• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.199-218
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• 2022

Considering increasing demand for improved waist protectors for the elderly, in this study we sought to design a waist protector that reflects the body characteristics, preferences, and satisfactions of the elderly. A survey conducted to investigate elderly satisfaction with existing waist protectors, as well as their preferences in product function, design, and characteristics, found that consumers are not satisfied with current waist protector offerings and would prefer protectors that allow greater freedom to perform physical activities and that are more easily accessible. Based on the survey, we developed a guideline on function, design, and characteristics, resulting in four new waist protector designs: A and B for men, and C and D for women. Significant preference differences according to gender were reflected in the designs. For example, designs for female waist protectors focused much more on improving tightness, size, freedom of movement, and easy attachment or detachment than designs for male waist protectors did. Evaluation of satisfaction with new designs suggests that new designs meet the satisfaction criteria of elderly consumers, who express willingness to purchase and use them.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.71-99
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• 2010

Most of studies on patriotism in the marketing area have focused on ethnocentric tendencies observed in consumption behaviors. On the contrary, there have been few empirical studies on how patriotism in the general sense, indicating affection for, attachment to, and pride in the country, influences consumers' evaluation of domestic and foreign products. Given the current situation that marketing activities appealing to people's patriotism is increasing, this is somewhat surprising. Thus, this study examined empirically how patriotism influences people's evaluation of domestic and foreign products. In addition, we tested whether consumer ethnocentrism works as an intervening variable in the relation between patriotism and product evaluation. The empirical analysis was conducted through a questionnaire survey of undergraduate and graduate students at universities in Seoul. The survey asked about the respondents' patriotism, consumer ethnocentrism, domestic product evaluation, foreign product evaluation, and demographical characteristics. In foreign product evaluation, the respondents were requested to evaluate Chinese and Japanese products. Email was used to send and recover the questionnaires, and 135 replies were used in the analysis. Major findings from the empirical analysis are as follows. First, a significant relationship was observed between patriotism and domestic product evaluation. That is, patriotic participants evaluated domestic products more favorably. On the other hand, no significant relationship was observed between patriotism and foreign product evaluation(See Table 1-1 and 1-2). Next, the effect of patriotism on domestic product evaluation was mediated by consumer ethnocentrism. However, whether the effect of patriotism on domestic product evaluation is mediated by consumer ethnocentrism partially or fully was different according to product(See Table 2-1 and 2-2). Lastly, we tried to analyze the relation between consumer ethnocentrism and product evaluation and comparing the results with findings of previous researches. According to the results, a significant relationship was observed between consumer ethnocentrism and domestic product evaluation but not between consumer ethnocentrism and foreign product evaluation. The meanings of this study are as follows. First, there have been few marketing studies that investigated the relation between patriotism and product evaluation. Thus, this study is meaningful in that it supplemented the limitation of previous research. Second, consumer ethnocentrism was found to mediate the relation between patriotism and domestic product evaluation. Considering the absence of previous research that examined the role of consumer ethnocentrism as an intervening variable, this study is significant in that it expanded the scope of research on consumer ethnocentrism. Third, from the practical aspect, the results of this study suggest that marketing appealing to patriotism is effective in stimulating consumers' purchase and consumption of domestic products. Accordingly, such a marketing strategy is expected to be effective in protecting domestic markets from imported goods and overseas brands and to increase demands for domestic products and brands. However, there is the question of whether the effect of patriotism based marketing strategies in promoting demand for domestic products would persist. That is, this study could not find a significant relation between patriotism and foreign product evaluation, and this means that the increase in patriotism for the home country does not damage people's view to the quality of foreign products negatively. Accordingly, without change in people's perception of foreign products, it is highly likely that the increase in demand for domestic products or brands induced by patriotism elevated at a specific time or situation may not last long. Fourth, the results of this study suggest that the patriotism level may influence consumers' choice behavior toward retailers strongly connected to a specific country or region. That is, consumers with high level patriotism may hesitate or avoid using a retailer associated with some foreign country. Fifth, according to the results of this study, when people's patriotism is stimulated by a specific social situation or event, it can be an opportunity for domestic franchise brands to increase their market performance such as sales and market share and, at the same time, for foreign franchise brands to experience adversities. Therefore, during a period like the Olympic Games or the World Cup when people's sense of belonging or attachment to their country is heightened, domestic franchise brands need to make marketing activities that may lead market opportunities to substantial results and foreign franchise brands to cope with such adversities. Sixth, consumers' brand choice is often made in retail stores. It has been demonstrated by numerous studies that in store stimuli such as point of purchase display can affect consumers' behavior. Considering this, domestic brands facing competition with foreign brands should make continuous efforts to enhance the market performance of their products through developing in store stimuli that can stimulate consumers' patriotism. Finally, based on the major findings of this study, both academic and practical issues were discussed. Suggestions for future studies were provided.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.231-251
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• 2016

This study examined the effect of brand experience and personality on customer-brand relationships, brand attachment, and brand loyalty in domestic and global coffee shop brands. By comparing inter-structural relationships among factors between domestic brands and global brands, this study also provided strategic implications and directions for the effective marketing strategy of coffee shop brands. Data were collected through a self-administered survey of the consumers aged 20's to early 40's who used domestic and global brand coffee shops in Seoul and Kyunggi between August 1, 2014 and August 30, 2014. 500 surveys were distributed and 495 surveys were returned. Among them, data from 493 surveys were used for the analysis. The results from this study are as follows. First, it was found that the Think of experiences in coffee shop had a greater effect on consumer-brand relationship than the Sense-Feel. Second, the Sophistication of brand personality in coffee shop had a greater effect on consumer-brand relationship than the Excitement. Third, only Think of experience in coffee shop significantly impacted brand attachment, but Sense-Feel did not impact brand attachment. Fourth, only Excitement of brand personality in coffee shop significantly impacted brand attachment, but Sophistication did notact on brand attachment. Fifth, the consumer-brand relationship had a greater effect on brand loyalty than did brand attachment. Finally, the differences from a comparison analysis of domestic brands and global brands of coffee shop are as follows. In domestic brands, only the Sophistication of brand personality in coffee shop significantly impacted consumer-brand relationship. In global brands, the brand personality in coffee shop did not impact on consumer-brand relationship.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.291-308
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to suggest an effective marketing method for product advertising. With regards to this, 148 copies of survey data were collected from consumers, and the hypothesis of this study was verified using SPSS 25.0. The results revealed that (1) Human Brand attractiveness had a positive effect on Human Brand attachment among the products of low involvement. (2) The uniqueness and the intimacy of Human Brand had a positive effect on Human Brand attachment among the products of high involvement. Through this study, the effect of reliability, expertise, attractiveness, uniqueness, and intimacy among human brand characteristics on human brand attachment, human brand attitude, and product purchase intention was confirmed, and it was also possible to confirm the difference in influence on human brand characteristics and purchase intention according to the product characteristics involved. This study has expanded the research scope of Human Brand, which has been studied mainly by entertainers and entrepreneurs, to sports stars and through empirical analysis, it has tried to identify influencing factors to improve purchasing intent based on high and low-contention characteristics of advertising products.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.177-193
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• 2009

Hydraulic breakers, the attachment devices of the excavators, refer to a machine that converts back and forth motions of pistons into energies to break objects down finely. As the use of hydraulic breakers has been steadily increasing world-wide, consumers have become more interested in not just the quality of hydraulic breakers but their reliability. This study show functions and usages of several main parts on hydraulic breakers. In addition, based on the effect of action of hydraulic breakers, FMEA was performed to figure out the major causes and manifestations of malfunctioning. As above mentioned, we analyzed reliability of hydraulic breakers by models, and the data that had been used for the analyses were obtained from malfunctioning data in the field.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.1138-1148
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• 2010

This study examines the characteristics of the online child-rearing community launched by the voluntary motivations of consumers, and the effects of those characteristics on community loyalty and the intentions to buy baby wear via community sites. The study was implemented by a descriptive survey method using an online questionnaire. The sample consisted of 212 members of online child-rearing communities. The data were analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, and regression analysis. Results are as follows. 1) It was found that there were four major factors of online child-rearing community characteristics, such as attachment/pleasure, practical/economy, interaction, and information. 2) All four factors had significant effects on community loyalty. 3) The factor attachment/pleasure had no significant effects on intentions to buy baby wear, but practical/economy, interaction and information had effects upon those intentions. 4) Loyalty to the online child-rearing community had significant effects on the intentions of community members to buy baby wear via the community site. In addition, online child-rearing community members are interested in information regarding baby wear as well as its purchase; this is why baby wear makers should perform cost efficient consumer group segmentation in a timely manner. In addition, it will be effective for their marketing activities to target such consumer groups as segmented.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.448-458
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• 2017

This study reviews the literature related to the omni-channel and derived structural relationship between experiential perception of omni-channel brand and consumer-brand relational quality. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed to university students, workers, and consumers in Busan, Korea, who had experience using SSG.com. 210 questionnaires were used for final validation of research model. The hypotheses set in this study was validated through SPSS18.0 and LISREL8.3 based on the research model. The results showed that all hypotheses were accepted, except for 2 hypotheses(Hypothesis 2-3, Hypothesis 2-4). Findings of this study suggest the following:First, the consumer's experience with the omni-channel brand was found to be an important factor influencing consumers' cognitive and emotional responses formed by the transfer effect of experiential factors through senses. Second, the relationship between consumers and the omni-channel brand was found to be an important factor in building attachment and psychological bond through experience and trust for the omni-channel brand. Thus, the results of this study provide the basis for overall understanding of the strategic experiential module (SEMs) for the omni-channel, which recently emerged as a new trend of distribution channel, as well as for managing the spatial environment. Finally, we present the theoretical and practical implications related to consumers' experience and relational perception.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.247-269
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• 2007

In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.35-44
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• 2016

Purpose - This study aims to understand the relationship between Chinese local SNS usage and social capital building through Chinese international students in South Korea. A research model that illustrates the relationship between the SNS usage (i.e., intensity, communication and social capital building is proposed. Based on the analysis, this study will provide responses to the question of if SNS really presents the danger of trapping international consumers in their local comfort zone or enhance social capital for the users. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey questionnaire is circulated among the WeChat (a Chinese local SNS) users who are the Chinese international students studying in South Korea. The collected data is analyzed by structural equation method using SPSS and AMOS. Results - Proposed hypotheses of the positive relationships between the attachment of SNS use and both individuals' bridging and bonding social capital are supported. It's also supported that (1) interpersonal communication, (2) interpersonal communication with old friends, and (3) interpersonal communication for making new friends on SNS positively influence individuals' bridging social capital. Conclusions - This paper demonstrates the importance of intensity of WeChat use and interpersonal communication that impact Chinese international students' bridging and bonding social capital on WeChat.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.1076-1086
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• 2008

The purpose of this study were to examine the effect of consumer-brand relationship of fashion luxury product on brand loyalty and the mediating effect of consumer satisfaction. The questionnaire developed through the literature search and a survey was conducted both in on-line and off-line questionnaire simultaneously. Finally 227 data from women who had a buying experience of fashion luxury products were analyzed using frequency, factor analysis, ANOVA, t-test, regression analysis by SPSS for WIN program. The results were as follows. First, the consumers' brand identification was composed of three factors; self-connection, interdependence, attachment. Second, the consumer-brand relationship significantly influenced on the brand loyalty. Third, the consumer-brand relationship significantly influenced on the consumer satisfaction. Fourth, the consumer satisfaction significantly influenced on the brand loyalty. Fifth, the consumer-brand relationship had both direct and indirect effects on brand loyalty mediated by consumer satisfaction. The results indicated that causal relationship was existed among these three variables.