Analyzing the Influence of Korean Celebrities as Brand Ambassadors toward Customer Loyalty in Indonesia

: K-Wave, also known as Hallyu, has taken over Indonesia, particularly among millennials. It is getting more challenging to find luxury brands that do not hire K-pop stars or Korean celebrities as their global ambassadors. Due to their promising engagement, several brands in Indonesia are currently courting Korean celebrities to become brand ambassadors. It is important to note that customers may be aware that the artist may not use products from all of the brands. Consequently, brands in Indonesia continue to employ Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors. Developing strong brand loyalty is one strategy to achieve success in a market that is saturated with competitors and where the costs of switching from one seller to another are very low. To cultivate consumer loyalty, brands should give opportunities for consumers to engage in activities they enjoy. Young Indonesians were attracted to K-pop because it gave them a sense of escape and community. Whether through personality congruence between the company and the celebrity or through fan engagement, leveraging Korean celebrities to create customer loyalty for brands in Indonesia. This research mostly employs quantitative methods to collect data. A questionnaire-based online survey will serve as the research tool. Respondents were offered a series of questions requiring multiple-choice, likert-scale, and short-answer responses. The survey was made accessible to respondents via multiple online platforms. Due to the widespread circulation of survey links via the internet, a screening question was necessary to validate that respondents are qualified to finish the survey. The screening questions determined whether or not respondents had purchased products or services from the brand whose brand ambassadors are Korean celebrities. In order for their future survey response to be valid, the requirement must be met. According to the data analysis results, personality congruence and fan engagement have a significant impact on strengthening customer brand loyalty through brand attachment and brand love. The majority of respondents believe that Korean celebrities are attractive and that purchasing their endorsed products is a sort of support for them. The results of this study also indicated that the type of items purchased had no effect on consumer loyalty. Therefore, brands in Indonesia are not required to develop a marketing strategy that is especially targeted to their products. Implementing brand matching and gamification techniques, as well as developing an exclusive ecosystem for their products, are a few things Indonesian companies should do if they want to maximize the impact of Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors.


INTRODUCTION
The creative economy has become increasingly important to the people of Indonesia.Its development is frequently referred to as the backbone of the national economy.Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) stated that the creative economy is one of the main sectors contributing to the national GDP.The creative sector provides 7.5% of the national GDP and creates 20 million employees.This figure positions Indonesia third in terms of creating economic contribution, trailing only the United States with Hollywood and South Korea with K-Pop.75% of the national GDP contribution of more than Rp.1,300 trillion is created by three major sub-sectors: crafts, fashion, and culinary.The minister urged the public to continue to pay more attention to local products, including the entertainment industry.The entertainment industry is comprised of numerous subindustries dedicated solely to entertainment.It is commonly associated with popular performing arts, including musical theatre, comedy, film, and music.There is no denying the fact that music is now an integral component of most people's routines and way of life.It is not without reason that music, as an art form that expresses one's ideas and emotions throughout its creation, serves as a medium for expressing or explaining the self-expression that everyone possesses.In a broader sense, music can become an integral part of a country's identity.Since 2013, 9 March has been commemorated annually as National Music Day, a fitting way to honor the contributions that musicians across the country have made to the industry.The industry is developing gradually.If you wanted to Since the rise of streaming platforms in recent years, it is indisputable that this has made it simpler to access the works of musicians from within and beyond the country.The growing popularity of the internet and other forms of technological advancement in Indonesia are having an impact not only on the music industry, but also on the film industry.Foreign filmmakers' works can be easily integrated into streaming services.Such increase in globalization can influence people's taste and preferences.Especially among the younger population, who spend more time on social media.Therefore, Airlangga, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, thinks that Indonesia needs to be able to face an identity and cultural crisis caused by the massive content of foreign cultural shows that still dominate in Indonesia with different products or creative content produced by our own upcoming generations.
It's impossible to have a conversation on the influx of international art into Indonesia without mentioning the influence of South Korean pop culture.Korean Wave, also known as Hallyu, has seized Indonesia by storm, especially among millennials.Hallyu is the term given to South Korean pop culture which has spread globally in various countries in the world (Shim, 2006).Since the presidency of Kim Dae Jung (1993-1998), whose political slogan was "Creation of the New Korea," the Korean wave has been prepared to be promoted abroad with the full support of the government.In 2002, after the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, Korean popular culture began to make its way to Indonesia.K-Drama, a popular South Korean drama series, was introduced at this special event, which was broadcast on Indonesian television.It became more widely available, and their popularity skyrocketed in the latter half of the 2000s and throughout the 2010s.The presence of K-Drama can also have its own influence on the Indonesian market, for example by making South Korean drama series a reference for making soap operas.Apart from that, it also gave rise to other popular culture trends, such as K-Pop, the style of dress typical of South Korean artists, makeup, and even the emergence of South Korean restaurants, language courses, and even shops selling South Korean knick-knacks.According to the official government website korea.net,private data analysis firm Blip estimated in 2019 that Indonesians saw 2.62 billion minutes of K-pop content on YouTube, making them the world's largest audience for such videos.The global popularity of K-Pop music also has been growing in It's worth noting that the customers may be aware that the artist themself may not use the products from all of the brands listed above.Hence, brands in Indonesia still pursue Korean celebrities as their brand ambassadors.Brands have to figure out how to create, maintain, and communicate their own distinct and differentiated brand values to customers in order to be successful in a market that is saturated with competitors and where the costs of switching from one provider to another are relatively low.Developing strong brand loyalty is one way to accomplish this goal.In creating loyalty among consumers, brands should provide opportunities for them to participate in activities they enjoy (Jakarta Post, 2020).Brand advice and integrated marketing agency Culture Group founder and president Michael Patent remarked that K-pop appealed to young Indonesians because it gave them a sense of escape and community.

LITERATURE REVIEW Personality Congruence
Symbolic values and humanlike features that go beyond a product's functional ones can be better understood owing to the concept of brand personality (Blackston, 1993;Plummer, 1985).Using concepts like "match-up," "degree of fit," "identification," "appropriateness," "similarity," and "congruence," numerous theories have been developed to describe the psychological connections between the four entities (brand, product category, endorser, and consumer/user).To put it another way, congruence is "the similarity (the match or mismatch) between the symbolic qualities of the product/brand and the individual's self-concept" (Parker, 2009).According to (Erdogan, 1999), the match between celebrity and brand is established by the degree of perceived 'fit' between brand (brand name, attributes), and celebrity image.For instance, the reputation of a well-known celebrity is an important factor in the branding process.Several writers contend that credibility is a multifaceted concept that is determined by celebrity experience, category/type, and celebrity attractiveness.

Fan Engagement (Customber Brand Engagement (CBE))
Customer brand engagement (CBE) can be defined as a set of interactions between customers of a brand that go beyond monetary transactions and involve the exchange of ideas, emotions, and sentiments about the brand (Huerta-Alvarez et al., 2020).Hollebeek (2011), and Leckie et al. (2016) all agree that CBE is the next step after consumer involvement because CBE begins when customers make the conscious decision to commit time, money, and effort into developing a long-term relationship with a brand they find meaningful and relevant (Harrigan et al., 2017).Multiple studies shown that CBE improves customers' brand loyalty (Leckie et al., 2016) as reflected in their intention to make purchase (Lin et al., 2018).

Brand Attachment
According to Thomson et al. (2005), consumers are more likely to develop an emotional dependence on a brand if they have a strong attachment to it.Consumers who feel emotionally invested in a brand are more likely to be loyal to that brand (Hwang and Kandampully, 2012; Theng So et al., 2013), which is good for the health of the brand and its long-term relationship with the consumer.Developing brand loyalty is essential in modern marketing, according to some academics (Kim & Joung, 2016;Mazzucchelli et al., 2018), and creating brand attachments with customers is thought to play a significant role in doing so.

Brand Love
Brand love is "the degree of passionate emotional attachment a satisfied customer has for a particular trade name," as defined by Carroll and Ahuvia (2006); this includes "feelings of passion and connection toward the brand," as defined by Batra et al. (2012); to the point where the loved brand is seen as irreplaceable (Albert and Merunka, 2013).As brand loyalty grows, it will have a greater impact on consumers' propensity to repurchase in the future.According to research (Civelek & Ertemel, 2019), consumers who are loyal to a certain brand are more likely to recommend that brand to their friends.People who are very loyal to their favorite brands are more likely to tell others about them, buy new products from those brands, and trust them.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The conceptual structure's aim is to ascertain if brand-celebrity personality compatibility increases brand loyalty.The mediator variable of brand attachment will be used to analyze the dynamics of the connection.It is expected that the effect of brand attachment and brand love will lead to a significantly favorable rise in measures of brand loyalty through electronic word of mouth and repurchase intention.The effect will be seen because of the role of attachment to and love for a brand plays as a mediator between the independent variable and the dependent one.This framework will investigate the potential existence of a relationship between personality congruence, brand attachment, fan engagement, brand love, and brand loyalty.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The primary data collection used in this study is by using quantitative methods.Quantitative research is a technique for evaluating objective ideas and identifying the relationships between variables.These variables serve as the basis for statistical analysis.This technique can give an explanation for the variables under study, including both a counterfactual explanation and a generalization and replication of the findings.The research instruments may be questionnaires or observations (Malhotra, 2010).An online survey throught questionnaires will be employed as the research instrument.A questionnaire contains directions for picking an answer, querying the respondent, and approaching, followed by a reward or present provided to respondents, as well as communication aids such as graphics or maps (Malhotra, 2010).This research also utilized secondary sources like books, journals, papers, and websites.
The online survey was conducted to observe behavioral patterns and emotional responses of active consumers of brands that use Korean Celebrities as their brand ambassadors in relation to brand loyalty.Excluding the one screening question, a series of 33 questions were asked of respondents in the format of multiple choice, likert-scale, and short-answer responses.The survey was made available to respondents via various online platforms, including e-mail and groups on various social media applications, including Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Line, and TikTok.Due to the widespread internet distribution of survey links, a screening question was required to confirm that respondents are qualified to complete the survey.The screening questions analyzed whether respondents had purchased products or services from the brand whose brand ambassadors are Korean celebrities.The criterion must be met for their subsequent survey response to be valid.The measurement will be measured from a questionnaire that will utilize likert scaling with 7 scales, from strongly agree (7), to strongly disagree (1).There are several variables that will be measured in this research, which are listed in the table I.There is a match-up between the product and the artist Likert

RESULTS
Respondents to the survey are those who have purchased or using the products or services from brands that employ Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors.There were 1304 individuals who responded by submitting their information using the online questionnaire.Most of the respondents, in terms of both gender and age range, were females between the ages of 18 and 23.97.4% of respondents who completed the survey were female and the respondent aged between 18 and 23 has the percentage of 76.6%, followed by those aged 24-29 with a rate of 15.4%.However, of the 1304 respondents who completed the online survey, only 1290 (or 98.9%) had ever purchased or used products or services from brands that employed Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors, which was essential requirement for this research.Therefore, data from the 14 respondents were not used in this research.
According to the findings of the survey, 55.6% of respondents selected products associated with the type of food or beverage as the product that they purchase the most frequently, followed by beauty products, which were selected by 37.6% of respondents.This is due to the fact that food and beverage products are categorized as convenience goods.Convenience products are goods that have a high purchase frequency (are frequently purchased), are needed instantly, and take minimal effort to compare and purchase.In contrast, cosmetic items are substances that are applied to the outside of the body (skin, hair, and lips) or teeth in order to clean, scent, and enhance attractiveness.This product requires compatibility with each consumer, thus acquiring these products is not as simple as purchasing food and beverages.
Moreover, this relates to the reason behind the purchases made.75.6% of all respondents believe that the use of Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors by related brands is one of the reasons, they purchase products or services from that brand, while the remaining respondents are unsure or do not consider brand ambassadors to be a factor in their purchasing decisions.According to 47.6% of respondents, purchasing or utilizing products or services from firms that employ Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors constitutes support for these celebrities.The statement is in line with the fact that 86% of the respondents are involved in the fan community of certain Korean celebrities.This indicates that people who have purchased items and services from brands that involve Korean celebrities are predominantly fans of Korean celebrities.The type of activity that is often carried out by these fans is collecting merchandise and not infrequently exchanging merchandise among fans.These fans are also often willing to take part in sweepstakes to win merchandise or fan events to meet Korean celebrities they like.In addition, 67.5% of the respondents also join and interact regularly with other fans on social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok.
When respondents were asked about celebrities they knew who served as brand ambassadors, 88% of all respondents named Idolrelated celebrities.An idol is a sort of South Korean celebrity working in the K-pop industry, either as a member of a group or as a solo performer.K-pop idols are distinguished by the highly manufactured star system under which they are generated and debut, as well as their inclination to symbolize a hybridized confluence of visuals, music, fashion, and dance.They typically work for a major entertainment agency and have received considerable dance, vocal, and foreign language training.Idols maintain a carefully crafted public image and social media presence, and devote substantial time and resources to cultivating relationships with fans through concerts and events.The results above show that the independent variable Personality Congruence has a sig value of 0.001 and a beta coefficient of 0.509.Based on these results, the test results support the hypothesis that there is an effect of personality congruence on brand attachment.The table also shows the Adjusted R Square value of 0.500.This means that 50% of brand attachment is explained by the independent variable personality congruence.While the rest is explained by other variables or other causes outside the research model.The results above show that the independent variable Fan Engagement has a sig value of 0.001 and a beta coefficient of 0.717.Based on these results, the test results support the hypothesis that there is an effect of Fan Engagement on Brand Love.The table also shows the Adjusted R Square value of 0.409.This means that 40.9% of brand love is explained by the independent variable Fan Engagement.While the rest is explained by other variables or other causes outside the research model.The results above show that the independent variable brand attachment has a sig value of 0.001 and a beta coefficient of 0.124 and the independent variable brand love has a sig value of 0.001 and a beta coefficient of 0.151.Based on these results, the test results support the hypothesis that there is an effect of Brand Attachment and Brand Love on Brand Loyalty.The table also shows the Adjusted R Square value of 0.729.This means that 72.9% of brand loyalty is explained by the independent variables Brand Attachment and Brand Love.While the rest is explained by other variables or other causes outside the research model.
Based on the data analysis result, personality congruence and fan engagement have a significant impact on strengthened the customer brand loyalty through brand attachment and brand love.Most of the respondents finds that the Korean celebrities are attractive and by buying the product they endorsed is a form of support for the celebrities.Having the appropriate partners may be quite beneficial to your business because cross-promotions allow you to attract new customers while also providing added value to your current customers.In addition to the celebrity-brand personality fit, the brand can also do a personality fit between the chosen celebrity and the target customer.For instance, if a brand's concept and target consumers are young, the chosen brand ambassador must possess a youthful spirit.So that the use of certain celebrities remains relevant to the brand's concept and intended audience.When it comes to selecting the ideal ambassador for a business, the stage that is most essential is called Brand Matching, and it is comprised of a number of further phases that fall under its umbrella.A brand must be aware of the history of the celebrity's endorsements.Knowing how a specific celebrity, for example, performed with his or her former and current brand partners could shed light on their effectiveness for the brand.The brand should also reflect the interests and values of the celebrities.This is the key to humanizing a product or service and conveying the brand's message.Because a brand strives to reach its target market by fostering relatability, aspiration, or inspiration through the personality of an endorser.Brands must also be aware of their audience's demographics, how and why they engage with them, and whether or not they share the same interests as the brand's product.
Other solutions are the application of gamification techniques and exclusive ecosystem.The term "gamification" is used to describe any business action or plan that uses a game and reward system with the intention of boosting customer engagement, familiarity, and, hopefully, brand loyalty.This definition encompasses gamification in its broadest sense (Dubois & Tamburrelli, 2013).It refers to an improved marketing strategy that takes cues for its aesthetic from the world of video games in order to attract and retain customers.The use of gamification strategies allows for a number of different activities to be taken, one of which is to award consumers with the opportunity to participate in special events by accumulating points with each product purchase that they make.These points, once gathered, may be redeemed at certain points in order to win collectible or signed products, or even to win fan meets or fan-sign events with the brand ambassadors.Based on the data that has been obtained, 60.8% of the total respondents chose to collect merchandise such as photocards as one of the activities they do as fans.According to theories of consumer behavior, objects acquire unique qualities that make them desirable for collection due to their symbolic significance, their ability to modify one's mood, or their practical utility.When an object makes a person think of a specific time, location, or person, it takes on symbolic significance for a person.Objects might also be unique due to the practical or monetary benefits they provide.The way this strategy works is that a customer gets random items when they buy a product.This random system makes customers not know what items they will get.This is an application of the notion of reinforcement; the purpose of creating a random system is to encourage customers to make repeat purchases.The most successful method for developing the behaviors that are wanted is to provide reinforcement intermittently.In the case of brands, it's less about selling collectibles but more about inviting customers to repeat the consumer experience with a brand's product.Use their need to collect to enhance the brand experience.By doing this allows them to feel good about their purchases but also affords them the contentment of knowing they've completed their collection.This strategy could be carried out in the form of photocards, postcard and product packaging.Fans continue to enjoy collecting photocards and other collectibles, thus this method remains highly relevant.This strategy could be enhanced by releasing a limited or special edition.By appealing to fans' desire for exclusivity, it is possible to encourage repeat purchases, as these photocards will be sought after for collection.
When a company uses exclusive ecosystem marketing strategies, they do all it takes to set its brand community apart from others, creating a distinct culture within the community that makes joining feel special and distinctive (Bergvall, 2005).In other words, the goal of exclusive ecosystem marketing techniques is to differentiate those who are already a part of the brand community from those who are not.According to the findings that were gathered, 86% of the respondents become members of a particular community.This can be utilized by brands using the social identity theory to understand and create brand communities.It is crucial to have a brand community because it is a significant tool for organizations, providing them with the means to cultivate long-lasting connections with customers, produce enormous levels of interaction from customers, and gather primary marketing intelligence (Meek et al., 2019).Creating a membership identity that is sustained through time may be done to achieve an exclusive ecosystem.This can be accomplished through the use of unique community identities, nicknames for the customer, and community slang.In addition to that, offering exclusive content that can only be seen by customers who have joined the community associated with the brands is another excellent thing to do.Become their friend by personalizing marketing content.Brands must interact with customers frequently.Customers will feel involved if the brand is aware of what is currently popular among the general public.Aside from that, marketers can leverage on customers' sense of nationalism by creating content with Korean celebrities about Indonesia.Brands can utilize marketing strategies such as exclusive ecosystems to create scenarios in which members of a brand community can rally under the notion of a common aim, which eventually delivers a sense of meaning to the community as a whole.

CONCLUSION
To be successful in a market that is oversaturated with competitors and in which the costs of switching from one provider to another are relatively low, brands need to figure out how to create, maintain, and communicate their own unique and differentiated brand values to customers.Only then will they be able to differentiate themselves from other brands in the market.One strategy for accomplishing this objective is to cultivate a strong devotion to the brand.The rising usage of Korean celebrities as brand ambassadors in Indonesia raises the question of whether or not this use may boost the amount of consumer loyalty in a sector that is already very competitive.What elements contribute to the customer loyalty of companies that utilize celebrities from Korea as their brand ambassador.What this research want to look into more is whether or not the personalities of celebrities and the brands they are associated with have an effect on the level of customer loyalty.This applies equally to fan engagement, whether the fan engagement has an influence on customer loyalty.
According to the findings, personality congruence and fan engagement are shown to be key factors in determining a customer's loyalty to a brand in Indonesia that uses Korean Celebrities as its brand ambassadors.This conclusion was reached after analyzing the data.Personality congruence influences customer loyalty through brand attachment.Associating human traits with a brand based on the consumer's impression of the brand helps consumers express their self-concept and provides a sense of comfort.The bond between a consumer and a brand, includes the consumer's feelings toward the brand.There was also an observed correlation between fan engagement and customers' love for the brand.The involvement of fans can give rise to interactions between customers of a brand that go beyond monetary transactions and encompass the exchange of ideas, emotions, and attitudes around the brand.The findings of this study also demonstrated that customer loyalty was unaffected by the type of goods being purchased.As a result, there is no requirement for brands in Indonesia to design a marketing strategy that is tailored specifically to their products.Implementing brand matching and gamification strategies, as well as cultivating an exclusive ecosystem for their products, are some of the things that Indonesian firms should do if they want to get the most out of the role that Korean celebrities play as brand ambassadors.The process of matching a celebrity with a business begins with determining the values and interests that are held in common by both parties.In addition to this, brands need to know who the celebrity's audience is and how engaged they are with them.After that, companies might utilize gamification strategies to entice increased participation from their customers.Using a point system that awards players with collectible products or the chance to take part in a series of fan events is one way that gamification tactics are implemented.In

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Indonesia's Internet Penetration Increase Percentage 2018-2022 Source: Data processed by APJII, June 2022 loyalty is linked to consumer commitment, which in turn generates repurchase intent, as stated by(Wijaksono and Ali, 2019).
an engaged member of my favourite team's community -I am an active member of my favourite team's community -I like discussing my favourite team with others -I like surfing my favourite team's website on the internet Likert deeply attached to this brand; -I am very attracted to this brand -Purchasing this brand is very pleasurable Likert Brand Love Passionate Usage Batra et al. (2012) Feel myself desiring the product from the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassador Likert Affection and connection Albert and Valette-Florence (2010) -I experience great happiness with the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassador -I feel emotionally connected with the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassador Likert Brand Loyalty Loyalty Kim et al. (2001) -I will continue to use the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors because I am satisfied with the brand -I will use the brand that uses my favorite artist as a brand ambassador in spite of competitors' deals -I prefer the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors to other brands Likert WoM Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) -I will 'talk up' the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors to my friends -I have recommended the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors to lots of people -I try to spread the good word about the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors -I give the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors tons of positive WOM advertising Likert Purchase Intention Wiedmann et al. (2014)-My willingness to purchase from a brand that uses my favorite artist as a brand ambassador is high -I would purchase products from the brand that uses my favorite artist as brand ambassadors -The artist's recommendations inspire me to purchase the recommended

Table 1 .
List of brands in Indonesia that collaborate with South Korean celebrities

Table 3 .
Personality Congruence effect on Brand Attachment

Table 4 .
Fan Engagement effect on Brand Love

Table 5 .
Brand Attachment and Brand Love effect on Brand Loyalty