Have a crush on Krush? And The regret of the time

 

Krush is the Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s new beer product "KRUSH" and was introduced three years after the launch of the "Cloud Live Draft" in 2020. Krush is a pale lager beer that comes in two forms: a 500-ml bottle and a 20-liter draft beer. Lotte Chilsung Beverage's launch of a new winter beer is a decision that considers the demand for gatherings such as year-end parties and company dinners.

But only recently I tasted this beer at the local seafood restaurant. I am not sure if this is better than Kelley or Hanmaek. For domestic beer market, Hite Jinro and OB have been doing mush better and introduction of KRUSH didn’t seem to change this yet.

The recent fierce competition in the beer market prompted companies to develop and release new beers, such as Hite Jinro's new beer product "Kelly" in April 2023, and OB Beer's "Hanmaek" marketing. According to the food industry statistics, Cloud, the predecessor of Krush, held less than 5% of the domestic beer market in the first half of 2023.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage emphasizes that it is a "young beer" and a "fourth generation beer," which are different from conventional beers, to achieve significant results in the two-top structure of OB Beer and Hite Jinro. However, at the time of this writing, the sales of Krush is disappointing and does not live up to expectation.

As the company cites "4th generation beer" as its main characteristic, it plans to conduct marketing aimed at younger generations. The company has selected Karina of Espa, dubbed the fourth-generation idol group, as spoke model, stressing that it is a new generation beer. Cloud's 10th anniversary in April 2024 is also considered a factor that can be used for marketing.

Usually, Korean beers are more popular to be ingredients of bomb cocktail or boilermaker than drink on their own. Although started as slangs used by consumers mixing a particular beer and a soju, naming of boilermakers became effective marketing method for companies. In the case of Hite Jinro, names such as ‘Tejina’, a mixture of Terra and Jinro soju, and ‘Tesla’, a mixture of Terra and Chamesl, are now used as if they were official names of such drinks. Hence, Lotte may also try to promote a new name of boilermaker using Krush and a particular soju for marketing.

Karina and Espa also remind us of recently released 90s hit, ‘The regret of the time’. I was a student when this song came out first. SM, which has been working on a "remastering project" to re-examine K-pop history since 2021, said, "It is meaningful in the history of Korean pop music and contains a message that reflects the feelings of the younger generation through the past and present."

Girl group Espa joined this remake project. All four members were born in the 2000s thus they were born later than the original songs. "I liked Seo's music, but it felt so far from us," leader Karina said in a video introducing the remake. "(While working on it), each and every lyric was so interesting and touching." "It's an old song, but I think it's timeless because it's a lyric that everyone can relate to now and in the future," Gisele added.

The Espa version of "The Regret of the Times," which was released on this month, reduced the repetitive lyrics in the original song and added new rap lyrics by Karina and singer BY. The song focused on completing the message about the "free era" in multiple ways. It expressed freedom and freedom beyond resistance by adding cool high notes, which are the strengths of Espa.

"The Regret of the Times" contains the most direct form of resistance among Seo's numerous songs. I also feel sorry that the take-home message of this old song is resonating very well even now. We are still struggling with problems that have haunted us since 90s. Very interesting, but sad observation!