SUPERSTAR MARKETING AND BRAND LOYALTY ON SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDY: JAMES JI Pacapol Jakrapan Anurit Kanyanat Pureerod

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1 SUPERSTAR MARKETING AND BRAND LOYALTY ON SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDY: JAMES JI Pacapol Jakrapan Anurit Kanyanat Pureerod Article Information: Author: Kanyanat Pureerod Master of Business Administration Shinawatra University Bangkok, Thailand Background Now is the peak period of superstars in media. There are many brands and products that use superstars as their marketing tool or presenter. The social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram link people to get closer to their idols and then become fan club very easily. So, it is not surprising that idols would be so powerful and have a big influence on their fan club, especially in Thailand where a lot of people are crazy about superstars. Many brands and companies see this fact and use it to create brand or marketing strategy. Scope of Study Many famous business and brands invest a large amount of money for hiring superstars to be presenters or brand ambassadors. These brands expect to gain interest and make consumers have good attitudes and memorize the brand (MarketPlus Magazine, 2012). This marketing strategy is very successful in many countries such as America, Japan, China and also Thailand where the term Superstar is used widely on media. This study also focuses on the superstar marketing and brand loyalty on the use of social media which is very popular nowadays. It is a must for superstars to have their own fan page in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Objectives of Study This study examines the use of superstar marketing strategy through social media in Thailand by the case study of James Ji. The study also finds out about the impacts of this strategy to the fans of James Ji and their loyalty to the brands presented by James Ji. The study collects data from survey question and in-depth interview of 30 James Ji s fans. Conceptual Framework Independent Variables Superstar s factors Dependent Variables H 1 To examine the influence of superstars on fan club To examine the influence of fans on brand loyalty by analyzing through purchasing behaviors of the fans To study the use of social media of brands that has influence on fans. To explore the relationship of superstar marketing, fan club and social media Superstar as Brand Presenter The use of social media Fan club Page 1

2 Variable of Study Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Independent Variables Factors of Superstars Appearance Personality Performance/Talent Popularity Superstar as Brand Presenter 7-Eleven Meiji Bulgaria Yoghurt AIS Toyota VIOS Wuttisak Clinic Krispy Kreme The Use of Social Media James Ji as brand presenter on social media Appearance of superstar on social media of brands Appearance of brands on superstar s social media Hypotheses of study H 1 The factors of superstar which are appearance, personality, performance and popularity have influence on the preferences of their fan club. Fan club (fans) Dependent Variables Preference of fans to superstar Brand loyalty of fans Attitude of fans The brands presented by James Ji which are 7-Eleven, AIS, Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt, Toyota VIOS, Wuttisak Clinic and Krispy Kreme have influence on brand loyalty of fans. The use of social media of brands or superstars has influence on the attitude of fans. Superstar Marketing Superstars marketing or celebrity marketing or idol marketing is a marketing strategy in which a celebrity or superstar becomes a brand ambassador and uses his or her status in society to promote a product, service or charity, and sometimes also appears as promotional model. This famous person might be an actor, musician, athlete, ex-politician or a cartoon character. They do not need to be international superstars; they only need to be familiar to the target audience. The Impacts of Superstars on Fans Superstars have their fan club which is a group that is dedicated to a well-known person, group, idea or sometimes even an inanimate object. Most fan clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to supporting them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the person or organization the club is centered around. These fans are important to superstar because they support and encourage or even create a big effect to the superstar. Brand Loyalty Brand loyalty is where a person buys products from the same manufacturer repeatedly rather than from other suppliers. Brand loyalty, in marketing, consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase or otherwise continue using the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service, or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy. Brand loyalty is more than simple repurchasing. Customers may repurchase a brand due to situational constraints, a lack of viable alternatives, or out of convenience (Jones et al, 2002). Page 2

3 The Impacts of Social Media on Brand Loyalty Lab 42 Online Marketing Research Agency (Chicago, USA.) studied on using behaviors on Facebook of 1,000 users found that 87% of users Like the brands they admire on Facebook. The reason is they think it is the easy way to connect to the brand. There are 35% of users feel that the brands pay more interest to them when they Like on Facebook. It is interesting that 55% of them Like the brands because they want promotions such as discount coupon or free gifts. While only 14% of users who Like because they have brand loyalty. Moreover, the research found that 46% of them Like the brands without intention to purchase products because 52% of them want free gifts and 46% of them like the brands, but cannot afford expensive products. The Impacts of Superstar on Brand Loyalty through Social Media In the social media realm, celebrities have more cachet and influence than brands. According to a separate study by Nielsen, celebrities are valuable to advertisers, but so are celebrities fans on social media sites. The study found that 64% of American adults who follow a celebrity online also follow a brand, and that a celebrity follower is four times more likely to follow a brand than the average U.S. adult online. The Nielsen study also found that such fans are also more likely to offer advice and opinions to fellow online consumers. Theories Word of Mouth (WOM) The TEARS model The No TEARS model The Q Score Source Credibility The FREDD Principle Case Study This study examines the relationship of superstar, brand loyalty and social media in Thailand by using the case study James Ji (Jirayu Tangsrisuk), one of the most popular actors in Thailand at this moment as he is called superstar. Because of his popularity, many leading brands and products select him as their brand ambassador or presenter. Research Design This study is designed to collect data from both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method is used to collect general information of respondents, while qualitative method is used to collect narrative data and details that quantitative method cannot access. The Data Collection Profile Name : Jirayu Tangsrisuk Nick Name : James Age : 20 years old Birth date : 19 September 1993 Birth place : Pijit, Thailand Career : Actor/ Presenter The data is collected from survey questions and indepth interview of 30 of James Ji s fan club in Facebook. There are 3 sources of respondents: face-to-face, online and telephone. The majority of respondents which involving 20 James Ji s fans (67.0%). They were interviewed online via Facebook chat and . The second group contains 7 respondents (23.0%) who were interviewed on telephone. The third group contains 3 respondents (10.0%) who were interviewed faceto-face interview. Page 3

4 Finding of Study The study found that superstars have great influences on fan club. Female and the age of 21 to 30 is the majority of the respondents. Most of respondents hold bachelor degree and living in Bangkok, and also in the Middle part of Thailand. For his career, The Gentleman Juthathep Series on Channel 3 (2013) makes him becomes very popular. Therefore, his popularity leads to opportunities to be the brand presenter in many advertising. Among the 6 brands presented by James Ji, the most successful brands in marketing are AIS, 7- Eleven and Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt, while Toyota VIOS, Wuttisak Clinic, and Krispy Kreme do not get much recognition from fans. He does not only make those brands become more popular, but he also creates brand value and brand loyalty according to the purchasing behaviors of his fans. Female The Gentleman Juthathep Series Live in Bangkok James Ji's Fan Club Bachelor Degree Years old Employee From the survey questions and interviews of James Ji s fans, it found that his appearances and personalities are the main factors that make people like him. On the other hands, his performance and popularity are the minor factors considered by his fans. For the use of social media, Facebook and Instagram are the main networks that his fans follow him, while Twitter is the least popular social media that his fans follow him. There are several objectives that James Ji s fans following him on social media. The majority or 64.7% like to see James Ji s photos, 17.6% like to follow events that James Ji attend, 8.8% like to discuss with other fans, 2.9% like seeing James Ji s schedule and 5.9% answered that they just Like or Follow on James Ji s fan page because they admired James Ji, but they did not do any activity on social media. Page 4

5 Hypotheses Test In this study, there are 3 hypotheses. The study found that hypothesis 1 (H 1 ) and hypothesis 2 ( ) are accepted, while hypothesis 3 ( ) is rejected. For conclusion: H 1 Discussions The factors of superstar which are appearance, personality, performance and popularity have influence on the preferences of their fan club The brands presented by James Ji which are 7-Eleven, AIS, Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt, Toyota VIOS, Wuttisak Clinic and Krispy Kreme have influence on brand loyalty of fans The use of social media of brands or superstars has no influence on the attitude of fans James Ji and his fans match up as gender, age, occupation, education and living areas of Jams Ji and the fans are relative. Majority of James Ji s fans is female age between years old who living in Bangkok. They hold bachelor degree and working in private business firms. In the same way, James Ji is also in same age of his fans and studying in bachelor degree. His appearances are attractive to female as well. When asking about the attitudes towards James Ji, his fans feel positive to him. They think James Ji is suitable to the brands he has endorsed. However, James Ji does not have much influence on his fans to pursue them to purchase products. That is because those products are already well-known in Thailand. Some brands, especially food or inexpensive goods, would be more beneficial than high value products because consumers can make decision easily about inexpensive products. In this case study, people are more likely to purchase goods from 7-Eleven and try Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt because these brands are quite cheap and easy to purchase. Difficulties and Limitations It is difficult to contact James Ji s fans from Facebook fan page only. Most of them do not cooperate well to answer questions. Only few of them are willing to do the survey and interview. So, the researcher tried to find some friends who also Like James Ji fan page on Facebook and found that it is easier and more effective to collect data from this method. Moreover, the researcher also asked those friends to find and contact some of their friends who also like James Ji. This method help the researcher collect data very fast via Facebook chat and LINE application. Moreover, James Ji s personal information and his works profile are very limited. The researcher needed to look for more information in the Internet and entertainment news from online newspaper. Suggestion The key to a successful superstar marketing lies in connecting the right presenter with the right product. If their reputation and resume do not reflect the product they advertise the marketing message will appear worthless. In order to use the superstar marketing strategy, the firms should use various methods and tools including the relevant theories. The brands should select carefully for a brand presenter because once a superstar became a brand presenter or ambassador, they would link to the brand automatically. If there is any negative image of the superstar, the brand would be affected as well. Page 5