• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.31 no.5 s.164
• /
• pp.753-764
• /
• 2007

Apparel goods can be customer-oriented in the extreme and the apparel industry is one of the most customer-centered industries that should maximize customers' satisfaction. Recently, mass customization, a customer-centered system is widely discussed in the apparel industry to provide consumers with new, differentiating, distinctive, yet personalized products. The purpose of this study is to provide useful insights for apparel brands' mass customization(hereafter, MC) implementation by comparing the apparel brands' current status with consumers' expectation. One hundred apparel brands' practitioners and 116 consumers were surveyed in this research. First, we found that, on the basis of the five stages of MC presented by Pine(1993), apparel brands' MC stages were identified. Then, customers' expectation levels were examined according to the five stages. When compared the gap between the customers' expectation level and the apparel brands' implementation, consumers' expectation of MC was significantly higher than the implementation level by apparel brands for the stage 2(customized products creation), the stage 5(modular production). Second, by conducting a factor analysis with the scales measuring the MC activities of the five stages, apparel brands' current MC strategies could be classified as 'mass customized strategy', 'quick response strategy', 'MOT(moment of truth) customized strategy', and 'individualized service strategy.' Apparel brands showed significant differences in mass customized strategy, quickresponse strategy, and MOT customized strategy according to their product characteristics. Finally, consumers' expectation level of MC strategies was significantly different by their characteristics such as shopping orientation.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.15 no.1 s.66
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to identify the SPA(Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) characteristics and product supply process of Korean casual apparel brands. The research was conducted by questionnaire surveys to 63 casual apparel brands. SPA characteristics of each brand were measured with four SPA characteristic indices: short product supply cycle, spacious retail floor, single brand retail store, and low product price compared to the quality of the product. The 63 apparel brands were grouped by SPA index score. The brands belonged to group H had high index score and brands in group L had low index score. The results of this study showed that the most of the casual apparel brands' products were sold at department stores, especially the brands belonged to group L greatly depended on department stores. Few apparel brands have spacious retail floor. The retail product price of the brands belonged to group H was low price while the product price of the brands belonged to group L was in the medium-high price. The supply time of the new products was short in general. The most brands supplied new styles to the retail floor within 1 to 3 weeks. The information technology was heavily used. The brands belonged to group H highly used information technology including bar codes system, pas data analysis, and inventory control system. The current style trends were analyzed with street fashion and feedback from the shop managers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.182-193
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual state of introduction and distribution of import apparel and to identify which characteristics of import apparels were different from domestic apparels by analysing consumer's evaluation attitudeto import apparels comparatively. Inaddition, by forming consumer groups who prefered import apparels and who prefered domestic apparels consumer characteristics and factors of each group were investigated. Results of this study are summarized as follows; 1. The degree of recognition of domestic or import well-known apparel brands were both high as 79.1% was to national brandcomparing with 77.0% of import brands. Average holding articles of import apparels were increasing up to 2.08 per person. 2. Consumers gave better evaluation to import apparel in all its aspects. With respects of the economic value and thepractical value, domestic apparel brands were evaluated better than import apparel brands while import apparel brands were evaluated better than domestic apparel brands with respects of design, brand image, and quality value. 3. Consumer group who has preference to import apparel has the tendency of high degree of clothing expenditure and low degree of economical behavior in clothing life st)4e and high degree of brand preferency. Futhermore, such group was not affirmative to negative effect of purchasing import goodsand open-trade policy. 4. Core factors affecting the preference to import apparel were design evaluation attitude, general reluctancy to buying imports, brand-oriented clouting life style, and degree of prossession of import apparel, as enumerated in the order of importance.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.160-174
• /
• 2005

Despite the decrease in the number of children due to low birth rate, the domestic children's apparel market has been achieving steady growth as family income is rising thanks to more opportunities for working women, parents spend more on their children, and they prefer brand products that make their children look special. In addition, the market is suffering from hard competition as large enterprises have joined the race. The present study purposed to survey the children's apparel market in Korea, which is in a transitional period, and to contribute to the development of the market with Korean brands. For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century based on the current state of the domestic children's apparel market and, based on the findings, forecasted the future trend of children's apparel brands, suggested improvements for expected problems, proposed standards for coping with changes such as diversification, high quality and differentiation in the children's apparel market, and provided consumers with information on how to purchase products. According to the result of analyzing the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century, brands are categorized largely into four types - life cultural brands, functional product brands, character brands and brands advancing to China. Life cultural brands equipped with all necessities for children are expanding, and with the deepening social problems of environmental pollution and the reduction of the child population, functional products made of environment-friendly materials are spreading widely, targeting infants and children. Furthermore, for extending age targets and diversifying products, children's apparel is using characters. The use of characters is expected to have a considerable effect on the growth of brands because children are more subjective as consumers than before and they are more easily persuaded with characters. Domestic children's apparel brands advancing to China have a high expectation of success in overcoming the limitation of the local market that has reached its peak and growing into global brands. Korean apparel makers are struggling to overcome the depressed domestic market, to recover consumers' consumption, to cope with market opening, to pursue high value of sensibility and to expand the seniors' market, etc. In this situation, future trends of children's apparel brands will be the expansion of family brands, brand totalization, quality price, niche market (pre-teen market), etc. In response to these trends, we made the following suggestions for improvement. 1. Children's apparel brands are evolving into family brands as well as into total brands through voluming. Today, however, apparel makers are advancing to the children's apparel market with the concept of adults' apparel and, as a result, children's apparel is merely adults' apparel of reduced size, having problems in design, color and materials. Thus, apparel makers must develop design considering the wide range of size and the characteristics of children's apparel, strengthen sourcing abilities to create revenues, and make thorough survey of customers to find common denominators between adults' apparel and children's apparel considering that characteristic that the target class is different from the buyer class. Furthermore, they must make active investments in human resources, develop outstanding products through advanced planning and design, and support marketing techniques and management systems to stores. 2. As the declining birth rate will continue to have a negative effect on the market, it may be difficult to expand the market size but there is still a margin for growth through high-sensibility and high-quality products. The competitiveness of brands is determined by their market shares. Accordingly, concepts should be specialized according to lifestyle, customers' diverse needs should be satisfied, and cross-coordination should be achieved within a brand. 3. Considering Korean parents who do not spare investment in their children despite shrinking consumption, functional products must be high value-added goods that can enhance efficiency. However, in the current situation of the infants' apparel industry where a textile manufacturer supply its products to multiple brands, it is difficult to develop unique products only based on materials. Thus, it is considered urgent to appeal to consumers not by relying on materials only but by finding methods of applying their own characters to children's dress.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.303-311
• /
• 2007

The apparel market is extremely competitive and thus apparel manufacturers should try to maximize consumer satisfaction with cost-efficient but consumer-oriented strategies. Personalized strategies considering each consumer's characteristics have to be developed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of consumers' characteristics on personalization strategies of apparel brands. Investigating personalization based on consumers' values and demographic characteristics will allow apparel manufacturers to attract target consumers. A survey method was used for the empirical study. Questionnaires from 420 respondents were analyzed using factor analysis, cluster, t-test, and ANOVA. The results indicated a significant influence of consumer values on customer service-related aspects of personalization. Female consumers demanded product- and information-oriented factors of personalization. Age, residential area, and clothing expense also had significant influence on the need for personalization of apparel shopping.

• The International Journal of Costume Culture
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.141-152
• /
• 2009

In this study, the business structure and characteristics of buying offices used by buyers for apparel productions through global sourcing were analyzed in specifics. Data were acquired through in-depth interviews of twelve merchandisers at representative apparel buying offices. The results of this study can be summarized as following. The business structure of a buying office varied depending on the functions, the item characteristics of products to be manufactured or the characteristics of the major buyers who were the customers. Overall, teams were formed by brands or organizations were formed by functions. Functional teams were divided within each brand team when business teams were divided by brands and personnel was divided by brands occasionally within each functional team when business teams were divided by functions. Business teams were composed of MR which managed the overall business about orders such as factory sourcing, price decision and production management and teams with various specialized skills. The teams with specialized skills were composed of Technical team, Fabric Development team, Colorist team, Quality Assurance (QA) or Quality Control (QC) team, Logistics team, Factory Audit team, and etc. For the future directions on the improvements, ways to increase international competitiveness of buying offices need to be researched and many expressed the opinion that it would be effective to move the offices to countries close to buyers or manufacturing locations as most buyers demand lower prices and shorter lead time than before and it is increasing trend for buyers and factories to do business directly without buying offices in the middle.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.85-93
• /
• 2001

This study was aimed at reviewing the preceding studies regarding infants' physical characteristics and comparatively examining their apparel specifications among countries, and thereupon, surveying the sizes and specifications of each special infant apparel brand in korea, and thereby, providing for the basic data useful to consumers when they choose infants' apparel sizes and specifications, and at the same time to brand makers for effective exchange of information. Thus, domestic special infant's apparel brands were surveyed for their own sizes and specifications, and thereby, the basic data useful to consumers when they choose their infants' apparel sizes and specifications as well as to brand makers when they exchange information among themselves were produced. The results of this study can summarized as follows: As a result of surveying the general trend of the infant apparel brands in korea, it was found that 5 brands had been established before 1990's, and that the remaining 7 ones had emerged during 1990's. When viewed in terms of brands' originality, it was disclosed that 10 brands were korean originals, while 2 brands were foreign ones licensed. On the other hand, as a consequence of surveying the target age groups of each brand, it was found that the targe age groups differed much ranging from 0 to 72 months or more narrowly from 12 to 24 months, which means that the infant age has yet to be defined for all the brands. In the case of the domestic infant-clothing product respect of inner wear, 8 clothing companies are producing the the outside clothing. In the outside clothing, from 6 months to 36 months' infant is the object, and 6m, 12m, 18m, 24m, 30m, 36m appeared with the fact that it produces in 6 sizes. In the case of the f and the g company which has the difference of size control is big, the f company is producing infant clothing for the age 0 to 72 months in 6 size which the difference of the measurement between the size is a lot to be appear, on the other hand, the g company is producing infant clothing for the age 0 to 6 months in 6 size which the difference of the measurement between the size is small to be appear.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.115-128
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to systematize various clothing production methods that domestic fashion brands are utilizing to produce fashion products, and to propose effective clothing production methods according to the characteristics. The research methods are contents analysis method of the literatures, articles, reports, and interviewing method of the practitioners who are in charge of the production of fashion. First, the clothing production methods of the domestic fashion brands are categorized as follows. It is divided into a fashion brand management method and a promotion company entrustment method based on who carries out the clothing production and management. The fashion brand management method is subdivided into the 'rental-production', 'CMT', and 'self-production' methods. All three methods are performed at domestic and global sourcing, but the CMT method is more utilized at the global sourcing. The promotion company entrustment method is subdivided into the 'full consignment production method', the 'CMT method involving promotion company', and 'direct buying method by promotion company'. All methods are performed at domestic and global sourcing. Second, the results of reviewing effective clothing production methods, according to characteristics are as follows. If fashion brands control the production and management, they use all three fashion brand management methods. The fashion brands use the promotion company entrustment method when they wants to offer special products, or the number of items is large, or the production management is difficult, or the manpower and equipment size is reduced. The domestic sourcing is utilized by fashion brands and promotion companies when production management is required for high quality apparel production, in case of trendy and complex designs, spot production, and in small quantity production. The global sourcing is utilized by fashion brands and promotion companies when it comes to lowering the production cost, fashion brands preferred the mass production of apparel with design that can be pre-planned.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.39 no.11
• /
• pp.73-88
• /
• 2001

Apparel has been generally considered to be high involvement merchandise. But, there are many kinds of merchandises with various attributes within the apparel category. Among apparel merchandises, innerwears have been known to be relatively low-involved and convenience products. Lately, many brands with brand name, high quality, and fashionability were launched, and innerwear consumers became more sophisticated and individualized. Therefore, investigating the shopping orientations and behavious of innerwear consumers is needed. Consumers perceived the images and attributes of competing brands to be similar. So, those brands in competition need to establish differentiation strategy. Generally, the innerwear shopping orientation of consumers was passive and low-involved. But, they could be segmented into apathetic group, brand oriented/loyal group, and rational/economic purchaser group. These groups showed significant differences in demographic characteristics, store patronage, and information sources of innerwear. Therefore, there are consumer groups with various shopping orientations and purchasing behaviors in the innerwear market.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.50-61
• /
• 2002

The manufacturer first identifies a target market before developing a sizing chart. A target market is specific for age or figure type. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the suitability of sizing system of women's apparel brand in Korea. For this purpose, the characteristics of the manufacture's sizing chart for jacket and skirt/pants were analyzed. For each brand, the target age of the brand and the age of consumers who preferred that bland were compared. The size charts collected from 27 women's apparel brands were analyzed and compared with Korean industrial standard sifting chart. The results of this study reviled that the body proportion in many manufacturer's sizing chart does not correspond to the body types in Korean industrial standard sizing chart. This trend was apparent for the short figure sizes made for women 155cm in height. There is a difference between the target age in brand concept and the age of consumer preferring to purchase that brand apparel. The age of fitting models usually does not correspond the customer's age. It was concluded that the age of target customer does not go well with the age of brand concept nor the fitting model age caused fit problem of the women's ready-made clothes.