BTS continues to top boy group Brand Reputation Ranking for February.
February brand reputation rankings for male idol groups were released by the Korean Business Research Institute. The rankings were determined using big data collected from January 12 to February 12 and a review of customer engagement, media coverage, interaction, and community indexes of various male groups.
BTS topped the list for the 45th consecutive month with a brand reputation index of 11,984,394, marking an 8.68 percent increase in their score since January.
According to the group’s keyword analysis, high-ranking phrases include YouTube, Instagram, and ARMY. While BTS’ highest-ranking linked terms include increase, grateful, and surpass. The positivity-negativity research conducted by BTS yielded a score of 76.05 percent positive reactions, up from 69.29 percent positive replies last month.
BTS is a seven-membered South Korean boy group under Hybe Labels. The members consist of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jimin, and Jungkook. Originally debuted as a hip hop group, their music has evolved over time resulting in them dipping toes into 30+ genres. They are known to co-write and co-produce most of their songs. Members RM and Suga have also featured and produced songs for other artists time and again.
The acronym BTS stands for their Korean name, Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts” in English. According to J-Hope, the group’s name symbolizes their desire, “to block out stereotypes, criticisms, and expectations that aim at adolescents like bullets”. In July 2017, BTS announced that its name would also stand for Beyond the Scene as part of its new brand identity. This extended their name to mean “growing youth BTS who is going beyond the realities they are facing, and going forward.”
BTS embarked on their Love Yourself series which sought the enlightenment of self-love through the narrative sequence of “beginning, development, turn, and conclusion.” BTS’ commercial success extended with the Love Yourself: Her EP, which debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200. In its first month on the Gaon Album Chart in South Korea, the EP sold over 1.2 million copies, the largest monthly album sales in the chart’s history and the highest on any Korean chart in 16 years.
One of the major reasons associated with the success of the Love Yourself album series is the need for the youth to be comforted. It was for the first time in years people were witnessing a mainstream musical artist openly talking about mental health issues via their music and comforting their fans, ARMYs, and telling them that it is nothing to be stigmatized about. What astounded ARMYs was all the music they were releasing was an expression of their personal experiences which garnered empathy and reliability from the audience. According to a lot of ARMYs, BTS gave them hope to survive, to be happy, and mainly to reach out for help.
From unintentionally running a “Love Yourself” campaign across the globe via just releasing soulful music and being associated with UNICEF for an anti-violence campaign, BTS had definitely lived up to its name. This really goes ahead to explain their impact in media and the reason behind them always being at the top when it comes to brand reputation rankings.
NCT came in second place in the rankings with a brand reputation index of 3,964,297, an increase of 8.79 percent over last month, while SEVENTEEN came in third with a brand reputation rating of 3,610,624.
THE BOYZ moved to fourth position in February after their brand reputation index increased by 40.77 percent, bringing their overall score for the month to 2,991,577. Finally, with a brand reputation rating of 2,832,756, Wanna One rounded out the top five.
Here’s the top 30 boy groups for February Brand Reputation Ranking: BTS, NCT, SEVENTEEN, THE BOYZ, Wanna One, EXO, 2PM, Super Junior, ENHYPEN, SHINee, MONSTA X, ASTRO, BTOB, SF9, BIGBANG, PENTAGON, Stray Kids, INFINITE, TXT, WINNER, ATEEZ, NU’EST, TVXQ, VIXX, Shinhwa, 2AM, VICTON, Golden Child, Block B, and TREASURE.