• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.13-24
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• 2011

This study explores the opportunities for new market of traditional Korean costumes, Hanbok, following not only the consumer's needs and wants, but marketing trends of fashion industry. This paper is the exploratory consumer research of fusion Hanbok, it aims at examining how consumers wear fusion Hanbok. Study participants were limited to mothers who wore Korean-fusion Hanbok to their baby's first birthday party once or more. A total of 221 respondents completed online questionnaires. The results of this study are as follows. First, regarding the reasons of wearing fusion Hanbok is a beautiful and traditional dress although traditional Hanbok is uncomfortable and inconvenient. Second, the most satisfactory aspect of fusion Hanbok was found to be its design. Satisfaction with the color, size and length was also high. Third, most female consumers in their 20s and 30s have stronger preferences for and intentions of purchasing fusion Hanbok. Some people criticize that as fusion Hanbok is westernized in its designs and materials, it has lost the classical beauty and impression of traditional Hanbok. However, if no one routinely wears Hanbok, Hanbok will never be popularized or globalized. This study suggest that traditional Hanbok should be improved by developing effective merchandising strategies based on consumer needs for traditional Hanbok such as various product assortment and promotion strategies using traditional Korean beauty. So, traditional Hanbok could be retained and succeeded in the future by improving consumers' dissatisfactions of traditional Hanbok and creating the new market of traditional Hanbok in which fusion Hanbok are produced focused on consumers' needs and market environments.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.588-596
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• 2015

This study aims to provide the basic reference necessary in improving the fitness of a ready-to-wear brand jacket through a research on the wearing conditions and preferences regarding a tailored jacket by body shape of the women in their 30s. The following results were drawn by implementing the research method of the self-administered type survey targeting 201 women in their 30s from August 14~28, 2014. First, the female consumers in their 30s preferred one button slim fit jacket when purchasing a tailored jacket and chose a close-fitting size. Second, the slim fit tailored jacket consumers preferred a jacket with some extra portion in the bust and hip areas but tightly fit in the waist area. Third, when purchasing a jacket under the ready-to-wear size system, the women with a triangle shape similar to a standard body silhouette had less instances of mending a jacket while the women with a big or small rectangle shape different from a standard body silhouette had more experiences of mending a jacket. Accordingly, it is expected of the manufacturers to increase the fitness satisfaction of the consumers by identifying the problems concerning the fitness and suggesting the improvement plans to produce a jacket of a good fitness reflecting the properties of different body shapes through such research on the wearing conditions and preferences regarding a tailored jacket by body shape of the women in their 30s.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1878-1890
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• 2008

The main objective of this study was to examine how Chinese consumers' perceptions toward Korean apparel products have changed over the years. Specifically, motives for purchasing Korean apparel products, information sources, purchase criteria and evaluation on Korean apparel products were investigated. Data were collected in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007 from young female Chinese in Beijing, China during the months of June and July. A total of 603 questionnaires were collected and 578 were used in the final analysis. The results of two-way analysis of variance by year and purchase experience indicated that in overall, purchase motives and importance of various information sources changed greatly over the years, while evaluation on Korean apparel products have remained relatively stable. In comparison to the longitudinal changes in Chinese perception toward Korean apparel products, Chinese consumers' perception toward Korean apparel products did not differ significantly in most of variables according to purchase experience.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2006

Today, consumers need more information of well-being related food with an increase of interests in health. Thus it is important to understand and provide well-being food related information to consumers. This study was performed to investigate consumer needs for well-being food related information. The needs scores (5-point Likert scale) to well-being food related information were high over all. The highest score was observed in 'disease care and diet therapy' (4.05 point). 'Functionality of well-being food' and 'safety and hazard of food' were followed having high scores (individually 4.00, 3.99 point). Female subjects had higher information needs than male subjects for well-being food related information such as 'balance of diet', 'nutrients' and 'recipe of well-being food'. The needs for well-being food related information increased by age, although subjects who were over 50 had a decrease in information needs. There was a significant positive correlation between the majority of well-being food related information and educational level. Information needs were not significantly different by income. Conclusively, well-being food related information should be provided to consumers according to the individual needs and ultimately consumers will improve their efficiency and satisfaction in using well-being food related information.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.183-192
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was aimed to identify the status of utilization of healthcare services and self-care behaviors, knowledge level and influencing choice factors of non-prescription drugs (OTCs) on consumers since sales of OTCs at the outside of pharmacy in Korea, and to confirm the changes in perception of consumers for OTCs policy through check of perception level for current OTCs policy. Methods: Data was collected from April 2014 to May 2014 from questionnaires by 418 adults who are in university located in Seoul or live in Seoul Metropolitan area but not health science major and healthcare providers. Results: The female gender was 56.6% and University students were 73.9%. The ratio by age was as follows: below 25 (60.9%), 26-30 (18.2%), 30-40s (14.9%) and 50-60s (6.0%). The knowledge level of OTCs for use of medicine, dose and side effects was generally low and especially they knew little how to deal with side effects after taking OTCs on sale at the outside of pharmacy, even though over one year has passed since the policy. The proportion of those who thought the current OTCs policy has problems regarding safety issues since the policy was very high and it was also high that the study group thought there are problems with the current way to sale OTCs and educate employees. Conclusion: After selling OTCs at the outside of pharmacy, the consumers still lacked knowledge of OTCs and did not get correct information properly. Especially, they had little information about the way to deal with side effects after taking OTCs. Public policy should be based on the health of the people and the public health is a national health priority. When all these things are taken into consideration, the government has to strengthen the OTCs policy and provide a safer environment with the accurate drug information for people than developing OTCs policy in the future.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.51-62
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• 2011

Financial consumers can invest their financial assets directly or indirectly. This investment type have effect on their financial well-being and may be influenced by their financial characteristics and investment attitude. The purposes of the study were to classify the consumers by direct and indirect investment behavior of their financial assets and to investigate their socio-economic characteristics and investment attitudes to give implications for financial counseling and education. The data came from the 2009 Fund Investors Survey which was conducted by Korea Investors Protection Foundation. Total 2,530 consumers were analyzed using frequency, CROSSTAB, ANOVA and Duncan's multiple range test. In general, consumer tended to be rational in choosing the investment type. Noninvestors consisted of 38.5% of the sample. The economic level was the lowest for the noninvestors. The consumers who invest both indirectly and directly consisted of 21.0% and their economic level was the highest. Their investment tendency was between direct and indirect investors'. The proportion of direct investors ws 12.1% and that of indirect investors was 28.4%. Although the economic levels of indirect investors and direct investors were not statistically different, there were differences in their demographics and investment attitudes. The proportions of those aged 30-39, female and nonmarried were greater for indirect investors. They had the tendency to invest safely and diversely for a long term with reserve money. On the other hand, direct investors tended to be male, married and aged 40-49. They tended to invest intensively for a shorter term and seek returns even with borrowing money.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.1049-1059
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• 2011

This study investigates the current state of companies that manufacture and sell outdoor wear. A survey was conducted to identify what problems they had and what aspects they needed to supplement through a comparison and analysis of their block patterns. Companies that manufactured outdoor wear and those that sold them were separately surveyed to understand their current state. The manufactures included 4 companies and 14 sellers. The survey used interviews to cover the areas of target consumers, development patterns, production lines, body size, nominal size, production size, and functional materials for each item, and aspects that need improvement. The survey period was from September $3^{rd}$ to $10^{th}$ 2008. There were three block patterns for jackets, T-shirts, and pants. The investigator collected the patterns used by three outdoor clothing manu-facturers for comparison and assessment. As a result, the mean age of the target consumers set by the outdoor clothing manufacturers and sellers was 25.3-50.7 and 29.2-42.5, respectively, which shows that the outdoor clothing had a wider distribution of target consumers than the sellers. It is imperative for them to segment and differentiate the target consumers and concepts. The basic body measurements the companies used to draw the upper and lower garment patterns were the bust circumference for the upper garment patterns and the waist circumference for the lower garment patterns. The basic nominal size was 95 for the upper garment and 70 for the lower garment. Also analyzed were the block patterns according to the items to understand the pattern characteristics of each of the companies. There were a total of 35, 36, and 30 items for the jackets, T-shirts, and pants, respectively, to measure size. The items were then compared with one another in mean and standard deviation. The analysis indicate that the block patterns were not fit for women in their twenties or thirties to wear and required revisions in the length of the upper garment, the height of sleeve cap, bust circumference, hip length, and pant length.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1515-1526
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• 2010

Consumer expectations for ethical businesses have become increasingly high in recent years; the fashion industry is working to implement greater corporate social responsibility (CSR). This study establishes the effects of the evaluation for participation in fashion brand CSR on perceived purchase values. In particular, the process for the evaluation for participation that affect the perceived purchase value through consumer-brand identifications (personal/social) was verified and how the consumer regulatory focuses would influence this process was identified. For this study, an on-line survey was conducted that included a series of filtering questions that measured the level of social concern of respondents. Valid data from 505 female consumers were analyzed for the structure equation modeling. The empirical results suggested that the evaluation for participation in fashion brand CSR positively affected the two dimensions of consumer-brand identification; personal identification and social identification. In addition, consumer-brand identification played a role as a mediating variable in the path to influence the perceived purchase values of CSR brands. Lastly, there were differences in reactions to CSR activities by consumer groups with different regulatory focuses. The effect of the evaluation for participation in fashion brand CSR was shown to be higher for consumers with promotion focuses than on consumers with prevention focuses. The results of this study will help fashion companies understand the importance of the consumer participation in CSR by having consumers participate in ethical consumption.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.618-624
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• 2004

This study is to explore how consumers' needs for tactile cues affect their purchasing behaviors in the internet shopping mall. Since previous studies about internet shopping malls are mainly performed on the primary factors of perceived risk, there are insufficient studies of tactile cues for apparel products. Emphasis of this study is placed on verifying the following hypothesis; it is expected that consumers' needs for tactile cues affect apparel purchasing behaviors in internet shopping. The questionnaire was administered to 20 to 30 year old male and female respondents who are either students or businessmen living in the Busan area. 150 questionnaires were completed and collected for data analysis. The data were, using SPSS 10. 0 for Window, statistically analyzed by frequency and factor analysis for VARIMAX, Cronbach's coefficient and Linear regression analysis. Data were, using SPSS 10. 0 for Window, statistically analyzed by frequency and factor analysis for VARIMAX, Cronbach's coefficient, and ANOVA. The results of data analysis are as follows: First, the tactile cues negatively affect purchase intentions of consumers. This shows that apparel internet shoppers who have high desire for tactical cues tend to avoid purchasing products through the internet. Second, the factor analysis of the moderating effect on perceived risks shows that the perceived risks significantly moderate both the tactile cues and purchase intention of consumers. Third, analysis of purchased experience also shows that purchased experiences significantly moderate both the tactile cues and purchase intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.251-265
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• 2014

China is the biggest market for the Korean fashion industry. However, China is still difficult in regards to market entry and market success in China despite the geographical proximity. This study investigated the image of Korea and its impact on brand identity, brand attitude and intention to purchase with a focus on Chinese consumers in order to identify the variables of a country's image that affect a consumer's intention to purchase. The results of this survey targeted 214 Chinese consumers who were used for the final analysis. The survey subjects were female consumers in their 20s and 30s, living in metropolitan cities in China. Exploratory factor, reliability and frequency analyses were conducted using SPSS 19.0; in addition, confirmatory factor and path analyses were administered with AMOS 18.0. We identified two general images of Korea (economy and culture), two images of Korean (stylish and friendly) and three Korean fashion-product related images (quality, design and prestige). The results of the structural equation model were as follows. 1) Economy factor exerted significant effect on quality and prestige. 2) Stylish factor exerted a significant effect on all of the Korean fashion product images (quality, design and prestige). Friendly factor exerted positive impact on prestige. 3) All of the Korean fashion product images significantly influenced brand identity. 4) Brand identity exerted a significant effect on brand attitude. Lastly, brand attitude significantly affected intention to purchase.