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Consumer and Consumption Effects from Hallyu

ASIA 367: Contemporary Korean Culture

Celina Cheung

46607157

Dr. CedarBough T. Saeji

December 5, 2017

South Korea as a nation is increasingly reaching an international audience in terms of se-curing mass tourism and obtaining a stable economy through the consumer consumption of “hal-lyu” especially with Korean dramas and K-pop being the symbol of this country through interna-

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tional and local fans. Therefore, “Hallyu” itself has increased the expenditure of the masses (globally) through tourism in visiting the different places in South Korea where everyone’s favourite dramas were filmed, advertisements and endorsements by celebrities that influence consumer consumption by local and international fans and how much in particular and the effect it has on producing substantial economic capital for South Korea as a whole. This paper will dis-cuss the consumer and consumption effects due to the occurrence of Hallyu through increased tourism, advertisements/endorsements on product placement, and Hallyu itself being a major economic benefit in identifying South Korea.

Hallyu has provided a majority of it’s economic capital for South Korea as a nation with the popularity from Korean dramas, music and television shows to name a few. Hallyu is the na-tional pride of Korea and what identifies this country because of how much revenue has been earned from it. Chen states that “Hallyu is an economic and cultural force; the South Korean rec-ognizes it’s cultural exports as a key resource in it’s economy and agents of cultural diplomacy” (2016:27). This shows how the South Korean government identifies with Hallyu being a major driving force in revenue for the country and how big of an impact it has made to South Korea. In addition to this, Korea’s economic effect that Hallyu has to offer on merchandise exports was about “US 918 million, whilst that on the domestic tourism industry amounted to $US825 million in 2004” (Kim et al 2009:317). The prominence of Hallyu not only provides economic benefits to the nation but also understanding the phenomenon of this improves the image of South Korea to other countries world wide, displaying what is unique about this country compared to the others. Bringing into light, the people behind the Korean wave that has made a name for South Korean pop music. For example, one of the most famous singers in the nation that has become a world-wide phenomenon over night for his popular song “Gangnam Style”. Psy has achieved worldwide recognition for his catchy, fun song and his music video is one of the most viewed videos on Youtube. Youtube is predominantly known as one of the biggest sites for video uploads and sharing among communities around the world. His music video gathered about 2 billion viewers and the song was namely the song of the year in 2012 world wide and was an international hit (Kim and Nam 2016). Because of Psy, people around the world, not just in Asia became more aware of what K-pop was and it opened up to bigger opportunities for people to listen to other groups and expand their fandom. The outbreak of popularity from this has helped defined Ko-rean popular culture and what makes Hallyu so important for South Korea in terms of national-ism and their economic stability. Before Psy, only a few groups (first generation groups) were popular like Big Bang, SNSD, Super Junior and Wonder Girls, but after the Gangnam style craze, many more idol groups debuted and there was a larger growing audience for not only local but international fans to explore the world of K-pop with so many active groups out there. Be-cause of the Korean popular culture expanding, “Korean popular culture even found itself in the most unlikely place, North Korea, where copies of South Korean dramas and music smuggled from China are watched and listened to in violation of laws against the import of enemy culture”

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(Joo 2011:492), because not only was K-pop a big factor on Hallyu, but so was Korean dramas and variety shows.

Korean dramas, films and television programs have also brought in a lot of fans due to their favourite celebrities appearing on a certain drama, movie or program which allows for tremendous popularity among the Korean wave. Noting that “the concept of Hallyu broadly en-capsulates a variety of popular cultural activities and expressions, including TV dramas, films, sitcoms, computer games, K-pop music and even fashion” (Kim and Nam 2016:525). For Korean dramas and variety shows it allows fans to relieve stress and “take temporary flight from the rou-tine and ordinary” (Lee 2014:47). Variety shows play a key role in influencing people their be-liefs and ideologies of identifying South Korea and to provide entertainment for those that want to escape for a little bit from their hectic daily routines or when they just want comedic relief af-ter a bad day. With that, an example of the variety show Running Man really promotes national-ism and provide economic benefits to Korea because not only has it become of the top variety shows in the nation along with Infinity Challenge, they really introduce South Korea in every episode because the themes of the episode follow traditional stories and they rarely film in the same locations more than twice (Lee 2014). As an avid viewer, the writers of the show consis-tently try to promote how unique Korea is by displaying different landmarks and filming in many locations the international audience have never been to before as tourists but will be willing to go explore because those that are big fans would want to explore where their favourite variety shows were filmed at when they go to South Korea. This really allows for the Korean govern-ment “to take the advantage of the Korean Wave as a policy tool to improve it’s cultural and pub-lic diplomacy” (Jang and Paik 2012:196). Hallyu has been so important with the ways national-ism plays out, it really opens for a wide opportunity of ways to market and influence consumer consumption especially to the international fans. While Hallyu exports have been growing at an accelerated rate, it gives way for the consumption of all different media relating to the Korean wave to obtain a secure economy with exports steadily increasing as “Korea’s total exports (in USD) rose on average 2.05% per year between 2010 and 2015” (Huh and Wu 2017:1389) which allows for even more of an increase in upcoming years with the Winter Olympics coming up next year and how they would incorporate celebrities from the Korean wave to attract interna-tional fans. This will not only help the economy but also create a sense of nationalism and for South Korea to stand out as a nation through K-pop, Korean drama, film and show consumption that has helped South Korea tremendously as a whole.

As mentioned with Hallyu providing economic capital for South Korea as a whole and re-ally creating a national image for the country, the second point in analyzing consumption effects is through advertisements/endorsements and product placement in dramas or variety shows that influence expenditure by fans on a global scale. Not only by the consumption of the music, drama or television show themselves but also consuming physical items and experiences. This is another huge factor for Hallyu being known for conspicuous consumption among people around

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the world. The three things that will be focused in this section is Hallyu’s influence on advertise-ment and endorsements, beauty and product placements in dramas with examples which all link to celebrity culture from the Korean wave leading to this conspicuous consumption. Often when it comes to advertisements and endorsements in CFs, they are usually 15 seconds long and some-times the product or brand is not as important because what the most prominent things about these commercials is who is starring in them. With fans just seeing for example their favourite actors, actresses or idol groups in the CFs, they would want to consume the particular product just because they are promoting it. Celebrities that promote and advertise in these commercials are the main driving force that pushes people to consume a certain tangible item because if their favourite celebrities are promoting it, they must enjoy using that particular product too. Fe-dorenko uncovers that “advertising blends with celebrity drive entrainment, becoming another venue for consuming information about celebrities” (2014:357) and also the Korean wave is use-ful for “providing opportunities for the manipulation of Korea’s images, extending a network ef-fect of Korean popular culture and also producing internationally influential heroes and celebri-ties” (Jang and Paik 2012:201) because the use of celebrities from Korean popular culture sub-stantially increases consumer consumption of a particular product or brand that they advertise because of the fan base they may have that influences their fans to purchase the item. It is not about the brand or the item anymore but merely the celebrity used for each advertisement that is vital. An example with the utilization of a female k-pop idol is Girl’s Day Hyeri for modelling 15 different brands and is identified to be the CF queen (Turnbull 2017). Because of her popularity, being a Korean pop idol and her appearance to the target audience of dominantly fanboys and some fangirls, companies and brands make a high amount of revenue because of fans that pur-chase items from these companies due to being influenced to purchase them by their favourite celebrities using this certain item or service. Also with advertisements and CFs, companies try to use visuals as a technique to market different items (Rajaguru 2014). This is why celebrity cul-ture is so prominent in the Korean wave itself because the use of Korean stars really make an ef-fect on the consumption of tangible products or services.

A huge consumption practice, mostly targeting women is Hallyu’s influence on the set beauty standards for women in Asia. The beauty standards are set so high, especially in South Korea that many fans and consumers go under the knife and consume all these cosmetic products to mirror their favourite stars. Kim and Nam argues that tourists especially among those that are female, “have a strong interest in beauty treatments including plastic surgery and prefer to shop for fashion and beauty items and get skincare and cosmetic services in Korea, in order to emulate the styles and appearances of Korean celebrities” (2016:531), which shows the power and effects Hallyu really has on women and how they should appear because the influence to be of standards is important especially in Korea where the society is appearance based under many certain cir-cumstances when it comes to dating or even finding a job. It is overwhelming how much appear-ance matters in South Korea as it is the leading country known from the world to consume the most plastic surgery and is becoming a norm. Although it is stigmatized, because many Korean

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celebrities admit to plastic surgery nowadays, it isn’t surprising and deemed as a shameful act as much as it has become so common. “Korean stars are credited for establishing Korean ethnic fea-tures as a standard of beauty across Asia, with women in the region having their faces changed following their favourite Korean stars” (Joo 2011:495). Women get plastic surgery to look a cer-tain way especially to look similar to a celebrity is so influential that women spends thousands of dollars to look like something not themselves but rather what they think would look good in their society because if so many people like the way a certain celebrity looked, then they would be favoured based on their appearance among their community even more. This influence mainly targets those from other countries like China and Taiwan. China and Taiwan have a large fan base when it comes to the Korean wave as so many women from both countries fantasize looking a certain way to look more attractive and feel confident because if they can look like their idols, they are one step closer to looking “Korean”, since most young females really fantasize looking “korean” especially if they're into the K-pop and K-drama aspect of the culture. Kim et al argues that an “increasing numbers of young Taiwanese and Chinese women are either visiting local hospitals or travelling to Seoul to have plastic surgery to make themselves look more Korean, based on photos of their favourite Korean stars” (2009:315) because of their set idealized image of what is beautiful and what isn’t based on the more popular celebrities in Korea.

With the discussion on advertisements and endorsements by Hallyu influencing con-sumption, product placement is definitely one of the more vital ways to purchase certain type of products. Product placement is not only used in commercials or different types of advertisements but are more emphasized in Korean dramas. The way that marketers try to place products in the dramas are “more used widely to promote products by cultivating individual attitudes” (Hung et al 2011:806). Marketers try to get individuals to purchase certain products by placing them in the drama because if they really enjoy the show they’re watching and the characters use a certain item in the drama where the brand is clearly seen, they would want to consume the same thing too For example, In the drama, Descendants of the Sun directed by Lee Eun Bok and Baek Sang Hoon in 2016 by KBS, there was a great amount of product placements featured in each episode. Some of the products widely used were Laneige which is endorsed by Song Hye Kyo whom is also the female lead in the show and other companies like Subway, Dalkomm Coffee and even Soju. The products shown within a show is a companies’ strategy to invest in putting their brand in a popular drama like this one to really market their company and brand so that they can bring in profit because if the drama is so well liked by not only those in Korea but internationally, there is going to be an increase in sales based on what the characters consume. Hung et al ex-plains, “placement worth is enhanced when the product is associated with an established screen character but not when the product is associated with a star” (2011:807) because in a popular drama like Descendants of the Sun, it draws the audience to blur out the actual actors starring in this drama, but instead build a connection between the characters that they play with the items or services they are associating themselves with. Below are some pictures of product placement be-ing used in Descendants of the Sun, that has made these companies become more well known be-

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cause the characters were con-suming them the drama.1 Dalkomm Coffee:

2 Laneige Makeup

One more example from another recent popular drama Goblin, is the red scarf. The red scarf that Eun Tak is always wearing became an item that was instantly popular among viewers because of the importance it had to the plot of the drama. The scarf belonged to the protagonist Ji Eun Tak’s mother whom have passed away but Eun Tak wears it so it can remind her of her mother. The scarf became a really global purchase among fans of the drama especially online.

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A brand that stood out as really promoting their items is surprisingly Subway. Not only was it featured in Descendants of the Sun, but also in current big dramas Goblin and The K2. Subway

1 Blog, Patricia. Descendants of the Sun:dal.komm coffee. Image. 2016. http://doggi3.com/2016/03/13/descendants-of-the-sun-dal-komm-coffee/2 Blog, N, Maureen. 7 Fashion Moments from Song Hye Kyo in “Descendants of the Sun”. Image. 2016. http://www.yesstyle.com/blog/2016-03-24/7-fashion-moments-from-song-hye-kyo-in-descendants-of-the-sun-trendspotting/3 Blog, Chickachunga. The Otherworldly Couples of The Lonely Shining Goblin. Image. 2016. http://www.dram-abeans.com/2016/11/the-otherworldly-couples-of-the-lonely-shining-goblin/

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was featured in all three of these popular dramas and although the company probably paid quite an amount to advertise their brand, they were able to influence consumers to also be aware of Subway as a choice of where to eat if they see in the drama that even their favourite stars and ac-tresses consume this in the drama. It influences to fans to choose this place to eat compared to other chains. The Subway signs and products are so heavily shown in the scenes that it’s hard to miss with the bright yellow and green visuals as “marketers are driven to use visual effects in the marketing and communication processes” (Rajaguru 2014:379). This is evident as all three dra-mas displayed the characters actually at Subway consuming their product and holding their sand-wiches to display the visuals of the appealing characters eating this which can persuade those that are watching to want to buy subway too because the characters ate it so deliciously for ex-ample. Below are screenshots from the three well recognized dramas showing the consumption of Subway and how they were able to incorporate advertising Subway by the characters.

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4 Blog, Son, Ji-Hyoung. Descendants of the Sun cinematographer admits product placement excessive. Image. 2016. http://www.asiaone.com/showbiz/descendants-sun-cinematographer-admits-product-placement-excessive5 Blog, Javabeans. The Lonely Shining Goblin: Episode 8. Image. 2016. http://www.dramabeans.com/2016/12/the-lonely-shining-goblin-episode-8/

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The last point in this paper for how the Korean wave has influenced all types of con-sumption behaviours and the effects of it, is how Hallyu is leading to an increase of Tourism consumption in South Korea resulting in a more stable economy for the country. There has been a really huge rise to tourism in South Korea in recent years due to how big Hallyu has influenced this phenomenon as South Korea has “experienced significant expansion, achieving a historical record of more than 10 million international tourists in 2012” (Kim et al: 2016:524). This was a statistic in 2012, but now with the even more publicity in popular dramas, there has been an in-crease in tourism. Back to the drama I was analyzing throughout this course, Descendants of the Sun showed a great variety of places in Greece and Korea that has attracted thousands of people to visit these on-set locations due to the popularity of this drama especially to the international audience. International fans would fly to places like Greece and South Korea to explore the film-ing locations from the drama. Descendants of the Sun had many top celebrities of Hallyu that starred in this drama including Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo who are so visually appealing to the audience because of other dramas or shows they have starred in previously. “Celebrities are believed to be the influential factors behind travellers’ intention and actual visits to Korea. Since emotional attachment to celebrities has become an ordinary social practice” (Rajaguru 2014:380). The amount of influence towards visiting a certain location is so heavily emphasized due to how the characters used that certain space and how important the certain location is that appeals fans to find these sentimental places that they saw from the screen and visiting them in real life. Also, because this Korean drama became the drama of the year, the show drew in a lot of people to watch this and become fans of the stars that were in it. Soon after the drama was done, the four main characters Song Joong Ki, Song Hye Kyo, Kim Ji Won and Jin Goo en-dorsed a lot of products and became models for various companies, as well as become the face of Tourism Korea because of how their popularity grew so rapidly because of the drama. For De-scendants of the Sun, the more popular places that attracted tourism was Greece (The Zakynthos Shipwreck in Navagio), a beautiful location to film a romantic scene between the two main char-acters and the Taekbaek Hanbo coal mine which was located in South Korea. The easier location where fans from around the world would visit while in South Korea relating to the drama is the

6 Blog. Hiheel. Time Where Subway Has Appeared In Dramas. Image. 2017. https://k-drama.aminoapps.com/page/blog/times-where-subway-has-appeared-in-kdramas/qkGs_Rud7nnx5BbZj8d8bEdxZ1XxoLw

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cafe Dal.komm Coffee because the cafe is shown many times in the drama and displayed the huge sign of the name for fans to see that they can visit this place when they go to South Korea because the stars were actually in that restaurant and consuming their products. Below are links to blogs that are made by fans of the drama on the different filming locations for Descendants of the Sun which attract those that are fans of the drama to visit these places and influence their de-cision to visit South Korea due to the popularity of the drama influencing the consumption of in-creased tourism.

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7 Funko. Filming Sites of Descendants of the Sun [Part.1]. Blog. 2016. http://blog.funtastickorea.com/filming-sites-of-descendants-of-the-sun-2/8 Funko. Filming Sites of Descendants of the Sun [Part.2]. Blog. 2016. http://blog.funtastickorea.com/filming-sites-

of-descendants-of-the-sun/

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In conclusion, Hallyu can really influence consumption in many ways. In purchasing tan-gible items and services to marketing brands and influencing consumer’s decision on tourism and coming to Korea to visit film sites. This all connects to show the growth of what Korean culture has spread throughout the world. It has led to the success of nationalism for Korea as well as bringing in a huge economic capital for the country as being one of the most visited places in Asia today especially from Chinese and Japanese visitors whom are neighbouring countries in-fluenced by Hallyu even more prominently than other countries around the world. Hallyu has grown rapidly in influencing consumer consumption and the effects have given the opportunity for people to be more aware of Korean culture and identity as well by consuming television shows, dramas and K-pop to really build a connection with the culture in all aspects and build a stable economy for South Korea itself. Hallyu is really a key factor to nationalism and identity in South Korea which has grabbed the attention of the international market and build a name for it-self as a country filled with so much entertainment and top stars. Hallyu is one of the driving forces for overall consumption in South Korea and will remain a part of South Korea’s national identity especially with how K-pop, variety and dramas have taken over in the global scale.

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