What Marketers Need To Learn From The K-Pop Industries
South Korea’s K-pop industry is one of the examples of modern marketing techniques that other marketers can mimic 🪞.
Right now, the West knows and follows several K-pop artists, such as BTS (Bangtan Boys), Black Pink, and Red Velvet. Among these top Korean music entertainers, the most popular now is BTS.
The 7-member Korean boy band has broken record sales in the United States and made it to the U.S. Billboard Charts several times. They won in the U.S. Billboard Music Awards three times and are hailed as the 2018 most influential Korean celebrities by Forbes Korea. What made these young K-pop celebrities popular in many parts of the world 🌎? What is their marketing secret?
Hallyu Wave - The Beginning
“Hallyu Wave” or “Korean Wave'' was created by journalists from Beijing. It first came out in print in 1999. The Chinese journalists used the term while discussing the phenomenal interest and popularity generated by Korean pop culture and the country’s culture in general. This “wave” is not just about Korean musical groups and bands. It includes Korean dramas and Korean brands namely LG, Samsung, and others.
K-pop followed the footsteps 👣 of K-dramas (Korean dramas), winning attention 👀 and interest among audiences from overseas. Among the first performers outside South Korea were solo artist BoA and H.O.T., one of the first South Korean boy bands. The major breakthrough started in 2005, with the debut of boy bands such as Super Junior. The groups quickly rose to fame, building huge fan bases in many parts of Asia.
Although K-shows and K-pop music were not aired in the United States, fans got their Korean Wave fix thanks to YouTube and several other video 📹 streaming sites. South Korean companies are quick to take advantage of the worldwide attention to the Hallyu Wave, broadening their markets by using the popularity of South Korea’s popular cultural exports.
LG Electronics brought concerts by popular Korean performers around the world. They hired the most popular Korean TV 📺 and movie personalities to be their product endorsers, which increased awareness of their brands locally and internationally.
Hallyu Marketing Strategies
It is undeniable that South Korea has made a huge success in marketing K-pop overseas. Many companies would greatly benefit from following the winning formulas for marketing K-pop internationally. Language did not become a barrier for fans worldwide to enjoy the music 🎶, TV and movie appearances, and concerts of their South Korean K-pop idols.
If you look at it closely, the global success of South Korea’s music industry created a domino effect, increasing the sales of other South Korean businesses, particularly those dealing with vehicles, household appliances and mobile gadgets. Recently, Korean fashion accessories, cosmetics and other beauty care products are included in the mix 🥣.
Here are some of the strategies that help popularise K-pop globally:
1️⃣ Learn content and social media marketing
You can create social media channels of your own to reach your potential targets. Choose the channels that your target consumers use. Aside from posting relevant content, you need to have social media managers who can participate in discussions and post comments. They should share, comment and like the posts of other people, so that you can foster goodwill and good reputation for your company and your brand.
2️⃣ Share behind-the-scenes content, trailers and teasers
Korean pop stars share almost everything about them being performers. Most of them share videos while at home, during concert preparations backstage, dance and singing practice sessions, while traveling ✈️ and when they are filming music videos. They post trailers and teasers of their upcoming albums, singles or shows. Doing these things makes them more relatable and giving clues and hints about their new activities make fans giddy with anticipation.
3️⃣ Build a unique cultural ecosystem
You can build your own cultural ecosystem by utilising best practices, embracing diversity, and developing a style that fits your organisation or something that will become a signature of your product and teach it to your company or brand community.
4️⃣ Stoke the passion of your customers
It would be a good idea to know more about the members of your communities on social media sites. You should think about adding value to their support. One thing you can do is to build a closer relationship 🤝 with them, by having meetups, discussion groups and celebrating your milestones with your loyal customers. Listen to what they want in a product and respond to their comments, requests and opinions.
5️⃣ Grow content creators
You can encourage your customers to share your own content. Let them know that they can create their own by basing them on your content. Invite them to your events, encourage them to post their own coverage of your events, and provide them incentives such as free products and services.
6️⃣ Concentrate on content marketing first
Once your brand is stable and you have gathered a loyal following, you can monetise 💰 your brand’s relationship with them by creating branded items, working with non-competing products to produce co-branded items, or offer your loyal customers with premium products that cost slightly higher.
These are just some of the techniques used by the K-pop industry to earn money. You have to invest to earn revenues later. Connect with us to learn more on how you can apply some of these K-pop marketing tips to increase sales 🤩😎.
Reference:
Racoma, B., 2019, July 2. What All Marketers Can Learn from the K-Pop Industry. DayTranslations.
