The term 'cultural industry was coined by Max Horkheimer and The odor Adorno of the Frankfurt School in 1947 as a despairing indictment of the commodification inherent in mass culture. They saw culture as being transformed by the technology and ideolo...
The term 'cultural industry was coined by Max Horkheimer and The odor Adorno of the Frankfurt School in 1947 as a despairing indictment of the commodification inherent in mass culture. They saw culture as being transformed by the technology and ideology of monopoly capitalism. Since then notions of cultural commodification have developed along several different paths indicating different contextualisations of culture within a broadly economic domain. Nowadays, the importance of cultural industry is getting higher based on its economic and social impacts.
For the successful cultural products, it should have holistic master plan from the initial stage of the development by considering "irreinteration of demand," "inelasticity of demand," "public nature," and "intangibility" elements. Therefore, it is critical to envisage cultural industry marketing strategy through consumer understanding, production, distribution and promotions processes and implement the strategy to make a profitable output which will become a cultural industry's competitive advantages.
Cultural industries in Korea is already positioned its importance as a major areas for the business domain as well as job opportunities. Evidence of cultural industry's importance might be "Korean Wave" which started from the end of 90's in Southeastern Asian countries. "Korean Wave" proved cultural product's impact and potential in both business perspectives and people's perception and image alternation. Even "Korean Wave" showed its potential and mentioned several times through the mass media, the reality of "Korean Wave" was exaggerated by domestic news media. In fact, "Korean Wave"in the countries is limited only for Korean celebrities by limited audience.
When comparing the mass media's coverage on Korean Wave in Vietnam and consumer research findings of Korean Wave, there are some discrepancies. Based on the research findings, the most popular cultural product is identified as Drama. Their preference for the Korean drama came from the emotional congruity in tradition, morality and value for family and patriotism between two countries. Besides, considering their quality of domestic drama and production environment, Korean drama clearly gives them a picture for their future.
According to the consumer research which was conducted on November, 2004, Korean drama's competitive edges are; drama's theme, storyline, dynamics and way of expression, celebrities, and beautiful scenery in order. These finding from the consumer research give us an insight to realize the true Korean Wave in Vietnam which is differ from the news media's articles.
It is anticipated that Korean Wave might shriveled if there is no any elaborating efforts. Considering that Korean Wave are not mere social phenomena but seed for the Korean cultural industries to expand its reach into global market. In order to put forth the bud of Korean Wave, it needs to develop ideal model and strategy for the globalization of Korean Wave which will also enhance image of Korea and economic benefits.
Now it is high time to assess its status and potential of Korean Wave in order to identify cultural industry development strategy which will be a corner stone for the growth and enrichment of Korean cultural industries.
This study will investigated the nature of Korean Wave in Vietnam and will develop the ideal culture development model in general for the successful globalization of Korean culture. More specifically, it will discover the way to support the cultural industries as a point of government policy making as well as business strategy.