One of my biggest passions is sustainable and healthy marketing. With the high competition rate and constant overload of info that can be quite hard to achieve for both the marketer and the consumer. Today I would like to write a bit about a type of marketing that absolutely fascinates me and raises a lot of ethical concerns at the same time - K-POP marketing.
K-pop is one of the most influential music genres around. It has become an international phenomenon. However, infiltrating the western market has been notoriously hard, yet its success has been explosive. One of the hardest parts of marketing is creating a truly loyal and enthusiastic following. Korean entertainment companies are masters of this craft.
The band’s biggest marketers are the fans. I’m sure all of us have seen a “stan Loona” comment or been spammed with videos of BTS in a Twitter thread. Every fandom has its own name, color, fan chants, and merch, for example, the group BTS has the a.r.m.y. The fandoms truly do act as organized groups. Whatever launch is happening the fans will hype it up, they’ll have streaming parties for songs and work hard to boost the algorithm working like a well-oiled machine.
International brands like McDonalds are also making use of the feverous fans. The BTS meal has been launched at McDonalds. It consists of fries, McNuggets and a drink. The only special thing about it is the two new sauces. Making this meal is super easy for McDonalds cause they don't have to develop a new burger or retrain their staff. The response has been great tho. There are lines outside of McDonalds of fans waiting for a chance to get the meal. Some teens have even been shown laminating the sauce packet lids and turning them into accessories. That essentially makes the fans walking billboard for both BTS and McDonalds
All of that does not come without a price. K-pop idols are often promoted with a boyfriend/girlfriend image. Fans will develop a false sense of closeness and see their idols as significant others or family members. They will in turn also defend and support them just as fiercely as you would a person you love. It is common practice that Korean entertainment companies will put a “dating clause” in their artists’ contracts. They are forbidden from dating anyone, either for a few years after debut or during the whole duration of their contract, for being in a relationship with someone would ruin the fans’ fantasy.
The entertainers are still only humans and will date in secret. A Korean tabloid has a tradition of exposing celebrity couples every new year. It is a huge scandal when two celebrities are reported to be in a relationship. There are two artists HyunAh and E-Dawn, who got caught dating. They were both under the same label, where HyunAh was a solo artist and E-Dawn in a boy group. Their relationship was one of the best-received relationship scandals among idols, however, they were both forced to leave their company and pay a huge fine for breaching their contract. They still received countless death threats and hateful comments. Fans were burning their merch and albums out of anger over the news.
In 2006 SM Entertainment wanted to add an extra member to Super Junior, one of their boy groups. Fans hated the idea so much, that they bought enough stocks of the company to have influence and stopped SM from adding an extra member. In 2014, nine years after the group’s debut with all the members in their 30s, one of them got married. He hasn’t been able to promote with the group ever since due to the outraged fans, many of whom are already married themselves.
As toxic as fandoms can be, they also do a lot of wonderful charity work, like establishing drinking wells or schools in impoverished countries, donating food, or spreading awareness about important causes all in their favorite group’s name. This type of marketing has a stronghold of the Korean entertainment industry. It works remarkably well and is just as destructive to the artist's private life as it is effective for their career.
Do you think the pros outweigh the cons?
コメント