Mass culture, imports and conspicuous consumption

This study investigates how a country’s promotion of its culture affects another country’s consumption patterns. We collected primary data from Malaysians about their exposure to Korean drama and consumption of Korean cosmetics in order to test whether the imaging of Korean cultural richness through the international marketing strategy termed Hallyu (entailing the use of Korean TV drama to image South Korea as a celebrated country) instigates conspicuous consumption in Malaysia. Respondents with higher levels of education but lower income watched Korean drama more intensively, and the intensity of watching Korean drama was positively associated with the consumption of Korean cosmetics. Our results highlight the ability to affect trade between countries by advertising through mass culture and exploiting the need for conspicuous consumption by those individuals experiencing perceived relative deprivation.