Idols are think of it as the Japanese equivalent of a pop
band except that most of the members of the so called band are not recruited (mainly) on their singing abilities but more to how they can perform and look 'cute' in general.
Now the term idol are not exclusively for music, they go on TV shows, show up in magazines, talk shows and they even have their own tv series.
Now for the purpose of this article, let's take a look at the recent craze in the idol scene.
Meet [b]AKB 48[/b]
no i'm serious, there's 48 of them
My good friend wikipedia here have a short history of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48 but to make things short they are an idol group that was formed in 2005 in a district inn Tokyo called Akihabara (hence the name AKB 48). From now the group have branched into 3 major groups (called team A, team K and Team B) and since its formation they have 3 other subgroups (SKE 48, SDN 48 and NMB 48).
How popular is this group? Their latest album (Sakura no ki ni narou) reported a whopping 655,000 copies on their first day of release! Talk about a lot of money into this.
But, how could such a group be so popular? Social media!
I'm sorry what?
Spoiler alert: blogs.
Other than the obvious marketing ploy such as making a deal with Sony Entertainment, and the other merchandising endeavor, blogs and forums played such a huge role in their spread of fanbase and popularity!
So let's put it this way, how can a Japan idol group can gain so much popularity outside of Japan?
A) Community and word of mouth
B) Forum creation so that like minded people can share their information
C) Idol having their own blogs to share their personal thought and flavour
D) All of the above
If you choose D then you just hatched a million dollar (or yen) idea.
Let's take a look at some example of these so called forums
7326 members *wipes sweat off* that's a lot of members for such a subculture.
example of idol blog:
As you can see AKB 48's strategy is to get you personally with the idol. Which fits their creed of 'idols you can meet' They made their members so personally in tune with all the fans so they can have a so called personal interactions with their favorite members!
Lesson to be learned
Obviously the product here are services and experience. In order for a brand or product to get in tune with their customers is to create an experience like no other. Each person can relate to the members of AKB48 personally by visiting their blogs and seeing their day to day activities. And they can share with other fans in forums or other personal blogs.
And whenever a new news is spread, the fans practically feed themselves. This shows a lot on how the correct usage of a social media can directly be responsible for the spread of an interest.
until next time!
-van
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