Currently, various contents in a variety of fields including the popular culture are being exported to the world based on the influence of the Korean Wave which began in the East Asia. However, the ones that still take the largest part and show the st...
Currently, various contents in a variety of fields including the popular culture are being exported to the world based on the influence of the Korean Wave which began in the East Asia. However, the ones that still take the largest part and show the strongest influence among them are the cultural contents related with pop culture, and drama and movie continued to advance rapidly in recent few years while proving their cultural effects as well as economic values and have been playing the central role in maintaining and spreading the Korean Wave.
However, there is Japan in the center of maintaining the Korean Wave by exporting Korean movies and dramas. Japan began to import enormous amount of Korean movies and dramas recently, and quickly became the largest consumer of Korean Wave products by putting aside Taiwan. This has a great meaning as Korea considered Japan as a country which has the upperhand in terms of culture for it not only means that the quality of Korean movies and dramas has enhanced but also means that their competitiveness has also improved.
However, while Korea was exporting a large amount of contents to Japan following the influence of Korean Wave phenomenon, Japan was also continuously exporting their contents to Korea through the open door policy. Although Korea has made better achievements economically, the issue of the giant competitiveness of Japanese culture which has been consistently raised since the moment we began to talk about opening doors to Japan is a matter that we must not ignore for the fact that Japanese culture has been introduced to Korea through illegitimate routes even before the doors are opened, it has already developed a number of maniacs in Korea and formed a strong phantom culture, and Japanese contents industry is much advanced than that of Korea.
Under the circumstances, this study focused on the comparative analysis of the overseas marketing strategy of the pop culture industry between Japan and Korea centering on the drama among movies and broadcasting contents considering the particularity of the relationship between Japan and Korea and the circumstances of pop culture industry. For this, the study examined the particularity of the relationship between two countries comparing to the flow of the history and tried to identify the Korean Wave in Japan and Japanese Wave in Korea. The study selected successful Korean Wave and Japanese Wave contents and analyzed the overseas marketing strategies of both countries for movies and dramas through SWOT analysis and compared and suggested the outcomes.
To examine the particularities of Japan and Korea, it is necessary to examine the Japanese occupation of Korea. The harsh colonial rule of Japan on Korea brought antipathy of Korean people against Japan, and this type of antipathy was also reflected in th policy that any legal commercial act involved with Japanese pop culture had been absolutely prohibited until Korean opened doors to Japanese culture in 1998. After that, Korea opened doors to Japanese pop culture along with the international peaceful atmosphere and the ideology of globalization and to provide new opportunities for Korean pop culture industry. The door was opened gradually through a considerable period of time, but in fact, Korean consumers are almost fully exposed to Japanese pop culture while it is already been near a decade since Korea began to open its doors. In the beginning of opening, many people worried that the advanced Japanese pop culture will eat into that of Korea however Japanese pop culture showed slow progress and small influence unlike they anticipated and it has been accepted by Korean people without much trouble until now.
On the other hand, Korean pop culture had an unexpected and great success in Japan. From <Winter Sonata> to <Daejanggeum>, drama contents brought outstanding results, and especially, <Winter Sonata> is still leading the fever of Korean Wave in Japan and also buttressing Korean Wave in Japan. Following the success of dramas, Korea could successfully make inroads into Japanese film market along with the advancement of Korean movie industry and the good news from world renowned film festivals. It was the brilliant achievement that Korean pop culture made by overcoming the numerical inferiority in the industrial circumstances.
However, the achievement was possible due to the influence of 'Korean Wave', the ambush that no one could expect, and in fact, Korean pop culture industry is numerically inferior to that of Japan. In terms of films, they are producing more than 300 movies a year in Japan while only 1/3 the quantity is made in Korea, and while their production is involved with various genres without any inclination toward any genre, the number of Korean movies which went into the black by making profits compared with the investment is decreasing although Korean movies made qualitative and quantitative growth on the surface. Korean dramas are making a lot of profits with the low investment compared with Japan in financial terms however even they are faced with risks due to poor drama production environment, limited subject matters, and growing financial difficulty in casting the stars of Korean Wave.
The analysis of Japanese dramas and movies that became successful in Korea shows that they are making use of the one source multiple use method which is considered as the motto and the basis of Japanese contents industry. The advantage of this 'one source, multiple use' strategy is that it guarantees high rate of success compared with investment as the successful contents can be applied to other fields of the industry once the contents such as the movie, drama, novel, or comics become successful in the domestic market. It also guarantees wide variety of opportunities for it can make attempts to various areas instead of concentrating on one area.
On the contrary, the analysis of Korean movies and dramas which became successful in Japan shows that they commonly relied on the star-marketing using the stars of the Korean Wave. Whether they are actors, directors, or writers, once they gain popularity and establish a foothold in Japan, they became marketing points and the spearhead in making inroads into Japanese market, and even when they did not have much popularity, they made use of Korean Wave and established a footing in Japanese market following the title of 'Made in Korea.'
However, this type of marketing strategy is extremely dependent on Korean Wave, it can be greatly influenced by the intensity of the Korean Wave phenomenon, and there is a great burden that it needs to maintain the Korean Wave phenomenon in Japan. Also, the heavy dependency on Korean Wave and Korean Wave phenomenon rather than the quality of the contents themselves generated contents below expectation in the viewpoint of Japanese consumers, and the repetition of these phenomena can risk other Korean movies and dramas making inroads into Japanese market.
Korean Wave is a very rare opportunity that Korean popular culture industry had, and for this reason, the issue of how to maintain and expand the Korean Wave has become the toughest issue for the popular culture business circles. This is a tougher issue for movie and drama contents. For Korean movies and dramas to continue to make successful inroads into Japanese market, it is necessary to change the marketing format which is dependent on the Korean Wave phenomenon. The Korean Wave is a cultural phenomenon inside Japan out of out control. As if we do not know how exactly Korean Wave began, no one can estimate its influence and how long it would persist. For this reason, domestic culture industry must give efforts to become the killer contents which leads Korean Wave by itself while making the best use of the phenomenon rather than relying on it. Korean Wave only provided much more opportunities for Korean popular culture industry to make inroads into Japanese market; we must not forget whether or not we can seize the chance depends on the quality of the contents themselves. This type of improvement will become the foundation for Korean popular culture to produce competitive contents in anywhere around the world including Japan, and it will become the driving force for maintaining and spreading the phenomenon of Korean Wave.