IONIA Co., Ltd. is specialized in manufacturing and producing alkali water ionizers that electrolyze ordinary tap water into healthy alkali water by means of sheets that consist of 9 titanium electrodes. It tried to get foot in the door of the Matching Team as guided by TradeSOS. IONIA showed its intentions to obtain assistance and information on emerging markets, aiming particularly at export markets rather than domestic markets, as well as information on various policies for related exhibitions and exports.

As IONIA Co., Ltd. has shown interest in online trading, it was suggested to join tradeKorea, forwarding incoming inquiries. Marketing tools such as Overseas Business Matching Service (OBMS) were also introduced so that IONIA could find local buyers through overseas networks of trade organizations. A manager of tradeKorea Matching Team planned a form of target marketing for which transaction proposal e-mails (C/L) were prepared in reference to products of IONIA Co., Ltd. and sent them to interested buyers.

As a result of intensive promotion activity over a short period of time, a manager of tradeKorea Matching Team has received many inquiries from buyers, and among them, a buyer from the Middle East expressed interested in the X-Blue model and asked for more information. The buyer has imported high-end products from Italy, France, Germany, Korea, and Japan, and supplied them to existing major markets such as Dubai, UAE, etc. It is also looking for other models, seeking to expand the market to Egypt, Turkey, and Kuwait.

A manager on the tradeKorea Matching Team cooperated with IONIA Co., Ltd. and participated actively in the negotiation, expecting good results from it. In the Middle East market, filters have to be replaced frequently since the water quality is inferior to the Asian market and water contains a lot of lime. Accordingly, products developed for the European market, in which the water quality is similar, were suggested to the buyer. As the negotiation proceeded in reflection of the quality and performance that the buyer was expecting, it was sought to remove obstacles one by one.

After about 1 year of inspection, the buyer acknowledged the high quality of products and the reasonableness of prices. Eventually, an export contract was concluded. Since this contract was of a significant scale, it was divided into 2 parts while being implemented. Kwon Rok Hee, the CEO of IONIA Co., Ltd., once visited the trading center vaguely and has been receiving information from it regularly since then. To Kwon’s surprise, dealmaking with a big buyer was achieved with the help of online service for overseas marketing, and Kwon expressed deep appreciation for it.