1. Overview

The PR & Marketing Committee was inaugurated on May 12, 2006 and has been formed to help the member companies update their communication skills and bring them up-to-date with the marketing strategies that will help them in their business operations in Korea. Even the committee members are in the same sector, Marketing or PR, they are in various industries with various issues in terms of sales and marketing activities in Korea. So this committee will develop ideas and thoughts that establish the EUCCK’s overall position on relevant matters in this field, industry by industry mostly. Activities and concerns of the committee will be reflected in advertising, sales promotion, and other ways of marketing. The door of this committee is open to non EUCCK members also so that we could function as an autonomous platform to share information and ideas regarding marketing issues and trends together.

2. General Issues on Marketing Activities in Korea

Items Issues Recommendations On-line Marketing According to Article 50 of ‘The Act on Promotion of Information & Communication Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc,’ if advertisement for profit-making purpose is sent through e-mail, the source of the e-mail address must be stated in the advertisement. As such regulation does not exist in foreign head quarters, the office in Korea would be inconvenienced as it would need to separately manage data according to information sources. In particular, many foreign companies understood that the regulation would not apply if they have servers overseas, but despite there being no clarification on applicable subjects in the law, there are reports of companies being fined or encountering other disadvantages. Whenever there is a suit against online-marketing filed by a client, even if the company has collected client information through legitimate means, it will still waste much human power and expenses to prepare and respond to prove this. Increasing number of foreign companies are using the internet as a marketing tool in the Korean market which has a well-built internet infrastructure, and require English documented guidelines and information on related laws for online marketing activities in Korea. Due to various marketing access, the sources for e-mail address have become numerous and complex. Stating the source of e-mail address on each advertisement seems unnecessary to not only foreign but also domestic companies, and as the sources themselves become varied and complex, it leaves doubt about the accuracy of the stated source on the advertisement.