One of the objectives of this report is to evaluate the effectiveness of various marketing mix used by the event which is the Korean-pop (K-pop) night concert. In addition, it also evaluates how effective these components are towards the success of the K-pop concert. Suggestions on how the events could be improved on would be made in this report. I will also look into the various tourism roles and the economic value of this event to Singapore and end with a conclusion on the event.
1.2 Profile/background of K-pop concert
The cultural celebration festival of Korea Festival 2008 took place from 1 November 2008 to 18 November 2008. It consists of various events that ranged from fine arts to popular culture, traditional and contemporary events and also the mainstream music.
The purpose of the festival aimed to engage of audiences residing in Singapore by upholding the Korean culture through food, music, dance, sports, arts and film.
The list of events comprised of the following:
- Korean Flavour Fiesta
- K-Pop Concert
- Korean Traditional Dance Performance
- Taekwondo Performance
- Korea Film Festival
- Charity Golf Event and Fund-Raising Dinner
- Haan Trio Classical Music Recital
- Korean Contemporary Art Exhibition
The event that I went to in this list of event was K-pop Concert which was on 4 November 2008 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It was an event where famous pop-stars and talents such as Wonder Girls, Chae Yeon, Andy (from Shinhwa), Jun Jin (from Shinhwa), V.O.S., Jewelry, U-Kiss, 2PM and Kim Jong Wook of K-pop came together to promote cultural exchange and celebrate the friendship between Singapore and Korea through the concert. This event aimed to attract youths, students and Korean Wave (“Hallyu”) fans in Singapore highlighting the global language of music.
1.3 Methodology of research
The research was done through searching information about the event on the internet and personally attending the event to have a better understanding of the K-pop concert.
2. Evaluation of the Effective Use of Marketing Mix
2.1 Product
The “product” of an event is the set of intangible leisure experience and tangible goods designed to satisfy the needs of the event market.
The core benefit of the K-pop concert was the enjoyment of the K-pop concert through entertainment of through Korea’s music and dance in the concert by the various artistes.
The tangible benefits in this event that helped to deliver the core product were the venue which was Singapore Indoor Stadium, the seating, the facilities and amenities like the lightings and visual effects needed to stage the K-pop concert.
For augmented product for this case, it would be exclusive experience received from the K-pop concert as it was a creation of new service experience through the major “event” innovations like having new events or festivals for previously undefined markets. It was after 40 years before Singapore was newly introduced to a K-pop concert which captured the new markets of youths, students and Korean Wave (“Hallyu”) fans in Singapore.
Overall, the event had used the marketing mix of “Product” to its advantage to a large extent as the “product”, which is the K-pop concert was able to satisfy the needs and wants of the audiences through addition of value-adding services, giving them an enjoyable and exclusive experience.
2.2 Place
This refers to both the site where the event takes place and the place where the consumers can purchase their tickets. The place of the K-pop concert would be Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The choice of this venue had helped in the marketing mix as the location was accessible by various transportation modes road and rail through buses, MRT services and so on. Moreover, the design structure of the Singapore Indoor Stadium had helped to provide the most excellent experience as the impressive facilities of pillarless structure enabled each audience an optimum view from every seat.
The state-of-the-art lighting set-up in the stadium had contributed in creating the right atmosphere of the K-pop concert as it provided a good visual effect throughout the concert. However, the audio system could be improved as the quality was not up to standard as it was stifled.
The choice of the venue was considered a success as most of the components used had effectively built up the atmosphere for the K-pop concert. To ensure an even satisfying experience for the audiences, the organizers could pay more attention to the audio system by using a higher quality audio system.
2.3 Programming
“Programming” refers to the designing, scheduling and planning of the event. The event started with a short introduction of the K-pop concert by the emcees which started the concert, followed by a fast song by Jun Jin who belong to a member of a famous boy-band, Shinhwa. This helped to liven up the atmosphere by getting the audience thrilled.
Throughout the concert, the emcees of the K-pop concert would do a brief introduction about the artistes that would be performing next so that the audiences would at least have a rough idea of the less commonly known artistes. Also, the emcees would constantly announce about the upcoming performances of the more famous artistes to get the audiences constantly anticipated.
Moreover, the organizers had scheduled the most famous artiste, Wonder Girls, last to perform to ensure that the audiences would stay till the end of the concert. Lastly, the performing artistes were once again invited out to the stage, thanking the sponsors, organizers, VIPs and the audiences for staging and attending the K-pop concert. This thus gave a conclusion to the whole concert, successfully ending the concert.
Overall, the event had used the marketing mix of “Programming” to its advantage to a large extent K-pop concert’s programmes were organized efficiently and smartly which successfully captured the audiences’ attention. This made the K-pop concert more interesting and resulted in the smooth flow of the K-pop concert.
2.4 People
“People” in the marketing mix refers to all people that are directly or indirectly involved in the event. The people that were involved in the K-pop concert are the Korean artistes that were in charge of the performances, the organizers (Korea Culture & Content Agency), sponsors (Far East Organization, LG Electronics Singapore and Korean Air), and partners (Government of the Republic of Korea, Embassy of the Republic of Korea & Singapore Tourism Board) of the event, the involved staffs and the audiences.
One example of this marketing mix is the communication between the involved staff in this event. They did not do a good job as there was miscommunication between their staffs, resulting in different instructions advised when they were consulted. For example, when they were questioned about whether there was an existence of a priority queue, one of the staff said there was but the other staff had completely no clue of such a queue. This resulted in much confusion of the audiences which indirectly affected their mood for their concert.
However, the artistes involved in this event were all very friendly as they had interacted with the audiences instead of plainly “performing” for them. This thus enhanced the experience which constituted to a large part of satisfaction of the audiences.
Also, the audiences were all very corporative as they were very considerate at the event. They kept to the rules and regulation by not standing up when the concert was going on so that they would not block anyone’s view. Moreover, they also switched their mobile phones to vibration mode or off their mobile phones.
In conclusion, this K-pop concert had used the marketing mix of “people” to its advantage to a large extent.
The only area to improve on is that perhaps the organizers should send their staffs for more training to have better knowledge of the event so as to prevent any miscommunication again.
2.5 Partnership
The partnership of an event is the joint relationship existing between two or more persons who share a sense of common vision. The partnership that took place in this event was between Government of the Republic of Korea, Embassy of the Republic of Korea and Singapore Tourism Board. Their common vision for this event was to strengthen and celebrate the friendship between Korea and Singapore by promoting the Korean culture.
As the K-pop concert is the highlight of the festival, this event had brought a great impact to the whole Korea Festival 2008. This K-pop concert was a success as even after the event as the media in Singapore had came out with articles stating that it was a big hit. This thus indirectly informed the rest of the public about the Korea Festival 2008, bringing across the message of strengthening and celebrating the friendship between Korea and Singapore. Therefore, the partners in this event had successfully attained their objectives which meant that their partnership was a success.
In conclusion, the event had used its marketing mix of “partnership” to its advantage to a large extent as seen from the above.
2.6 Promotion
“Promotion” refers to the full range of communications tools, including advertising, public relations and sales promotions. One of the communication tools used in this event would be the media which advertised about the K-pop concert in newspapers like The Straits Times, Lianhe Wanbao, Lianhe Zaobao and MyPaper. Information about the event was also broadcasted using MediaCorp Radio. Moreover, people who were interested in this event could get more information online through their official websites of organizers and sponsors.
This event was thus known to many Korean Wave (“Hallyu”) fans, youths and students which were their target markets. This included not only Singaporeans but also foreigners living in Singapore as seen on the concert day.
Another communication tools used is through sales promotions where the organizers of the event collaborated with the sponsors where they have promotions to highlight the K-pop concert to the sponsors’ consumers. For example, the consumers of the sponsors would be notified about the K-pop concert as they were entitled to the tickets when they purchased the sponsors’ products. This had directly promoted the K-pop concert which increased the level of awareness of this event to the public.
Overall, the event had used its marketing mix of “Promotion” its advantage to a large extent.
2.7 Packaging & distribution
A package is any combination of elements offered for sale at a single price to make the event experience more attractive by providing “value added” in the form of extra features that cannot be obtained otherwise.
Chances of winning the backstage pass which entitled the fans to meet their favourite artistes were packaged with the K-pop concert which added on to their experience in this event. In addition, each of the audience was given concert merchandises which they were able to make use of it during the concert, adding value to the whole experience.
This event has used the marketing mix to its advantage to a large extent as the chances of winning the backstage pass had increased the people’s interest in participating in the K-pop concert. Also, concert merchandises had helped to make the ambience more interactive instead of plainly watching the performances.
“Distribution” is about getting the product to the customers. Tickets were distributed through various channels as follows:
Through the distribution channel of Square2 Shopping Centre, I got my ticket to the K-pop concert. Personally, I feel that the organization could do a better job in playing the role of distributor as they made a mistake of giving out wrong sequence of the K-pop concert tickets while distributing. This led to much unhappiness of people who participate in this promotion. This mistake had upset their mood which affected the overall experience towards this event.
Moreover, the organization did not do anything to recover the mistake despite the fact that those people who were affected had complained to the organization and the media.
Overall, the organization had used the marketing mix of “to its advantage to a small extent.
For areas of improvement in this marketing mix, it would be taking note of various details like preventing of the above mistake from happening at the first place or at least adopt service recovery like compensating the people affected so as to minimize its negative impact of the mistake to the lowest.
2.8 Price
“Price” of an event is determined by the discovery of what customers perceive as the value of the event. Despite the fact that the event is “free”, the participants still had to pay a price in sacrificing their time in obtaining the tickets to the K-pop concert and the time spent in queuing up to get into the venue.
Also, although they state that they do not sell the tickets and would be “given” away by various sponsors and organizers, participants still had to purchase their products in order to redeem the tickets. Therefore, the participants still had to fork out a certain amount of money from their own pocket.
Therefore, the overall usage of the marketing mix of “Price” to its advantage is to a small extent as some of the sponsors’ products were unaffordable by the participants, especially when the target markets were mostly students and youths. This led to losing the opportunity of attending the K-pop concert. Hence, those sponsors with lower priced products were able to give out their tickets quickly while those sponsors that would require the participants to buy their products at a higher price received a poor response due to the differences in price.
The organizations and sponsors could improve in this “price” marketing mix by excluding terms and conditions like purchasing of their products for the collection of tickets since the event’s objectives were to promote the Korean culture and engage a wide range of audiences residing in Singapore instead of any profit-making purposes.
3. Tourism roles and economic value of the K-pop concert
3.1 Place marketing
The success of the K-pop concert had created a positive image of Singapore as it showed Singaporeans are willing to accept the culture of other countries. Therefore, this would encourage the other countries with fewer worries to promote their own cultures and traditions to Singaporeans.
With this, it would lead to culture exchanges between overseas countries and Singapore. This would thus raise the awareness and interest of other countries towards Singapore, leading to an increase in the tourist arrival rate which contributes to Singapore’s tourism revenue as they visit Singapore.
Moreover the event had another created a positive image of Singapore as the success of this event showed that Singapore is willing to build a good relationship with other countries. This would thus give the foreign companies confidence in investing in Singapore as it shows that the political environment between Singapore and other countries is more stable. The attraction of more overseas investors would lead to an economic boost in Singapore due to the increase in the investments.
Also, the good responses of the K-pop concert would imply that there is a potential market for foreign artistes or performers to host their concerts or performers here in Singapore. It also imply that Singapore have the ability to host such events. This would thus increase the regularity of foreign artistes and performers holding such events in Singapore, which had been less commonly held before.
The economic effect of the above is that there would be more business opportunities between Singapore and Korea which also directly boost Singapore’s economy as it attract the more investors to Singapore.
The event had also improved the quality of life of the people as through the participation of the K-pop concert, they learnt how to appreciate music and dance better.
3.2 Tourist attraction
This K-pop concert had attracted quite a number of fans from overseas (especially fans from neighborhood countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand) who specially came over to Singapore to support their favourite artistes by participating in this event.
The performers and foreign audiences that to Singapore to attend this K-pop concert would usually extend their length of stay since they had already come to Singapore. This would thus contribute to the domestic industry as their spending on domestic sectors like patronizing hotels, F&B outlets and famous shopping areas in Singapore would also increase. This would boost the economy of Singapore due to these quality tourists’ increased their spending and length of stay.
3.3 Animator
The tourism role of “animator” can be seen in this event as it had encouraged first visits and repeat visits to Singapore. Due to the enjoyment the foreigner participants experienced at the K-pop concert, they had a positive impression of Singapore after the event. This would lead to an increase in chances of them visiting Singapore again as they would consider Singapore when they plan to go for a holiday overseas.
The economic value the event brought to Singapore was that the above most probably help to increase the tourist arrival rate which in turn increases the tourism revenue, boosting Singapore’s economy.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, the marketing mix had been effectively used to contribute to the success of the event as the K-pop concert had used most of its marketing mix like “Product”, “Place”, “Programming”, ‘People”, “Partnership” and “Promotion” to its advantage to a large extent.
However, there are still rooms for improvement for certain components in marketing mix like “Packaging & Distribution” and “Price”. The event could improve on these areas with reference to the recommendations suggested in the report above.
This K-pop concert had played the tourism roles of “Place marketing” and “Tourist Attraction” which had brought many positive economic values to Singapore. Therefore, Singapore should continue to organize such events in the future. This kind of event not only strengthens the relationship between Singapore and other countries, but also increases the economic value of Singapore.
9:45 PM
Pictures of the K-pop concert:
5:57 PM