• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 2004

This study was conducted to examine how the types of housing values influence the preference for computerized housing (so called 'Intelligent Housing'). A questionnaire survey was conducted on 347 residents in Seoul metropolitan area. The following findings were obtained: 1) The housing values were classified into 6 types: ostentation, information & technology, tradition preservation, personality, practicality, and privacy pursuit. 2) There were significant differences in housing values by the generation and the level of familiarity with information technology. 3) In general, computerized housing was highly preferred, and the housing value types that affected the preference were 'ostentation' and 'information & technology.' 4) There is a need to develop diverse models of computerized housing systems to respond to consumer demands.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.71-85
• /
• 2020

Social media has emerged as a major hub of engagement between brands and consumers in recent years, and allows user-generated content to serve as a powerful means of encouraging communication between the sides. However, it is challenging to negotiate user-generated content owing to its lack of structure and the enormous amount generated. This study focuses on the hashtag, a metadata tag that reflects customers' brand perception through social media platforms. Online users share their knowledge and impressions using a wide variety of hashtags. We examine hashtags that co-occur with particular branded hashtags on the social media platform, Instagram, to derive insights about brand perception. We apply text mining technology and network analysis to identify the perceptions of brand images among consumers on the site, where this helps distinguish among the diverse personalities of the brands. This study contributes to highlighting the value of hashtags in constructing brand personality in the context of online marketing.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.141-173
• /
• 2007

The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.231-238
• /
• 2010

The anthropomorphism of brands, defined as seeing human beings in brands (Puzakova, Kwak, and Rosereto, 2008) is the focus of this study. Specifically, the research objective is to understand the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike. By analyzing consumer readings of stories found on food product packages we intend to show how marketers and consumers humanize a spectrum of brands and create meanings. Our research question considers the possibility that a single brand may host multiple or single meanings, associations, and personalities for different consumers. We start by highlighting the theoretical and practical significance of our research, explain why we turn our attention to packages as vehicles of brand meaning transfer, then describe our qualitative methodology, discuss findings, and conclude with a discussion of managerial implications and directions for future studies. The study was designed to directly expose consumers to potential vehicles of brand meaning transfer and then engage these consumers in free verbal reflections on their perceived meanings. Specifically, we asked participants to read non-nutritional stories on selected branded food packages, in order to elicit data about received meanings. Packaging has yet to receive due attention in consumer research (Hine, 1995). Until now, attention has focused solely on its utilitarian function and has generated a body of research that has explored the impact of nutritional information and claims on consumer perceptions of products (e.g., Loureiro, McCluskey and Mittelhammer, 2002; Mazis and Raymond, 1997; Nayga, Lipinski and Savur, 1998; Wansik, 2003). An exception is a recent study that turns its attention to non-nutritional packaging narratives and treats them as cultural productions and vehicles for mythologizing the brand (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). The next step in this stream of research is to explore how such mythologizing activity affects brand personality perception and how these perceptions relate to consumers. These are the questions that our study aimed to address. We used in-depth interviews to help overcome the limitations of quantitative studies. Our convenience sample was formed with the objective of providing demographic and psychographic diversity in order to elicit variations in consumer reflections to food packaging stories. Our informants represent middle-class residents of the US and do not exhibit extreme alternative lifestyles described by Thompson as "cultural creatives" (2004). Nine people were individually interviewed on their food consumption preferences and behavior. Participants were asked to have a look at the twelve displayed food product packages and read all the textual information on the package, after which we continued with questions that focused on the consumer interpretations of the reading material (Scott and Batra, 2003). On average, each participant reflected on 4-5 packages. Our in-depth interviews lasted one to one and a half hours each. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed, providing 140 pages of text. The products came from local grocery stores on the West Coast of the US and represented a basic range of food product categories, including snacks, canned foods, cereals, baby foods, and tea. The data were analyzed using procedures for developing grounded theory delineated by Strauss and Corbin (1998). As a result, our study does not support the notion of one brand/one personality as assumed by prior work. Thus, we reveal multiple brand personalities peacefully cohabiting in the same brand as seen by different consumers, despite marketer attempts to create more singular brand personalities. We extend Fournier's (1998) proposition, that one's life projects shape the intensity and nature of brand relationships. We find that these life projects also affect perceived brand personifications and meanings. While Fournier provides a conceptual framework that links together consumers’ life themes (Mick and Buhl, 1992) and relational roles assigned to anthropomorphized brands, we find that consumer life projects mold both the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike and the ways in which brands connect to consumers' existential concerns. We find two modes through which brands are anthropomorphized by our participants. First, brand personalities are created by seeing them through perceived demographic, psychographic, and social characteristics that are to some degree shared by consumers. Second, brands in our study further relate to consumers' existential concerns by either being blended with consumer personalities in order to connect to them (the brand as a friend, a family member, a next door neighbor) or by distancing themselves from the brand personalities and estranging them (the brand as a used car salesman, a "bunch of executives.") By focusing on food product packages, we illuminate a very specific, widely-used, but little-researched vehicle of marketing communication: brand storytelling. Recent work that has approached packages as mythmakers, finds it increasingly challenging for marketers to produce textual stories that link the personalities of products to the personalities of those consuming them, and suggests that "a multiplicity of building material for creating desired consumer myths is what a postmodern consumer arguably needs" (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). Used as vehicles for storytelling, food packages can exploit both rational and emotional approaches, offering consumers either a "lecture" or "drama" (Randazzo, 2006), myths (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007; Holt, 2004; Thompson, 2004), or meanings (McCracken, 2005) as necessary building blocks for anthropomorphizing their brands. The craft of giving birth to brand personalities is in the hands of writers/marketers and in the minds of readers/consumers who individually and sometimes idiosyncratically put a meaningful human face on a brand.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.63 no.8
• /
• pp.156-170
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this research is to scrutinize the cyclist's consumer behavior by analyzing the eWOM information search behavior of cycle-wear according to benefits sought and involvement. The research was conducted through an online survey and the respondents were 291 men who wore cycle-wear and searched information via online. The results of this research are as following. First, the benefits sought from wearing cycle apparel are composed of five sub-factors such as, ideal body figure, brand ostentation, comfort ease, personality, and economic feasibility. In addition, the cycle-wear involvement consisted of two sub-factors: cycling involvement and fashion involvement. Second, the eWOM information search behavior of cyclists was different depending on the benefits sought by the cyclists. When the cyclists pursued ideal body figure they searched more information of design and color, while cyclists put more weight on the information of design, color, and brand when they sought brand ostentation. Moreover, the valence and the type of the information were dissimilar depending on the benefits sought. Third, the sub-factors of eWOM information search behavior affected the eWOM effect distinctively. The price information was the only factor that influenced the eWOM effect among the contents of the information. The valence of the information influenced the eWOM effect, and the effect of positive information was stronger than negative information. Additionally, the subjective information also affected the eWOM effect. Lastly, the effect of the benefits sought influencing the eWOM information search behavior varied by the difference of the cycle-wear involvement. For example, when they are both high in the involvement there were various benefits sought affecting the eWOM information search behavior. However, when only the cycling involvement was high, and they pursued personality, the price information was not important to them.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.5
• /
• pp.171-204
• /
• 2000

This paper intends to investigate the hierarchical effects of personality variables and values on pro-environmental product purchase and recycling behaviors mediated by 3 factor environmental attitudes. Previous literature review on pro-environmental behaviors has three categories of research trends. The first category generally done during 70's and early 80's is mainly focused on identifying pro-environmental consumer groups. Second stream of studies has focused on the mediating and moderating effects of variables, such as PCE, environmental knowledge, the perceived importance of behavioral consequences etc., on various pro-environmental behaviors. The last and latest trends of literature is focused on hierarchical and interactive effects of variables on behaviors. Following the trends of literature is review of such specific variables as social responsibility, community mindedness, locus of control, values, and environmental attitudes. The result shows that both locus of control and social responsibility have positive effects on two of environmental attitudes, harmony with nature and limits to growth, but community mindedness did not have effects on environmental attitudes. And social belonging value has positive effects on two of environmental attitudes, limits to growth and nature over human, and environmental value has positive effects on the formation of harmony with nature and limits to growth. But self-actualization has negative effects. And it's also suggested the positive effects of environmental attitudes on purchase and recycling behaviors. Specifically, all environmental attitude variables have positive effects on the formation of pro-environmental product purchase and recycling behaviors except in case of the effects of nature over human to recycling. And it's also revealed that pro-environmental product purchase is a preceeding behavior to recycling behavior, which suggest that consumers have to purchase environment friendly and recyclable products in order to engage in effective recycling behavior. Various applications of the results are discussed in the conclusion.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.12 no.11
• /
• pp.17-31
• /
• 2021

Purpose: Despite the fact that face (i.e. Chemyon) is deeply-rooted in Korean culture and significantly affects the behavior of Korean people, the effect of face on leisure consumers' consumption behavior has only reported mixed findings, that is, significant and/or insignificant face effects have been reported. It is necessary to integrate prior research findings, and comprehensively examine the effect of face on leisure consumers' consumption behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect (i.e. effect size, and moderating variables) of face on leisure consumers' consumption behavior through meta-analysis. Research design, data and methodology: Among 1,019 face-related academic studies, retrieved from the academic research information services (RISS), 34 studies and 300 cases examining the effect of face on leisure consumers' consumption behavior were finally included for meta-analysis. Face measured as face sensitivity and/or a face sensitivity sub-component (shame-consciousness, formality-consciousness, and other-consciousness) were integrated in the meta-analysis. Leisure consumers' consumption behavior was classified as antecedents of purchase (overall conspicuous consumption tendency, overall symbolic consumption tendency, personality, high price, high quality, brand seeking, fashion seeking, enjoyment, other person (interpersonal) consideration, position, reference group, and attitude), purchase (purchase intention, unplanned purchase, purchase, and expenditure), and post-purchase (satisfaction, repurchase, and post-purchase). The data used in the meta-analysis was comprised of correlation coefficients, and the meta-analysis was performed using the R-program. Results: The overall mean effect size of face on leisure consumers' consumption behavior was .248. It was found that the effect size was the largest in the order of shame-consciousness face, formality-consciousness face, and other-consciousness face. Among the types of leisure consumers' consumption behavior categorized as dependent variables, the effect size was found to be largest in the order of position, attitude, reference group, post-purchase behavior, brand seeking, personality, trend seeking, etc. In addition, it was found that the leisure types moderated the effect size of face on leisure consumers' consumption behavior. The effect size was found to be largest in the order of skin diving, baseball, various leisure participation, dance, gambling, golf, etc. Conclusions: Face moderately or significantly influence leisure consumers' consumption behavior.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.1-27
• /
• 2009

The research compared the motivational network of traits predictive of complaint attitudes across consumers in the U.S. and South Korean cultures. Overall, the results revealed a similar pattern of traits predictive of complaint attitudes in the two cultures. The traits of value consciousness, general self-efficacy, emotional instability, and the need for material resources were positively related to attitudes toward complaining. In contrast, conscientiousness was negatively related to complaint attitudes. The only trait predictor of complaining attitude that was significantly different between the Korean and U.S. samples was shopping enjoyment. It was negatively related to complaining attitude in the U.S. sample but unrelated to complaining attitude in the Korean sample. Understanding the personality traits predictive of complaint attitudes has the potential to help marketers develop messages that will encourage the low complaint prone to voice their dissatisfaction. This is important, because when a consumer complains about and unsatisfactory purchase, it gives the firm a chance to take actions to avoid losing a customer.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.69-102
• /
• 2012

Owing to increased number of luxury brand users, both genuine and counterfeit luxury product consumption continues to increase every year. Luxury brand is defined as use or display of a particular branded products which brings the ownership prestige apart from its functional utility(Grossmand and Shapiro 1988). Some luxury brands have imitations sold in marketplace due to their popularity. These imitations or counterfeits have been jumping on the bandwagon of the upturn in sales of their originals. The purpose of our study is to understand consumer's underlying motives to consume luxury brands, genuine and or counterfeits. To do this, we propose functional theories of attitudes, decision-making styles, and life attitudes to form the determining causes for different consumption choices of luxury brands: genuine brands, counterfeit brands, both genuine and counterfeit brands, and no consumption on luxury brands types. In proposed causal pathways, we examine moderated effects of socio-psychological factors to further investigate if consumer profiles would exert influences in causal relationships. From the existing theories of functional attitudes: value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes, we developed and introduced a new measure of rationality-consumptive attitude. From the existing eight decision-making characteristics of consumer styles inventory(CSI), three measures of high-quality, hedonic-shopping, and price-shopping styles were primarily applied in the study along with newly introduced measure of 'high-price' being added, which makes four total. Seven life attitude measures of life purpose, life control, will to meaning, goal seeking, future mean to fulfill, life satisfaction, and religiosity were applied. Finally, such socio-psychological measures as age, gender, marital status, income, and age-gap between couples were assumed to function as moderators. With 430 valid study samples, ages from 20s to 50s, with more females(316) than males(114), with average personal possessions of 5 genuine and 9 counterfeit luxury brands, we conducted questionnaire survey. Results indicated that social-adjustive function is totally disappeared in the relationship due to current social trend of widespread consumptions on both genuine and counterfeit brands which in turn, make consumers feel less special on wearing or carrying them unlike in the past. Self-expressive function and rationality-consumptive functions act as strong catalysts for genuine brand consumption and counterfeit brand consumption, respectively. On consumers' decision-making styles, high-price sublation is the most powerful indicator anticipating counterfeit consumption, even more powerful than personal incomes. In life attitude, the overall model fit was not validated, and only life control and life satisfaction are proven to be significant on both genuine and counterfeit product consumptions. Employment of socio-psychological factors in the model improved understanding of users further. Young consumers tend to go for genuine products over counterfeits. Consumers in different income groups; low, medium and high, all significantly consume genuine products for reasons of different decision-making styles. The results indicated that consumers whose personal disposition is predisposed to consume products in the form of reflection of his or her personality, go only for genuine brands for quality reason, while consumers who rationally consume products for its function or usability, go only for counterfeits for high-price sublation reason. Meanwhile, both product users support for high-price orientation who are not well off.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.4
• /
• pp.349-374
• /
• 2000

With rapid advances on Interactive technology, and the growing popularity of the Internet, Internet shopping receives considerable attention in both the popular-press and academic journals. The Internet has enormous commercial possibilities. But it is a new and dynamic medium that poses special challenges for marketers. The revolutionary nature of the Internet mandates that established wisdom on consumer marketing along with marketing-mix strategies has to be reexamined and perhaps radically revised. In order to assist marketers in this endeavor it is critical to understand consumers' buying behaviors of Internet shopping. But research in this area still very much its infancy. This study examined previous researches of Internet shopping and developed conceptual framework of Internet shopping modes. Additionally, this study examined empirical investigation of Internet shopping. Preliminary results suggests that there are significant differences in individuals' perceptions of Internet shopping and traditional shopping modes. Various factors influences on consumers' buying behavior on Internet shopping. There are Individuals' factors(personality, lifestyle, prior experience, perceived risk etc), shopping mall factors(trust, vividness, security, promotion, etc), product characteristics(product category, brand, etc), situational factors(time pressure, locational constraints etc), social/cultural factors(Norms, importance of other peoples etc). Additionally, We conducted empirical study of the impact of the Internet on consumer shopping behavior. We gathered consumers' reactions via an open-ended survey using a sample of 90 shoppers. We related the reactions to the factors of consumers' satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the Internet shopping. Consequently, there are many questions regarding factors that might influence Internet shopping. From theoretical and practical perspectives, studies that examine these factors would seem to offer much to the discipline. This paper has attempted th provide insights and direction of future empirical examination of Internet shopping.