As "bbangji-sunrye," or bread pilgrimages to famous bakeries, take root as a hobby and travel culture, the retail industry is launching marketing campaigns targeting the trend. Companies are working to capture bread demand through online showcases featuring popular bakeries and experience-based pop-up stores.
According to a survey of 1,000 adults nationwide by market research firm Embrain Trend Monitor, 78.4% of respondents said they are usually interested in bread, while 92.7% said they tend to like bread. The proportion who agreed with the statement "seeking out delicious bread is also a hobby" reached 71.6%. While 88.5% said the burden of bread prices has grown recently, 62.9% said they prioritize taste and quality over price when choosing bread, showing that bread has moved beyond being a simple snack to become a matter of taste-based consumption.
The high interest in bread has led to the spread of bread pilgrimage culture. Experience visiting locally based bakeries, rather than large franchises, reached 81.1%, and 97.4% of visitors made an actual purchase. In particular, 55.3% of respondents said they would like to take a bread pilgrimage to a region famous for bread, and among those in their 20s and 30s, more than 30% had experience planning a day trip or one-night, two-day bread pilgrimage trip.
Amid this trend, companies are strengthening so-called "bbangketing," a portmanteau of bread and marketing. Fashion platform Ably will hold its "Bread Pilgrimage Busan Edition" event from the 29th of this month through the 1st of next month. It is an online showcase that lets customers order products from 11 popular local Busan bakeries, including "Heodaebbang" and "Creamy," all at once with free delivery.
Ably has been growing a nationwide online bread pilgrimage platform, starting with Seoul in March last year and expanding to Daejeon and Busan. Transaction value at the second event, held this February, rose 108% from the previous event, and the number of buyers increased about 80%. Some bakeries sold out their entire prepared stock within three minutes of sales beginning, drawing such high interest that the average time to the first order was eight seconds.
Lotte Wellfood is expanding consumer touchpoints with experience-based content. The "Pig Bar Bakery since 1983" pop-up store, operated from the 5th to the 21st of this month on Sharosu-gil in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, surpassed a cumulative 12,000 visitors within 10 days of opening. Participatory programs such as "Making Custom Pig Bar Bread," in which visitors decorate products themselves, and the "Bamti Pig Bar Bread Decorating Contest," drew strong responses. The new product "Pig Bar Bread" was also popular, selling about 5.4 million units within two months of its launch.
