The World Cone, an ice cream product made by Lotte Confectionery, is one of the best-selling Korean ice cream products of all time. (Photo: Lotte Confectionery)

One of the best-selling Korean ice cream products of all time, the World Cone, is an ice cream product made by Lotte Confectionery. Product worth roughly 80 billion won were sold last year, helping it retain its No. 1 position in the ice cream market for about 20 years.

The World Cone, which made its debut in March 1986, is marking its 33rd anniversary this year. The cumulative sales of the product since then stand at a whopping 1.43 trillion won. The figure translates to about 2.8 billion individual units of ice cream. If that many are lined up on ground, they stand 630,000 km long, or the equivalent to circling the Earth 15 times.

The ice cream cone rose to the top position in the Korean ice cream cone market in 1988, only two years after it was released. The World Cone became the No. 1 product in the entirety of the ice cream market in 1996, 10 years after its debut.

The secret of the World Cone retaining the No. 1 position is that the ice cream product has excelled in terms of quality features such as taste, size and design.

The World Cone has maintained a strategy of differentiation through price and size since its debut. The size of the ice cream cone is apparently quite larger than that of its rivals. Lotte Confectionery has made the World Cone more savory and sweeter compared to its rivals.

Its design is creative with a contrast between red and blue, attracting attention. Further, a strong logo has conveyed the ice cream cone’s unique imaging and branding.

The unmatched structure of the World Cone is that it includes ice cream decorated with chocolate on top of scattered peanuts, a combination of taste that cannot be imitated. It also has a visual effect of making the topping look more savory.

The cone itself is coated with chocolate designed to make cone crisper longer, and the ice cream last longer without melting. In particular, the chocolate at the bottom of the cone has been inserted to help consumers enjoy it as a desert.

The differentiated design of the cone connects a certain traditional identity. The identity motifs of the World Cone – red color, wild logo fonts, and star patterns – have evolved. It has also pursued changes to infuse fresh and new images.

The World Cone has undergone renewals for the 13th time since its debut. The latest design has retained color, log and pattern, but it has focused on simpler and stronger impressions. The words “No. 1 Ice Cream” have been put on the upper part of the package to stress the top position of the product.

The World Cone contains more popular tastes consumers favor. Two versions –Madagascar vanilla taste and mocha coffer taste – enjoy popularity among consumers.

The high season of the ice cream cone is between April and October. During the period, Lotte Confectionery plans to conduct a marketing blitzkrieg on social network services such as Facebook.

The company plans to raise sales by more than 15 percent this year compared to previous years through aggressive advertising activities.