• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.2222-2240
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• 2023

Brand fandom refers to a collection of consumers with strong emotions toward a brand. Studying the dynamics of brand fandom can help brands understand which services or strategies influence their consumers to become a part of brand fandom. However, existing literature on fandom in the last three decades has mainly used qualitative methods, and there is still a lack of research on fandom using quantitative methods. Specifically, previous studies lack a framework for locating fandoms from online textual data and analyzing their dynamics. This study proposes a framework for exploring brand fandom dynamics based on online textual data. This framework consists of four phases based on the design thinking model: Preparing Data, Defining Fandom Categories, Generating Fandom Dynamics, and Analyzing Fandom Dynamics. This framework uses techniques such as social network analysis and process mining, combined with brand personality theory. We demonstrate the applicability of this framework using case studies of two Korean home appliance brands. The dataset contains 14,593 posts by consumers in 374 online communities. The results show that the proposed framework can analyze brand fandom dynamics using textual customer data. Our study contributes to the interdisciplinary research at the intersection of data-driven service design and consumer culture quantification.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.165-178
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• 2021

With rise in economic activity of fandoms, fashion brands often collaborate with K-pop stars such as BTS to enhance brand preference and sales. This study analyzes why people engage in fandom activity and its effects on collaboration fashion brand preference by focusing on 'BTS' and fandom 'Army'. This study aims to provide information to establish marketing strategies by identifying the influence of fandom culture related to the Korean Wave and the fashion industry, and empirically analyzing factors affecting active customer formation for long-term growth. The data were collected from BTS fan club 'Army' and a total data sets were analyzed using SPSS25.0 statistics program. The findings of this research were as following. Frist, BTS fandom motivation were identified as Need for Approval, Communication Need, Professionalism Need, Need to Belong, Consumption Need and the BTS fan groups were categorized into 3 groups. Third, comparing BTS goods values and collaboration brand preference an excess in each group was revealed. This study is significant because it provides essential data for the marketing strategy of fandom market by comparing marketing effects of BTS with the characteristics of fandom consumers and identifying the different desires of each group. As a result of this research, it can be seen that BTS an influential leading brand, has been adopted, and the research direction of empirical analysis has been presented. In practice companies can select specific fandom targets by using the sub-levels of fandom types that have become clear and implement marketing strategies of the fandom market.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.559-575
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• 2021

The popularity of K-pop, the development of diverse media and communications, and rapid globalization are increasing consumers' attachment to celebrities. These celebrities, called "Human brand", have a growing impact on consumers. However, research on idol celebrities has been conducted mainly on teenagers. Furthermore, there are limits to the studies on consumers' attachment to idol celebrities who do not advertise specific products and intention to purchase products which are not advertised but related to the idol human brand. Therefore, this study has been conducted on 301 out of 400 adult women in their twenties to forties in Korea to examine the relationship between the characteristics of the idol human brand, attachment to the idol human brand, desire to imitate the idol human brand, desire to identify with the idol human brand and its fandom community, and the effect on purchase intention. For the statistical analysis, SPSS and AMOS were used. The study found that the characteristics of the idol human brand which are trust, professionality, social attractiveness, and physical attractiveness positively influenced attachment to the idol human brand. The attachment to the idol human brand positively affected the imitation desire toward the idol human brand, and the identification desire with the idol human brand, and to identify with its fandom community. Additionally, the desire to imitate and to identify with the idol human brand and its fandom community positively affected the intention. Furthermore, the relationships between all variables were found to have a significant mediating effect.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1601-1612
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• 2022

As human brands, Idols, the central members of K-pop, are actively engaging in various industries based on the support of their fandoms, greatly impacting the national economy. In particular, due to the development of digital devices and technologies, they are active both online and offline, and idol avatars are a significant part of their activities across diverse contexts. Therefore, this study aims to categorize avatars used in various contexts and explore fandoms' perceptions according to each type. Based on case studies and literature review, idol avatar usage was categorized into products, supplier-led content, and interactive content, and accordingly, surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted. As a result, regardless of category, fandom showed a negative perception of idol avatar usage, as shown in the order of interactive content, supplier-led content, and products. Regarding human brand characteristics of idol avatars, attractiveness was evaluated higher than intimacy and likeability. However, the attachment to real-life idols showed a higher correlation with the characteristics of intimacy and likeability than attractiveness. This study is significant as it looked at the future directions of idol avatar usage by analyzing the fandoms' perception of avatar usage in the K-pop industry from a human brand perspective.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.87-94
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• 2019

In this paper, the method of analyzing the unformatted data of consumers accumulated on social networks in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by utilizing data from the service design and social psychology aspects was proposed. First, the fandom phenomenon, which shows subjective and collective behavior in a space on a social network rather than physical space, was defined from a data service perspective. The fandom model has been transformed into a collective level of customer Persona that has been analyzed at a personal level in traditional service design, and social network analysis that analyzes consumers' big data has been presented as an efficient way to pattern and visually analyze it. Consumer data collected through social leasing were pre-processed by column based on correlation, stability, missing, and ID-ness. Based on the above data, the company's brand strategy was divided into active and passive interventions and the effect of this strategic attitude on the growth direction of the consumer's fandom community was analyzed. To this end, the fandom model of consumers was proposed by dividing it into four strategies that the brand strategy had: stand-alone, decentralized, integrated and centralized, and the fandom shape of consumers was proposed as a growth model analysis technique that analyzes changes over time.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.351-361
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• 2019

The objective of this article is to identify an alternative strategy for brand marketing through a case study of the Korean boy band BTS, which has recently seen a huge success in the global music scene. BTS has actively used transmedia storytelling as a tool to survive in the competitive music market. Transmedia storytelling refers to stories that are expanded across different media platforms, engaging audiences to explore from one medium to another to undergo multiple experiences. It gives audiences various ways of enjoying cultural content and participating in cultural content production through numerous media outlets. BTS has established and spread its fictional universe through albums, music videos, short films and webtoons, and has launched diverse projects where fans actively share, create, and play with their content. By inviting fans to actively participate in and interact with the BTS universe spreading through multiple media platforms, BTS can keep its fans engaged and energized. These activities have generated an emotional bond between BTS and their fans, which further leads to a worldwide fandom, based not on a producer-customer relationship but on mutual trust. The BTS case demonstrates the potential of transmedia storytelling as a useful benchmark to provide a positive brand experience for customers, which eventually enhances brand attachment and brand loyalty.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.113-123
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• 2021

Purpose: BTS Meal at McDonald's was launched in May 2021 in selected countries all over the world. BTS fans in Indonesia bought the BTS Meal and collectively donated to the online delivery drivers as a form of empathy. As a quantitative study, this paper aims to identify the influencing factors in sociopsychology for fans to buy products (BTS Meal) available online using celebrity endorsement strategy, as well as demonstrating social empathy as an extended effect. Research design, data and methodology: empirical research was conducted through an online survey sent to 150 participants using the purposive sampling method. Participants were BTS fans, or ARMYs, who bought BTS Meal and conducted donations. Data were then sorted and processed with path regression. Results: preference and role model influenced the buying behavior; however, these factors influenced social empathy only when mediated by consumption. Preference and role model alone did not have a direct influence on social empathy. Conclusions: Consumer behavior insight is relevant in distribution science. A meal distribution involving brand ambassadors is considerable, particularly with celebrities demonstrating quality in capturing fans' hearts through role modeling. When a distribution is conducted online using a brand ambassador, buying behavior could lead to a social impact.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.83-98
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• 2022

This study identified the characteristics of the subculture aspects that led to the success of luxury brands and analyzed the implications of those aspects. For this, semantic analysis in a socio-cultural context was performed. Additionally, this study took the theoretical background, the change in subculture and post-subculture, the digital youth generation, and the change in the meaning of subculture style into consideration. The subculture style aspect and its meaning in luxury fashion brands were analyzed as follows: First, there are challenges that betray the legitimacy or values of luxury brands. Through this, the brand gained recognition and increased sales, and the designer gained a reputation as an innovative creative director. It can be seen that more successful branding was promoted by securing a more subcultured fandom. Second, by combining subculture image fragments, these brands cater to the diverse tastes of a myriad of subcultures. This maximizes commercial profits. Third, most promotional marketing activities are collaborative and done digitally, which allows for a wider customer base, but the difference is in digital capabilities. Limited editions or application use on social networks can act as another driver. It is said that the distinction in high-priced luxury brands is not only driven by economic power but also by sub-cultural capital and digital ability.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.111-116
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• 2020

This is a case study of corporate culture marketing to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs on October 5, 2021. Corporate culture marketing seeks to derive cultural consumer values through Steve Jobs' fandom, and to increase corporate brand image and achieve profits. According to Big Data, Steve Jobs' brand image was derived from 'Innovation', 'First', 'Creativity', 'Change', and 'Design'. So, the relationship between Spigen convergence culture space 'SpigenHall', which is highly related to Steve Jobs' brand image, and the opera , which is made of the material of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, is analyzed with big data and culture. We investigated the opinions of content experts. SpigenKorea and the digital opera are designed to provide Steve Jobs' story of joy and sorrow, offer VIP members' premium services, press publicity is 'the first in Korea', GangNam's suitable for famous celebrity performance venues and cultural and artistic venues 'SpigenHall', the revenue of the performance ticket was selected as a donation. This study is suitable for researching the life story of male CEOs and planning a cultural city. The limitations of the study need to analyze various works by genre and attempt to analyze consumer values according to the industry.