bts' brand endorsements, luxury goods vs necessity/home goods, and what this difference in branding and image rlly says

    :pepe-toast:

    Quote from AmmaAffa

    mean have people seen what, for example, SRK endorses? :pepe-smug:


    For those who don't know... he is the most popular actor in Bollywood and endorses every thing under the sun from toothpastes, to paint etc. He is a household name, selling household items.


    Celebs make choices when they choose to endorse certain products while rejecting others. If money was the only end goal and not the image they are happy with, they would have been accepting everthing that comes their way.

    Interesting fact about him, he chose not to endorse a dandruff Shampoo because in his words he's a star not your regular guy and does not get dandruff so he can't endorse it :cryingr:

    The main problem that I've noticed with some kpop stans is that they think endorsing luxury brands (Chanel, Gucci or any world famous designer you name it) is a personality trait when in fact it's not. Business wise, you're promoting a brand that 90% of your audience cannot afford it. Yeah, it looks pretty in a CV but that's it. Trust me when I say that endorsing a "smaller" more affordable brand is making them more bank than any luxury brand could.

    Image wise, I don't see any issues, I think BTS are quite smart in choosing the brands they want to endorse, especially when they combine promoting their own image and music at the same time like that Samsung ad did, that was one of the smartest business decisions I've seen.

    Quote from lemonblueberries

    Second, BTS promotes their fair share of expensive items/brands, like Samsung. The clothes they choose to wear in their personal time are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is fine and great because they earned it and can wear whatever they want, but that's not exactly "down to earth" or showing "humility" on their part.

    This isn't exactly true tho. Yes, Samsung and Hyundai are luxury items but a complete different type of luxury item compared to high fashion brand. Samsung and Hyundai are luxury brands who's target audience is the average person because the average person is easily willing to pay a couple of hunderds and thousands of dollars for their products because they expect to use these products daily and for a long time. They also have a lot more added value the higher the price you go (higher price = more features). That's why they use communication channels like TV, Youtube, etc. since they want many eyes on them. High fashion brands don't do this and aren't aimed at the average people. The majority of the normal people will not be willing to spend over a thousands dollars on a piece they won't be wearing daily, might wear it two times in a lifetime and doesn't really have added value since you're paying for an image and label. Their communication channels tend to be celebrities, fashion professionals (opinion formers and opinion leaders) and magazines because they want to have exclusivity and want you to seek them out. While they def pay attention to the average person who wants save money to pay a piece, they def won't be targeting them (hell they don't want majority of the average people to wear their brand since that's a 'downgrade', that's why you often get side - eyed if you'd walk in Chanel store looking like any normal person.). Why would they target the average person who will maybe buy two pieces of their collection in a life time? They will be targeting the rich people who can casually afford to buy a lot of their clothes.


    BTS also wears a lot of casual brands tho, pretty sure they even were seen buying from Bershka which is extremely cheap. They don't consistently only wear high brand fashion + have shown support to small businesses which does in fact make them humble because it just enforces the fact that we know they can spend a lot of money on stuff yet don't feel it's beneath them to wear or promote something cheap and small as well.


    Long rant, geeking out marketing major here

    I don't think any of them want to be a model on the long-run anyway, so I don't think it really matters at the end. For clothes especially, they like wearing what they like to wear, and that's great !


    I agree, though, that the cfs they are doing is more likely to make them exists in the collective consciousness of the korean GP, so if that's their strategy it's interesting.

    They've said it before, that they look into company and brand values and philosophies etc. They officially endorse brands that afford to pay for them, and silently endorse small brands that cannot: they're often seen wearing pieces from small designers, independent creators (Tae's famous paint Pallette pin for ex.).


    They know their power, that's for sure.



    Those who belittle them for not having Luxury brand deals are being clowns - par de course, when it comes to BTS haters. I remember when they were going about how "you're not famous in Korea until you get a fried chicken brand endorsement". And they they got that as well. :smirks2:


    at this point, BTS does whatever they fcking feel like. They're one of the biggest artists in the world, after all. :claps::cutes:

    Honestly fashion brand deals aren’t also bad. It all depends on the kind of image you are going for.

    However if you want to break into mainstream, household endorsements is the way to go because everyone uses them unlike luxury goods which are just accessed by one group of people. Also depending on what household brand is endorsing you, they pay far more than what you can get from luxury brands

    Quote from dopiee

    I agree that BH has does think of the image that they want BTS to portray but sometimes I think the output doesn't align with their plans.


    This is also not just about BTS not doing cfs for luxury brands. The fandom went into chaos over BTS endorsing milk from Indonesia if I'm not wrong(?) last year. :|

    And what is wrong with endorsing milk from Indonesia ?? Is that illegal? Is it bad or something :whatr:

    Quote from Afriyieau1

    And what is wrong with endorsing milk from Indonesia ?? Is that illegal? Is it bad or something :whatr:

    Idk from what I remember people were saying that BTS are too big for it or something. And BTS should endorse more high end products and not slap BTS's name on every product just for the money.

    Quote from dopiee

    Idk from what I remember people were saying that BTS are too big for it or something. And BTS should endorse more high end products and not slap BTS's name on every product just for the money.

    Oh I misunderstood you then. I thought you were against the endorsement


    And that’s what some users can’t seem to understand that BTS image is still humility. They endorse everything that do not go against their vision :happyr:

    Agree with that. I like it more when celebrities advertise stuff I can actually buy and maybe even something I might need. I mean I am an average person eith average income.

    If they would advertise only gucci and Chanel and Burberry ofc it would make them high class af and would give stans bragging rights. But they would try to sell something to me I would never buy anyway.

    Maybe I would think differently about it if my dad was some kind of CEO, we would drive a Porsche and only wear luxury. Sadly Im not and as an ordinary person I like to see BTS on baskin robbins and coffee. I hope they wont have many high end bran deals tbh, like you said that would create a wall.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login