The “smallest cafe in the world,” created by Dong Suh Foods, has taken the global coffee market by surprise, proving that there is a place for instant coffee in the world.

Dong Suh Foods, the nation’s largest instant coffee maker, launched a marketing campaign in 2011 to promote its new premium instant coffee brand Kanu, which it called “the smallest cafe in the world.”

The name “Kanu” is a combination of “coffee” and “new,” and Dong Suh introduced it as the first type of instant coffee that offers the same kind of taste as Americanos sold at cafes.

“The company wanted to develop a new instant coffee brand to compete with cafe-brewed coffee,” said Lee Dong-hee, a manger of the beverage marketing team at Dong Suh Foods.

“We cared the most about quality, and wanted to offer Kanu customers an experience similar to that of drinking an Americano at a coffee shop. In other words, Kanu really is the world’s smallest cafe, provided at a very affordable price.’’

In addition, the company upgraded the packaging design to showcase its status as a high-caliber instant coffee brand.

Lee noted that the demand for high-quality instant coffee has grown faster than expected. According to the company, sales of Kanu have been strong for the past four years. Despite the competition, Kanu’s market share stood above 80 percent in February this year.

“For now, we need to work on raising brand awareness, so we plan on staying with (our) ‘smallest cafe’ campaign for a while,’’ Lee said.

The ad campaign was recognized by the Effie Awards Asia Pacific, a renowned marketing communications award in the region, early this month. Dong Suh became the first Korean food manufacturer to receive the award.

In Korea, instant coffee still dominates the nation’s coffee market with a 60 percent market share worth 1.4 trillion won ($1.3 billion), industry watchers said.

Dong Suh Foods has dominated the instant coffee market for more than a decade, taking more than 80 percent of the market. “The company expects Kanu to help further expand the instant coffee market,” Lee said.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)