Big Bang, Girl’s Generation, MBLAQ, Girl’s Day, Super Junior or A Pink, anyone?
Some of you may know them, but if you are one of those who are scratching their head, well, they are music group from South Korea, representing an increasingly popular South Korean pop music genre known as Korean Pop or K-pop.
If you are still scratching your head, maybe you’ve heard this name: PSY – that worldwide-known Gangnam Style man?
You know what, I weren’t listening to K-pop. I weren’t even listening to pop music. I’m into acoustic music and to be honest with you, I don’t really care about pop music… until wherever I go I hear catchy songs sung in Korean – again, again and again. Those songs are catchy and keep on ringing on my ears for days!
Then I started to gain interest on K-pop. I look for more K-pop songs. I find out who’s who in K-pop. I learn about their fan base. I analyze how on earth their MV or Music Video get millions of views on YouTube.
The end result: They’ve got me; I’m now listen to their music. And yes, I even still don’t know what they are singing about (most of them are in Korean and I didn’t understand the language.)
If you notice, the above sounds pretty much like Inbound Marketing, don’t you think?
Inbound Marketing or permission marketing… regardless of the buzzwords used, the concept is similar to what has been adopted by K-pop music producers for years. We can definitely learn from K-pop music industry on how to do Inbound Marketing properly.
Lessons learned
“Stop selling, start helping” – Zig Ziglar
The first and foremost lesson you and I can learn from Zig Ziglar – and K-pop – is this: You should stop selling and start helping.
‘Helping’ is not limited to charities and the act of kindness – ‘helping’ can very well mean ‘making it easier for you to find what you are looking for.’
How on earth can K-pop made known globally? Many can’t understand a word of the lyrics. Well, in my humble opinion, the answer is this: Those in the industry stop selling (well, they still do it, but not so much of hard selling, really) and start helping fans to connect with their idols and vice versa.
Okay – their MVs are of course an effective viral marketing tools. But those are just the tip of the iceberg; what you often don’t see – or rather, don’t realize – is what they do in getting the words out – without any “Buy this!” signs.
Well, here are some lessons learned from K-pop from which you can take to implement in doing Inbound Marketing for your business:
1. They are well-trained and well-marketed
Boy and girl groups in K-pop are under management companies which manage virtually everything, from personnel selection to training to marketing. The selection process can be very strict and training can be very rigorous.
I don’t agree when people say that K-pop is about catchy song, pretty boys and gals, and so-so talent. I know that the group members must be very talented at at least one aspect, and some of the groups’ leaders are multi-talented. They have to be exceptional at dancing, singing, rapping, public speaking… and they have to be passionate about what they are doing.
So, here’s the thing: If you don’t know about persuasion, how can you persuade people? If you don’t know what makes you buy a product, how can you devise a marketing plan for client? You need to ‘train’ yourself about inbound marketing, continuously learn about it, and start market what you know – not what you sell.
Did you know why HubSpot is one of the leaders in Inbound Marketing? They develop an Inbound Marketing tool and firstly market what they know about the industry via free whitepapers, slides, reports, studies, and so on – and THEN they market their tool as a solution for a client who wants to put into practice what they have just learned. Wow.
2. Music Video rocks!
Music Video or MV is a must in K-pop music marketing. Releasing official MVs on YouTube is a crucial step in getting social shares and words of mouth spread out like wildfire.
Businesses today are starting to realize that if they want to get their brands, products and services found, they need to create videos and make sure they get as many views as possible to justify their costs of video production and marketing.
How-to videos are always helpful; funny videos – including those involving cats, dogs, goats – still work… and yes, videos are here to stay. Just ask YouTube and Vimeo.
3. Build a fan base
K-pop music groups are known for their strong fan base. The communities are now expanding worldwide. The impact? Wherever they go on a tour, they have an established fan base in that country.
Remember, fan base is not only a group of enthusiasts – fan base consists of die-hard fans: I am an enthusiasts; but a die-hard fan follow her idol on regular basis – with social media, ‘regular basis’ often means counted in minutes, even seconds – which can really tough for the idols in keeping their privacy – it can be quite disturbing:
If you are going to launch a marketing campaign that people actually love, you firstly need a raving fan base, in business world often called as ‘tribe.’ Build your tribe of followers and you won’t get ‘starved.’
4. It’s all about grabbing attention!
The music industry relies heavily in the ability to grab your attention – often a bit too much. This also holds true in K-pop. Quite often, the music itself is not able to grab your attention; however, the MV can.
Extravagant MVs, colorful, even quirky outfits; stories behind the lyrics, told in the MVs; controversies, drama… all are packaged in a single marketing package that is attention-grabbing. And no matter how you and I hate it, sex sells – unfortunately.
You can learn from K-pop in term of grabbing your audience’s attention. For instance, if you are a freelance writer, having a knack in writing headlines is something which sells very well in the market. Your unique way in storytelling turns you into a one-of-a-kind writer. Letting people know about those perks – without hard selling your service – will draw people in to your direction.
Need more insights? Head over to our regularly updated resource page to learn more about Inbound Marketing.
Takeaway
I’m relatively new in Inbound Marketing. But from what I see, hear and read, I can conclude one thing: No matter what strategies or tactics you employ and deploy, you’ve got to try to separate yourself from the crowd and establish your own uniqueness.
K-pop is different because it develops its own uniqueness. Although it’s quite similar to J-pop (Japanese Pop), it’s different in many ways. It’s also different from the pop music we know in the Western world.
To conclude this post, let me share what I learn from an interesting article; I’ve just read an article from Search Engine Watch: Make Your Own Keywords. To me, the article is very much intriguing. The premise: Instead of competing for a popular keyword, why not creating your own keyword, and dominate the search engine result pages?
Adopting the blue ocean strategy, Andrew Delamarter, the article author, says that “Keywords without search volume are opportunities.” Pretty smart.
Indeed, we’ve got to learn on how to be a trend-setter, the K-pop way. The question is, are you willing to learn from others – and make what you’ve learned your very own?
