FANDOM EFFECT ON FANS PURCHASE DECISION TOWARDS BTS ALBUM

• Main Author: Ardhya Kirana, Galuh
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/57620
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Currently, South Korea is very popular for its pop music, which is Korean Pop or “K-Pop”. There are a lot of K-Pop groups and one of them is BTS, whose albums are known to be one of the best-selling in K-Pop. In 2020, BTS’ albums are sold with a total of more than 20 million albums. BTS also has large number of fans, with Indonesia being one of the top 10 countries that have the highest number of BTS’ fans. Indonesia also has BTS’ fan community that connects BTS’ fans in the country. However, Indonesia does not seem to contribute a high share in the selling of BTS’ album, be it physical or digital. Therefore, this research intends to know how BTS’ fandom is structured in Indonesia, to identify factors that influence Indonesian fans’ purchase decision on BTS’ album, and to understand the effects of fan community towards its members’ purchase decision of BTS’ album in Indonesia. This research will be conducted through qualitative approach by semi-structured interview towards the fandom members and the admin or founder of the fandom, and quantitative approach by online survey towards fandom members who have bought BTS’ album at least once in the past one year. The researcher uses manual coding to analyze the interview result, and uses descriptive statistics and PLS- SEM to analyze the survey result. The result indicates that fandom participation has a positive impact towards purchase intention through fanaticism, self-image, and loyalty, and purchase intention has a direct positive impact towards purchase decision of BTS’ album in Indonesia. The finding of this research is expected to give insight about BTS’ album marketing strategy in Indonesia.