EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF K-POP MARKETING STRATEGIES AND THE EFFECT THIS HAS HAD ON GENERATION Z

• Main Author: Marchella Priadi, Shabrina
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/68104
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

K-pop or Korean pop has become a global phenomenon that heavily influences the brand loyalty and enthusiasm of its consumers. Accessibility of the internet around the world allows K-pop to be widely known to the global community, this includes the rise of social media platforms, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. During this era of globalization, Generation Z also plays an important role in contributing to K-pop idols’ huge global achievements. A lot of this generation actively engage with anything related to K-pop because of how unique they are as an artist. The K-pop entertainment companies approach the market in a different way compared to other artists in the global industry, they present the K-pop idols through remarkable visual- intensive performance, which can be shown on their intense choreography and incredible singing abilities. The companies initiated various unique marketing strategies that are not commonly implemented in the global industry. Despite the challenges of breaking through the global and international market, South Korea is now the only country that is capable of effortlessly executing niche marketing strategies, yet still able to capture the global market. What makes it even more interesting is that K-pop industry now categorized as the fastest- growing substantial market. With the focus on the perspective of Generation Z, the implemented strategic marketing by the K-pop entertainment companies for the K-pop idols as artists/performers will be evaluated, including digital content, idols’ personal and/or on-stage image, variety of merchandise, and events/shows. The objectives of this research is to discover how K-pop became so popular with Generation Z, to find the methods utilized by the K-pop entertainment companies on their strategic marketing in attaining a high fan engagement from Generation Z, and to determine the most influential marketing strategy implemented by the K-pop entertainment companies that captured Generation Z’s attention in having such a strong brand loyalty and enthusiasm. This study was conducted through primary and secondary research. The primary research was done in a form of an online survey that contains questionnaires about the respondents’ experience on being a fan of K-pop and rating the marketing strategies executed by the K-pop entertainment companies. This primary research was approached through a quantitative analysis. The marketing strategies that have been rated by Generation Z were analyzed through one-way ANOVA. In addition, post hoc Bonferroni correction test is also required for this quantitative research to find the highest significant factor and its specific differences comparison, that resulted in the most significantly impactful marketing strategy that catch Generation Z’s attention. While the secondary research acts as supplement in completion of the study, consisting of fundamental theories and information regarding marketing, the K-pop industry, and Generation Z. The goal of this research was to evaluate the impacts of K-pop marketing strategies and measure which marketing strategy has the most significant influence on Generation Z. Even though K- pop entertainment companies implement varied marketing strategies to grab the attention of its consumers, this endeavor uncovered that many of Generation Z discovered K-pop through YouTube, where K-pop music and idol image drew their attention the most when they first became interested to K-pop. In comparison to other marketing strategies and social media platforms, YouTube has become the greatest influence factor on Generation Z’s loyalty and enthusiasm. A strong engagement relationship between Generation Z and its K-pop idols on YouTube is comprehensible since digital content is very popular among them, which has higher social media consumption than other generations. This research recommends future endeavors to investigate YouTube content that encourage fans in being actively engage with K-pop.