The effect of k-pop, k-drama elements on Turkish consumers'intention to buy Korean products

Popular culture has become the soft power policy of countries and has been used as an important tool for promoting their own culture in other countries. In terms of using popular culture as a soft power element, the United States of America for many years emerged as a country that used this soft power successfully, especially with the adoption of a new food culture called Hollywood and fast food. However, Korean pop music (K-pop) spreading from South Korea has gained followers from all over the world in terms of both the attractiveness of male and female artists in music groups and their stage performances. In this study, the economic and social developments behind South Korea's successful soft power were discussed and whether it affected the purchasing decisions of Turkish consumers was investigated with a survey conducted with 280 people. During the research, country image and cultural proximity factors were also added to the factors affecting purchase intention. 6 of the 8 different hypotheses created were similar to the studies in the literature, and 2 hypotheses showed different results. The Hallyu effect was found to significantly affect the intention to purchase South Korean products. However, while the country image and cultural proximity factors and the demographic characteristics of the participants also significantly affect the intention to purchase South Korean products, it was concluded that the size of the place of residence did not have any effect on the intention to purchase South Korean products for the participants in this study.