Emmanuel College The Hub

Written by : Eric Thu

What if I told you that a 16 episode Korean Drama is more effective in capturing people’s emotional attachment than multi-billion dollar campaigns could ever dream of ? People do not just invest emotionally but also commit emotionally. They learn the Korean language, purchase merchandise, save every penny to visit Korea, and try to build their communities in close proximity to . 

The Hallyu Wave, which began in the late 1990s, today has blossomed not only as one of the most dominant cultures globally but also as an economic strategy. Quite Frankly, Finance could learn a thing or two from it. 

These are the reasons why. 

1. People invest into Stories first, spreadsheets are secondary

Hallyu Wave did not gain traction due to its perceived high return on investment on spreadsheets, but rather, it began with a story. A story in which creates a sense of personal belonging with the audience, provides a sense of identity, narrative, and emotions. 

In contrast, Finance presentations are always led with data, analysis, numbers, returns, risks. Although the content is important and could be of important details, people do not connect emotionally with it. To them, it is just another piece of sheet with numbers, graphs, and language that intimidates readers. 

Hallyu Wave is evidence that having an emotional investment should be more emphasised than the profit margins. 

2. Loyalty comes from the Community

K-drama and K-pop fandoms are not just random adoration of the content they enjoy. Rather, it is a built community where fans would organize events, fund charitable projects in the benefit of their local communities, and foster unity to grow together as a community. 

Finance meanwhile is an extremely brutal, cutthroat line of business. People do not organize events, fund charitable projects unless it is for tax write off purposes or PR purposes. Now don’t even talk about loyalty, the industry is a high risk, high reward but zero loyalty. Nobody is “loyal” to you and even if they do, it is mainly based on transactional calculations or trying to gain a new connection to get into JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs just to name a few. 

They will praise you like you are the next Warren Buffet sent from Heaven one day when you are at your peak, but once you exited it, they disappear quicker than flash did from NYC Subway. Afterwards, they treat you not as a community but as individuals. Your debts, your credit score, your portfolio, all will be your problem going forward. 

People cannot grow alone. People grow together as a community.

3. Exclusivity always loses to Accessibility

One of the greatest reasons as to why the Hallyu Wave spread so quickly globally was due to how accessible it is to everyone. Don’t understand Korean? No Problem, subtitles are provided in many different languages. Need to know when the new K-drama is released? Check your social media. Need to find where to watch it? No worries, Hallyu content is provided on many global platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, and many more. 

Finance on the other hand is not accessible, but rather incredibly exclusive. It works like a private club where everything about you is analyzed to the tiny minute detail, should you not fit their so-called expectation, you are denied entry. Even when you are allowed entry into it, it feels like entering a whole different world. Confusing languages, hidden rules of conduct, intimidating systems, and cut-throat culture. 

When you make it exclusive, you risk alienating the majority of the people who will not have any sense of loyalty or obligation to remain. Hallyu has demonstrated that when you make everyone feel welcomed regardless of their background, they will end up having more reasons as to why they should stay and consume content. 

4. Emotions spreads faster than Money

Many people around the world spend thousands of dollars, travel thousands of miles across different continents just to cry, dance, sing, and take selfies with their favorite Hallyu Star or enjoy the concerts. Why is that you may ask? It sounds pure insanity that people would waste so much resources, times, just to travel to concerts, meet their favorite stars and express emotions. The reason being is that emotions move people as it elicited feelings out of individuals. 

Finance on the other hand, one of the rules taught to rookies is always be as cold as ice and be as emotionless as possible or you will create your downfall. They believe emotions are a sign of weakness and proof that you cannot be trusted with important leadership, considering most of the top decisions made are sometimes gut wrenching as well as brutal decisions.

However, emotion isn’t a weakness. Emotion is part of human behavior as well as the main engine that makes us humans. What is the point of being humans without emotions, are we just robots? 

5. Soft power beats aggressive selling

South Korea never forcefully made anybody like their culture, instead, they invited people to their culture with warmth, no judgement, and accessible for all. As a result, people slowly accepted the culture and soon grew to love it due to the built emotional attachment that took time to grow. 

Finance relies heavily on pressure, fear, and urgency. Pressure that you might miss out on something important or missed an important to make a connection with. Fear that you will be cut or work is not satisfactory enough. Urgency in terms of short deadlines to make and missing them could result in losing massive client deals which ultimately decides your fate. 

Hallyu Wave shows that when you allow people to get attracted to your culture slowly, it tends to be more effective as people do not like to be forced. By slowly inviting them, fans/viewers built the emotional attachment which in turn ended up into acceptance of culture. 

Final Thoughts : 

The Hallyu Wave succeeded because it understood the most important aspect, which is people. They understood that without the people, there is no such thing as Hallyu Wave because they ultimately are the ones supporting with their hard-earned cash. 

If Finance is going to be used properly as a tool to uplift communities. The question should not be “ How much profit can be generated”. But rather, “ How can we understand people and help them grow?”. 

It’s because cultures not just build a loyal fanbase, but futures for generations which would reap the rewards of that strong culture. Until that perspective can be understood, Finance can never fully reach its potential for the empowerment of communities. 

Photo Credit: Arsenal Content Marketing