HYBE Corporation, formerly known as BigHit Entertainment, is a multinational company founded by Bang Si-hyuk, also known as Hitman Bang, in 2012. Starting the first of July of 2021, Bang is no longer the CEO and instead Park Jiwon is. In 2020, HYBE's reported revenue was 92.4 billion won (82 million usd) and operating profit was 32.5 billion won (29 million usd). Just one of their artists, BTS, brings about 0.5% (5 billion usd) to South Korea's economy, which is just above the amount the Korean airline, Korean Air brings in.
Before we get into how HYBE's globalization has affected its marketing strategy, I think it's very important for everyone to have a bit of background information on HYBE and what they do exactly.
In March of this year, fans of the then BigHit Entertainment heard the news of a lot of changes that would occur. There was a name change, a mission change and a vision change. However, the biggest change of them all was the expansion of BigHit and the fact that they were now becoming a public company, with the company being valued at 700 billion won (624 million usd). At the beginning of this class, HYBE's stock was worth 380 thousand won (327 usd).
HYBE expanded so that now underneath them, there are 3 subdivisions; HYBE Labels, HYBE Solutions and HYBE Platforms. In simpler terms, HYBE is the dad of the family and HYBE Labels, HYBE Solutions and HYBE Platforms are the children. Let me quickly give you guys a brief overview of each subdivision.
HYBE Labels is the entertainment subdivision, so here we'll be talking about all the artists under HYBE. I'm going to mention a couple of the artists under this subdivision so you can connect with the company a bit better but before I do, does anyone know of any artists under HYBE Labels? (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, J Balvin, Enphyen, TxT, BTS, NU'EST, Seventeen, fromis_9, Zico, now-disbanded GFRIEND, now-disbanded GLAM) HYBE Labels is a subdivision that consists of the following subsidiaries: BigHit Music, BeLift Lab, Source Music, Pledis Entertainment, KOZ Entertainment, HYBE Labels Japan and HYBE Labels America. For most of these companies, HYBE acquired them so they kept their management and style. The only companies that were not acquired are BigHit Music and BeLift Lab.
HYBE Solutions is the business and education subdivision. They focus on business initiatives related to performances, multimedia content, games and education. Under this subdivision, we have HYBE 360 that focuses on creating and executing services, such as global concerts, fan meetings, theme parks, and artist movies, documentaries, and variety shows. There is also HYBE IPX which creates official merchandise. HYBE EDU, the sector that focuses on creating and distributing educational resources so that fans can learn more about their favourite artists' culture and language, also falls under this subdivision. HYBE Solutions Japan does what HYBE Solutions as a whole does, but in Japan. Finally, there is HYBE T&D Japan, which focuses on training trainees to become future artists.
The last subdivision is HYBE Platforms. Under this subdivision is only one sector, Weverse. Weverse is like a social media platform for fans and their artists. Many artists use this platform, it is not limited to only artists under HYBE Labels. Weverse also functions as a shop for fans to buy official merchandise and get access to online material - such as paid and free variety shows and online concerts.
Now, when we discuss marketing plans, we normally focus on the marketing mix, which I'll give a quick overview of. The first P is for product, what is the product? What makes it stand out from competitors? The second is price, what is the price? What is the value of the product to the buyer and seller both? Should discounts be offered? The third P is promotion, how will you promote your product? How do your competitors promote their products and how do their promotion tactics affect yours? When is the best time to promote your product, what is the best method to promote it? The last P is place, where are you going to actually sell your product? Where are your competitors selling theirs, how does their selling location affect yours?
