• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.1-21
• /
• 2010

A good brand name is very important for the success of a product. A thoughtful brand name can convey information that can influence potential customers in a positive way. Thus marketers often formulate brand names intended to explicitly or implicitly play a role in influencing customer perceptions. One way of doing this is to have a brand name bearing connotations to a foreign country. In general, prior research on country-of-origin effects has not adequately focused on exploring brand name connotation and its effect on product evaluation. This research presents a conceptual framework for determining if/how brand name connotation to a foreign country affects product evaluation. Specifically, this paper reviews relevant literature pertaining to country-of-origin and brand name connotation, discusses a conceptualization, proposes research hypotheses, and outlines procedures for collecting data to evaluate the proposed hypotheses.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.38 no.12
• /
• pp.101-110
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study were to investigate the influences of fashion leadership on consumers'evaluation of domestic and imported perfume product, and perfume purchasing behaviors and to find out the demographics and consumer value on fashion leadership. The data were collected from 369 female college students using questionnaire. The results were as follows: First, there were significant differences on consumers'evaluation of domestic and imported perfume product between the groups on fashion leadership. The higher the fashion leadership, the much positive consumers'evaluation of imported perfume product. Second, Fashion leaders'the frequency of perfume usage and the pieces of perfume product were higher than fashion followers. The most important perfume attribute of all groups was scent, and fashion leader took the much significant view of brand name than fashion followers. Third, Fashion leaders'economical level and pleasure oriented value was higher than fashion followers.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.279-292
• /
• 2011

This research explores the differences of two consumption behaviors from the thinking style they elicit. Specifically, we predict that more utilitarian attributes(vs. hedonic attributes) may be used when evaluating utilitarian products whereas more hedonic attributes(vs. utilitarian attributes) may be used when evaluating hedonic products. In addition, this research considered two different thinking styles: rational thinking style and experiential thinking style, and try to find out whether different product attribute information could elicit different thinking style and whether the thinking style has any effect on product evaluation. The data reported in this research demonstrates the following results. Firstly, people use different criteria when judging different types of product. That is, when judging utilitarian product, they are more likely to use utilitarian attribute as evaluation criteria, on the contrary they inclined to use hedonic attribute as evaluation criteria when choosing hedonic product. Secondly, different types of attribute informations could elicit different thinking style. Utilitarian attribute informations elicit rational thinking style whereas hedonic attribute informations elicit experiential thinking style. Finally, if people engage in rational thinking elicited in processing utilitarian attribute informations, the evaluation of utilitarian product is enhanced. But even though people engage in experiential thinking in processing hedonic attribute informations, the evaluation of hedonic product is not improved.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.57-76
• /
• 2017

Recently, consumer needs are diversifying as information technologies are evolving rapidly. A lot of IT devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs are launching following the trend of information technology. While IT devices focused on the technical advance and improvement a few years ago, the situation is changed now. There is no difference in functional aspects, so companies are trying to differentiate IT devices in terms of appearance design. Consumers also consider design as being a more important factor in the decision-making of smart phones. Smart phones have become a fashion items, revealing consumers' own characteristics and personality. As the design and appearance of the smartphone become important things, it is necessary to examine consumer values from the design and appearance of IT devices. Furthermore, it is crucial to clarify the mechanisms of consumers' design evaluation and develop the design evaluation model based on the mechanism. Since the influence of design gets continuously strong, various and many studies related to design were carried out. These studies can classify three main streams. The first stream focuses on the role of design from the perspective of marketing and communication. The second one is the studies to find out an effective and appealing design from the perspective of industrial design. The last one is to examine the consumer values created by a product design, which means consumers' perception or feeling when they look and feel it. These numerous studies somewhat have dealt with consumer values, but they do not include product attributes, or do not cover the whole process and mechanism from product attributes to consumer values. In this study, we try to develop the holistic design evaluation model based on consumer values based on three-step approach from product attributes, perceived attributes, to consumer values. Product attributes means the real and physical characteristics each smart phone has. They consist of bezel, length, width, thickness, weight and curvature. Perceived attributes are derived from consumers' perception on product attributes. We consider perceived size of device, perceived size of display, perceived thickness, perceived weight, perceived bezel (top - bottom / left - right side), perceived curvature of edge, perceived curvature of back side, gap of each part, perceived gloss and perceived screen ratio. They are factorized into six clusters named as 'Size,' 'Slimness,' 'No-Frame,' 'Roundness,' 'Screen Ratio,' and 'Looseness.' We conducted qualitative research to find out consumer values, which are categorized into two: look and feel values. We identified the values named as 'Silhouette,' 'Neatness,' 'Attractiveness,' 'Polishing,' 'Innovativeness,' 'Professionalism,' 'Intellectualness,' 'Individuality,' and 'Distinctiveness' in terms of look values. Also, we identifies 'Stability,' 'Comfortableness,' 'Grip,' 'Solidity,' 'Non-fragility,' and 'Smoothness' in terms of feel values. They are factorized into five key values: 'Sleek Value,' 'Professional Value,' 'Unique Value,' 'Comfortable Value,' and 'Solid Value.' Finally, we developed the holistic design evaluation model by analyzing each relationship from product attributes, perceived attributes, to consumer values. This study has several theoretical and practical contributions. First, we found consumer values in terms of design evaluation and implicit chain relationship from the objective and physical characteristics to the subjective and mental evaluation. That is, the model explains the mechanism of design evaluation in consumer minds. Second, we suggest a general design evaluation process from product attributes, perceived attributes to consumer values. It is an adaptable methodology not only smart phone but also other IT products. Practically, this model can support the decision-making when companies initiative new product development. It can help product designers focus on their capacities with limited resources. Moreover, if its model combined with machine learning collecting consumers' purchasing data, most preferred values, sales data, etc., it will be able to evolve intelligent design decision support system.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.51-62
• /
• 2006

The concept of universal design has recently emerged as an important aspect of product design. Universal design is considerably analogous to ergonomic design in a way that it takes the capabilities and limitations of users into consideration during the product development process. However, relatively few studies have been devoted to reflect the practical use of ergonomic principles on universal design. This research attempts to develop a universal design index for mobile phone design to quantify how well a product complies with principles of universal design. The research also emphasizes on ergonomic principles as a basis of evaluation. A generation of the evaluation items was done by cross-checking among the personal, activity and product components. Personal components consist of human characteristics including age, physique, perceptual capacity, life-style, etc. Activity components were derived from those scenarios of mobile phone use while product components were composed of the parts to which a user interacts. Further analysis systematically generated a universal index from relationship matrices among the three components. The index was then used to test its suitability by applying to the evaluation of mobile phones currently on the market. This study demonstrates a development process through which evaluations can be made possible for universal design. The research suggests an improved approach to the appraisal of how well mobile phones are universally designed based on ergonomic principles.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.408-422
• /
• 2010

The purposes of this study is to investigate the attitudes and value of fashion product description and consumer replies used in online shopping malls, and to examine the differences in the perceived reliability(objectivity, expertise, trustworthiness) preference and purchase intention toward the product as determined by the appeal type (evaluation-sentimental vs. factual-information) of the product description, the direction(negative vs. positive) and type(factual vs. evaluative) of consumer replies for the product in online shopping malls. Data was collected from female college students with fashion products purchase experience at online shopping malls by questionnaire survey (N=424) and analyzed by using frequency analysis, t-test and ANOVA. Results showed that consumers respondents tended to read product description and other consumer replies before purchasing, when shopping for fashion products through an on-line shopping mall. They thought that sellers' product description and the consumers' replies were helpful in making their decision; but, they were also skeptical about product description. Respondents showed higher perceived reliability, preference and purchase intention to the factual-information type product description than the evaluation-sentimental type. Positive consumer replies were more effective in yielding higher preferences and purchase intentions. Factual replies tend to yield higher reliability than evaluative replies.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.41-53
• /
• 2010

An existing risk diagnosing methodology (RDM) diagnoses corporate risk for product-innovation projects. However, it cannot evaluate and compare the risk levels of multiple alternatives in the product development stage. This paper proposes a modified risk diagnosis method to fill the gap of risk evaluation in selections of innovative product alternatives and the application of the method will be also illustrated by a case problem on alternative selections in electrical dimmer designs. With RDM as the foundation, a modified RDM (MRDM) is proposed to deal with the problem of selecting innovative project alternatives during the early stages of product development. The Bayesian network; a probabilistic graphical model, is adopted to support the risk pre-assessment stage in the MRDM. The MRDM is proposed by incorporating the risk pre-assessment stage into the foundation. By evaluating the engineering design risks in two electrical dimmer switches, an application of the MRDM in product innovation development is successfully exemplified. This paper strengthens the existing methodology for RDM in innovative product development projects to accommodate innovative alternatives. It is advantageous for companies to identify and measure the risks associated in product development so as to plan for appropriate risk mitigation strategies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.7-14
• /
• 2017

Purpose - This study attempts to extend the research in responsible luxury by identifying contexts where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can promote luxury brands' evaluation. It contributes to the literature on consumer responses to CSR, and to responsible luxury in particular and demonstrates how dispositional consensus and luxury-CSR information of luxury brands affects consumers' evaluation of brand. Research design, data, and methodology - An experiment was conducted to test the relationship between brand evaluation and responsible luxury brands' CSR information using collected data through a survey in a large university of South Korea. Study conditions were manipulated with various product types to analyze the relationship in different product domains. Results - When consensus regarding sincere and altruistic motive of companies for CSR activity is high, the perceived fit between luxury brand and the type of CSR has no effect on brand evaluation. But, in case of lower consensus regarding the benevolent company motives, higher fit enhances evaluation than lower fit. Conclusions - In using consensus as a guiding factor to choose the type of charity with favorably view, the level of irrespective fit can help luxury firms to enjoy the benefits of better image. In case of low consensus donating to charities that are closely related to the brands' product or area of business seems to be fruitful.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.625-631
• /
• 2002

A module design aims to develop product architecture that consists physically detachable units such as module. To develop the system of module design, this paper suggests the methodology of part grouping, evaluation of modularization of a product for improving modularization. To determine modules, module concept is proposed to satisfy the objectives of a modular design. Therefore, there are functional, structural, and process modularizations in a modular concept. Module grouping can be accomplished by using an optimization model that maximizes the sum of the weighting. The present study proposes the p-median model and the direct clustering technique. The optimal clustering solution can be obtained by comparing two clustering techniques. To find the best solution among part groups, evaluation of modularization is performed based on the concept of module design. For the evaluation of modularization, evaluation criteria of modularization are used in the matrix table.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
• /
• 1997.10a
• /
• pp.372-375
• /
• 1997

Classivication scheme of usability element for the evaluation of consumer electronic product was developed in this study. Using hierachical structuring and clustering methods, usability element of consumer products interface is developed both for the performance perspective and for the image/appeal perspective of a product. Perfoormance element included variables such as simplicity, directness, learn- ability, flexibility, user support and effectiveness. Image/Appeal element included variables such as sensibility, descriptive impression, evaluation of appeal, and attitude towards the product. The classifi- cation scheme developed in this study is found to be comprehensive and robust relative to other existing paradigms. They can be effectively used and applied for the usability evaluation of consumer electronic products.