• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.245-276
• /
• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.60-75
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to look for useful implications in its next application or similar planning by assessing visitors' recognition of International Garden Exposition Suncheon Bay Korea 2013. To do this, blogs acknowledged as powerful communication media in modern information society were used. After searching for blogs related to International Garden Exposition Suncheon Bay Korea in the portal site ranked first in the domestic market share, this study classified 300 cases. This study was able to grasp the consciousness as bloggers gave descriptions of information and impressions and experiences of spaces without making any adjustments. The survey results are as follows: First, Dutch gardens were the most preferred, followed by Korean gardens, Chinese gardens and French gardens; in general, visitors were not satisfied with the national gardens. Inquiry is needed into the method of determining diverse cultural identity rather than a sample garden type through blogs delivering regret regarding the world gardens. Second, the survey results showed that the level of awareness of designers' gardens was low. This study judges that more emphasis should be placed on their roles as places speaking for the original purpose of the garden exposition which introduces gardening art and design through experimental design. Third, it was understood that many bloggers were deeply impressed by ephemeral landscapes like the change in landscape consequent on the elapse of time, distinctive atmosphere, and detailed-landscapes. These aspects are important landscape elements, and those elements should be addressed with weight in a subsequent study. Fourth, the most impressive places are 'Suncheon Lake Garden' and 'Bridge of Dreams', which are establishing themselves as icons of International Garden Exposition Suncheon Bay Korea 2013. However, relatively, public attitude towards the world gardens and designers' gardens are weak. Fifth, bloggers were providing a variety of information like transportation, events schedules, ticket purchasing & prices, discount information, etc. Ticket price was commented on the most, and most of the bloggers thought ticket prices were 'expensive'. This study understands such a phenomenon as a result of the general population's non-establishment of the perception that it's proper to view gardens at visitors' own expense. Generally, bloggers expressed satisfaction with International Garden Exposition Suncheon Bay Korea 2013, but with criticism as well. Their criticism included disappointing matters, to be improved upon and wishes without any distortion, providing meaningful implications deserving reference for similar cases. In this context, a blogger could be called a citizen-reviewer while a blog could be referred to as 'a field of informal discourse' for the public. As a research method of this study, blogs are difficult to interpret as they are subjective and personal, and have limited data analysis through their quantifications; however, blogs as methods of recognition survey are channels for varied, concrete and detailed awareness which are hard to grasp through a questionnaire survey or interviews. This study judges that such an aspect of a blog could be a useful means of grasping and reflecting upon visitors' attitude in future studies.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.21-30
• /
• 2014

Lately, new influentials have secured a large number of volunteers on social networks due to vitalization of various social media. There has been considerable research on these influential people in social networks but the research has limitations on location information of Location Based Social Network Service(LBSNS). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a spatial detection methodology and application plan for influentials who make comments about diverse social and cultural issues in LBSNS using spatial statistical analysis methods. Twitter was used to collect analysis object data and 168,040 Twitter messages were collected in Seoul over a month-long period. In addition, 'politics,' 'economy,' and 'IT' were set as categories and hot issue keywords as given categories. Therefore, it was possible to come up with an exposure index for searching influentials in respect to hot issue keywords, and exposure index by administrative units of Seoul was calculated through a spatial joint operation. Moreover, an influential index that considers the spatial dependence of the exposure index was drawn to extract information on the influential areas at the top 5% of the influential index and analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and spatial correlation. The experimental results demonstrated that spatial correlation coefficient was relatively high at more than 0.3 in same categories, and correlation coefficient between politics category and economy category was also more than 0.3. On the other hand, correlation coefficient between politics category and IT category was very low at 0.18, and between economy category and IT category was also very weak at 0.15. This study has a significance for materialization of influentials from spatial information perspective, and can be usefully utilized in the field of gCRM in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.126-137
• /
• 2011

Although Sumunmulbangdui wetland at the Halla Mountain in Jeju Island, a kind of montane wetlands, has been considered to bear high biodiversity, no study has been reported on the bacterial diversity. In this study, soil and water samples were collected from the wetland in order to isolate novel bacterial species. Bacterial strains belonging to the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria were isolated after spreading soil and water samples onto solid agar media. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of the strains assigned to the three phyla were compared to those of type strains of the species in the phyla. The strains that showed less than 98.7% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the validly published species were considered to be novel species candidates. A total of 32 strains were regarded as novel species candidates in the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. Diversity of novel species candidates was very low; the candidates were confined to only few genera. In the Bacteroidetes, 13 novel candidate species were affiliated with the genera Mucilaginibacter, Sphingobacterium, Pedobacter, Flavobacterium, and Chryseobacterium. A total of 13 novel candidate species that assigned to the genera Paenibacillus Lysinibacillus, and Bacillus were identified in the phylum Firmicutes. Only two candidate species that belonged to the genera Mycobacterium and Nocardia were excavated in the Actinobacteria. Cultural, physiological, and chemotaxonomic characteristics have been determined for the novel species candidates, and the characteristics are described in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.32-41
• /
• 2009

Places such as famous urban sights and foreign settlements have recently been created in Korea, which reflects the increase in social and cultural exchanges and the number of place-making and landscape-planning projects. Understanding place identity is required in environmental design and planning. This paper examined the components of the identity of place through comparison of perceptions of "placeness" between residents and visitors of Seo-Rae Village, Seoul, Korea. More than 40% of French nationals in Korea reside in the village, which many Koreans visit as an urban sightseeing place. Twenty-five French inhabitants and forty-one Korean visitors were surveyed. Insideness of Seo-Rae Village was formed by limited activities and needs of the residents, primarily children's education and food purchases. Residents mentioned that the physical environment, especially buildings, lacked theauthenticity of French style. The symbolic meaning of the French village influenced the visitors' activities. The authenticity of French style, however, did not affect the perception of visitors and outsideness of the place. Visitors' activities and cognitive meanings of the place were formed mainly by the commercial environment established by Korean investments. Commercialization of the place and related activities played an important role in establishing insideness of the place. The village shows the phenomenon of the reversal of insideness and outsideness. The "placeness" of Seo-Rae village has been shaped by visitors' tastes rather than the true experience of insideness. Mass identity formed by mass media using French characteristics influenced this phenomenon. Insideness formed by inhabitants appeared to be a pseudo-place, which was created by the French tastes of visitors and lacked French authenticity. Seo-Rae Villagerepresents a superficial cloak.

• Journal of Mushroom
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.109-114
• /
• 2012

To develop new variety of oyster mushroom, 63 intra-specific hybrids between the strain Suhan and #Nongi201 were developed using hyphal anastomosis technique in 2004. The Po2008-275 hybrid between the dikaryon strain 04-154(Suhan x #Nongi201) and the monokaryon strain derived from ASI2487 were developed using hyphal anastomosis in 2008. The Po2008-275 was shown the best cultural characteristics, selected to be a new variety and named as 'Guseol'. The new commercial strain, 'Guseol' had dark grey pilei and grows well under spring and autumn conditions in Korea. The fruiting bodies of 'Guseol' were of an excellent quality in that not only the stipe was thick and long but also the pileus was small and hard. The optimum temperatures for mycelial growth and fruiting body development were $25{\sim}30^{\circ}C$ and $10{\sim}16^{\circ}C$, respectively. Time period required for the initiation of the first fruiting body was about 3 to 5 days depending on the temperatures. The shape of fruiting body was thin funnel shape. Fruiting body production per box($43{\times}43{\times}12cm$) was about $1545{\pm}400.9g$ which was almost 137% quantity compared to that of parental strain 04-154. Relatively low temperature incubation ($11^{\circ}C$) resulted in the development of better quality of 'Guseol' mushrooms. When two different media including potato dextrose medium and mushroom complete medium were compared, the mycelial growth of this mushroom were much faster in mushroom complete medium. Similar results were observed with other variety '#Chunchu2'. Analysis of the genetic characteristics of the new commercial strain 'Guseol' showed a major DNA profile as that of the parental 04-154 when primer URP 1, primer URP 2 and primer URP 5 were used, but different to '#Chunchu2' that was used as a control. This new variety of the dark grey oyster mushroom had smart and high quality image that corresponds well to "health food". We therefore expect that this new strain will satisfy the consumers demand for variety and excellent mushrooms.

• Archives of design research
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.151-160
• /
• 2003

Packages have been used for a wide variety of purposes, for protection, for display, for transportation of goods, or for keeping personal belongings. According to the demands of society and the times, liquor packages have been specialized and have appeared in almost every shape and size without restriction to cine particular type of material. In spite of its rapid development and wide application in our society, liquor package design has rarely been considered as a subject of comprehensive study. Majoring in package design, I have become especially interested in the area of liquor package design. I would like to explore liquor package design from several aspects. With the advent of new market and the rise of a new consumer society, advertising and mass media have expanded rapidly. While convenience of use is not a major issue, serving size certainly are quality, appeal of heritage and health concerns. Heritage is a major consumer appeal in Whisky, Beer, Wine and spirits. Designers have drawn heavily on the tradition of alcoholic products, have used type and graphics to create the illusion of heritage for new products. A sidelight to the heritage aspect of spirits package is the evolution of outer boxes for international liquors. International liquors package design illustrated the past and current themes. The design is contemporary and spare. Colored panels correlated to the liquor flavor used on clean white, black, gold boxes. While this research does not deny the impact of structural innovation and convenience package design , it does deny the existence of a graphic plateau. It is assumed therefore, that development in technology can facilitate communication between East and West. This can be accomplished because as containers of products are used in social setting, their form will gradually apply strong influence to the need for economical, easily handled, easily utilized packaging. Typically, ethnic package designs are those packages containing products which are prepared and marketed to a category of people who are prepared and marketed to a culture traits. They are liquor products sold in the metropolitan New York area which are marketed specially to Asians, Hispanics, or Eurpean population. These cultural groups share numerous traits including religion, language, dietary habits and traditional drinking styles. Therefore, the products which are familiar or common in their native countries are often imported or marketed there to serve them. These packages and products are frequently found on the shelves of supermarkets in predominantly ethnic areas. That is Korea, Japan if packaging is correctly design it would appeal to the American market. My research is that oriental beverage -Soju is good example of this precept. Assumedly, there must be a degree of subjectivity since it is a mean in which the consumers can relate to its advertising. This degree to relate and identify is the degree to which the package will be remembered and purchased. Subjectivity is intimately related to purchases since there is no such thing as a rational purchase in a society that operates on mass consumption. It is essential that packages become more personal human, entertaining, and more like advertising in order to maximize merchandising potential.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.648-655
• /
• 2018

Enhancement mechanistic actions of testosterone (TS) productions in mouse Leydig TM3 cells by the eritadenine (EA) and/or the Agaricus blazei mycelial liquid culture extract (ABMLCE). Productions of TS in TM3 cells were investigated in normal and oxidative-stressed culture conditions. In the normal culture condition, TM3 cells grown in a Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) were treated with EA (0~100 ppm) and ABMLCE (10 ppm) + EA (0~50 ppm) for 24 hr, and in the oxidative-stressed culture condition, the cells grown in DMEM containing $50{\mu}M$ $H_2O_2$ to induce oxidative stress for 4 h were treated with the same as those in the normal culture condition. TS content, $3{\beta}$-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 (HSD3B2) enzyme activity, $5{\alpha}$-reductase 2 ($5{\alpha}-R2$) enzyme activity, and free-radical nitric oxide (NO) content in the culture media were measured using their corresponding assay kits. EA, ABMLCE, and ABMLCE + EA significantly, p<0.05, enhanced TS productions in both cultural conditions, relative to control treatment. The activity of the HSD3B2 enzyme, which is involved in the production of precursors for TS production, was elevated by EA, ABMLCE, and ABMLCE + EA treatments in both culture conditions. The activity of the $5{\alpha}-R2$ enzyme, which converts TS to dihydroxytestosterone (DHT), was not significantly affected in either culture condition by EA, ABMLCE, or ABMLCE + EA treatments. The treatments included reduced NO content. These results indicate that EA, ABMLCE, and EA + ABMLCE treatments elevated TS in TM3 cells via the enhancements of HSD3B2 activity and the reduction of NO production, and also imply that EA and ABMLCE or EA + ABMLCE could be useful materials for the production of TS in humans.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.27 no.2 s.89
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 1999

This study was conducted to investigate the morphological characteristics and cultural conditions for artificial fruiting body(synnemata) production of Paecilomyces japonica. In the morphological characteristics of P. japonica, the size of it's conidia was ranged from $5.0{\sim}1.5\;to\;7.9{\sim}2.4\;{\mu}m$. The artificial fruiting body showed yellow in color, shape was confirmed ellipsoidal or obovoid type, and the length was $50.6{\sim}104.5\;mm$. The mycelial growth on the PDA medium treated with pH7, at $25^{\circ}C$ was superior to that of other treatments. The formation period of an artificial fruiting body of P. japonica treated with polypropylene and glass bottle culture was 30 days and 50 days, respectively. The length and number of fruiting body was longer and higher in the polypropylene bottle culture than those of the glass bottle culture. As the results, the artificial fruiting body production in the polypropylene bottle increased 1.2g per bottle compared to that of the glass bottle. It also increased in $100{\sim}400\;lx$ illumination, whereas the elongation of synnemata, pinheading and fruiting body growth were inhibited by continuous use of 900 lx illumination. The results of these experiment indicated that fruiting body formation seemed to be lower as the light intensity increased. The fruiting body formation was also dependent on the light color. There was a higher incidence in red color light and fluorescent light treatment than that of incandescent and blue color light. The fruiting body of the naked barley medium had so much better growth compared to other media that it would be able to use for it's production. The growth of fruiting body was affected by $CO_2$ concentration. It increased after putting the lid on the bottle.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 1992

Typhula incarnata grew over a temperature range of -5 to $20^{\circ}C$ with maximum growth at 10 to $15^{\circ}C$. Sclerotial production for T. incarnata was greatest at the higher temperature. Maximum mycelial growth of this pathogen occurred from pH 5.4 to 6.2. When carbon sources were added to a basal salt medium (Czapek's dox agar) at 5 g carbon sources/l, inulin, soluble starch, galactose, glucose, mannose, manitol, sucrose, maltose, cellobirose, trehalose, raffinose, and dextrin supported growth better than other carbon sources did. Of the twenty-three nitrogen sources tested, glycine, serine, ammonium sulfate, asparagine, asparatic acid, and ${\beta}-alanine$ were the most favorable for mycelial growth of T. incarnata. Cystine and cysteine were poor nitrogen sources. Ammonium salt of nitrogen sources supported growth better than nitrate salt of nitrogen sources. Potato dextrose agar, oat meal agar, and V-8 juice agar were the most favorable for mycelial growth and sclerotial formation. Appropriate addition of pepton to PDA decreased mycelial dry weight, but sucrose supported good growth of T. incarnata. Percent viable sclerotia of T. incarnate buried in bentgrass soil decreased from 2 months after treatment remarkably. Trichoderma riride and bacteria were isolated from non-germinated sclerotia. Live orchard grass leaf pieces within the soil were colonized by T. incarnata better than sterile and unsterile dead leaf pieces at $0^{\circ}C$. Saprophytic ability of T. incarnate on sterile leaf sheath occurred better at $0^{\circ}C$ than at $10^{\circ}C$. Saprophytic microflora consisting of Cladosporium sp., Fusarium sp., Mucor sp., Pythium sp., and unidentified fungi were the competitors for the sterilized and unsterilized substrate, but their colonization was not find on live leaf sheath buried in the soil at $0^{\circ}C$. In the effect of fungicides to Typhula snow mold disease of creeping bentgrass, mixture of polyoxin and thiram was the most effective, followed by iprodione, mixture of iprodione and oxine copper, thiophanate-methyl, myclobutanil, and tolclofos-methyl.