Is this only a song? No, It is a marketing miracle!

Recently a song is so popular, not national popularity, but international. Is the singer so handsome or gorgeous? No. Is the lyrics touching heart so deep? No. Then why !

This is the very very hot song Gangnam Style, by Korean singer PSY. The music Video has been viewed over 284 million times on You Tube as of September 26, 2012, making it the site's most watched K-pop video in history. The song has topped the iTunes Charts in 31 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada . On September 17, "Gangnam Style" was nominated for Best Video at the upcoming 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards  to be held in  Frankfurt  Germany. It is true that Korean pop music has a large impact in Asia, however, this time is almost the first time draw large attention from Western World. CBC and Reuters all made reports on this new music trend. 
Why is it so popular? I think a view point from Groundswell Winning in a world transformed by social technologies  by Charlene Li and Josh Bernofe . "Why the groundswell happening now? The groundswell comes from the collision of three forces: people , technology, and economics."(Line 12 page 10). Actually not only general concept of groundswell comes from these forces, but also all the creatures live in this groundswell. For Gangnam style, One of the main contribute for the international popularity is the right channel- Youtube. Without Youtube this world wide channel, Gangnam Style would be impossible to spread out of South Korean.  This is the help from technology. In the Social Technographics Ladder (Groundswell  page 43 ), youtube  users belongs to the largest group-Spectators, which consume what the rest produce--blogs, online videos, podcasts, forums, and reviews.  This ladder counts for 68% (page 44).  

 And also, in Chapter 2 people creating :blog, user-generated content, and podcasts (chart on page 20), there are over 48% consumers from U.S.A, over 33% consumers from United Kingdom, and over 46% consumers from Korean watch user generated video. This is a huge market of world wide. However, The population of general participation can not represent the participate of the target audience, market is like a inverted pyramid, large number goes in but small goes out which is the final target audience. From Chart 3-4 in Groundswell , we can see that a lot of young people act as spectators which is exactly the target audience of the pop music. Actually, just as the authors said, what kind of techonology is not important, but the relationship is everything.  By the right media channel, one can build relationship with target audience much more easier. Like Gangnam style reached a huge target audience, that is young people who need much more energy to carry on. 

For economy. It seems no relationship between economy and this song, a fat not young man with some strange dancing in the horse stable, in the elevator and on toilet  a little bit awkward and also no defense, a little bit stupid.  However this is exactly why people love it. Why? Because it's funny, make people laugh! In the economy gloom times, humor is crucial. 

By the strong connection with the target audience, with the pushing of the right technology and in the right time. A strange song get famous. This is great example of marketing no name to big name. 

Social Media and Car Buying

For all human beings, what is the most important products one should purchase, the answer would be a lot, but car must be the top ones.

How today's people purchase a car, are they still wandering from dealership to dealership, eating the free hotdogs, and make some long notes,then go back, fight, and then agree upon? May be not. What a 21st century car buyer do, they just stay at home, search on the internet, before they go to the dealership talking to the salesperson, waiting for the brainwash, they have already collected a lot information. From Where? Internet, From Official website? only a little part, From where?  Tell me! Okay from social media.

In a global survey of more than 8,000 prospective car buyers, 94% of the respondents said they use the Internet as a research tool.  What a person mainly do on the internet, to check the official homepage of various brand is absolutely, but the truth is that we all know advertisement is unreliable, official website is definitely a kind of advertisement; All cars be called premium , maybe we should redefine premium to be anything you day dreaming. According to a survey by DriverSide and DEALER.COM,The Rise of Loyalty Advocacy& Influence-Social Media and New Automotive Purchase CycleThirty-eight percent of new vehicle buyers will use social media to research their next vehicle purchase.Engagement on social media channels after the purchase is impressive. Approximately one out of every four buyers is using social media to commu- nicate the purchase experience. Among those who used social media in the new vehicle process, fifty-eight percent of purchasers posted a comment or status update on Facebook about their new vehicle and 24% “liked” the brand.

  Professor Julia Frechette says on her class, the evolution of communication process from oral culture to digital era, the power shifted from elite group to mass media, everyone has the accessibility to the information. With this shift, the traditional market changed also, from push market to pull market.  For the car manufactures, sell a car is no longer tell customers that the products are good, but make customers to personal realize that the products are good. To achieve this, producers have to use different ways, by using your customers as your advertisement channel. 

Why is the social Media so important for the car buying process.

Like what I said before house, car and pause, are the three most important thing, this things cost a lot of money and also it would be your side for a relatively long time, so before we buy a grand house, we may first check the location, the friendliness of the neighborhood, the comfort of the environment, then with a thrill of excitement , we finally buy it . For a spouse , before we marry each other, we fight to obtain what we want, we take care of each other to secure we can get same rewards in the future, then with some excitement, we finally marry to each other, for better for worse, in certain period, the relationship has finally be settled. All the thing is same with the car buying, people want to know as many as real result about the car they are going to buy. In this customer to customer market, people acquire true information from social networks, from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn... Before they finally transfer their money out.

This is the screen shot of Lexus's Facebook page. She has 1.429,436 likes.

This is not only a place where Lexus advertise their vehicles, but also a community of the past, current, and future customers of Lexus, people here to exchange their opinion, which may have a huge influence towards the customer's purchase behavior.
This is screen shot from Lexus Facebook page of Lexus 2013 LS, all kinds of customers share their opinion, especially the past customer, their opinion for future customers is very important, since that is real experience.

screen shot from Lexus Facebook recent posts

Social Media and the customer loyalty.

Once consumers have made a purchase decision, a powerful secondary cycle referred to as the loyalty loop develops.

 Consumers who enjoy their product and purchase experience may go on to advocate on behalf of that brand. Some may bond with it, increasing the likelihood that at the time of repurchase, they may return to that brand without considering any others, and they would like to recommend this brand to people around. So combine with good product quality, social media can enlarge your loyalty loop much more bigger.