Korea’s No. 1 burger shop had an unexpected 2-hour wait for its first visit to Japan. Over 30,000 visitors expected for just 3 weeks

A line has been forming since late October at the foot of Dogenzaka, right next to Shibuya 109.

The people lining up are mainly young people visiting Shibuya. This is a limited-time store of MOM’S TOUCH, a popular Korean hamburger chain.

Mom’s Touch has 1,408 stores in South Korea, making it the number one store in South Korea (according to company research as of June 2023). The burger chain, which is so well known in Korea, made its debut as a pop-up for three weeks from October 20th to November 9th.

It’s not well known in Japan, so why is there such a long line?We asked Lee Kyung-min, director of Mom’s Touch & Co., who is in charge of this pop-up shop.

The reason is “I was super prepared.”

Mom’s Touch’s signature menu includes chicken burgers with juicy chicken thighs and fried chicken. Their strength lies in the fact that they prepare their food in-house after receiving an order, and that their products are freshly fried and have a handmade feel.

According to Lee, “Mom’s Touch TOKYO Pop-up Store” receives an average of 1,550 visitors per day. The number of customers is expected to be 32,550 for the entire period until November 9th.

Advance reservation slots filled up within a few days. Due to the influx of visitors who did not have reservations on the day, we canceled take-out service and changed to dine-in only. Some products were even sold out. More than 70% of the customers visiting the store are Japanese, and about 15% are Korean.

Why is it so popular?Mr. Lee Kyung Min

“probably,We have been preparing for a long time to open a store in Japan.I think.

Japan has a very advanced eating out culture. Many global companies are also expanding into the region. Because we are a country with many gourmet people, we thought we should be prepared.”

and talk.

In holding a pop-up store, Mom’s TouchWe have been making detailed preparations for about a year..

First, we conducted a survey of Japanese tourists visiting South Korea. Of the 60 menu items available in Korea, the company decided to narrow down the menu to the 10 most popular and offer them at the pop-up restaurant.

We also spent a lot of time recreating the taste.

The main members of the development team at the Korean headquarters were brought together and through trial and error they were able to make the same authentic sauce as in Korea using Japanese ingredients.

We strive for freshness and use domestically produced ingredients as much as possible. In South Korea, the policy is that the patty of Cyber ​​Burger (Mom’s Touch’s signature chicken burger) is made in Brazil, the fries are made in the United States, and the chicken and vegetables used in other fried chicken dishes are made in Japan. They say they have taken action.

Mr. Lee said, “We valueI put so much effort into “taste” that I would risk my life.”

The store locations were also carefully selected. After spending about three months choosing a location, we decided on the event space “ZeroBase Shibuya” in Shibuya.When selectingCEO Kim Dong-jung also visited Japan and inspected the site.The fact that he did so shows that he put a lot of effort into it.

Regarding the reason for choosing Shibuya, Mr. Lee says:

“One thing is that it was a place where a lot of people came and went.When I visited the scramble intersection, I was impressed by the amount of people there.We wanted young people who are sensitive to trends to recognize the quality of our products.That’s also the reason.

This was the place where these aims were the best match.”

In fact, about 60% of pop-up store customers are in their 20s or younger, and if you include people in their 30s or younger, about 80% of the customers are in their 20s or younger. It seems to be popular among women, with over 70% of them being women.

“It’s similar to South Korea that there are many young people and female customers, but the characteristics are a little different.In South Korea, there is a large customer base of male customers who love meat, and women in their 40s often shop with their children. This is one of the reasons why there are so many.In Japan, I have the impression that many women who are sensitive to trends visit our stores.” (Mr. Lee)

Thoroughly explore the possibilities in Japan with store visit surveys

Although this is a limited-time opening, it seems like the company is trying to find a way to win in Japan, which is crowded with competing burger chains.

In a survey conducted on customers visiting the store,A series of straightforward questions to explore possibilities in Japan..

“How often do you visit burger franchises?” “Which burger franchise do you mainly use?” “How competitive do you think Mom’s Touch products are compared to the brands you mainly use?” “What is the reason?” mosquito”….

When asked about the purpose of this survey, Lee said, “Surveys with intentional intentions are dangerous, so we took measures to prevent that from happening,” but added the following:

“In terms of competition, I think McDonald’s is the absolute champion in Japan, but not in Korea.

I myself was concerned about how much market share we could have in Japan, and I thought that was the really important point.”

This is not the first time we have opened a store overseas.

In fact, Mom’s Touch already has overseas stores in Thailand, the United States, and Mongolia.

“We have been transforming into a global company since our shareholders changed two years ago (FY2021).From the beginning, we started expanding into Japan at the beginning of the year..

However, I would like to reiterate that, as the eating out culture is developing, there were some concerns and points that needed to be verified about entering the business from the beginning.” (Mr. Lee)

Ahead of Japan, we opened a store in Thailand, where the restaurant market was strong. The success in Thailand led to the opening of the first store in Mongolia in September of this year. “We had no plans to open a store in Mongolia, but we received a love call,” said Lee.

Following its success in Thailand and Mongolia, the long-awaited arrival in Japan included the creation of a pop-up store for the first time to gauge reactions.