• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 2008

The domestic handbag market has potential of growth - the key to protect this growing market from foreign makers is good design and better quality. 68 people(29.6%)out of 230 survey participants report 'to own 5 handbags', and the most popular(frequently reported) maker is 'MCM', owned by 49 participants(21.3%). 150 participants(65.2%) out of 230 total participants purchase at least one handbag a year, and 136 participants(59.7%) out of 230 spend between 110,000 and 200,000 Korean wons. 52 participants(22.6%) out of 230 own high-end handbags worth 500,000 Korean won or more. Among the high-end handbags, Louis Vuitton is the most popular, owned by 19 participants. The overall criteria in handbag purchase are 'color', 'price', 'pattern and logo', 'reputation', 'material', 'storage room', and 'size', in the descending order of importance. The most frequently desired benefit in handbag purchase is 'to stay through trends' i.e. not to go out of fashion too easily. The favored designs are made with rectangle shape with large width, soft material, attached handles, leather material, modern style. The most frequently cited reason to purchase a high-end brand item is 'because of high quality'.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.827-837
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to observe premium handbag users who are 20 to 30 year old of age, to determine purchase behavior and design preference of handbags by lifestyle and age variable to help market segmentation. A survey instrument was used. A sample was selected by quota sampling method from 20 to 30 aged Korean women, and reliable 538 data were analyzed by SPSS. Cluster type towards lifestyle and age were independent variable. There are two types of lifestyle clusters toward luxury handbags; Strongly favored and weakly favored group toward luxury handbags. Strongly favored group of luxury goods considered more brand, country of origin, and trend, while young people considered more new arrival of design in purchase of products. Preferred design type of hand bag was statistically associated with age variable. 20s consumers preferred shopper bag style and big size of handbags. Leather was preferred by the group of the strongly favored luxury goods. Through this research finding, we hope handbag brand market segmentation will be based on lifestyle and age variable to reflect customer's demand.