Popular Culture and Nation Branding: A Case Study of South Korea

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Popular Culture and Nation Branding:

A Case Study of South Korea

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Master Thesis:

Popular Culture and Nation Branding:

A Case Study of South Korea

Supervisor: M. van Offenbeek

Referent: I. Kalinic

Studen939793

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A

BSTRACT

Nation branding, a concept that emerged in the mid-1990s, now is steadily gaining prominence, with more and more countries around the world committing resources to the development of their nation-brand. Almost at the same time, an influx of Korean popular culture in other Asian countries was observed. These two things seem not to be related in the past. However, Kim et al. (2009) and Sung (2010) both indicated in their study that the popularity of South Korean popular culture has nation-branding effect for the country. These two things are connected in this manner. This raised my special interest into the nation-branding effect of popular culture. Does it effectively perform the function and serve the purpose of nation branding? To answer this question, an empirical study was conducted to investigate the nation branding effect of hallyu (Korean wave) among Chinese urban people. The results show that South Korean popular culture did cause positive effect on urban Chinese’s attitude towards the country. Urban Chinese’s knowledge of South Korea, their willingness to learn more about South Korea, their attitude towards South Korean products and their attitude towards South Korea as a tourist destination were all positively influenced by their exposure level to South Korean popular culture. The nation-branding effect of popular culture was verified in this study.

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1. I

NTRODUCTION

Most countries have an international image that is fairly stable and consistent over time. Some countries have more enduring images, such as Great Britain, Japan, Germany and Australia for which there are stable sets of symbols associated with them, like tourist attractions, signature export products and unique cultures (Marat, 2009). A nation’s image exists with or without any conscious efforts in shaping it, no matter whether it is strong or weak, clear or vague. Among different groups of international audience, their perceptions of that country might differ extremely due to various reasons such as history, cultural distance, stereotypical perceptions, and so on. The image of a country, namely the way a country is perceived may make a critical difference to the performance of its business, diplomatic and cultural relations with other nations. And the creation and promotion of nation images is serving as a new form of communication among countries, marketing to the needs of the globalized economy and international politics (Marat, 2009).

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In the past decades, numerous countries seek to establish their brands, especially the countries suffering from old negative images. Slogans like ‘Incredible India’, ‘Malaysia-truly Asia’ and ‘Kazakhstan- the Heart of Eurasia’ have taken root and been used to construct more favorable images for these nations (Marat, 2009). However, nation branding is a much more complicated process rather than simply using a slogan which might be sufficient to promote a shampoo or washing powder yet impossible for a nation to develop a new image to the world.

In the western world, Spain is considered as providing a successful example of rebranding and promoting a nation through subtle and coordinated communication of its conceived positive traits, such as services, tourist attractions and products to the international audience (Fan, 2005). In Asia, countries mentioned before such as India, Malaysia are representative for countries that proactively engaged in nation branding. Despite such a raise of interest of nation branding among both eastern and western countries, research on this topic is still in the infant stage. Most previous literatures of nation branding are either introductory that acquaints the audience with this rather new concept, or simply summarizing the branding practices of one or more specific countries (Dinnie, 2008). Few researches have touched upon the nation branding strategies that a country adopts, not to mention evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies. To fill in this gap, in this study, one specific country has been chosen, and its nation branding strategy will be studied. By conducting a survey amongst a certain group of this country’s international audience, the effectiveness of nation branding strategies will be evaluated. Although nation branding is a practice with high level of specialization, namely, a nation branding strategy which is successful for one country rarely could be generalized to another one. It is still possible for this study to provide some illuminations to the countries that intend to engage in branding themselves.

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2. P

ROBLEM

S

TATEMENT

In the last decade, the influx of South Korea popular culture has been observed in a lot of Asian countries, especially in China, one of the first locations to be hit by this wave of Korean popular culture, the craze is sweeping the whole country (Sung, 2010). In 2006, South Korean programs on Chinese government TV networks accounted for more than all other foreign shows combined, and China's trade deficit in cultural goods has caused the government to limit the number of South Korean dramas and concert tours on several occasions (The Economist, 2010).

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culture serve the purpose for nation branding. More specifically, it is interesting to see if this effect can be generalized to a country with substantially different economic and political system.

The research question of this paper is:

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3. L

ITERATURE

R

EVIEW

In this part, theoretical arguments concerning nation branding are reviewed. Questions such as what is nation branding, what is being branded, and the reasons for nation branding are answered in this chapter. Based on these theoretical arguments, the conceptual model of this research is given at the last part of this chapter.

3.1 Nation branding

Nation branding is of few existing theory but with a huge amount of real world activity. To put the evolution of nation branding into a wider historical perspective, nations have always branded themselves-through their symbols, currency, anthems, names and so on- and it is just the terminology of nation branding that is new, rather than the practice itself (Olins, 2002).

3.1.1 What is nation branding?

Before explaining what is nation branding, it is necessary to define the concept of nation-brand. Occasionally, there is confusion between the terms national brand and

nation-brand. The confusion also causes misunderstanding as to the aim of nation

branding practices. To avoid this confusion, it may be helpful to distinguish these two terms. National brand is defined as ‘a brand available nationally as distinct from a regional or test-market brand’ (Bureau, 1998). While, nation-brand is defined as ‘the unique, multi-dimensional blend of elements that provide the nation with culturally grounded differentiation and relevance for all of its target audiences’ (P24 Dinnie, 2008). For nation-brand, the brand is the country or nation in question. This definition of nation-brand acknowledges the multi-faceted nature of the nation-brand, together with the importance to integrate various national identity dimensions, which will be explained later.

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what is being branded” .To answer this question, Fang (2005, P6)developed the following definition “Nation branding concerns applying branding and marketing

communications techniques to promote a nation’s image.” While Anholt (1998)

defines it as refer to a consistent and all embracing nation brand strategy which

determines the most realistic competitive and most compelling strategic vision for the country, and ensures that this vision is supported, reinforced and enriched by every act of communication between the country and the rest of the world.” Apparently,

nation branding belongs to a kind of branding practices; however, it is the country rather than any single product that is branded. Thus, it is important to consult the definition of branding to define nation branding practice. According to Jobber and Fahy (2003), branding practice has been defined as the process by which companies

distinguish their product offerings from those of the competition.

Based on these ideas, this paper defines nation branding as applying branding and marketing strategies in nation’s communication acts with international audience in order to promote a positive image that distinguishes the nation and gains competitive advantages over other countries.

The definitions given above did not demonstrate the differences between branding a nation and a specific product. Rather, it seems that they shared some same ideologies like using communication acts and distinguishing themselves from the counterparts. To get better known of the contents of nation branding, we will move on to the next part about what is actually being branded in nation branding.

3.1.2 What is being branded?

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2008), and thus national identity is a multifaceted concept. According to Smith (1991), the fundamental features of national identity include the following: a historic territory, or homeland; common myths and historical memories; a common, mass public culture; common legal rights and duties for all members, and a common economy with territorial mobility for all members.

However, it is necessary to acknowledge that, in the nation-branding process, there is only a limited range of all the constituent parts of national identity will be targeted, and these aspects are named as nation-brand identity, which will be emphatically promoted to outside audience. Since external audiences-potential tourists, investors, and so on.-are not going to be willing to receive gargantuan amounts of information about a country’s history culture and people, it would be impossible to effectively develop a nation-brand identity that drew upon every strand of a country’s national identity, and some parts have to be left out. Therefore, to be selective in identifying which elements of national identity can usefully serve the stated objectives of the nation branding campaign is a key task of those engaged in constructing a nation-brand identity (Dinnie, 2008). The question raised here is who should be responsible for making the decision of which elements of national identity should be included and which ones should be left out. In addition, until this part, the reasons that countries would like to engage in nation branding remain unrevealed. Who is the main actor in nation branding? What on earth do countries expect from a nice image? The answers to these questions will be given in next part.

3.1.3 Who and why engage in nation branding?

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examples can prove this point. Such as the International Marketing Council of South Africa, which was brought into being upon the realization that it was imperative to create a positive image for South Africa, and the Nation Branding Council of South Korea, which was created for developing a country image that keeps up with their economic and demographic achievements, are both set up and financed by the governments. That is reasonable as nation branding is an undertaking requires rich human and material resources. Compared with other units, government is more powerful in these domains. However, it might be confusing of the reasons why governments would like to spend millions of dollars, create pools of experts, and even set up specialized councils just to spruce up the image of the country. What are their expectations from nation branding?

Nation branding is believed as a powerful tool for a country to further its political, social and economic gains and create competitive advantage. (Fan, 2005) In the paper of Yang et al. (2008) Country Reputation in Multidimensions: Predictors, Effects and

Communication Channels, the importance of nation branding has been emphasized.

However, why do more and more countries around the world committing resources to the development of their nation-brand?

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repositioning the country through branding holds great potential for this country and assists South Africa to dismantle and oppose the negative forces that might otherwise hold back the nation’s economic development and standing in the world.

From practical perspective, it is claimed that image and reputation are becoming essential parts of the state’s strategic equity in an increasingly globalized economy of nowadays (Van Ham, 2001). In today’s globalized economy, the unbranded state has a difficult time attracting economic and political attention, whereas a powerful and positive nation-brand can provide crucial competitive advantages. By establishing a compelling brand image, the country could be correctly positioned in terms of its investment potential, credit worthiness, tourism potential and international relations. Moreover, it assists the country with competing for both domestic and foreign consumers by distinguishing their product offerings from those of the competition. Refer to these ideas, Dinnie (2008) proposed that the key objectives to be attained by nation branding centre upon the promotion of a country’s branded exports, the attraction of tourists, and the stimulation of inward investment. Most previous literatures reach consensus with Dinnie, especially upon the first two points concerning country’s branded exports and attraction of tourist. In the study of Yang et al. (2008), nation branding is connected with foreign publics’ supportive intentions towards the country which include both two dimensions as mentioned. They propose that people are more willing to purchase the products of or travel to a foreign country when this country enjoys a good reputation among them. And their propositions are strongly supported by investigating South Korea’s reputation viewed by Americans. The result shows that country reputation accounted for approximately 82% of the entire variability in supportive intentions toward South Korea.

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ratings downgrades; increase international political influence; stimulate stronger international partnerships and enhance nation building.

3.1.4 Nation branding and the country-of-origin effect

The key issue surrounding country image has long been envisaged as a relation between product and origin (Product-Country-Image or Country-of-origin effect). And it explains the occasion that in some literatures, nation brand image and product-country image/product-country of origin effect are used as interchangeable concepts. However, current research of nation brand is taking place in a much wider framework (Place Branding) and is touching on all the characteristics of a country that might have an incidence on such diverse aspects as tourism, economic promotion, promoting national values, etc (Dinnie, 2008).

According to Wang and Lamb (1983), country of origin effects refers to the effect that

a product or service’s origin has on consumer attitude and behavior towards that product or service. There are many product categories where country of origin effect

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Although the effect of country of origin seems profound, it never means it is unchangeable. As stated by Reierson (1967), prejudice of consumers toward a nation’s product is not too intense, and consumers’ attitude may be changed significantly by even slight exposure to communication and promotional devices, which means it is possible for countries to change their international audiences’ perception of the products and services in their country by changing their own image. And this argument basically explains the reason why nations get involved in branding themselves and try to build or rebuild a favorable image. Ideally, the nation brand should act as a national umbrella brand which is able to distinct the country’s products from international competitors, and to serve the purpose of promoting sales and exports.

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This section provided a theoretical illustration of nation branding. However, what remains unknown here is how do nations put the branding work into practice. What is the process of nation branding? What do they use to promote the country and construct positive image among their international audience? In the next section, these questions were answered.

3.2 The role of Communicator in the nation branding process

3.2.1 A system model of the nation branding process

The system includes three elements: brand identity, communicators and nation-brand image. As mentioned, identity refers to what something truly is, while image refers to how something is perceived, and frequently there is a gap between these two states. As for a country, its brand identity is built upon a limited range of all the constituent parts of national identity, such as its history, language, territory, food, drink, which represents the enduring essence of the nation. From these enduring characteristics are derived the communicators, which might be tangible or intangible, of nation-brand identity. This model shows how nation-brand image is formed as a consequence of nation-brand identity as communicated through different methods such as cultural artefacts, the diaspora, marketing communications, etc. Moreover, this system also displays the multidemsional nature of the identity and image constructs in a nation branding context.

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Figure 1: the system model of nation branding 3.2.2 The communicators of nation branding

Image could be defined as a subjective mental picture people holds toward a thingn object. And country image is defined by Jaffe and Nebenzahl (2001) as "the impact that generalizations and perceptions about a country have on a person's evaluation of a country". Yet, a question that needs to be answered here is where do these

generalizations and perceptions about the country come from for each individual?

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the countries’ identity and affecting international audiences' perception of the country is what we called nation-branding communicators. According to Dinnie (2008), communicators can determine to a greater or lesser extent a country’s nation-brand image, even before one considers the potential effects of nation-brand advertising, promotion and development. Hence, communicator is considered as a key success factor to nation branding.

In this study, nation-branding communicator is defined as a medium through which the identity of a country will be acknowledged and delivered to the audience. Moreover, the communicators being used should also be responsible for audiences’ reaction to the information that they carried. If audiences react positively to the information about the country, a compelling nation brand image of that country will be established. Oppositely, if audiences are averse or showing indifference to the delivered messages, the nation brand image of that country will barely be established or even be impaired. The communicators adopted might be in various forms. And, each country might have more than one communicator, and it is possible that not all of them will be effective and lead to good outcomes.

3.2.3 Effective criteria for nation branding communicators

In this part, the author formulated three criteria for effective communicators of nation branding. The formulation of these criteria is mainly rooted in the principles of brand management, while it also takes the particular attributes of nation branding into consideration.

 High level of attractiveness and publicity

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to its audience. Advertisement is the most common and widespread method for product branding, and countries can also attain its goal of branding by running consistent advertising campaigns. While, the fact that billions of dollars were spent per year on celebrity endorsement contracts in product advertising industry reveals the value of publicity and attention from the public. And the same goes for nation branding. Thus, no matter the communicator being used will be in which form, the most fundamental and essential point for it is the ability to generate enough publicity and attention, and increase awareness of the branding object. If the communicator being used cannot cause enough attention or is of little attractiveness, it is meaningless to discuss about its effectiveness at all. Actually, in this manner, it loses its basic function of being a medium for the country to communicate with the outside world. Moreover, according to Ohanian (1991), attractive communicators have proved to be more successful in influencing customers’ attitudes and beliefs than unattractive ones. Hence, the first criterion of effective communicator for nation branding is high level of attractiveness.

 Long-term, delivering consistent message

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multi-dimensional identities. Nations need to acknowledge this fact and adopt long-term strategies when building their nation brand, rather than aiming for a quick, short-term advertising campaign whose effects may be ephemeral. On the one hand, long-term promotion does serve the purpose of having the audience understood more about the country as more complete and more comprehensive information of the country could be delivered. On the other hand, constant promoting may leave deeper impression to the audience However, audience might make negative reactions to this as external audiences, like potential tourists, investors are not willing to receive gargantuan amounts of information about a country in all aspects. Therefore, it will be wiser to selectively focus on the few attributes that serve the objectives of nation branding to the greatest extent. Moreover, it is important that the information being delivered in the long term is consistent through time. Otherwise, it may not only confuse the audience but also impairs the trustworthiness of the brand and causes fatal damage to its future development. Hence, the second criterion for an effective communicator is that it must serve the nation for long-term promotion and deliver consistent information in the branding process.

 Trustworthiness

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producing attitude change (Hovland and Mandell, 1952; Walster and Festinger, 1962). The perceived untrustworthiness of the communicator may weaken its medium effects. In comparison, for trustworthy communicators, because of its reliability, the medium effects may be stronger. Andreoli and Worchel (1978) also revealed in their study that the perceived trustworthiness of the communicator is the critical characteristic which determines the extent to which a particular medium of presentation will generate the desired attitude change. Hence, the last criterion for nation branding communicator is its trustworthiness, or the perceived trustworthiness by its audience.

3.2.4 Popular culture: an important nation-branding communicator

Culture has been described as ‘the most intangible but the most distinguishing element of any population and country’ (Pant, 2005), and thus the culture of a nation is regarded as the essence of the nation-brand. As stated by Dinnie (2008), nation

brands are rooted in the reality of nation’s culture, the essence of any nation brand derives from that country’s culture in the widest sense – its language, music, literature, sport, architecture and so on all embody the soul of a nation. Anholt

arrived at a consensus vision with Dinnie and Pant by arguing that every nation has its own idiosyncratic cultural and artistic expression, and successful nation branding requires the integration of these cultural expressions with nation-brand strategy to achieve differentiation from the others. Above literatures revealed the fact that a nation’s culture does not only constitute the essence of national identity, but also serves as an important communicator and source of information for foreign audience to get knowledge of the country. There was no lack of such examples: novels, poetry, plays and other forms of literature are considered as acting as state-of-the-nation pronouncements; the potential power of music to communicate the nation’s identity in a celebratory and positive way has been highly praised by a lot of countries; food and drink is regarded as most expressive of a country’s identity, etc.

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various ways of defining what popular culture is. The definition of popular culture is often supported by claims that it is mass-produced commercial culture (Storey, 2001), and there is another saying that only those cultural elements disseminated by mass media are popular culture (Browne and Marsden, 1999) However, this paper identifies with the argument provided by Strinati (2004) that as popular culture can be found in different societies, within different social groups, and in different historic periods, an exclusive and strict definition for it is inappropriate. And the meaning of popular culture used in this paper covers a set of generally available artefacts, including films, records, TV programs.

There are numerous precedents which display the power of popular culture as communicators for nation image. The film Braveheart, which of questionable historical accuracy, has raised the profile of Scotland and contributed to the country’s positioning as heroic underdog. In comparison, other small countries that do not receive the same external portrayal in popular culture have to struggle to establish themselves in the minds of consumers. However, there are examples which demonstrate the opposite influence of popular culture in shaping country’s image as well. Kazakhstan has been the most high-profile victim of unflattering portrayal in the 2006 film Borat, whilst to a lesser extent Slovakia received a gruesome and sinister depiction through the 2005 horror film Hostel. While, the violent reaction in many Moslem countries against Denmark following the publication of offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed in the Danish press is the best demonstration of how could popular culture damage a nation’s image overnight.

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form a new image of Korea just because of the newest message being delivered. Moreover, compared with hard sell, like an advertisement or campaign that uses a more direct, forceful, and overt way of sending message, information sent in this manner is more subtle, casual, and friendly. And audience may be more willing to receive the message delivered in this way.

Popular culture also may cause problems for nation-branding objectives, and its fatal weakness is being uncontrollable. As the culture of a nation is not an event or arrangement made by the government or any individuals, thus there is no one could ever decide how it goes and how it will serve the goal of branding the country. In addition, because popular culture is of multi-facets and includes numerous participants, under the condition that lacks of control, this complexity makes it even harder to ensure that all the information it gives can lead to positive effects to the country.

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popular culture and perceptions of South Korea, how effectively does popular culture act as a nation-branding communicator for the country was revealed.

3.3 Conceptual Model

In this research, to study the effectiveness of South Korean popular culture acting as a nation-branding communicator, the relationship between Chinese people’s exposure level to South Korean popular culture and their attitude towards the nation was analyzed. To make the concept of attitude towards the nation specific and measurable, in this study, attitude towards the nation was specified into four dimensions referring to the basic grounds for nation branding. These four dimensions are knowledge, interest, attitude towards South Korean products (attProduct) and attitude towards South Korea as a tourist destination (attTourist).

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4. C

ASE STUDY

:

H

ALLYU IN

C

HINA

The objective of this study is to study the effectiveness of popular culture acting as a nation-branding communicator. Instead of using other research strategies or methods, this paper will use a case study to investigate how popular culture influences the branding of a nation. The reason to choose this way of study is because of the thoroughness of case study. According to Hartley (2004), case study provides an analysis of the context and processes which illuminate the theoretical issues being studied. While, the explanation given by Yin (2003) seems to be more suitable with this research, he explains in his book on case study research that “case studies are the preferred strategy when the investigator has little control over events, and when the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context”. In fact, this study contains all the mentioned features. The popular culture of one country might be radically distinct from the one of another country, and nation branding is an extremely complex practice under various real-life conditions. And the above mentioned attributes show the appropriateness of case study for this research. By carrying on a case study, it is more possible for the author to draw a full picture of the country being studied and the state of its nation branding practice.

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The reason why to study the nation branding effect of hallyu only within Chinese audience was out of several concerns. Firstly, China was one of the first locations to be hit by hallyu, and also was one of the most seriously affected countries of this phenomenon. In 2006, South Korean programs on Chinese government TV networks accounted for more than all other foreign shows combined (Faiola and Anthony, 2006). And a Korean polling agency Net Intelligence & Research conducted two public opinion surveys of Chinese people in 2004 and 2006 respectively, to investigate Chinese people’s exposure to Korean TV dramas. The results show that 68 percent of Chinese answered they had ever watched Korean TV dramas, and the rate two years later found an increase of 24 percentage points, standing at 92.2 percent. Such high popularity of hallyu, particularly Korean TV drama in China, may be interpreted in relation to theories of cultural proximity. Straubharr (1991) first coined the term “cultural proximity” in his analysis of the inter-regional media exchange and argued that media productions from culturally close countries have greater reception than those materials from culturally far countries. Korea and China have much cultural proximity in many ways due to the profound impact of the civilization of ancient China on Korea. Secondly, China, as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with average growth rates of 10% for the past 30 years, is of great importance as an audience for the other countries and must be highly valued. Chinese people’s perception and attitude towards South Korea is of great significance, and Chinese people’s willingness to purchase Korean products and to choose Korea as a tourist attraction will contribute a lot to Korean economy. Last but not least, to collect the data concerning people’s perception and attitude towards the country, a survey will be given. Taking the feasibility of the survey and availability of the respondents into consideration, China was selected as the target for this research.

4.1 Hallyu (Korean Wave) in China

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cultural products soon spread to the field of movies and popular music. Now the term, “hallyu” connotes the influence of Korea in all kinds of ways like social and cultural aspects including clothes, fashion, and technological goods among the Asian countries (Kwon, 2006). Having first penetrated the Chinese mainland, in particular Korean television, hallyu now has spread throughout the East and Southeast of Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and later even to the Middle East and East Europe (Kim et al., 2009). Hallyu is also called as “Korean wave”.

Hallyu emerged under the background that South Korea was shaken by the Asian financial crisis and the country’s belief in the industrial modernization process was turning weak in that period. And there was a widespread societal movement in Korea to make use of the cultural industry with its high added value to overcome the national crisis (Yin et al., 2005). Now, the Korean wave is responsible for achieving over one billion dollars in revenue annually for South Korea through cultural exports (Kim, 2008). Although many critics predicted the Korean wave would soon die down, yet in fact, Korean culture exports are predicted to reach up to $3.8 billion in revenue in 2011, a 14% increase from the previous year (Heo, 2011). This phenomenon of Korean popular culture in the global market not only impacts economically, more importantly, it also cultivates improved international perceptions of Korea and builds a new positive image of Korean life at the national level (Kim et al., 2009). Taiwan and Japan are two examples well explained the power of hallyu. According to Sung (2010), Taiwanese did not have a positive image of South Korea in the past due to diplomatic matters, yet hallyu has contributed to the rebuilding of South Korea’s image in Taiwan, and many Taiwanese are inspired to remark on the influence of Korean popular culture in renewing their relationships. Also, editor of Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly) Yau Lop Poon revealed that the popularity of ‘Winter Sonata’ (a Korean drama) in Japan has the potential to warm the chilly feelings of the past. He argues that it is a new era for Korea-Japan relations.

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popularity across Asia was totally unexpected, not to mention its effectiveness of rebuilding the nation’s image. But later these dramas are distributed beyond national boundaries and have attracted a significant transnational audience. And Korea has developed a strong reputation for the production of high quality produced TV drams, which can be said to constitute a particular, nationally distinct genre for this country (Kim et al., 2009). Later, the good fame also expands to the fields of other cultural products like pop music and movies. Along with this rise of Korean popular culture in other Asian countries, the government starts to realize the possibility of using hallyu to serve their nation branding strategy.

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claimed that they believe hallyu can play a pivotal role in South Korea’s soft power – the ability to obtain what you want not by conquest but by attraction.

From a purely cultural artifact created for domestic audience to a nation branding tactic, hallyu once again witness the power of popular culture for a nation’s image following the instances like Hollywood for the United States and Bollywood for India. Indeed, hallyu has assisted the country with increasing awareness among its international audience, especially across Asian countries. However, how does it change the audiences’ perception of the country, and more importantly, did it has produced any tangible outcomes like increasing the audiences’ willingness to purchase Korean products and choose Korea as a destination for tourist is the concern of this study.

4.2 Hypotheses

In this study, we intend to study the effectiveness of popular culture acting as a nation-branding communicator and serve the purpose of nation branding, and South Korea is selected as the case understudied. Thus, the effect that South Korean popular culture caused on Chinese people’s attitude towards the nation was investigated. As mentioned, the attitude that people hold towards a nation was specified into four dimensions in this study, which are knowledge, interest, attitude towards the products made by the country, and attitude towards the country as a tourist destination.

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acknowledgement in the past while interest measures the potential of popular culture to acknowledge people more about the nation in the future. To test the effect of South Korean popular culture on Chinese people’s attitude towards the country in these two dimensions, following two hypotheses are developed:

Hypothesis 1: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular culture

does affect the knowledge they gained about the country.

does affect their interest to learn more about the country.

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Hypothesis 3a: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular culture

does affect the impressiveness of South Korean products to them.

Hypothesis 3b: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular culture

does affect the attractiveness of South Korean products to them.

Hypothesis 3c: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular culture

does affect their intention to purchase South Korean products.

does affect the impressiveness of South Korea as a tourist destination to them.

does affect the attractiveness of South Korea as a tourist destination to them.

Hypothesis 4c: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular culture

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5. M

ETHODOLOGY

5.1 Research Method

In this study, a self-administered survey was used to test the hypotheses. This survey method involves a structured questionnaire given to respondents to elicit specific information (Malhotra, 2004). The reason that this method was chosen was the fact that the research question of this study was about people’s attitude. Abstract information of this kind seldom can be gathered except by survey (P278, Blumberg et al.). More importantly, the use of fixed alternative questions requiring the respondents to select from a predetermined set of responses ensures the manageability of the information obtained. (Malhotra, 2004). In addition, these stated alternatives also ensure that the data obtained by the questionnaire is reliable because the responses are limited to these alternatives (Malhotra, 2004). A questionnaire offers a perfect option to collect data from a large amount of respondents, thus was selected as the research method in this study.

5.2 Questionnaire Design

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Korea. The indication was given by answering eight closed questions which measure the four dimensions of attitude towards the country on the 5-point Likert-Type scale.

5.3 Sampling and Procedure

Due to the fact that in some rural areas, the electricity consumption was still in bad condition and the penetration rate of television was low, it was meaningless to discuss about exposure to South Korea popular culture in these areas. The population of interest in this study was urban Chinese. To ensure the representativeness of the sample, this survey is carried on in 5 Chinese cities which represent the five geographic regions of China. These 5 cities are Changchun, Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The position of these cities was marked in Figure 3: Map of China.

We used systematic sampling method to determine the respondents of this research. The reasons that this approach was chosen was its advantages of simplicity and flexibility (P242, Blumberg et al.). In this approach, every 10th of the passersby on one of the main streets of the five cities was sampled, beginning with a random start in the range of 1 to 10. For each city, 30 questionnaires had to be finished, and in total 150 questionnaires were collected.

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Figure 3: Map of China

5.4 Instrument

In this case, the level of the respondent’s exposure to the South Korean popular culture is the independent variable. How much information the respondent has learned about the country (of 7 components which are landscape, history, language, traditions, food and drink, people, Korea-made products ), to what extent the respondent is willing to learn more about the country (of 7 components which are landscape, history, language, traditions, food and drink, people, Korea-made products), the respondent’s attitude towards South Korea-made products (AttProduct), and the respondent’s attitude towards South Korea as a tourist destination (AttTourist) represent the dependent variables. Age, gender, and education level of the respondent are assumed as also having effects on people’s perception of the country and thus are considered as control variables.

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In order to facilitate a check on the level of the respondent’s exposure to South Korean popular culture, the self-administrated questionnaire asked the respondent to indicate to what extent he or she has been exposed to Korean popular culture over the last two years. Firstly, level of exposure to 5 single elements of popular culture, including TV dramas, movies, music, entertainment programs and idols, will be surveyed respectively. And then, the respondent had to indicate, at overall level, his or her extent of exposure to South Korean popular culture. All these questions were measured on a 5-point Likert-Type scale, from (1) Not at all (2) A little (3) To some

extent (4) Much to (5) Very much.

 Dependent variables: Chinese people’s attitude towards South Korea

In this study, people’s attitude towards South Korea was of four dimensions, which are knowledge, interest, AttProduct and AttTourist.

As a nation intended to create positive brand image, at least, it has two key goals to achieve, which are increasing international purchasing and attracting tourists. Thus, in the total four dimensions of Chinese people’s attitude towards South Korea, two dimensions are about their attitude towards Korea-made products (AttProduct) and their perception of South Korea as a tourist destination (AttTourist). And to make a clear evaluation of Chinese people’s attitude towards South Korea in these two dimensions, the three components of attitude including cognitive attitude, affective attitude and conative attitude were distinguished and measured respectively. Cognitive attitude was measured by the question of “to what extent did… impress

you”; affective attitude was measured by asking “to what extent did you find …is attractive”; and conative attitude was measured by the question of “to what extent did you consider buying ….” Respondents have to evaluate these questions on a 5-point

Likert-Type scale, from (1) not at all …to (5) very much.

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2008). Thus, the other two dimensions concerning (1) how much knowledge the

respondent has acquired about South Korea (knowledge) and (2) their willingness to learn more about South Korea (interest) are included. To evaluate on these two

dimensions, respondents has to indicate to what extent (on a 5-point Likert-Type scale) he or she has learned and is willing to learn more about the seven single elements of South Korea. The seven elements are landscape, history, tradition, language, local food and drink, Korean people, and Korea-made products, which are all the components of nation-identity. For each question, the respondent’s measurements of the seven elements will be combined and the mean value will serve as his or her answer to the broad question.

 Control variables

In this study, the level of Chinese people’s exposure to South Korean popular culture is presumed to have an effect on their attitude towards the country. Age, gender and education level of the respondents are considered as control variables, and the regression equation in this case is

Y=a+b1X1+b2X2+b3X3+b4X4

 Y represents the dependent variable, which is Chinese people’s attitude

towards South Korea.

 represents the independent variable which is the respondent’s level of

exposure to South Korean popular culture;

 represents the first control variable which is the age of the respondent;

 represents the second control variable which is the gender of the

respondent;

 represents the third control variable which is the education level of the

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5.5 Data analysis

In this section, firstly, information including respondents’ age, gender, education level and their exposure levels to the five elements of South Korean popular culture are analyzed. Factor analysis and measurement reliability are also conducted in this part.

5.5.1 Data description

According to the results displayed in Table 1, the respondents of this survey were in the age group between 18 and 51 years old. The mean value of their age is 26.87. We used 0 to represent females and 1 to represent males in this study; the mean value is 0.40 which implies that 60% of the respondents are females and 40% of them are males. The educational level of respondents varied from primary school to PhD, the mean value is 6.14. This implies that the average educational level of the respondents is above university. This result is above the average educational level of urban Chinese, which reduced the representativeness of this sample. The exposure level (all the five elements) of the respondents varied from 1(not at all) to 5 (very much), the mean value is close to 3 (to some extent).

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

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5.5.2 Factor Analysis

Factor analysis has been conducted for the three measurements of respondents’ level of exposure to South Korean popular culture, knowledge of South Korea and interest to learn more about South Korea (See Appendix 2).

For the measurement of exposure level, the correlation coefficients are between .316 and .646; for the measurement of knowledge of South Korea, the correlation coefficients are between .480 and .711, the variables are correlated; and for the measurement of interest to learn more about South Korea, the correlation coefficients are between .590 and .815, the variables are highly correlated. Yet, no correlation coefficient is above .90, thus no variable is eliminated. For all the three measurements, KMO values are above 0.5 (exposure level: 0.784; knowledge: 0.918; interest: 0.911), which verify the adequacy of the sampling. Principal component analysis has been conducted for the three measurements, and for each measurement, only one component was extracted. Thus, we conclude that the variables can give adequate description to each measurement.

5.5.3 Measurement Reliability

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6. R

ESULTS

Eight regressions have been done to test the eight hypotheses formulated in Chapter 5.  Hypothesis 1: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular

culture does affect the knowledge they gained about the country.

Table 3: Output of the regression analysis (n=0.05)

Table 3 shows the results of linear regression of the knowledge that respondents has gained of South Korea (Y1) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age and education level.

Model

Standardized Coefficients

t Sig.

Collinearity Statistics

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y1 (Constant) 1,702 ,091 Age ,044 ,632 ,529 ,875 1,143 Gender -,116 -1,559 ,121 ,789 1,267 Education ,022 ,318 ,751 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,603 8,025 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.515

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does affect their interest to learn more about the country.

Table 4: output of the regression analysis (n=0.05)

Table 4 shows the results of the linear regression of the respondents’ willingness to learn more about South Korea in the future (Y2) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age and education level.

Model

Standardized Coefficients

t Sig.

Collinearity Statistics

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y2 (Constant) ,502 ,617 Age ,127 1,604 ,111 ,875 1,143 Gender -,178 -2,135 ,035 ,789 1,267 Education ,123 1,582 ,116 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,415 4,903 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.357

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does affect the impressiveness of South Korean products to them.

Table 5 shows the results of the linear regression of the impressiveness of South Korean products for the respondents (Y3) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age

and education level.

Model

Standardized

Coefficients _t _Sig. Collinearity Statistics

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y3 (Constant) 1,193 ,235 Age ,128 1,530 ,128 ,875 1,143 Gender ,048 ,545 ,587 ,789 1,267 Education ,058 ,709 ,479 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,471 5,276 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.268

In this regression, the relationship between to what extent do Korea-made products impress the respondent and their exposure level to South Korean popular culture has been revealed. Again, exposure level has significant positive effect, the significance is .000 at 0.05 levels and the coefficient is .471. Hypothesis 3a was accepted. The other factors have no significant effects on the impressiveness of South Korean products. The adjust R2 is.268 in this regression. Again, the values of tolerance and VIF both indicate that there is no collinearity exist between the variables

 Hypothesis 3b: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular

culture does affect the attractiveness of South Korean products to them.

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Table 6 shows the results of the linear regression of the attractiveness of South Korean products to the respondents (Y4) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age and education level.

Model

Standardized

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y4 (Constant) 1,338 ,183 Age ,176 2,197 ,030 ,875 1,143 Gender -,238 -2,813 ,006 ,789 1,267 Education ,025 ,313 ,755 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,345 4,029 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.355

According to the results displayed in Table 6, the respondents’ exposure level, age and gender all has significant effect on the attractiveness of Korea-made products. The significance for exposure level is .000 at 0.05 levels which is very strong, and its coefficient is .345 which implies the effect is positive. Hypothesis 3b was accepted. Age also has significant effect, and its significance is .03. Its coefficient is .176, which means the effect is positive and when respondent’s age increase 1 year, the attractiveness of Korean products increases .176 levels. The significance for gender is .006, the coefficient is -.238 which means gender has significant effect on the attractiveness of Korea-made products to the respondent, and females are more likely to be attracted by the Korea-made products than males. In this regression, the adjust R2 is .355. There is no collinearity exist between the variables in this regression.  Hypothesis 3c: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular

culture does affect their intention to purchase South Korean products.

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Table 7 shows the results of the linear regression of the respondents’ intention to purchase South Korean products (Y5) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age and education level.

Model

Standardized

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y5 (Constant) ,831 ,407 Age ,218 2,710 ,008 ,875 1,143 Gender -,248 -2,931 ,004 ,789 1,267 Education ,037 ,474 ,636 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,322 3,760 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.373

The regression of Y5 with exposure level, gender, age and education level has similar results with the last regression that exposure level, age and gender all has significant effect. The significance for exposure level, age and gender are .000, .004, .008 respectively, and the coefficients are .322,.218, -.248. The results reveal that exposure level and age have positive effects on respondent’s intention to buy Korea-made products, and females are more willing than males to buy Korean products. Hypothesis 3c was accepted. The adjust R2 is .373. The values of tolerance are close to 1 and the VIFs are less than 5, thus collinearity does not exist between the variables.

While, for Y3 (impressiveness of South Korean products), Y4 (attractiveness of South Korean products) and Y5 (respondent’s intention to purchase South Korean products), educational level has no significant effect on either of them (the significance are .479, .755, .636 respectively).

 Hypothesis 4a: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular

culture does affect the impressiveness of South Korea as a tourist destination to them.

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Table 8 shows the results of the linear regression of the respondents’ impression on South Korean as a tourist destination (Y6) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age and education level.

Model

Standardized

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y6 (Constant) ,043 ,966 Age ,106 1,269 ,207 ,875 1,143 Gender -,092 -1,037 ,301 ,789 1,267 Education ,204 2,486 ,014 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,350 3,911 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.364

Table 8 discloses the significant effects of exposure level and educational level on the extent to which does the respondent see South Korea as a proper destination for tourist. The significance for these two factors are .000 (exposure level) and .014 (educational level) at 0.05 levels, and the coefficient are .350 and .204, which means the effects are both positive. Hypothesis 4a was accepted. While gender and age have no significant effects on the respondents’ impression on South Korea as a tourist destination. The adjust R2 in this regression is .364. Same as the above ones, this value may be caused by the large scatter of our data. The values of VIF and tolerance indicate there is no collinearity exists between variables.

does affect the attractiveness of South Korea as a tourist destination to them.

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Model

Standardized

Beta Tolerance VIF

Y7 (Constant) 1,080 ,282 Age ,117 1,463 ,146 ,875 1,143 Gender -,164 -1,950 ,053 ,789 1,267 Education ,004 ,049 ,961 ,911 1,098 Exposure Level ,428 5,024 ,000 ,768 1,303 Adjust R2 0.349

This regression discloses the fact that other than exposure level, factors such as age, gender and educational level all have no significant effect on the attractiveness of South Korea as a tourist attraction to the respondent. The effect of exposure level on South Korean’s attractiveness as a tourist destination was significant at 0.05 levels, thus Hypothesis 4b was accepted. The adjust R2 is .349 in this regression.

 Hypothesis 4c: Chinese people’s level of exposure to South Korean popular

culture does affect their intention to travel to South Korean.

Table 10 Output of the regression analysis (n=0.05)

Table 10 shows the results of the linear regression of the respondents’ intention to visit South Korean as a tourist destination to (Y8) with their exposure level to South Korean popular culture, gender, age and education level.

Model

Standardized

Beta Tolerance VIF

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In this regression, the results show that exposure level and gender have significant positive (coefficient is .335) and significant negative (coefficient is -.211) effect on respondent’s willingness to go to South Korea for travelling respectively, which means that when other factors hold, respondent’s willingness of travelling to South Korea increases .335 level when his or her exposure level to South Korean popular culture has increased 1 level; and when other factors hold, females are more willing to visit South Korea as a tourist destination than males do. Hypothesis 4c was accepted. The adjust R2 is .307 in this regression, the tolerance values and VIF values indicate no collinearity exists between variables.

The adjust R2 in all eight regressions are relatively low. One of the most important explanations to this is the large scatter of the data. Tolerance and VIF values are calculated, as the tolerance are all close to one and the VIF values are less than 5, thus we conclude that there is no collinearity exists in the eight regressions.

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7. C

ONCLUSION

7.1 Conclusion

The literature has proven there is still a lack of study on the specific strategies that countries adopted for nation branding, as most literature on this topic is introductory. In this thesis, popular culture is considered as a nation-branding strategy, and the following research question has been examined:

To what extent does popular culture influence the nation’s image and may it serve the purpose of nation branding?

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gender and education level. The conceptual model of this research was formulated based on this reasoning.

In this study, South Korea was selected as the case, and the influence of South Korean popular culture on Chinese people’s attitude towards the country was investigated through a survey conducted in 5 cities of China. In total, 150 questionnaires were collected and 136 of them were valid. The questionnaires provided us with the information of the respondents’ exposure level to South Korean popular culture, and their attitude towards the country which was distinguished into 4 main dimensions corresponding the main function and motives of nation branding. Respondents’ personal information such as their age, gender and educational level were also included in the questionnaire.

By conducting regression analyses, the eight hypotheses developed were tested. The results show that Chinese people’s exposure level to South Korean popular culture does affect their attitude towards the country from all four perspectives. The effect was positive, which implies that when people getting more contact with Korean popular culture, they have learned more and are more willing to learn more about the country, and their attitude towards Korea-made products and South Korea as a tourist destination are more positive. Eight hypotheses were all accepted. Thus, a conclusion was drawn that popular culture did work as a communicator and had the ability to serve the purpose of nation branding.

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respondents’ educational level. In this manner, a different evaluation about the effect of educational level on people’s attitude towards the nation might be given.

This thesis touches upon the topic of nation-branding strategy which was lack of study in the past. Different from the strategies which are commonly used for nation branding, the strategy being discussed in this study was popular culture. Though several study mentioned the nation branding effect of popular culture, seldom has provided any evidence. Yet, in this study, an empirical study was conducted, and the effect that popular culture caused on people’s attitude towards a country was evaluated based on the review of previous literature and the information collected through a survey. In this manner, for the first time that the empirical evidence of the popular culture’s nation-branding effect has been provided.

7.2 Limitation and recommendation:

In this part, we indicate some limitations of this research in the hope that it can make some implications to the future research.

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products in other countries, the popular culture’s characteristic of uncontrollability fade down. Thus, its negative effect was not disclosed in this research. However, this situation may hardly be generalizable to other countries.

Secondly, the number of observations in the survey is relatively small, which makes the convincingness of making inference about the population from such a sample is weak. Thus, in further research, the sample size should be enlarged or the target population for the research should be more focused.

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Popular Culture and Nation Branding: A Case Study of South Korea

Popular Culture and Nation Branding:

A Case Study of South Korea

Master Thesis:

Popular Culture and Nation Branding:

A Case Study of South Korea

Supervisor: M. van Offenbeek

Referent: I. Kalinic

Studen939793

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9. Reference