• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.666-676
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to propose effective marketing communication strategies for overseas Korean restaurants through a multilateral comparison analysis of American, Chinese, and Japanese consumers' attitudes towards communication media and Korean restaurants. The survey was written in English, Chinese, and Japanese, with guideline for surveyors, and conducted using both online and offline methods. Samples were collected from five major cities - Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai, which are the foothold for the globalization of Korean food. When it comes to attitudes towards communication media, word-of-mouth showed a high mean value, indicating it as the most useful and reliable media recognized by consumers who visited Korean restaurants. Furthermore, the necessity of recognizing the importance of visual communication in the physical environment of Korean restaurants and specialized websites, featuring restaurants and gourmet food, was observed. Consumers in all three nations chose word-of-mouth as the most useful and reliable media for learning about Korean restaurants. In addition, American consumers highly depended on signage and restaurant exteriors. Chinese consumers highly recognized the usefulness and reliability of offline media, such as newspapers, magazines, and events, while Japanese consumers considered online media, such as gourmet websites, blogs and social networks, as useful and reliable sources. A significantly positive attitude and high value was observed in all who had visited Korean restaurants. American and Japanese consumers had a significantly higher rate of intention to visit Korean restaurants in the future and to tell others about their satisfaction with Korean restaurants. Meanwhile, the average rate of prior preference for Korean restaurants (when choosing restaurants) was the lowest in all three countries. This study is useful for both the Korean government and food enterprises abroad to plan and develop marketing communication strategies properly for overseas Korean restaurants.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.79-108
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• 2007

In this study, we measured customers' perception of organization citizenship behaviors of employees which are known as the important factor for improving performance of companies, and examined the path relationship among related variables such as service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, and positive word of mouth. Although there have been many studies of OCB in the marketing field, the majority of these studies measured employee's OCB from the organization's perspective. This study has extended the prior studies by measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective. Customers of beauty salons and public houses were researched such that OCB may be applied to more various customer contact situations. The result is as follows. First, employees's OCB had a direct effect on perceived service quality and trust, and had an indirect effect on customer satisfaction. It means that customers evaluate the service quality of employees and trust frontline employees when they observed employees helping other organizational members, orientated customer facilitation beyond the regulated role and showed positive attitudes for their organization. As a result, customers feel more satisfied. Secondly, OCB had an indirect effect on positive word of mouth through mediation of service quality, satisfaction, and trust. Finally, consumer facilitation had the largest effect on consumer attitude among three dimensions of OCB-consumer facilitation, organization involvement, and sportsmanship. We understood the relationship between frontline employee's OCB and customer attitudes, and the necessity of multidimensional approach in measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.73-92
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• 2009

Consumers influence other consumers' brand choice behavior by delivering a variety of objective or subjective information on a particular product, which is called WOM (Word-Of-Mouth) activities. For WOM activities, WOM senders should choose messages to deliver to other consumers. We classify the contents of the messages a consumer chooses for WOM delivery into two categories: Subjective (positive or negative) evaluation and objective information on products. In our study, we regard WOM senders' activities as a choice behavior and introduce a choice model to study the relationship between the choice of different WOM information (WOM with positive or negative subjective evaluation and WOM with objective information) and its influencing factors (information sources and consumer characteristics) by developing two bivariate Probit models. In order to consider the mediating effects of WOM senders' product involvement, product attitude, and their characteristics (gender and age), we develop three second-level models for the propagation of positive evaluations, of negative evaluations, and of objective information on products in an hierarchical Bayesian modeling framework. Our empirical results show that WOM senders' information choice behavior differs according to the types of information sources. The effects of information sources on WOM activities differ according to the types of WOM messages (subjective evaluation (positive or negative) and objective information). Therefore, our study concludes that WOM activities can be partially managed with effective communication plans influencing on consumers' WOM message choice behavior. The empirical results provide some guidelines for consumers' propagation of information on products companies want.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.159-174
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among vividness, consensus, reliability, homogeneity, ties and acceptance of WOM (Word Of Mouth), consumer attitude, SNS WOM transmission, offline WOM transmission, and visit intention perceived by married women consumers who learned SNS WOM regarding restaurants. This study performed a survey targeting married women, focusing on broadcasting stations, department stores, major supermarkets, government offices, and cultural centers in Busan. The surveying period was from March 1, 2014 to March 31, 2014. 304 questionnaires were used for the final analysis. As a result of the analysis, it could be concluded that vivid and reliable SNS words raise the level of acceptance of WOM, reliability makes consumer attitude positive, and homogeneity raises the level of acceptance of WOM, consumer attitude, SNS WOM transmission, and offline WOM transmission intention. In addition, it could be confirmed that acceptance of WOM have significant effects on consumer attitude and offline WOM transmission, and consumer attitude have positive effects on SNS WOM transmission, offline WOM transmission, and visit intention. Lastly, it could be learned that SNS WOM transmission and offline WOM transmission have significant effects on visit intention.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.255-271
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• 2009

Since consumers have difficulty in acquiring information related to products in online, they are apt to use WOM(word-of-mouth). It seems to be more popular and acceptable methods to acquire information about products sold in online. In other words, consumers who visit the Internet shopping-mall can not make a purchase-decision immediately because they have no sufficient knowledge about products. To solve this problem, consumers make use of the service called "online review". The objective of this study is to verify how these reviews can influence attitude toward the message, product and several buying behaviors in the online. In particular, this study focus on the message's sidedness(positive or negative) and objectivity(objective or subjective), because it is expected that consumers are likely to behave differently according to the characteristics of online reviews. Thus, to measure consumer's attitude and buying behavior, this study was examined by 4 types of messages. The results of this study are as follows: First, in the positive-objective message, the message attitude has a stronger effect on purchase intention than other outcomes. Second, in the positive-subjective message, the message attitude has a stronger effect on revisiting intention than others. Third, in the negative-objective message, the message attitude has a stronger effect on purchase intention than others. Hence, it is said that online shopping-mall managers need to understand the effects of multidimensional online review.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.43-50
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• 2012

This study sets out to examine how a brand image that matches the advertising model has a positive impact on brand attitude and price fairness perceptions. We reviewed the constructs on the basis of previous studies and each of the concepts has been redefined. One such concept, "image congruence," refers to the harmony, fitness, and matching quality of images. For example, how well celebrity advertising model is matches the brand image shows image congruence. Results are summarized as follows: First, the congruence of brand image and sports advertising model has no significant impact on brand attitude certainty and persistence. Second, the individual's brand attitude certainty and brand attitude persistence has a positive impact on the perceptions of price fairness. Third, the congruence of brand image and sports advertising model has a positive impact on the perceptions of price fairness. The first and the third results suggest that the positive impact on the price fairness perceptions is temporary but it has insignificant effects on the formation of brand attitude causing ongoing purchases. In other words, in order to influence consumers' long-term confidence on the brand, improving the quality of products or services has to precede promotional strategies such as advertising. When an advertising model is inappropriate for the brand image, consumers perceive product price changes as a negative issue in the short term. However, in the long term, attitude formation such as consumers' repurchase intentions and word of mouth will be not affected. The second result suggests that an already existing positive brand attitude can contribute more positively to change the perceptions of price fairness. In particular, attitude persistence has greater influence than attitude certainty on the price fairness. It suggests that persistence issues such as the trading period and the frequency of transactions must be managed and controlled because they are more important than the certainty issues such as strength of belief or trust. For example, when a commercial model for expensive sporting goods matches up with the brand image, consumer feels less pressure on the price changes. However, it does not determine the consumer's repeated purchases or sustainable transactions and it also has no absolute impact on the brand trust. In other words, consumer brand attitude should be recognized and approached as a routine strategy in view of the result that it is of great value as a causal variable in the process of consumer decision-making.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.73-84
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• 2015

Purpose - Various social issues have arisen since the beginning of the 21st century therefore, enterprises that disregarded social issues have become unsustainable, and social enterprises have appeared to address these issues. A social enterprise is a social mission-focused organization that uses a market-based strategy and has a vulnerable business structure. To be self-sustainable, a social enterprise should make consumers aware of the value that it provides and secure its profitability through consumer consumption. From this perspective, this study investigates the relationship between perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic) and loyalty, and examines how memory and attitudes play mediating roles between perceived value and loyalty. For these purposes, the author developed a structural model consisting of several variables. In this model, perceived value, which was utilitarian and hedonic, was proposed to affect the memory and attitudes toward social enterprise products, thus increasing loyalty. Therefore, memory and attitudes were proposed as core mediating variables between perceived value and loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - To analyze the proposed model, data were collected from 582 respondents and analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0. To test unidimensionality and the nomological validity of the measures of each construct, we employed a scale refinement procedure. The results of the reliability test with Cronbach's α and confirmatory factor analysis warranted the unidimensionality of the measures for each construct. In addition, the nomological validity of the measures was warranted from the results of the correlation analysis. The result of the overall model analysis demonstrated a good fit (χ²=529.881, df=144, χ²/df=3.680, p-value=0.000, GFI=0.905, NFI=0.948, CFI=0.961, RMR=0.036, RMSEA=0.068). Results - The findings are summarized as follows. First, the hedonic and utilitarian value of social enterprise products had positive effects on memory and attitudes. Second, the hedonic value of social enterprise products more strongly affects memory and attitudes than utilitarian value. Third, memory and attitudes had positive effects on loyalty. Lastly, memory had a stronger effect on loyalty than attitudes. Conclusions - The purchase rate of social enterprises' products increases only if the products are included in the "information search" and "alternative evaluation" processes in consumers' purchase decision-making processes. Therefore, a social enterprise must actively promote the fact that it pursues a social value, and shares both the hedonic and utilitarian values of its products. Accordingly, because hedonic value has a more significant impact on a company and attitudes, a social enterprise should develop hedonic values for product consumption, thereby leading consumers who care about value consumption to purchase its products. Moreover, a social enterprise must maintain good memories and attitudes for consumers because memory does not change over time, although attitude does. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are as follows. This study viewed "consumer loyalty" as the success factor of social enterprises, thereby considers an "increase in sales" as the success factor. Therefore, in future studies, diverse factors, including social contribution and word-of-mouth intention, should be regarded. In addition, future studies need to thoroughly review and make assurances about the relationship between memory and attitude.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2020

Recently, as the income level of consumers increases, interest in tourism products has increased, competition among tourist destinations has been fierce. Storytelling ads are drawing attracting attention as one of the ways to establish differentiated positioning for tourism products. This study investigates the role of the involvement of tourism activity in the storytelling ads effects, and examines the effects of the attitude toward storytelling ads on tourist destination commitments, visit intention and SNS WOM (word-of-mouth) intention. This study also empirically tests the role of mental simulation in the relationship between storytelling ads attitudes and visit intention. A total of 255 usable responses were obtained from a sample of 270 consumers aged 18 or older in South Korea. Following the two-stage approach of model validation, measurement validity of each construct appearing in the structural model and hypothesized structural paths were tested. The findings show that all hypotheses are supported except H3 that posits the impact of attitude toward the storytelling ads on visit intention and mental simulation showed a moderate effect on the relationship between ads attitude and visit intention in the case of rational appeal. This study suggests that the production of storytelling ads of tourist destinations can be effective strategy to improve regional competitiveness and increase visit and SNS WOM intention.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.756-765
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• 2014

Customer-company (C-C) identification is the perceived fit between the identities of a consumer and an organization. If a consumer identifies with a company that places a high priority on being socially responsible, a consumer who also values social responsibility may support and patronize that business because of the link between something that is important to both them and the company. Because C-C identification may explain the success of cause-related marketing (CRM) in the fashion industry, we investigated the effect of an image resulting from CRM on ratings of brand attributes (e.g., distinctiveness, credibility, attractiveness), identification with the brand, attitude toward the brand, and customer loyalty. Participants also responded to open-ended questions reflecting their rationale for their ratings of brand attributes. Data were collected from a convenience sample of undergraduates (n = 228) enrolled at Midwestern University in the U.S. Structural equation modeling revealed that as ratings of the social responsibility of the cause-related marketing effort increased so did perceptions of the brand's distinctiveness, credibility, and attractiveness. Participants identified with a brand when they rated the brand as attractive. Participants' identification with a brand had a significant impact on attitudes toward the brand and customer loyalty (e.g., purchase intention, willingness to spread positive word-of-mouth). Content analyses of open-ended responses supported the idea that brand images stemming from CRM exert an important influence on consumer's ratings of brand attributes. Fashion marketers interested in cause-related marketing will find success with efforts that increase customer identification.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.21-51
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• 2017

Recently there have been an increasing number of companies suffering a negative brand image in the major media. Thompson et al. (2006) defined this as "$Doppelg{\ddot{a}}nger$ Brand Image." The images mentioned above have been created and propagated on Internet communities, which are one of the major paths of online spreading. This study will empirically analyze the effect of each $Doppelg{\ddot{a}}nger$ brand image on the customer's brand attitude, using a text-mining method focusing on "A company"'s case. This study will also cover the change in customer brand attitudes related to the company's correspondence in a situation in which the $Doppelg{\ddot{a}}nger$ brand image exists. In addition, the study will determine the presence of a priming effect after the spread of the $Doppelg{\ddot{a}}nger$ brand image. To that end, we collected 974 comments from 94,889 posts and A's official blogs related to A from B community, the largest automobile community site in Korea. Through this investigation, we obtained the following results. First, there was a significant difference in the ratio of negative sentiment of internet community before and after $Doppelg{\ddot{a}}nger$ brand image. Second, with regard to the topic modeling, the ratio of articles including negative topics increased and the other article ratio decreased over time. Finally, we found that there is a priming effect about negative brand image of "A company."