130226 SNSD Vs. Wonder Girls, ‘Same Goal, Different Strategy’

The ‘K-Pop Syndrome’ as been expanding overseas and becoming a worldwide trend. Top K-Pop agencies such as YG, JYP and SM have all been working hard to find the best strategy to succeed in the overseas market.

However, it seems that the strategy that these agencies are using are different.

Let’s take a look by comparing SM Entertainment’s Girls’ Generation and JYP Entertainment’s Wonder Girls.

Girls’ Generation used their music and entertainment industry’s skill and knowledge to first target Asia and Southease Asia. After becoming a success in Asia, they then began to change their target to the rest of the world.

On the other hand, Wonder Girls went straight to the U.S. market after becoming successful in Korea. It is because of these contrasting methods that these two agencies have resulted in differing outcomes.

The United States has the biggest music market in the world with many different styles and genres of music and artists. It is also a place of big competition as well.

Wonder Girls, who quickly stopped Korea activities to go full force in the U.S., did not receive outstanding results as they had hoped to and eventually returned back to Korea. They are now currently doing activities in both Korea and the U.S.

On the other hand, Girls’ Generation is becoming the icon for K-Pop in the Asia market. They were on point in that after gaining success in Korea they targeted Asia as their next step.

The Japan music market is the second biggest in the world. Korean music exports to Japan are at 81%, which is a significantly higher rate than any other country to export to Japan.

Girls’ Generation, after becoming an icon of Asia, has taken a step towards the U.S. and Europe markets. With their song, “The Boys” from last year gained much attention in the U.S. and Europe.

With the power of social networking sites and smart phones, they were able to quickly expand into the world market. YouTube, Facebook, twitter and others helped in marketing and spreading the K-Pop syndrome as well.

When comparing the two agencies, SM saw an increase in sales by 10% within the past 3 years, whereas JYP as seen to be stagnant in their sales.

Many professionals also feel that SM’s method of targeting the international market is seen as more successful.

An analyst commented, “SM has first taken over Japan and Asia before going international to the U.S. and Europe. It seems that most SM artists first go over to Japan then Asia, before going overseas. This method is seen as the best way to become successful overseas.”

The analysis continued, “In the end, its all up to the type of content the artists bring out. It seems that SM is in the lead in becoming a global agency with the way there are going currently.”