Conventional rules for successful marketing strategy may state that touching on emotions of people, as we human beings, is the best one you can ever do. But it is as difficult to achieve as it is obvious because it is all about making money. Psy, who has become a world billionaire Korean pop singer, is in point. Beginning from July 15th 2012, Psy’s new title Gangnam Style spread virally all over the world.
How did Psy’s Gangnam Style make such a huge success? His music video has been watched on Youtube almost 1.8 billion times around the world. People whose mother-tongue is not even Korean just love his catchy dance moves and interpret his lyrics they do not even understand. However, Psy was indifferent and completely laid back when it came to infringing on his copyright of his music video; he decided to give up on his copyright, which resulted in thousands of different parodies.
His decision on copyright, of course, was a shock to the norm; you would most likely make copyrights on your ideas to make more money. As a result, the phenomenon of unbounded awareness and reputation through YouTube, his appearance on TV shows such as Today, Ellen, and Saturday Night Live, and commercials, like Samsung Electronics and LG’s provider UPlus, created social validation and scarcity, which, in turn, gave him maybe ten times of what he would have earned through his copyrights.
At some american weddings, a hired DJ would play the DJ’s own version of Gangnam Style and all members, including “older generation” will stand up and perform the horse-riding dance. A lesson we can learn from Psy’s viral success across the world is that sometimes we should make marketing strategies that people feel it is ownable that everybody can freely enjoy it and love it, using consistency principle.