It’s 4 p.m. local time on November 25, 2025, in the second-floor auditorium of the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. Just past the hour, two students stand in front of a large projector. They are PR majors Casey Castro and Kaylin Amijo.
They’ve been working on Minish Technology’s U.S. marketing and PR strategy for three months since August, and their final task is to distill the project down to its essentials.
PR majors at Cronkite School must complete a capstone project that is the equivalent of a real-world internship to graduate. For these two, Minish is their capstone project.
The presentation was attended by students and faculty from Kronkite School, representatives from client organizations in the U.S., and Minish Technology’s head of communications, Choi Raekseon, watched the presentation online.
Casey and Kaylin spent three months analyzing Minish’s strengths and risks, competing brands, and future press and social media outreach strategies for the new U.S. market.
First, a PR strategy requires an analysis of the competition and the market. They did an in-depth analysis of three popular veneer dentistry brands in the LA area and compared them to Minish.
Interviewing Dr. Jung Ho Kang was another eye-opening experience for the students. As a young dentist at the age of 29, it was refreshing for the American students to see that Mr. Kang was an innovator who had been pioneering the field for over 15 years when he founded Minish.
The outcomes of more than 31,000 clinical cases, as well as the fact that the company’s customers include famous singers and actors, were key points in the pitch.
However, it was quite a challenge for the students to research not only English resources, but also Korean resources, scouring translators and dictionaries.
“We researched everything from Minish Technology, Minish Dental Clinic, and (the U.S. brand) Minish Veneers,” she says, adding that despite the language barrier, she learned a lot about the dental industry.
Over the course of the project, they realized that while the veneer industry, which Minish is a part of, is inherently medical in nature for patients with teeth, it also requires an understanding of the beauty industry, which deals with smiles and beauty.
In their PR project, they also explained that Minish is based on a philosophy that utilizes ultra-precise technology to minimize tooth removal and maximize the patient’s own teeth. Also, the fact that Minish can be applied in one day thanks to its advanced technology is surprising in the U.S., where it is more expensive and takes longer than in Korea.
The Cronkite agency team recommends that the brand pursue influencer marketing more aggressively. “Recent social media trends show that Korean skincare is gaining popularity in the U.S.,” they said. “As a brand that originated in Korea, Minish has the advantage of capitalizing on the Korean skincare trend on social media and should play an active role in the beauty industry.”
Specifically, the two also came up with “SMART goals” for Minish.
The brief was to drive 100,000+ monthly unique visitors (UVMs) through digital articles, work with consumer-targeted influencers to identify 25 partner influencers, and create a mini-scheme of communications that could reach across the U.S. based on the LA area, where the brand is currently garnering industry and consumer attention.
Pitching is a fundamental part of PR, but it’s also the most difficult. In addition to identifying various media outlets (general, medical, dental, etc.) and identifying reporters in charge, they also identified influencers who fit Minish’s image and concept and met with the agencies responsible for their management.
They also adjusted the tone of their off-the-shelf press releases and pitches to influencers differently. The influencer pitches were more personalized. The idea was to find common ground with Minish based on the influencer’s key content.
It’s unusual for a global dental brand to be featured in a PR curriculum at an American university. Because of this innovative aspect, Professor John Nicoletti, Managing Director at Cronkite Agency, coached the students through the project, teaching them step-by-step.
The team also worked across time zones and bilingual environments in Korean and English (the team was made up of local students who didn’t speak Korean), literally bringing their research and ideas to life from the perspective of the American “Gen-Z” generation.
The Cronkite agency has worked on PR projects with a variety of clients, including large U.S. corporations such as Walmart, sports teams, and nonprofit organizations.
But even for them, collaborating with Minish headquarters in Seoul, with a 16-hour time difference, was an unfamiliar experience. The students sent emails at 4 p.m. to coincide with Minish’s morning meeting time, and the meeting was held later in the afternoon. “We didn’t want to email the Minish team at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m.,” they said.
At the end of the presentation, both Casey and Kaylin said they enjoyed learning about Minish’s growth as they expanded into the new U.S. market.
We look forward to seeing how many more people Minish can help smile and feel confident when they’re in charge of their own PR team. We’re excited to see how the first batch of Minish public relations strategists will grow into accomplished professionals in the U.S. PR industry.
Writer. Hyuntaek Lee
A former newspaper reporter, he worked for 18 years at a newspaper and is currently working as a freelance contributor and planning the second act of his life. In addition to journalism, he has worked in broadcast public relations and marketing at JTBC and Edelman Global Advisory in the United States. He is a recipient of a U.S. State Department Fulbright Humphrey Fellowship and a Google Asia-Pacific Newsroom Leadership Fellow. His hobby and specialty is writing reference books, and he has co-authored How to Pass the Press Exam, the Advanced Press Exam Practical Guide series, and Official Admissions Guide for JoongAng Ilbo and JTBC.
