 10/05/07

Sky Shop
Airline: Korean Air
Title: Sky Shop
FREQUENCY: Monthly
PAGINATION: 180 (including covers)
CATEGORIES (including advertising):
  • LIQUOR: 23 pages
  • COSMETICS: 74 pages
  • PERFUME: 12 pages
  • PEARLS: 2 pages
  • GIFTS: 36 pages
  • Quality of paper: Good
    Photo quality: High

    Pre-order: Yes, at least 48 hours before your flight leaves – via telephone, fax or online at the CyberSkyShop. Passengers can also pre-order while onboard, to collect on the return flight. Spending over US$500 earns a discount coupon worth KRW30,000.

    Website preview available?:
    Yes, at www.koreanair.com

    Website sale available:
    Yes

    Source: ©The Moodie Report

    SOUTH KOREA. The May edition of Sky Shop is arguably Korean Air’s most ambitious yet. In terms of design, range, services and visual execution the new magazine has pushed the boundaries, offering a contemporary, high class shopping experience in the sky.

    The South Korean national carrier’s duty free shopping magazine looks particularly lush this month. The striking cover features a glossy embossed full page bleed photograph of Diageo’s new ultra-premium Johnnie Walker Blue Label King George V scotch whisky. Combined with expensive gold foil lettering, the cover evokes a rich, classy “˜coffee table read’ look and feel.

    Unusually, the magazine opens (from the inside front spread) with a nine-page What’s New section to showcase the month’s introductions. This issue is heavily dominated as always by high-end cosmetics, with whitening skincare products by Estée Lauder, Clinique, Dior, Chanel and Lancôme the order of the day.

    A seven-page section is devoted to Pre-order only items with a wide and varied range including Korean Red Ginseng Capsules, Mikimoto pearls, and Omearaq Pottery, which helps lend a regional flavour.

    Next up is another Korean Air innovation, a tailor-made ten-page offer for Korea-Japan and Korea-China routes. Then follows a comprehensive price-list by sku (all 991 of them), listed alphabetically within categories.

    A one-page Trend Report features 20 innovative items and then it’s into the mainstream offer. First up is the Liquor section, entirely focused on de luxe and ultra-premium lines, gorgeously presented.

    Rémy Martin leads off, followed by a stunning gatefold advertisement for King George V. As always with Korean Air, where the retailer clearly understands publishing, brands make an extra effort with their visuals – the sumptuous Royal Salute double page spread for its Hundred Cask Selection being a prime example.

    Inniskillin IceWine, a long-standing supporter of and success on Korean Air, looks the part too with a nice spread, featuring advertising on the left and two listings – Vidal and Cabernet Franc – on the right. Its status is enhanced by the fact that it is the only wine carried onboard. We love the way the advertising enhances the listings – that’s not always the case with inflight publications. Take a look at Inniskillin, Camus or the fantastic Glenfiddich stag visual alongside its two references and you’ll see what we mean.

    But it’s in the Cosmetics section that Sky Shop really takes flight. This is by far the biggest section in the publication, with an impressive 74 pages of elegantly laid-out beauty products. It features an extensive array of the big international names, including eight-page collections from Lancôme and Estée Lauder and a host of other big brands from Arden to Biotherm to Clinique to Dior to Elizabeth Arden as well as Chanel, La Prairie, Shiseido and many others. Local brands such as Sulwhasoo and The Whoo Kongjinhyang also make a powerful showing. Men’s grooming makes up a respectable eight pages, including a striking visual from the new Salvatore Ferragamo fragrance for men, incanto essential.

    Twelve pages of fragrances follow, featuring Chanel (and its stunning Chance advertising visual), Bvlgari, Dior, Kenzo, Ralph Lauren Polo, Lancôme, Lolita Lempicka and YSL.

    Other highlights include a double page spread dedicated to Pearls (all Mikimoto) and the quirky new Dunhill cigarette advertising on the inside back cover. There’s even an information leaflet on LAGs (on the back of a Laneíge insert ad.

    While liquor and cosmetics get the star treatment at the front, the Gifts section at the back offers a broad selection across a wide range of pricepoints. This covers everything from jewellery and watches, from Swarovski and Folli Follie, to golfing accessories, sunglasses, pens, fashion accessories, consumer technology, phone cards, health supplements, confectionery, and children’s toys. Three cigarette brands and one cigar brand – Nat Sherman – make an appearance.

    As the world’s most successful inflight retailer Korean Air gets plenty of plaudits. But it deserves them, not only for the diversity and excitement of its offer but for how hard it works at the art of retailing in the sky. Remember this 180-page luxury magazine is produced monthly – a job that would test most specialist publishers let alone a small airline division whose main business is to buy and sell.

    Sky Shop is a well-organised, weighty shopping magazine, not an ‘inflight brochure’, and features top-class production values. May’s cover is particularly good and Diageo willl be confident of a rapid return on investment as a result.

    The clean layout and short, sharp product descriptions (in English and Korean) make it easier than it might have been to take in the exhaustive product selection. Prices are listed in Euros, US Dollars, Japanese Yen and Korean Won. Design-wise, Sky Shop isn’t scared of white space and it’s refreshing to see that products are given room to breathe on the page. Again this makes it look more like a quality showcase than a catalogue.

    The magazine scores extra Moodie points for using subtle icons to flag up duty free exclusives, plus new and limited edition products. There’s even a symbol to show whether a skincare product has UV protection.

    Sky Shop gets to grips with the complexities of certain items only being available on Korea-Japan and Korea-China flight routes with its no-frills product index, which carries a small description and thumbnail picture of each available item making it easy to see, at a glance, what the buyer’s options are.

    Korean Air’s Inflight Sales Team Director Hyun Ah (Heather) Cho is particularly proud of this edition. It’s easy to see why.

    MORE INFLIGHT BROCHURE MONITORS

    Inflight Brochure Monitor: KrisShop – 30/03/07

    Inflight Brochure monitor: Air Canada Essential – 22/02/07

    Inflight Brochure Monitor: Emirates Duty Free – 17/01/07

    Inflight Brochure Monitor: Shopping Extravaganza – 14/12/06

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