Abstract
This study was to investigate the value changes in Korean women by analyzing the ads of womens magazines. The contents of ads were classified into two types of values: general and consumption values. The general values, composed of inner-directedness and outer-directrdness, might predict consumer behavior in general. The consumption values, utilitarians and hedonic, were expected to affect the consumer purchasing attitude to a specific product. Factors affecting the cultural values were per capita income and womens social status. Total 2969 illustrated ads with verbal theme from 32 Korean womens magazines were used. The content analysis, chi-square test, logistic regression were done for the analysis. The results showed that inner-directedness was dominant general value in Korean womens culture and increased over time. Younger consumers were more inner-directed than older ones were, and inner-directed values increased with income growth. For the consumption values, utilitarian values were higher than hedonic ones and went up over time. For the product types, utilitarian ads were frequent in cosmetics while hedonic ads were high for apparels. Those results implied that Korean womens culture became more inner-directed with increased income. Also consumption values were likely to differ between product groups. Per capita income was shown to increase inner-directedness while womens social status was to increase outer-directedness.
