• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.83-105
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• 2013

During recent decades, the number of mixed attribute products (henceforth mixed products), which have both utilitarian and hedonic benefits, has increased dramatically. Despite these products' growing popularity, academic research has paid little attention to them, and there remains a gap between theory and the real world. Hence, our study was undertaken to understand consumers' perceptions about and behaviors toward mixed products, as well as factors affecting the evaluation and choice of these products. We divided mixed attribute products into two categories: mixed utilitarian products (utilitarian products adding hedonic attributes) and mixed hedonic products (hedonic products adding utilitarian attributes). We then showed how adding different attributes affects consumers' perception, willingness to pay (WTP), and the choice of mixed attribute products compared to pure utilitarian or pure hedonic products. We conducted an experiment using a within-subject design. A total of 160 office workers and college students participated in the study. The pure utilitarian product used in the study was orange juice, and the mixed utilitarian product was carbonated orange juice. The pure hedonic product was chocolate, and the mixed hedonic product was polyphenol enriched chocolate. Results showed that consumers perceived a mixed utilitarian product to be less utilitarian, less pleasurable and more guilty than a pure utilitarian product. On the other hand, a mixed hedonic product was perceived to be more utilitarian, less pleasurable and less guilty than a pure hedonic product. Also, WTP for a mixed hedonic product was higher than WTP for a pure hedonic product, but WTP was lower for a mixed utilitarian product than for a pure utilitarian product. Furthermore, mixed hedonic products were likely to be evaluated more favorably when they were presented together with pure hedonic products, more so than when they were presented alone. Finally, when compared to low self-control participants, high self-control participants chose mixed hedonic products more frequently. The present study contributes to the existing literature on utilitarian and hedonic consumption by adding to the sparse literature on the consumption of products that have both utilitarian and hedonic purposes. Also, our research findings provide several useful implications for practitioners in related fields. First, the current study provides marketers with a useful guide for understanding consumers' perceptions of these types of products, and helps to predict how adding different attributes influences these products. Second, this study has examined the conditions that may moderate the evaluation and choice of hedonic base products and this finding will serve as a good reference for marketers of mixed hedonic products in marketing communication strategy, in-store marketing and targeting. Specifically, comparative advertising with a pure hedonic product will be beneficial for a mixed hedonic product. Also, displaying mixed hedonic products near pure hedonic products may enhance the effectiveness of in-store marketing of mixed hedonic products.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.425-435
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• 2023

Organoleptic parameters such as color, odor, and flavor influence consumer perception of drinking water quality. This study aims to evaluate the taste of the selected bottled and tap water samples using an electronic tongue (E-tongue) instead of a sensory test. Bottled and tap water's mineral components are related to the overall preference for water taste. Contrary to the sensory test, the potentiometric E-tongue method presented in this study distinguishes taste by measuring the mineral components in water, and the data obtained can be statistically analyzed. Eleven bottled water products from various brands and one tap water from I city in Korea were evaluated. The E-tongue data were statistically analyzed using multivariate statistical tools such as hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The results show that the E-tongue method can clearly distinguish taste discrimination in drinking water differing in water quality based on the ion-related water quality parameters. The water quality parameters that affect taste discrimination were found to be total dissolved solids (TDS), sodium (Na+), calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), sulfate (SO₄^2-), chloride (Cl^-), potassium (K⁺) and pH. The distance calculation of HCA was used to quantify the differences between 12 different types of drinking water. The proposed E-tongue method is a practical tool to quantitatively evaluate the differences between samples in water quality items related to the ionic components. It can be helpful in quality control of drinking water.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.153-166
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers' perceptions on monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) in social media. Data were collected from Naver blogs and Naver web communities (Korean representative portal web-site), and media reports including comment sections on a Yonhap news website (Korean largest news agency). The results from Naver blogs and Naver web communities showed that it was primarily mentioned MSG-use restaurant reviews, 'MSG-no added' products, its safety, and methods of reducing MSG in food. When TV shows on current affairs, newspaper, or TV news reported uses and side effects of MSG, search volume for MSG has increased in both PC and mobile search engines. Search volume has increased especially when TV shows on current affairs reported it. There are more periods with increased search volume for Mobile than PC. Also, it was mainly commented about safety of MSG, criticism of low-quality foods, abuse of MSG, and distrust of government below the news on the Yonhap news site. The label of MSG-no added products in market emphasized "MSG-free" even though it is allocated as an acceptable daily intake (ADI) not-specified by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). When consumers search for MSG (monosodium L-glutamate) or purchase food on market, they might perceive that 'MSG-no added' products are better. Competent authorities, offices of education and local government provide guidelines based on no added MSG principle and these policies might affect consumers' perceptions. TV program or news program could be a powerful and effective consumer communication channel about MSG through Mobile rather than PC. Therefore media including TV should report item on monosodium L-glutamate with responsibility and information based on scientific background for consumers to get reliable information.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.395-405
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• 2009

In this study, a survey was conducted to determine consumer perceptions and satisfaction for onion hot-water extracts. Among the study subjects, females (53.3%) were in greater number than males, and individuals in their 40s (35.1%) made up the largest group. Cocerning the detailed efficacy of onion hot-water extracts, most respondents (84.5%) were aware of their efficacy and females recognized this more than males (p<0.001). Most consumers (67.3%) purchased onion hot-water extracts from 'health food stores prepared using a double boiler', and many consumers (47.4%) received information on the extracts from families and relatives. Of the respondents, 51.8% said they purchased 'quantities for $1{\sim}3$ months' at one time, and 33.1% stated that the price of onion hot-water extracts was expensive. They considered 'health' the most important aspect when purchasing, and preferred 'pouch packs' (60.3%) and considered 'easiness to open convenience to drink, and safety' (42.0%) the most important product features. Also, 62.8% of the respondents consumed onion hot-water extracts, and many drank them $1{\sim}3$ times a week, with '70 mL' as one dose, and drank them 'regardless of time'. The consumers were satisfied with the listing of health effects, but were not satisfied with the 'taste', 'smell', or 'color' of products. Concerning advertisements for the efficacy of onion hot-water extracts, 72.5% replied 'I trust them a little'. And concerning the expanding onion hot-water extract market, many respondents said it is difficult to choose an onion hot-water extract due to many similar products at the market. They also requested improvements of taste and flavor.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.82-98
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• 2023

This study investigates consumers' perceptions when customers participate in the process of innovating new products or new services essential to companies in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. Specifically, this study investigates how consumers' product evaluation varies depending on two types of innovation for a company's new product development (technology-based innovation and market-based innovation) and two customer roles (as information providers and as co-developers) participated in the development process. The research questions are as follows: As technology-based innovation and market-based innovation are different types of innovations, will consumers' product evaluation vary depending on these different types of innovation? If customers participate in the development process of a new product reflecting each innovation, how will the information that the customer participated be perceived by other consumers? In addition, this customer participation method can serve as an information provider and a co-developer, and will consumers' evaluation of new products vary depending on this role? As a result of verifying the hypothesis using an experimental method, it shows that consumers' product evaluation differs significantly depending on the role of customers who participated in the process of developing new product development process. In other words, the results indicate that the case where customers participated as market information providers in the process of developing new products is more favorable to the new product evaluation than the case where they participated as co-developers of the new products. In addition, there is an interaction effect between the type of product innovation and the role of customer participation. To be specific, when a product reflecting technological innovation is released, there is no difference in consumers' product evaluation according to the roles of two different customer participations. However, when a market-based innovation product is released, product evaluation is more favorably perceived when customers participated as information providers than they were involved in the new product development process as co-developers. This study is of theoretical significance in that it distinguishes each type of innovation and verified how other consumers' perceptions vary depending on their role when customers participate in the innovation process. Finally, limitations and future study directions are suggested along with practical implications.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-81
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• 2012

Constructing attractive bundle offers depends on more than an understanding of the distribution of consumer preferences. Consumers are also sensitive to the framing of price information in a bundle offer. In classical economic theory, consumers' utility should not change as long as the total price paid stays same. However, even when total prices are identical, consumers' preferences toward a bundle product could be different depending on the format of price presentation and the locus of price discount. A weighted additive model predicts that the impact of a price discount on the overall evaluation of the bundle will be greater when the discount is assigned to the more important product in the bundle(Yadav 1995). Meanwhile, a reference dependent model asserts that it is better to assign a price discount to a tie-in component that has a negative valuation at its current offer price than to a focal product that has a positive valuation at its current offer price(Janiszewski and Cunha 2004). This paper has expanded previous research regarding price discount presentation format, investigating the reasons for mixed results of prior research and presenting new mechanisms for price discount framing effect. Prior research has hypothesized that bundling is used to sell a tie-in component with an offer price above the consumer's reference price plus a focal product of the same offer price with reference price(e.g., Janiszewski and Cunha 2004). However, this study suggests that bundling strategy can be used for increasing product's attractiveness through the synergy between components even when offer prices of bundle components are the same with reference prices. In this context, this study employed various realistic bundle sets with same price between offer price and reference price in the experiment. Hamilton and Srivastava(2008) demonstrated that when evaluating different partitions of the same total price, consumers prefer partitions in which the price of the high-benefit component is higher. This study determined that their mechanism can be applied to price discount presentation formats. This study hypothesized that price discount framing effect depends not on the negative perception of tie-in component with offer price above reference price but rather on the consumers' perceived consumption benefit in bundle product. This research also hypothesized that preference for low-benefit discount mechanism is that perceived consumption benefit reduces price sensitivity. Furthermore, this study investigated how consumers' concern for quality in a price discount--a factor not considered in previous research--influences price discount framing. Yadav(1995)'s experiment used only one magazine bundle of relatively low quality uncertainty and could not show the influence of perceived uncertainty of quality. This study assumed that as perceived uncertainty of quality increases, the price sensitivity mechanism for assigning the discount to low-benefit will increase. Further, this research investigated the moderating effect of uncertainty of quality in price discount framing. The results of the experiment showed that when evaluating different partitions of the same total price and the same amount of discounts, the partition that discounts in the price of low benefit component is preferred to the partition that decreases the price of high benefit component. This implies that price discount framing effect depends on the perceived consumption benefit. The results also demonstrated that consumers are more price sensitive to low benefit component and less price sensitive to high benefit component. Furthermore, the results showed that the influence of price discount presentation format on the evaluation of bundle product varies with the perceived uncertainty of quality in high consumption benefit. As perceived uncertainty of quality gradually increases, the preference for discounts in the price of low consumption benefit decreases. Besides, the results demonstrate that as perceived uncertainty of quality gradually increases, the effect of price sensitivity in consumption benefit also increases. This paper integrated prior research by using a new mechanism of perceived consumption benefit and moderating effect of perceived quality uncertainty, thus providing a clearer explanation for price discount framing effect.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.29-62
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• 2012

As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.47-58
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• 2009

The marketing environment has become competitive to an extent that requires firms to target their products at markets that span national boundaries. However, competitive clout cannot be achieved in global consumer markets unless firms thoroughly understand and adequately respond to the core values and needs of those consumers. Brand equity is one of the most important assets to a company. Especially in sportswear markets, brand equity is the crucial value added to a product by its brand name. Factors such as country of origin also influence customer's attitude towards brand equity. Therefore, this paper discusses the relationship between country of origin effect and brand equity, and how they influence consumers' loyalty for respective brands. This paper focused on the sports shoes market, because it is an increasing area of opportunity for world manufacturers. The objectives of this study were the following. (1) Test the effect of country of origin on brand equity. (2) Test how brand equity influences consumers' brand loyalty. (3) Find whether there are differences in the effects of country of origin and brand equity among the three countries. (4) Find whether there are differences in the effects of country of origin and brand equity among the different lifestyles. Based on the review of literature results, the hypotheses are concluded as the following: H1-a: Country image has positive influence on country of origin. H1-b: Product perception has positive influence on country of origin. H2-a: Perceived quality has positive effect on brand equity. H2-b: Perceived price has positive effect on brand equity. H3: Country of origin has positive effect on brand equity. H4: Brand equity has a positive impact on brand loyalty. Research model was constructed (see Fig. 1). After data analysis, the following results were concluded: sports shoes purchase behavior showed significant differences among Korean, Chinese, and American consumers for favorite brand, purchased brand, purchased place, information usage, and favorite sports games. The results of this study also extend the research of the relationship among country of origin, brand equity and brand loyalty to the sports shoes market. Brand equity was proven to have a significant relationship with brand loyalty for all countries. The factors which can influence brand equity are different for different countries. The third finding of this paper is that we identified different three lifestyles, adventurer, follower, and laggard, for Korean, Chinese and American consumers. Without the nationality boundary, seeing the emergence of a new group of consumers who have similar preferences and buy similar brands is more important. All of the consumers consider brand equity to keep their brand loyalty. Perceived price is the only factor which can influence brand equity for adventurers; brand is more important for them. The laggards were not influenced by any factor. All of the factors expect perceived price are important for the followers. Marketing managers should consider brand equity when introducing their brand into a new market. Also localization is the basic strategy that all the sports shoes companies should understand. But as a global brand, understanding the same characteristics for each country is more important to build global strategy.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.61-81
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• 2007

Recently, use of foreign models and foreign language in advertising is a general trend in Korea even though the effect has not been well-known..Most of the previous research shows rather an opposite effect claiming marketing communication is more effective when higher congruity between marketing communication and consumer's cultural values are achieved. However, the introduction of global culture due to the expansion of new media such as Internet or cable television makes the congruity not the best choice of marketing strategy. In addition, use of highly attractive models in advertising to increase the effect of advertising is general. However, recent studies show that targeted women audience tend to compare themselves to the highly attractive models and do experience negative sentiment. Bower (2001) proved the difference between 'comparer' and 'noncomparer' when women face highly attractive models. The results show that a comparer who has an intention to compare highly attractive model (HAM) with herself has a significantly negative effect on model expertise, product argument, product evaluation and buying intention. Therefore, HAM is not always a good choice and model attractiveness plays a role in the processing other cues or changing the advertising effect from result of processing other cues. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the use of foreign language on the advertising response of the audience with regard of the model attractiveness. For the empirical study, the virtual advertising using foreign models (HAM, NAM), brand names and slogans(Korean, English) were used as stimuli. The respondents of each stimulus were 75('HAM-Korean'), 75('NAM-Korean'), 66('HAM-English') and 66 ('NAM-English') respectively. To establish the effect of marketing communication, the attitude for media(AM), the attitude for product(AP), targetedness(TD), overall quality(OQ), and purchase intention(PI) with 7 point likert scale were measured. The manipulation was verified to check the difference between HAM attractiveness assessment (m=3.27) and NAM attractiveness assessment (m=5.12). The mean difference was statiscally significant (p<.05). As a result, all consequences were significantly changed with model attractiveness, and overall quality evaluation(OQ) were significantly changed with language. The interaction effect from model attractiveness and language was significant on attitude toward the product(AP) and purchase intention(PI). To analyze the difference, the mean values and standard deviation of consequences were compared. The result was more positive when model attractiveness was high for all consequences. For language effect, the assessment was more positive when English was used for OQ. Considering model attractiveness and language simultaneously, HAM-Korean was more positive for AP and PI, and NAM-English was more positive for AP and PI. In other words, the interaction effect was confirmed by model attractiveness and language. As mentioned above, use of foreign models and foreign language in advertising was explained by cultural match up hypothesis (Leclerc et al. 1994) which claimed that culture of origin effect. In other words, in advertising, use of same cultural language with the foreign model could make positive assessment for OQ. But this effect was moderated by model attractiveness. When the model attractiveness was low, the use of English makes PI high because of the effect of foreign language which supported the cultural match up hypothesis. When the model attractiveness was low, the use of Korean made AP and PI high because the effect of foreign language was diluted. It was a general notion that the visual cues got processed before (Holbrook and Moore, 1981; Sholl et al, 1995) compared to linguistic cues. Therefore, when consumers were faced HAM, so much perception was already consumed at processing visual cues making their native language of Korean to strongly and positively connected with the advertising concept. On the contrary, when consumers were faced with NAM, less perception was consumed compared to HAM, making English to accompany cultural halo effect which affected more positively. Therefore, when foreign models were employed in advertising, the language must be carefully selected according to the level of model attractiveness.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.243-254
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the general characteristics, body shape, and perceptions of weight control in individuals consuming functional health foods and weight-control foods. The survey was conducted between April 15 and June 17, 2010 among 199 (57 males and 142 females; age range, 25-45 years) in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, who experienced eating functional health foods or weight control foods during the past year (June 2009 to June 2010). The subjects were divided into a weight-control food group (89 adults) and a functional health food group (110 adults). The subjects were comprised of a high proportion of aged (average age, $34.2{\pm}5.9$ years), graduates (71.9%), and married (65.8%) individuals. In the weight control food group, gender, age, and educational background were similar and the ratios of service/technical employees, college students, and normal-weight individuals [body mass index (BMI), < 23] were high. BMI was significantly different by gender (p < 0.001), age (p < 0.01), marital status (p < 0.001), and job type (p < 0.001). Self-perceived health status showed a higher response for "in good health" in the 35-44 year old group than that in the 25-34 year old group (p < 0.05). Male group satisfaction for body shape was significantly higher than that in the female group. The main reason for going on a diet was significantly different by gender (p < 0.05) and BMI (p < 0.01). The main motives for dieting were "because I am not at an ideal weight" and "because of the social atmosphere and the attention of others " in men, but "can't wear the clothes I want" in women (p < 0.01). The most preferable product type related to the two groups was significantly different by job (p < 0.001) and BMI (p < 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed for questions about body shape perception and weight control. Consumers who had different general characteristics and used diet products perceived body shape and weight control differently. Additionally, no meaningful differences were observed when the results were categorized by product type, except job and BMI, but the distribution of consumer characteristics showed different tendencies. These results can be utilized as basic data for developing new diet products to help people control their weight more scientifically and appropriately in the future.