International marketing strategies of the Consumers’ attitude towards

country of origin: A case on Xand the economic impacts it has been creating
in Thailand

Submitted by

Meskat Hassan Khan

ID- 2022901

Submitted to

Dr. Abureza M Muzareba

Faculty of MKT- 546

School of Business and Entrepreneurship

Independent University Bangladesh

22nd December, 2020

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A minimum of 4000-word (excluding list of literature review and front load of
the report)

literature review with suitable titles and subtitles. A section MUST cover on
how this

pandemic has been changing the attitude towards country of origin in your
assigned

country.

2. Discussion should cover different categories of product as per the attitude

towards country

of origin.

3. Use APA referencing style and use reference whenever a claim is made.

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The main motivation of Thai people consumer is relaxation with spa. They perceive that Thai spa is good
and suitable for them. In term of segmentation based on demographic and in term of marketing mix, for
this survey group has the main perspective similarly and that they can be determined as one group since
their basic needs are similar.

CONSUMER ATTITUDE

According to Evans et al (2006) concerned with the developing favorable attitudes toward the marketing
offering. Attitude is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive
process with respect to some aspects of the individual‟s world.

 A cognitive component: this consists of a person‟s beliefs of knowledge about an issue or an object,
such as the reliability of a car or its fuel consumption.

 An affective component: this consists of a person‟s feelings or emotions about the issue of the object;
these feelings can be „positive‟ or „negative‟. These are based on the beliefs about the object that the
individual holds.

 A behavioral (cognitive) component: this consists of how the individual is likely to respond to the
object based on what they know about it and how they feel about it (Evans et al., 2006, P.67).

2.2 CONSUMER PERCEPTION According to Evans et al (2006), for this stage the authors draw information
from the psychology of perception. Furthermore, understand perception mean the process whereby
stimuli are received and interpreted by the individual and translated into a response. Perception is the
process through which a person forms an opinion about the various stimuli he receives from his sensory
organs. In marketing, perception is concerned with understanding how the consumer views a product or
service. The five senses of a person help him in this process. The marketer uses various props to
stimulate the consumer, that is, through the use of colors, sound, touch, taste, or smell, to observe the
product (Icmrindia, 2010).- CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD SPA IN THAILAND - Page | 10 2011
LALITA PHONGVIVAT, SIRINYA PANADIS 2.3 CONSUMER MOTIVATION Motivation is a basic concept in
human behavior and thus also in consumer behavior. Motivation can be described as the driving force
within individuals that moves them to take a particular action. This driving force is produced by a state
of tension, which exist of result of an unfulfilled need that moves us away from psychological
equilibrium or homeostasis. So, marketers are often occurred of creating a need for a product or a

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service that would not exist except due to some aggressive and repetitive marketing activities that
educate, inform and even persuade consumers to buy those products or services (Evans et al., 2006.

Introduction

This paper aims to highlight the International marketing strategies taken by Big Hit
Entertainment Co. to establish BTS as a global music brand. We will also look into their impact
on the South Korean economy. Big Hit Entertainment Co. Ltd. is a South Korean music
company established in 2005. The company has multiple concerns, including Source Music,
Pledis Entertainment and KOZ Entertainment, all together collectively known as Big Hit Labels.
Big Hit strives to become the world's best music-based company by placing their highest priority
on trendy content and their valued fans. The company continuously strives to satisfy the
customers with high standards and continuous improvement, according to their official website
(Big Hit Official, 2020). According to a Korean newspaper, Big Hit’s revenues in the third
quarter of 2020 grew by 54%, while its operating profit for this period grew by 20%. The
company manages the portfolio of a number of Korean music personalities and groups which
includes Lee Hyun (solo artist), TXT and the renowned BTS (Music Business Worldwide, 2020).
In this paper we will look at how Big Hit Entertainment, despite all the adversaries, continues to
thrive in the global music industry. We will mostly focus on BTS as they are the main cash cow
of the company.

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Literature Reviews

E-commerce business is growing all over the world due to technology proliferation and considering the
increase in the internet’s usage and smart devices. Convenience and omnipresence are promoting
factors of e-commerce. According to Brodie (2007) and Gonzalez (2008), e-commerce, has become a
significant technological advancement for businesses in changing business practices. It is essential to
know who your clients are and what they need has turned into an undeniably critical challenge for
today’s e-commerce platforms, while remaining concentrated on new customer acquisition. Nowadays,
the ability to use a real understanding of a customers’ purchase decision results in the capacity to
deliver better product proposals and create better shopping experiences. Research has gained
significant progress in our comprehension of effect, demonstrating that moods, feelings, and emotions
are related to all parts of consumption behavior (Arnold and Reynolds, 2009). The presence of online
stores today provides many adjustments in the buying behavior of the community. According to
Katawetawaraks and Wang, (2011), the online system makes it easy to communicate and approach
customers and online stores are becoming more fun for consumers as it comes to consumers 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week. Online store applications give more advantages to consume. Direct applications help
shoppers find their options more easily. Furthermore, online applications help address issues, such as
security and service guarantee to consumers. The interaction between the consumer and the application
system helps to cope with direct contact with the salesman where a few people prefer not to interact
with the salesperson (Parks, 2008). In the opinion of Haver (2009), younger consumers are more familiar
and choose online shopping preferences. As stated by Richa (2012), demographic aspects are influenced
by gender, age, income, and marital status. Therefore, demographic factors can affect consumers'
preferences in shopping. A few analysts have completed investigations in their push to inspect the
variables impacting consumers’ mentality and recognition to make internet business buys through
webbased shopping. Frames of mind toward online shopping are characterized as a consumer’s positive
or negative sentiments identified with achieving the acquiring conduct on the web (Chiu et al., 2005;
Schlosser, 2003).

2.1 Cultural factors “Culture is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law,
custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor, 1871).
Cultural factors impact the shopper conduct either socially or mentally. The way of life delineates the
lifestyle and attributes of a specific group of people, including how they talk, dress, think, shared norms,
values, and myths (Kaur and Chawla, 2016). Since every group, every country is different; the culture

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presents slight changes among them. Many researchers have directed studies on culture’s topic.
Mantovani (2000), defines religion in many ways; one of the researchers, Professor Geert Hofstede
(1991) emerges in term of dedication to this topic. During, 1967 to 1973, he has conducted interviews
with a large number of IBM workers in more than 40 different countries and an excess of 60 cultures. He
has gathered a considerable amount of data to analyze and base its future world study. According to
Professor Geert Hofstede’s convictions culture is the aggregate programming of the human personality
that recognizes the individuals from one human from those of another. However, a nation’s way of life is
an intangible and complicated thing; naturally, it is unclear to apprehend and understand. Culture is an
arrangement of all in all held and shared qualities (Hofstede, 1991). According to Hall (1976), “Culture
affects everything people do in their society because of their ideas, values, goals, attitudes, and
normative or expected patterns of behavior. Culture is not genetically inherited, and cannot exist on its
own, but is always commonly shared by society and its members”. Researchers have asserted that
consumers’ choice making for online shopping be may motivated by their identity, attitude, perception
and another external environment such as culture, friends, family (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007). 2.2
Consumers attitudes factors First of all, examining consumers’ attitudes is highly crucial because attitude
in this context plays a significant role in their repurchase choices and furthermore fundamentally
influences the selection aim of different purchasers based on the information and views that they get
from early adopters (Van der Heijden, 2003; Hsu et al., 2014) According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975),
attitude can be described as the learning of disposition to perform reliably great or unfavorable way
concerning a given object. Researchers explain that approach has an influencing factor on online
shopping. There are two sorts of attitude can be recognized. The first one is attitudes toward objects,
and the second one is attitudes toward behaviors. Attitude toward a behavior refers to the degree to
how much an individual has an idea or negative evaluation or examination of the action to be followed
up on (Taylor and Todd, 1995). In other words, attitude toward a behavior can be alluded to as a
person’s positive or pessimistic assessment of relevant conduct and is composed of an individual’s
notable convictions concerning the apparent results of playing out a behavior (Kim and Karpova, 2010;
Al-Debei et al., 2013). These definitions highlight the emotional idea of attitude. Park and Kim (2003)
demonstrated that consumer attitude toward online shopping was unequivocally affected by their
intention to search product information from the internet. Wu (2003), stated that the relative factors
like demographics (gender, age, and income), shopper preference, ways of life, and advantages
perception impact consumers’ attitude toward their decision. 2.3 Consumer behavior factors Cleveland,
Naghavi, and Shafia (2017) said that the fundamental shaper of consumer behavior was culture, it

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means that in the function of each country, customers will not have the same requirements and
expectations, and their purchasing process will significantly differ. Solomon, Russell-Benett, and Previte
(2013) defined consumer behavior as the investigation of individuals and the products that help to
characterize their identities. It is the study of the process involved when people analyze, select, buy
used, or surrender products, services to satisfy their needs and desires. Nevertheless, purchasing is a
concept because individuals or gatherings may decide to purchase the product. According to Arnould
and Thompson (2005), “a social arrangement in which the relations between lived culture and social
resources, between meaningful ways of life and the symbolic and between material resources on which
they depend, are all mediated through consumerist markets.” Indeed, each group of people has its
cultural differences that shape and influence their purchasing behavior (Cleveland, Naghavi and Shafia
2017). The aim of this analysis is to understand why people want to buy this service or this product
along with how they would settle on their purchase decision (Horner and Swarbrooke, 1996). Consumer
behavior has an undeniable impact on online shopping. Kaur and Chawla (2016) believe that the
people’s decision and request patterns of various administrations and products rely on traditions,
convention, and cultural values of a specific area or community. In their suppositions, global strategies
must be confined by studying the way of life of a particular gathering, because each group has
distinctive necessities according to their revenues, and more importantly for this study, their traditions
and customs. 2.4 Customers motives factors Customers motives toward online shopping are numerous
and influence consumers in identified with how they make purchasing decision. The final decision, the
process starts a long time before the actual purchase and continue after the purchase (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2004). Personal characteristics can be described as a group of definite client highlights that
may impact their online shopping attitudes and behavior. The two principals’ factors that influence
consumers in purchasing decision during shopping are: Convenience and time saving (Robinson, Riley,
Rettie and Wilsonz, 2007). According to Wang et al., (2005), the convenience factor is an essential asset
for online shopping. Convenience factor refers that it is easier to search the information, the product
through online compared to traditional shopping. It also means that it is available for customers around
the clock (Hofacker, 2001; Wang et al., 2005). Convenience does not concern only products but also for
online services, even after business hours, some companies have online customer services available 24
hours, so you can ask questions, and have assistant support, which has provided consumers’
convenience (Hermes, 2000). Consumers’ life is more accessible because with online shopping because
they can be anywhere and anytime and purchase online, so they save time because they don’t have to
wait in checkout lines or to wait in the fitting room (Childers et al., 2001). Usability is also crucial, refers

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to the degree to which a website facilitates users to use its function effectively and suitability (Calisir,
Bayraktaroglu, Gumussoy, Topcu, and Mutlu, 2009). Accordingly, consumer’s attitudes toward online
shopping would be influenced by the design and appearance of the online retailer site. The higher the
quality of the web site is, the more inspirational dispositions of purchasers are toward that online
retailer (Zhou, 2011). Web usability can be characterized as making the design simple enough so that
customers, who necessarily will tend to be goal-driven, accomplish their task as fast as they want.
According to Hsiao et al. (2010), the higher web site quality usually brought the about higher perception
of trust. To conclude, it is complicated to cover all the potential factors of customers’ attitudes and
behaviors toward online shopping. This examination paper aim is to develop the most important and
applicable factors which influence the consumers to buy online. There are some other factors which
affect online shoppers, including price, security, privacy, and after-sales service.

There is a meaning in their content

The BTS songs always carry a message targeted to their loyal fanbase. Unlike artists who deliver
songs written by others, BTS group members come up with their own lyrics. For this reason,
their stories about growth, overcoming hardships and other social issues really impacted the
younger generations. Additionally, they create songs to watch, rather than songs to simply listen
to. Big Hit Entertainment put a great amount of time and effort to create quality music videos in
addition to contemporary choreography (Park & Gukby, 2019). Unlike existing k-pop groups
that have been trained under standardized system, BTS has learned and evolved by their own.
For instance, normally agencies are the ones who control all the aspects of their groups including
love life, etc. But BTS is free from such intervention. Therefore, BTS enjoys taking new
challenges such as adopting new music genres and delivering a message which is beyond
language. The group members spent a significant amount of time in America, learning about the
genre early on in their career. Each member has had a role in their songwriting and they’ve
largely worked with the same producers who have collaborated with other top international
rappers, as per an article in Forbes (2018).

Their activities are well planned and well timed

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Even before their debut in 2013, they already had contents such as covers and dance practices,
published through several media (YouTube, blog, Twitter). The U.S. hadn’t seen a popular
homegrown boy band since 2014. One Direction, arguably the biggest boy band of recent times
disbanded, 5 Seconds of Summer and BigBang was also on the brink. Then came BTS, a Korean
boy band who had already spent considerable in the U.S. since 2015. Each of their Korean
albums has appeared on the Billboard 200, but following their 2017 tour their global fanbase
grew exponentially. This gave the group a particularly powerful platform for further
advancement, the same way international boy bands have been doing since the time of The
Beatles (Forbes, 2018). They have constantly tried to update fans on their activities through
planned and unplanned interactions to always stay on top of the mind and create hype. The boy
group was one of the first artists featured in the live broadcasting application called V App.
Through this they provide coverage of their waiting time backstage before concerts, continuous
lives from members, with or without a defined purpose. They also broadcast exclusive shows and
concepts: before releasing a new album, they film talk-shows presenting the content, answer
fans’ questions and play various games (NY Times, 2018).

Engagement and loyalty of the “ARMY”

Though the Korean fans have thought of the CEO to be the eighth member of the group, the key
to BTS’ success is ARMY. BTS’ potential is largely because they have a humungous fanbase at
their backs. BTS takes a unique approach by writing songs that talk about personal issues such as
figuring out one's identity and learning to love themselves. This approach has grown their
ARMY fanbase into a diverse group of different genders, ethnicities, nationalities, and age
groups. But their fanbase is mostly young people from around the world. BTS topped a ranking
which is an indicator of the influence the band will have on consumer purchasing behavior
(Time, 2019). Not enough can be said about how the fans support the boy band. BTS has thrived
because of how loyal the ARMY is, with fans cheering them on from far away and supporting
them in every way possible. Their fans do not only support the group in digital spaces and
financially through typical means, such as buying albums and concert tickets, but their
dedication has led to immense charitable efforts and social campaigns. Moreover they are related
to numerous other activities, including translating the band's content, because of their love for the
group (Forbes, 2018).

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Use of the power of Social Media

We all know about the power and reach of social media nowadays. Big Hit understood the value
of social media and used it to the best of their competence. They made the BTS members to
regularly upload content such as vlogs, selfies, dance and song covers onto various platforms.
Big Hit created an app called Weverse, for both international and Korean BTS fan club members
to access; this fanbase is known as the ARMY (Adorable Representative MC (Master of
Ceremonies) for Youth). By offering a consistent presence on social media, BTS has grown the
ARMY at an electric pace. Before Weverse launched, Fancafe was offered only to Korean
ARMY members with a membership. Weverse was specifically created to allow the groups
under Big Hit to interact more closely with their fans. Through the app, members interact,
comment and browse A.R.M.Y. members post. This allows a sense of mutual trust as fans share
personal stories about how the group has impacted their lives or just jokes to make other
members smile. BTS has grown so much that they toppled Justin Bieber’s six-year winning
streak for Top Social Artist and has now won the award for 3 consecutive years (Elite Daily,
2020). This worldwide popularity is confirmed by their growing strength on social media: as of
today 22nd December 2020, they have more than 26 millions of followers on Twitter, 42 millions
of subscribers on YouTube, 35 millions followers on Instagram and 25 millions on Facebook.
BTS is also the world record holder in “The Guinness Book of Records (2018)” for having most
Twitter engagement as a group.

Reaching out Globally

One of the most prominent of Big Hit's marketing strategy is how they manage the international
outreach. BTS reached out to fans from all over the world. The content provided by Big Hit
includes music videos, variety shows, and other videos include subtitles in several languages so
that global ARMY members can enjoy them. The company makes it a point to provide albums
and other merchandise to international countries by selling products through global stores such
as Amazon and Walmart (Flint Avenue, 2020). With every concert of their world tour sold out in
a few minutes, it is legitimate to ask how BTS is able to reach such a wide audience with their
Korean songs. Until now, they have mostly enticed people who can relate to the lyrics that are
translated by dedicated fans and widely spread on the internet. A few K-pop stars already tried to

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enter the international market by singing in English songs, but none of them really succeeded.
However, BTS took the risk and decided to enter the overseas markets. If we are too involved in
the existing market for an easier start, it normally becomes difficult to expand any further.
They’ve recently begun to work collaboratively with more international artists including The
Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki and MNEK (Forbes, 2018).

Economic Impacts on South Korea

With all the rippling effects worldwide, do they contribute to their economy as well? A study
projected that a particular sound track from BTS’ album would generate 1.7 trillion Korean Won
of economic activity and nearly 8,000 new jobs. The study overlooked foreign tourism in the
face of the travel restrictions imposed because of the corona virus pandemic. It will also result in
direct sales of more than 400 billion Won, it would lead to nearly 600 billion Won of indirect
cosmetics sales and almost 180 billion Won in food and beverage sales (The Jakarta Post, 2020).
The estimates were made from analyzing the sales of the BTS's album, statistics from South
Korea's Customs, the Central Bank of Korea and Google’s data. BTS is yielding an outstanding
$4.65 billion of gross domestic product. That puts the boy band in the same economic status as
Samsung, Korean Air and other big shots of that country. The millions of albums and concert
tickets they sell generate revenue greater than the annual output of Fiji, the Maldives or Togo
(Forbes, 2019). And the popularity of K-Pop has spurred growth in other sectors, such as
tourism, food, fashion and language education. BTS’ contribution to the economy will offer
support for the country's pandemic-hit economy according to CTGN (2020). A report from
Hyundai Research Institute showed that 796,000 foreigners visit South Korea annually because
of BTS, which show proof that the band is promoting the local tourism industry. A survey
conducted on the most popular spots in South Korea showed that the top 5 locations selected
were BTS-related places (HRI, 2019)

Conclusion

BTS has not become world’s most popular band overnight. They have surely shed a lot of blood,
sweat and tears behind the scene and a big thanks goes to the effort of the people from Big Hit

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Corp. Without the clear and drastic go-to-market strategies as mentioned above, their devotion
and passion might have been worthless. In marketing, a market should be created, if it does not
already exist. For a single band to make such an impact on the economy, industry and culture of
a nation is very rare. For it to be BTS who came from a very small company it was something
even they had not imagined of. We are in 2020 and BTS has impacted many sectors of South
Korea and the worldwide music industry. By employing a similar multi-tiered marketing
strategy, almost any business can grow their very quickly and effectively.

References
Big Hit Entertainment. Official Website- https://www.bighitcorp.com/eng/. Accessed on 22nd
December, 2020.

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CTGN. (2020). K-Pop to offer support for South Korea's pandemic-hit economy. 23rd September.
Elite Daily. (2020). What Is Weverse? BTS & TXT's New Official Fan Community App Is A
Game-Changer. Available at- https://www.elitedaily.com/p/what-is-weverse-bts-txts-
new-official-fan-community-app-is-a-game-changer. Accessed on 22nd December, 2020.
Flint Avenue. (2020). Available at- https://flintavenue.com/2020/02/25/bts/. Accessed on 22nd
December, 2020.
Forbes. (2018). 7 Factors That Helped Propel BTS To No. 1 On The Billboard 200. 31st May.
Forbes. (2019). BTS Can’t Save South Korea, Though Its $4.7 Billion GDP Boost Sounds Good.
10th October.
HRI. (2019). Yeon-Joon & Hyo-Jin. BTS label Big Hit Entertainment joins the ranks of unicorns.
Hyundai Research Institute Report.
Music Business Worldwide. (2020). DESPITE THE PANDEMIC, BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT
GENERATED REVENUES OF $436M IN THE FIRST 9 MONTHS OF 2020. Available
at- https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com. Accessed on 22nd December, 2020.
New York Times. (2018). Available at- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/business/bts-ipo.
Accessed on 22nd December, 2020.
Park, H & Gukby, S. (2019). Big Hit Entertainment “The Decisions that Made Big Hit".
Accessed on 22nd December, 2020.
The Guinness Book of Records. (2018). Available at-
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/showcase/best-of-the-2018-book.
Accessed on 22nd December, 2020
The Jakarta Post. (2020). BTS hit 'Dynamite' worth $1.4 billion to South Korea. 7th September.
Time Magazine. (2019). Available at- https://time.com/5681494/bts-bang-si-hyuk-interview/.
Accessed on 22nd December, 2020.

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