Consumers' Cognition and Buying Behavior of Sports Brand Character

스포츠 브랜드의 캐릭터에 대한 소비자 인식과 구매행동

The purpose of this study is to investigate the consumers′ cognition and buying behavior on sports brand character. Since the character industries are booming, this study focused on the source and the expression method of sports brand characters that are already known to consumers. Subjects of this study were university students who were interested in sports brand characters, living in Seoul and Kyenggi-do. The questionnaire were developed based on the previous studies. Data were analysed by Frequency analysis, ANOVA, Duncan Test, and Spearman′s Rho. The results were as follows: 1. The most preferred source of sports brands character was "illustrated human figure"(i.e. a famous athlete like Michael Jordan). And the most favorite expression method of character was the combination of letter and symbol as the character of ASICS and NIKE. 2. The important design factors of sports brand character were the symbolism and aesthetics. The consumer recognized NIKE as the most well-designed character design. 3. Consumers′ preference of sports brand was found to be NIKE, REEBOK, ADIDAS, and FILA, in order. The reasons for preference were the design, the brand image, and the quality. On the other hand, the most frequently purchased brand was NIKE, FILA, and ADIDAS in order. Most of the purchase took place in the brand outlet store, and the consumers usually came with their friends for purchase of sports brand. The display of store was the consumers′ major source of information. 4. The preference group of sports brand character recognized more importantly color, design, brand, and especially fashionability than the non-preference group. And the most important criteria for brand selection were design, price, and comfort orderly. 5. Female consumers recognized more importantly color, design, brand, and others′ recommendations than male consumers. The aged consumers recognized importantly durability, comfort, and quality.