The Phenomenon of Using Brand Ambassadors from Korea in Indonesia
Brand ambassadors are cultural or identity icons, where they act as marketing tools that represent a product. A Brand Ambassador is a person who supports a brand from various popular public figures — Shimp & Andrews
A study conducted in 2018 on 429 respondents where 91% of respondents were respondents aged between 17–25 years showed that the use of BTS as a brand ambassador at Tokopedia had a positive and significant effect on Tokopedia’s brand image and consumer purchasing decisions. The conclusion of the study is also in line with other research for Oppo Products. Thus, the use of brand ambassadors is still considered to be one way that is quite effective in influencing customers to use the products offered.
I’m sure that most millennials know about BTS or Blackpink, the pride of Korean boyband/girl band, or maybe at least have heard of it. Recently, several companies in Indonesia have been aggressively promoting their products/brands by collaborating with Korean artists by making them brand ambassadors. For example, Tokopedia (marketplace) which collaborated with BTS, Shopee (marketplace) with Blackpink, Ajaib (investment platform) which collaborated with Kim Seo Ho (playing Han Ji Pyeong in the drama titled startup), and many more.
I make two most basic reasons why the use of brand ambassadors from Korea can benefit companies in Indonesia.
The Increasing Popularity of KPOP
KPop (Korean Pop) is a genre of South Korean popular music. It took a long time for the music industry in Korea to grow. They started in the late 1990s until 2008. KPOP’s popularity started to get bigger, especially in Asia. Until now, I believe that KPOP has a big impact on the music industry in the world. Many girl groups/boybands from Korea have occupied the world’s top charts and beat the western industry, for example, BTS managed to set a new record by attracting more than 101.1 billion views within 24 hours for their latest music video, Dynamite.
Along with the growing popularity of KPOP in the world, KPOP in Indonesia is also getting more and more popular. The ASEAN Post (2020) states that Indonesia is the second-largest country in the world with the highest number of KPOP streaming. In addition, statistics show that Indonesia ranks first among countries where Korean boy bands such as BTS, Blackpink, EXO, and Twice have the most views. The number of Indonesian viewers for EXO and Blackpink reached 20 percent or around 496 million in 2018.
In addition, with the increasing popularity of KPOP in Indonesia and the advancement of technology and information flow, of course, this can be more profitable for companies in collaborating with idol artists. This is due to the large media coverage that will be obtained by the company as one of the impacts of the solid and large idol community on KPOP idols. Moreover, KPOP fans usually don’t only exist on one social media platform but they usually exist on every social media, such as Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and others.
Korean Wave
Korean Wave is a term that refers to the spread of Korean culture globally that triggers people in the country to study or imitate Korean culture such as the Korean language, how to dress, how to dress, the music industry, the world of cinema, and others. The Korean Wave has also developed in Indonesia, which is predicted to start in 2011. With the spread of this Korean fever, there is a tendency for people to follow all the customs/cultures of their idols. This can be used as a reason that the use of brand ambassadors on K-Pop idols is one of the good things for companies in Indonesia.
With the spread of the Korean wave, it is hoped that imitation behavior (in a positive context) from fans will emerge so that it can be profitable for the company. This imitation behavior is a behavior that shows that they must look the same as their idol artist. An example is the collaboration of NCT 127 with Nu Green Tea products. With this collaboration, it will lead to the perception that NCT 127 also drinks Nu Green Tea products, so it is hoped that fans should also drink the same drink. This is one of the most basic analogies.